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2. Leagacy

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[NSFW] Endless Legacy (DC Comics)(Male OC)

Thread starter Cambrian Start date Mar 2, 2023 Tags cambrian dc comics dc universe male oc multi-themes exclusive rough sex time travel

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Threadmarks Chapter 31: Shit Meets Fan New

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Cambrian

Cambrian

The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Apr 25, 2024

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#424

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

A nice gentle dream followed by shit hitting the fan.

-x-X-x-

His first instinct is to go balls to the wall. To test out his new powers on Death and see just how far he's come. That's why he doesn't go with that option, because he's more than just some primate with zero impulse control who acts on the first thought that comes to mind. Or at least, that's what he's supposed to be.

Instead, knowing what he knew now about Death and their relationship, Lucien… takes things slow. They're already naked. He's already inside of her, having eased his way into her slippery wet sex after they'd fallen to the ground together. Beneath them, the grass is so thick and soft that it makes for the perfect blanket in this magical, dreamy place.

Taking that into consideration, Lucien barely moves at first. Even as Death gives him a curious look, Lucien leaves his cock firmly inside of her and focuses on her tits to start with. He takes ahold of her pale breasts but doesn't squeeze too hard. Instead, he spends his time carefully feeling her up, exploring every inch of her bust.

Death lets out a soft, confused laugh.

"What are you doing, Lucien?"

Looking up at her, Lucien just smiles.

"Exploring my lover. What else?"

Death hums, seeming pleased by his answer even as she unloops her arms from around his neck and tosses them up, gripping at the grass found above her head. At the same time, she arches her back, pushing her chest up into his squeezing hands somewhat insistently. Lucien doesn't take the bait though. She's egging him on and trying to get him riled up and there's no denying that it's working… but just because he's hopelessly turned on for her doesn't mean he needs to go faster, or harder, or rougher.

However, he also doesn't want to bore her. So he compromises. Leaning forward, Lucien brings his lips to Death's perky dark nipples, which are each almost as black as her lips. The pale personification of the end of all things moans at this, arching her back even further… possibly past the point where most mortal spines would have snapped.

But even as he lavishes attention on her nipples, worshipping her areolas and teats in equal measure, Lucien still keeps things gentle, tender, and slow. Really, the way he approaches things with her can almost be deemed… methodical. He explores every little bit of her breasts with his mouth and tongue, making her groan and then laugh again when he keeps at it while showing no sign of picking up the pace.

"You silly man. If it's not one extreme, it's the other, is that it?"

Lucien doesn't leave the nipple he's currently sucking on, even as he throws his eyes up to meet hers. Death doesn't sound upset at least… in fact, she's looking down at him fondly, and her tone is one of amusement. Still, he doesn't stop. Maybe she's right. Maybe he can't take anything in moderation. Slow or Fast, but no 'Medium Speed'.

Truth be told, even slow is hard for him. He lived his entire first life slowly. And not by choice either. His sickness had robbed him of… well, of everything. It had robbed him of his mother, it had robbed him of any chance of gaining his father's respect, and it had robbed him of being able to live a normal life.

Admittedly, Lucien suspected he would never have gotten that chance either way. Not as the son of Lex Luthor. Living in moderation with that man as his father was never really a possibility. Still, all the same… Lucien's original life had most definitely traumatized him more than he'd initially wanted to admit, hadn't it? And ever since he'd come back, he'd been going, going, and going some more.

No stopping, no taking the time to regroup, reassess, and maybe stop to smell the roses. No time for any of that when he had goals in front of him and so many new things to experience for the first time. But not all experiences were good. Shame that it took accidentally tying himself to a literal godlike Demon Lord Tyrant for Lucien to realize that fact, but here they were.

So yeah, he takes things slow with Death. He makes love to her. Eventually, he starts moving of course. Sliding in and out of her slick but gripping cunt. She's as tight as ever, and her insides feel amazing to his throbbing member. But he never speeds up.

He doesn't put his new body through its paces. He doesn't use Beast Boy's shapeshifting to try out different phallic shapes, or Terra's geokinesis to shake things up, or even Raven's demonic abilities to attempt to gauge Death's more hidden emotions. He just lives in the moment, spending this time with the woman at quite literally the center of his universe and indulging himself in her body for as long as he's capable of doing so.

That is the one thing he allows himself. He draws out the moment as long as possible and is pleased to find that he's certainly extended his endurance by a fair amount. Not too shabby at all, and as he spends time with Death, he can tell that she's enjoying herself immensely. Not just because of the sex, but because of his presence.

At the end of the day, Lucien has finally stopped and regrouped. He's finally taken the time to reassess. His initial impulses were born of selfishness. He wanted to make Death cum to prove himself better than her, deep down inside. He wanted to conquer her in a way. Just like his father would have. Not anymore. Lucien was going to make Death cum for her own sake. And he was going to stand at her side as an equal one day, not above her as a conqueror. They would be peers… and she would never be alone again.

Lucien swears this to himself, reaffirming his earlier promise to her even as he finally tips over the edge and cums inside of her. Death gasps and then pulls him into a kiss, the two of them holding one another and cuddling for some time after that. Eventually though, the dream begins to fade away and Lucien slowly finds himself coming back to consciousness in the waking world.

It's almost morning time, he realizes as he wakes up still being cuddled… but this time by three mortal women instead of the personification of death. And as he looks down at Kori, Komandr, and Tara with his newfound outlook on life… Lucien realizes it's time. Past time, even.

As they all begin to stir as well, Lucien reaches out and surreptitiously taps Blackfire on the head. In an instant, the villainess' eyes snap open as she remembers… everything. The first person she sees is him, of course. He's not sure what to expect from her. Anger, maybe? They'd never actually confirmed a certain amount of time that he was supposed to keep her memories removed for. But he doubted Blackfire expected it to be this long.

And it's not like she's forgotten everything that's happened since he gave her amnesia either. She remembers it all. She remembers both her entire past AND this past little while. She remembers what her sister said to her on that rooftop and she also remembers all the ways Starfire has proved she meant every single word in the time since.

Lucien can see Blackfire's conflict on her face. She can see that she wants to be angry. But when her eyes slide off of him to her sister, the first thing that happens is a softening in her gaze. Lucien watches as she struggles to hold onto her hate, only to have it flow through her hands like fistfuls of sand. The harder she tries to grip those fistfuls of sand, the more flows out through the growing cracks in her fingers.

It only gets harder for her when Starfire finally wakes up fully as well, coming to a lot slower than Blackfire as she slowly opens her eyes and gives her big sister a happy, sleepy smile.

"Mm… good morning, sister. Good morning, Lucien."

Starfire has no idea what she's just done by acknowledging Blackfire first, but Lucien does. He can see just how big a victory that Kori has scored on Komandr with that simple, innocuous decision. Especially because Blackfire can tell it wasn't calculated, nor designed to lull her into a false sense of security.

All of this… everything that's happened since she agreed to let him give her amnesia… it all paints the same picture. Her little sister doesn't hate her. She never has. And all Starfire has ever wanted was her big sis back… no matter what the cost.

Blackfire lets out a shuddering breath and opens her mouth to speak, only for them all to be interrupted by the door to Starfire's room practically flying off its hinges as a certain half-demon flies in with glowing black eyes and magic in her hands.

Raven looks incensed and ready to do battle and for a heart-stopping moment, Lucien wonders if Trigon has already made his move and somehow gotten to his daughter despite all of her hard work. But then, Raven opens her mouth.

"Starfire, Terra, Remedy. Disentangle yourself from Blackfire."

Blackfire grits her teeth, even as Starfire immediately starts to rise.

"Friend Raven?! What do you mean by this intrusion?"

A light flush spreads across Raven's gray skin, making it abundantly clear that she's not handling seeing the four of them all naked and… entangled as she's pretending like she is. But she maintains her focus, her glowing black eyes locked on Blackfire, not Lucien.

"Blackfire has regained her memories. I felt her emotions a moment ago. I felt her hatred for you surge back to life, Starfire."

Okay. First of all, for fuck's sake. Second of all, was this really the best way to go about exposing the villainess?! They were all still in bed with one another, Raven could have waited until he, Tara, and Kori weren't at arm's length of Komandr if she really thought the alien woman was now dangerous! Why was Raven even focusing her empathy so hard in their direction in the first place?! Actually no, that question was pretty easily answered if he just thought about it for a second.

Starfire reacts rather predictably. Not as Raven would prefer, but rather, as Lucien would expect. Whipping around, the alien princess doesn't make any move to escape proximity with her sister, but she does look wide-eyed at Blackfire.

"Is… i-is that true?"

Terra is the only one who actually scrambles off the bed, the naked blonde looking between all of them like she's not sure whether to be mortified that Raven caught them or worried about Blackfire's potential mental state. Either way, it removes her from the equation and leaves just Lucien with two very powerful alien sisters practically on top of his naked body.

"… Yes."

Not that he's worried. Even as Blackfire bites out her answer and subsequently begins to close herself off, looking just as ready for a fight as Raven at this point, Lucien speaks up.

"What about now, Raven? What about in the time between the moment you felt all that hatred and you rushing in here in a panic?"

Hearing her rapid flight here described that way causes the half-demon to scowl a little bit, her hands still glowing with her magic.

"… I don't see why it matters."

"Just humor me for a second. Please."

That earnest plea gets to her, making the half-demon huff and roll her eyes. But more importantly for his purposes, she also focuses on Blackfire and Starfire again, her lips thinning out more and more until finally…

"Seriously?! YOU have the audacity to feel forgiveness towards STARFIRE?! Do you realize how much harm you did to her?! Do you realize how often you've nearly RUINED HER LIFE?!"

Blackfire looks like a deer caught in headlights as Raven rants and raves about her emotional state. Starfire though, suddenly looks hopeful and even has the audacity to reach over and grab one of Blackfire's hands.

"T-Truly… you forgive me, sister?"

Raven growls at that.

"You've done nothing wrong, Starfire! You have nothing-!"

Before she can finish that sentence, Starfire whips her head around and fixes Raven with the most withering glare Lucien has ever seen the alien princess wield. He didn't think such an expression was possible. It immediately shuts Raven up, which is good because Starfire has plenty to say in a hissing, biting tone.

"My sister did nothing wrong either, Friend Raven. From the moment she was born, she was reviled and hated by our parents and our people for something entirely out of her control! She grew up being told she was evil and that she would never amount to anything! She grew up being told she would always take second place to me, even though she was the firstborn!"

Lucien hides a wince on Raven's behalf, because in a lot of ways, some of what Starfire is saying describes Raven's situation as well. Only, unlike Blackfire, Raven had managed to rise above her circumstances and be a heroine. Blackfire had let her hatred consume her. But… the effect Kori's words are having on Blackfire in this moment is too good to pass up. Having her little sister defend her even to one of Starfire's closest friends is precisely what Blackfire needs.

"Blackfire never got a chance to be anything but what the universe made her be! And we ALL deserve second chances! Or thirds! Or fourths! I don't care what it takes! I just want my sister back!"

By the time she's done speaking, Starfire's chest is heaving with her every breath. Which given she's currently naked, is certainly something to witness. Lucien uses his powers to control his natural biological reaction though, because popping a very visible, very noticeable boner in this current situation seemed like a relatively bad idea all around.

Instead, he's watching everyone, trying to get a good gauge of where their headspaces are at. Starfire has said her piece. Blackfire looks like a mixture of flummoxed and pleased, but also as though she thinks she shouldn't be pleased. Even now, she might still be hanging on to some of her anger.

Terra looks bewildered and uncertain, as if she doesn't know how to react or feel in this moment. He doesn't know what's going through the geokinetic's head right now, but she's the one he's least worried about anyways so it's not a big deal.

Finally, Raven looks like she doesn't know what to say or do in this situation. She came here to defend her friends after all. She rushed her as fast as she could, at lightning speeds really, in order to protect Starfire from her sister. Instead, Starfire was yelling at her.

Finally, the silence is broken.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Blackfire... states that she wishes to leave - 3%

[ ] Starfire... asks for Raven to go - 6%

[ ] Raven... reaches a boiling point - 10%

[X] Terra... admits that she's an enemy spy, wait what? - 82%

-x-X-x-

Also shameless plug time: Just started a new Free Write yesterday and it would mean the world to me if you guys checked it out!

An Iron Resolve (Marvel)(Time Travel)

Summary: Tony Stark travels back in time after the Snap determined to get things right this time. Even if he has to take over the world to make sure everyone actually works together against the threat that Thanos poses. He's not going to let everyone down. Not ever again.

Click to expand...

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Cambrian

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Threadmarks Chapter 32: Shit Meets Fan Pt. 2 New

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

May 9, 2024

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#442

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

More shit hits the fan.

-x-X-x-

The tension in the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Both Starfire and Raven look like they're a heartbeat away from doing or saying something to the other that can't easily be taken back. Meanwhile, Blackfire seems to want nothing more than to flee the situation, growing antsier by the moment. It's like she doesn't know whether to be more upset about Raven's general antagonism or Starfire's lack of it.

And then there's Lucien, stuck in the middle of everything and not sure what he can do to solve it. Intervening at this point feels like a bad idea, but staying quiet also feels like a bad idea. Really, what's he supposed to-

"I'm working for Slade! I've been spying on the Titans for him for months now!"

Wait what? Lucien's eyes slide across the room, away from the standoff between Blackfire, Starfire, and Raven. Maybe taking his eyes off of the three powerful young women wasn't the best idea, but at the same time, all of their eyes slide off of each other as well. Everyone looks to Terra, the blonde geokinetic standing there staring at them with wide blue eyes, as if only belatedly realizing what she'd just blurted out.

Slowly, the naked young woman sinks to her knees, wrapping her arms over her chest and hugging herself.

"I-I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

Slade… Lucien tries to put a face to the name. Is she talking about Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke? He sort of knew who that was, mostly from his previous life. He'd heard of Deathstroke in the news a few times, and also knew that his father had hired the mercenary for a few missions. Maybe Slade was one of the Titans' enemies?

But… why? Why would a mercenary have Terra spying on the Titans? And why would she agree in the first place?

Her ire fully turned away from the two alien princesses lying in bed with him, Raven floats over to Terra, hands curled into fists at her sides as she asks the exact same question currently plaguing Lucien.

"… Why? Why would you side with HIM?"

Shaking, Terra whimpers and clings to herself all the harder.

"I-I had to… my powers… I've never been able to c-control them. And you guys… I didn't want you to kick me out! If you knew I was dangerous, you would never have let me stay as a Titan! H-He cornered me… I tried to fight him back, but he beat me easily… and then he offered to t-train me. To help me c-control my powers…"

Terra almost seems energized the more she speaks. As Raven stares down at her in silence, the naked blonde looks up, hopefully.

"It's worked, too! I haven't had an accident in months! His training has helped me become the heroine I always wanted to be!"

Raven's face might as well have been etched in stone as she responds to that in a clipped tone.

"And what did it cost you? What did it cost us?"

Terra flinches and apparently that's all Raven needs to see because she suddenly sneers, her hands glowing with black energy. But while Lucien is concerned for a moment that the half-demon will outright attack her treacherous teammate, that doesn't happen. Instead…

"Get out! Get out of this tower! Get out of my sight, traitor! Go back to your Master before I decide to do something permanent!"

Terra looks like a deer caught in headlights, but she also looks like she's ready to scramble up and do as she's told… maybe even without getting dressed first. Lucien purses his lips together, feeling like maybe he should stay quiet even now. And yet… he can't. Not just because he slept with Terra just last night, not just because he knows her as Tara Markov now, not just Terra of the Titans… but because Raven isn't being smart about this. She's letting her emotions run rampant and get in the way.

"I don't think that's the right call, Raven."

The infuriated half-demon whips around and narrows her eyes at him, while Terra looks at him hopefully. But Lucien just stares Raven down, keeping his tone level and calm.

"At the very least, I don't think it's a call you can make on your own. Robin and Beast Boy deserve to know and be allowed to weigh in."

Snarling, Raven grits her teeth.

"And who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do? You're not even a Titan!"

That was true. He might have been hanging out with them a lot in recent times, but even as Remedy, Lucien hadn't officially joined up or anything. And even now he had no plans to do so. Not like it would have helped anyways. Even if he had officially joined up, Raven would have just said that he hadn't been a Titan 'long enough' or something. Fortunately, Lucien doesn't have to respond. Starfire does it for him, pushing off the bed and floating up into the air as well.

"He may not be, but I am. And he's right, Friend Raven. The others deserve to be involved. They deserve to hear what Terra has admitted to from her own lips."

Raven bristles, clearly having not forgotten her and Starfire's little tiff from mere minutes ago. But then, all of the sudden, she deflates. Looking at them and then at Terra, the half-demon huffs.

"… Fine."

She scowls when Terra brightens up a little bit though.

"Don't think this is good for you, bitch. You might have wished you ran away when I gave you the chance."

The blonde spy shivers at that, averting her gaze as Raven glares her down, until finally the grey-skinned heroine just whips around and leaves the room. But not before calling back over her shoulder to all of them.

"Get dressed. Meet in the Common Room, fifteen minutes."

… Needless to say, this was NOT how Lucien expected this morning to go. Not one bit.

-x-X-x-

Silence fills the Common Room about thirty minutes later, once the male members of the Titans have been filled in on everything by a still agitated Raven. Lucien finds himself sitting on one side of Blackfire, with Starfire on her sister's other side and practically hovering like an overprotective mama bear. Robin looks like he wants to say a million things about Blackfire's returned memories, but the Titans Team Leader seems to be biting his tongue at the moment out of recognition of Starfire's mood.

Besides, so long as Blackfire isn't presenting an immediate threat to all of them… the Titans really do have bigger fish to fry right now.

"Tara…"

Beast Boy sounds particularly broken as he stares at the blonde heroine. The use of her proper first name instead of her hero name is obvious in the way he pronounces it with an 'a' instead of an 'e'. In response, the geokinetic flinches, eyes on her hands which are resting in her lap, unable to muster up any sort of response.

At hearing Beast Boy, Robin pulls his attention off of Blackfire and Starfire and looks to Terra, his eyes narrowing into slits behind his mask.

"So Slade co-opted you to spy on us, is that it?"

"… Y-Yes."

"And is that all he had you doing? No sabotage? No other scheming? Just reporting on us?"

Looking up, blue eyes wide, Terra shakes her head.

"N-No! Nothing else! I would have… I would have s-said no! All he did was have me inform o-on what was going on with you guys… most of it was public information anyways!"

Beast Boy makes a noise in the back of his throat akin to the sound of an animal dying. He's clearly heartbroken. Robin, meanwhile, seems unconvinced.

"So you're going to sit here and tell me that you didn't have any part in Cyborg's departure? Didn't do anything to drive him away from the Titans, weakening us as a whole so that Slade would have an easier handling us the next time he attacked?"

Lucien raises an eyebrow at that, while Terra rears back like she was struck in the face. Even the other Titans are looking at Robin a little queerly.

"W-What?! No! I didn't… Cyborg and I barely exchanged two words before he left! And Slade didn't tell me to do anything to drive him away either! I swear it!"

Robin doesn't look like she believes her. But Beast Boy…

"Robin, you drove Cyborg away. Tara might be a traitor and a spy who wormed her way into our lives, but you can't lay that at her feet. Cyborg left because the two of you butted heads one too many times. Full stop."

Now it's Robin's turn to flinch a little at his fellow hero's blunt assessment. Even if Terra looks positively heartbroken by the way Beast Boy is now talking to her.

"Garfield…"

The green-skinned shapeshifter shoots a withering glare in Terra's direction at her use of his name. Clearly, he's gone from hurt to angry by this point. With Robin stewing for a moment, it's Beast Boy who takes up the interrogation.

"What did Slade want to know anyways? Was this him attempting to lure Robin away to try and make him his apprentice again? Or was it just plain old revenge? What the fuck would motherfucking Deathstroke want with us otherwise, really?"

Terra's mouth opens and closes for a moment as she tries to find the words. But no one interrupts while she does. No one has anything else to say as they all wait for her to speak. Finally…

"A-Actually… he didn't seem to care about Robin that much. Not you or Starfire either. He… he wanted to know about everyone, but he asked the most questions about… about Raven."

The half-demon in question stiffens at that, even as everyone else in the Common Room looks to her. Scowling at suddenly being the center of attention, Raven glares Terra down.

"Why? What could he possibly want with me?"

Terra does a half-shrug, one shoulder rising and falling as she looks down at her hands again.

"I… I don't know? It's not like he told me. All he did was train me so I could have the discipline and self-control to use my powers. And as payment, I had to answer any question he asked about all of you."

Abruptly bursting into fresh tears, Terra looks around the room.

"I'm sorry! T-Truly I am! But I'm so much stronger now! I'm so much b-better with my powers! S-Surely you all see t-that! And now that you know he's after R-Raven, we can t-take him down together! I d-don't have to do his b-bidding anymore! Please, l-let me prove myself!"

Beast Boy scoffs.

"Yeah? Guy teaches you for months and you're ready to drop him just like that? And we're just supposed to believe you? Even if we do take down Slade together, how are any of us ever supposed to trust you, ever again?"

The blonde geokinetic looks stricken at Beast Boy's words. Lucien grimaces a little himself. On the one hand, the shapeshifter isn't wrong. On the other hand…

"You know, it might not be a bad idea to use her all the same."

Everyone looks at him then, but Lucien was expecting it. He doesn't shy away from having their attention.

"Terra fucked up. Sure. And maybe what she's done is unforgivable… I can't decide that for you. But because of her, you're now several steps ahead of your enemy. Slade Wilson is a dangerous man. A killer. Beating him won't be easy."

Robin straightens up at that, frowning slightly.

"We've beaten him before. We can do it again."

Lucien looks the Titans Team Leader in the eye.

"That's great, really. But if you've beaten him before, you know he's not going to make the same mistakes he made last time. A mercenary like Deathstroke doesn't get to where he's at with the reputation he has by refusing to learn from his failures."

Lucien and Robin might not be particularly close… they're not even really friends. But he can see that the logic of his words nevertheless gets to the other young man. Robin is listening if nothing else.

"Terra is offering to help make amends for her actions. Whether you see her as a friend and a teammate after this is largely irrelevant because right now, she's a resource. She can help you stop Slade in his tracks far easier, before he can truly get whatever his latest plan is off the ground. And whether that makes up for what she's done or not… that's for all of you to decide. But you'd be fools to refuse her aid now and send her running into Slade's arms."

Some of the Titans bristle at being called fools. Some shoot Terra angry looks at the thought of her running to her 'teacher', making her flinch and duck her head. Of course, Raven isn't entirely convinced.

"What if she's a poisoned resource? How can we even begin to trust her information? Exposing herself to us might be part of Slade's plans. She might lead us right into a trap."

Lucien doesn't have a response for that, truth be told. He just shrugs, having said his piece. It's Beast Boy who speaks up all of the sudden, still sounding hurt and raw and angry.

"How did she slip past your powers in the first place, Rae? How did she manage to hide her true allegiances from us all this time when you can literally sense emotions?"

Raven stiffens, her lips thinning out as she looks between Beast Boy and Terra.

"… I sensed her guilt a long time ago."

That gets the attention of the other Titans.

"But I also sensed affection for us. Happiness. Excitement to be part of a team. I knew she didn't have full control over her powers. And I know you promised to keep that a secret from us, Garfield."

Now both Beast Boy and Terra are staring at Raven with wide eyes.

"… I didn't say anything because I thought the guilt was tied to her fear of messing up and having an accident. Of hurting people. I was wrong."

"N-No! You weren't, Raven! That was a lot of it! A-and…and my affection for all of you was real too! As was my happiness and excitement! I've loved being a Titan, I swear I have! I just… I didn't want to mess it up. I didn't want to disappoint or hurt a-any of you… please… you have to believe me…"

Terra sounds so broken. But as hurt as she clearly is, it's obvious the Titans are just as hurt. Even Starfire, who hasn't said a word and is holding her older sister's hand tightly, is looking at Terra with hurt in her eyes.

Lucien definitely feels a little out of place here. But he's said his piece. It's not up to him to decide what happens next. The ball is firmly in the Titans' court now.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] They kick Terra out - 5%

[ ] They lock Terra up - 5%

[X] They decide to use Terra after all - 90%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

May 23, 2024

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#451

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

A/N: Decisions are made.

-x-X-x-

"… We don't have to believe anything you say. Not after finding out you've been lying to us all this time. But if you want a chance to prove you mean those words… then fine, you'll get it."

In the end, it's not surprising that it's Robin who speaks up in the ensuing silence, making a decision for everyone else. However, Lucien is surprised that the Titans Leader is so… accommodating. And he's not the only one either. While Terra looks shocked but also relieved, Robin's other teammates are differing levels of surprised too.

In Beast Boy's case, the shapeshifter jolts in shock, staring at Robin rather hard for a moment before finally nodding after seemingly coming to whatever conclusion Robin came to. In Starfire's case, she remains silent, though her eyes do widen in surprise. However, for Raven…

"Seriously?"

Looking over at the half-demon young woman, Robin just raises an eyebrow.

"You tell me, Raven. Does Terra mean what she's saying right now? About being sorry?"

The empath grits her teeth, glancing over at Terra and then curiously at him too. Lucien just cocks his head to the side, causing Raven to tear her gaze away.

"… I don't know."

She sounds petulant more than anything, but there's also hurt in her voice. Clearly, this morning hadn't been good for Raven's mental stability nor her self-esteem. She's second guessing herself and seeing as he doesn't know what happened this morning, Robin isn't sure what to make of that.

"You don't know?"

At having her words parroted back to her as a question, Raven snarls.

"No! Okay! Yes, she's guilty! Yes, she's ashamed! And yes, she thinks she's telling the truth! But all of that is subjective! Emotions can be falsified and manipulated. And sometimes people don't actually do what their emotions say they'll do! It's not a perfect lie detector, Robin!"

Silence falls at the small outburst, while Raven just pants a bit. But then she freezes as Robin's hand falls upon her shoulder, the Titans Leader suddenly looking her in the eye from less than a foot away.

"Hey… it's okay, Raven. None of us blame you for anything. You're doing the best you can. We all are."

Huh, Lucien had known that there were good reasons Robin was Team Leader. Hell, there had to be good reasons for why the other man and Starfire had gotten together in the previous timeline as well. Robin might have simply been his adversary in a way since Lucien had started hanging out with the Titans, but that didn't mean Robin wasn't a good leader. Still, it was one thing to know something had to be true and another entirely to see it in action.

Some but not all of the tension in Raven's body dissipates as her shoulders droop a little bit and she just hangs her head. Then, to her and everyone else's surprise, Robin actually pulls her in for a hug. It's a quick thing to be fair, mostly just a brief tight squeeze as Robin clearly knows better than to push his luck. Still, it's a hug.

Of course, once it's over he immediately turns towards Blackfire and puts his foot in his mouth again.

"Are you our enemy, Blackfire?"

Expectedly, Starfire bristles in anger while Blackfire stiffens at the accusatory question. But Robin just holds up a hand, forestalling any response from either of them for a moment.

"I have to ask. I'm sorry Star, but you'd agree with me if you weren't so close to this. Your sister has tried to kill all of us multiple times at this point. Her memories are back. You might be ready to forgive and forget but…"

For the first time, some of Starfire's anger seems to defuse. For the first time, she glances over at Blackfire and seems to see her in a certain light. Robin is right after all. It wasn't just Starfire and Blackfire who had bad blood. Maybe back at the beginning, but at this point there were years of bad interactions between Blackfire and ALL of the Titans, not just her sister.

Lucien had hoped that by showing Blackfire how willing Starfire was to submit, that she could finally quench the overwhelming hatred she had for her younger sister. But admittedly, he hadn't taken into account the other Titans and the feelings they might be harboring when he'd decided to give the villainess her memories back.

On the plus side, Blackfire hasn't let go of Starfire's hand and Starfire hasn't let go of Blackfire's. But at the same time, the older Tamaranean Princess sneers at Robin.

"What are you waiting for, exactly? An apology?"

Robin stands there with his arms crossed over his chest, rather stone-faced as he stares Blackfire down.

"It'd be a start."

That makes the elder alien scowl even harder, while Starfire looks more and more worried. But before things can blow up in all of their faces…

"She does feel sorry."

Raven's voice cuts through the tension, not like a single knife, but like a hail of bullets if the way Blackfire, Starfire, and Robin all jerk and jolt at her words is any indication. Standing there off to the side, the half-demon is frowning.

"She'll never admit it out loud. And it's not much. But she IS feeling guilty. It's the first time I've ever felt that from her too, even through all of our fights, even through all of her schemes."

Raven doesn't look like she knows how to feel about her own words. On the one hand, she's pretty much blowing up Blackfire's spot, revealing uncomfortable truths that by Raven's own words, Blackfire would not want voiced out loud under any circumstances. On the other hand, she's all but confirming that her initial concerns about Blackfire were wrong and that her row with Starfire earlier that morning was unnecessary.

Indeed, at hearing Raven's words, Starfire actually looks thrilled for a moment. Hopeful, even. Of course, Blackfire on the other hand…

"I'm leaving."

Abruptly, Blackfire rises to her feet, pulling her hand from her sister's grasp. Starfire's eyes widen and she immediately darts to her feet as well.

"T-Then I'll go with you!"

The hurt that flashes across the faces of the other three Titans goes unnoticed by Starfire, who only has eyes for Blackfire in this moment. Not by Lucien though. Blackfire, meanwhile, scoffs.

"And who says I'd want you to come with me?"

Starfire jolts back as if physically struck and there's actually a flash of regret on Blackfire's face before she quickly smooths over her features. Lucien though, decides that it's about time he stepped in and said something. Rising to his feet as well, he draws Blackfire's attention. His tone is relatively calm and soothing, even as he gives her a meaningful look.

"I doubt you really mean that, Blackfire. But it's equally obvious you need some breathing room. Why don't I go with you instead?"

He then looks to Robin with a slightly sardonic grin.

"After all, I doubt that I'm to be included in whatever plans you all develop to deal with Deathstroke."

The relief that flashes through Robin's posture makes it clear Lucien has hit the nail on the head. Perhaps he should have been more involved. Perhaps he should have joined up with the Titans properly. But the fact of the matter was, he wasn't an official member. And things had gone a bit beyond what the 'friends and family' could be involved in.

Stepping up, Lucien places a hand on Starfire's arm, giving it a comforting squeeze and her a comforting smile.

"Your friends need your help, Kori. And you would never forgive yourself if something happened to them and you could have helped. Let me look after Blackfire, alright? That is, if she's willing to have me."

Lucien gives Blackfire another meaningful look, causing the Tamaranean Princess to scowl angrily and cross her arms over her chest before finally averting her gaze.

"Fine."

He doesn't think it's entirely an act either. She's probably not going to be too happy with him once they finally get some alone time, but Lucien isn't that worried. He can handle Blackfire pretty easily at this point, especially with all of his power ups.

Starfire, meanwhile, looks between the two of them for a long moment, still fretting. But then her eyes drift over to her team and Lucien can see that she realizes he's right. There's no helping it… the Titans need her.

"V-Very well… but before you go…"

That doesn't stop her from grabbing him by the face and kissing him deeply, however. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucien sees Robin stiffening, still not over the alien young woman even slightly. But if Starfire cares about Robin's opinion, she doesn't show it. Pulling away from Lucien's lips, she turns and grabs Blackfire by the hands, causing the older alien to stiffen.

"Please sister, let us speak soon. I swear I am willing to put the past behind us if you wish to do the same. I want us to be family again."

Blackfire doesn't seem to know how to answer that. In the end, she just lets out a 'tch' and tears away from Starfire so she can turn and stomp out of the room. Lucien gives Starfire an apologetic smile and the rest of the Titans a nod before turning and following her. His eyes do linger on Terra for a moment. She looks too shell-shocked to really realize he's going. But then, they'd only had a night together. Perhaps it didn't mean much to the blonde geokinetic, ultimately.

Either way, he leaves the Titans to figure out their next steps and follows his original partner in crime out of the Tower and across the city.

-x-X-x-

SLAM!

He's not that surprised when Blackfire doesn't take them to his apartment, but instead to an abandoned warehouse. Nor is he surprised when she slams him into a wall the moment they're out of sight. Glaring at him angrily, the Tamaranean Princess narrows her eyes.

"You waited an awful long time to give me my memories back."

Unbothered, Lucien just shrugs.

"We never discussed an exact time frame, Blackfire. And frankly, I'm starting to wonder if I gave your memories back too early."

Blackfire bristles at that, one of her hands curling into a fist that she rears back as it glows with purple energy. Lucien still doesn't flinch.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Scoffing, Lucien has no problem speaking truth to power in this moment. Possibly because his own power is even greater.

"It means you blew your cover the moment I restored your memories. You couldn't keep your emotions in check for even a minute, Blackfire. It means that we were right to go with the amnesia plan. A plan which I might add has produced fantastic results. Your younger sister doesn't just love you; she adores you. She devotes herself to you. She submits to your every whim."

Leaning forward, Lucien gets nice and close.

"You own her, Blackfire. Now tell me… why does that fact frighten you so much?"

Blackfire stiffens and in the face of his provocation, finally throws a punch. But Lucien's hand is there to catch it, purple energy and all. His fingers wrap around her fist, his palm taking the impact of the energy blast point blank… and Lucien barely even flinches. Blackfire jolts, trying to pull her fist back… but Lucien holds her fast.

"You… you got stronger."

"I did."

Blackfire snarls.

"Were you just using me then? To get closer to my sister's bratty friends?"

Lucien rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

"Rewriting history already, Komandr? Remember that I was already in with the Titans before I suggested we bring you in with amnesia. I didn't need you to get closer to them… I don't need you at all."

She hides her flinch at that, but Lucien is already following up by seizing her by the hair with his free hand and dragging her into a rather rough, tongue-filled kiss. At first, she begins to relax into the kiss, especially since he's using every tool in his toolbox to make it one of the most intense, pleasurable kisses she's ever had.

But in the end, she manages to fight off her arousal and pull away, and Lucien lets her immediately of course. He has no desire nor need to force himself on her. As she stares at him with wide eyes, panting, Lucien just smirks.

"I do want you though. And I want to help you. Like I said before… we succeeded. Starfire doesn't want to lose you again. If we'd pushed for it, she would have left the Titans right then and there and come with us, you know."

That thought seems to startle Blackfire, her eyes widening before narrowing again as she frowns.

"… Why didn't you push for it then?"

Lucien chuckles.

"Two reasons, really. Number One, it would have made the other Titans far too suspicious. Raven already confided in me that she can't read my emotions. But Starfire choosing us over them would have taken me from idle curiosity to enemy with the drop of a hat. By pushing for Starfire to stay with them, I've made myself look all the more reasonable in their eyes."

Blackfire chews on those words for a moment before finally grunting her acknowledgment.

"And Number Two?"

Lucien's smirk becomes a full grin at that.

"Number Two? Because it was obvious you didn't want to destroy Starfire's relationships with her friends. Despite your stated goals, you don't want to ruin your younger sister's life. You don't want to break her. Not anymore."

And just like that, Blackfire stiffens all over again. She's not the kind of woman who likes being confronted with uncomfortable truths. Unfortunately for her, Lucien feels like it has to be said. When she opens her mouth to try and deny it, he interrupts and overrides her.

"You know Starfire is right. There are people in this universe who deserve your hatred for what was done to you. But she isn't one of them. She isn't to blame for the injustice you experienced. Your time as an amnesiac has made that abundantly clear, even if you don't want to admit it. The fact is, the only one standing between you and happiness at this point… is you, Blackfire."

Silence falls as Blackfire processes his words. She takes a step back and he releases her fist as she stands there, mulling over everything he's just said. Lucien watches her quietly and waits for her reaction. He's done everything he possibly can to mend the broken bonds between the two sisters. Starfire would give everything if she could spend the rest of her life at Blackfire's feet, so on that side of things he's succeeded entirely.

But now it's up to Blackfire to decide whether she wants to hold onto old hatreds or let go of the past and look towards the future.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Blackfire wants nothing more to do with him or Starfire and leaves the planet - 4%

[ ] Blackfire wants nothing more to do with Starfire, but can't quit him, hate sex ensues - 5%

[X] Blackfire doesn't want to admit he's right but can't go back now, hate sex ensues - 92%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Jun 6, 2024

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#459

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Blackfire gets it out of her system. And then...

-x-X-x-

"… Fuck you."

There's not nearly as much vitriol in Blackfire's voice as he's expecting to accompany such words. So Lucien lets a crooked smile spread across his lips and raises an eyebrow.

"That a promise?"

With a snarl, Blackfire lunges at him. But there's not nearly as much aggression in the move this time, so while he does stay on alert, he also lets her do it. Instead of trying to punch him in the face again, this time around she grabs him by the shirt… and drags him into a savage, tongue-filled kiss.

Lucien doesn't hesitate to reciprocate of course. His hands go to her hips… and then, because it feels right to match Blackfire's energy, he instead circles past her hips to her ass, gripping down tightly and squeezing her ass cheeks. In response, she lets out a muffled growl and bites his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

As the coppery taste mixes between their dueling tongues, Lucien gives as good as he gets. She tries to push him back against the wall again, but he holds his ground and sets himself in place. He's physically stronger and tougher than the Tamaranean Princess at this point. His body is all of the best bits of everyone he's gotten his hands on so far.

Don't get him wrong, the Tamaranean part of his physiology has to be the strongest he's gotten his hands on so far, but Raven's half-demon biology is a close second. And combined, they make him very strong indeed. On top of that, he also still has the Snow Leopard stuff he got from Spot, along with Beast Boy and Terra's powers.

Terra's geokinesis in particular comes in handy here, because Lucien can more readily set himself in place with that new power, using his control over the earth to find his center in a way he couldn't before.

Blackfire doesn't like this, of course. In fact, she struggles to overpower him all the same for a couple of minutes, trying to dominate him physically even as they continue to rather violently makeout. Lucien doesn't bother with the kid gloves as he handles her, but he also doesn't respond to her violence with violence of his own. Well, not too much anyways. He probably could have slammed her into the ground or the wall if he wanted to, but instead he just squeezes her ass cheeks hard enough that they'll probably be a little bruised in the morning.

Finally, Blackfire changes tactics… and suddenly leaps into his arms. Lucien grunts but still manages to hold himself in place, even as she winds her limbs around his body, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as she lets out another growl. Pulling back from his mouth, Blackfire's eyes smolder with need as she glares at him.

"Mine. You're mine. Don't ever forget that. You were mine before you were my sister's, even if she doesn't know it."

Lucien cocks his head to the side and smirks at that.

"Was I? If I recall correctly, you were my henchwoman, Blackfire. Getting your sister was supposed to be your signing bonus."

Blackfire shakes her head at that, grinding her crotch against his now, rubbing her tits along his chest. She's like a fucking cat at the moment, though instead of purring she's still snarling. But it's obvious she's mostly feigning anger because she thinks she has to. The truth is, she just doesn't want to admit what she really feels.

"My signing bonus was you helping me ruin my sister's life. All you've done is helped her since we started this shit. Besides, what kind of hero needs a henchwoman, eh Remedy?"

… That said, she sort of has a point there. Lucien smiles ruefully, almost sheepishly as he holds her up in his arms.

"Hey now, who's to say I'll stay Remedy for much longer, eh? It was just a throwaway identity…"

But that just gets a scoff from Blackfire, and another shake of her head.

"If it was a throwaway identity, you wouldn't have revealed your true name to my sister and her little friends."

He wants to protest that he hasn't revealed his full name and true identity to Robin and Beast Boy at least, but he knows that would be a weak excuse at best. Especially since that still means more than half the Titans know who he really is. Though… given Tara Markov's current status, it was technically only half, right? Since she might be kicked out of the Titans by the time this was all over…

And Starfire… well, she had to know. Still, Raven knew. And if Raven thought Robin and Beast Boy needed to be told, she would do so in a heartbeat, Lucien was sure of that.

In the end, Blackfire is right. He's put a little too much of himself into the Remedy identity and his heroic persona at this point. He still has no intentions of being a hero full time, but he also can't just switch and be a villain without somehow turning Starfire, Raven, and Terra all to the dark side as well. And seeing as he never really wanted to follow in his father's foot steps in the first place, Lucien was loath to do so.

All in all, this whole venture had been about helping Blackfire get over her issues with her sister without having to ruin Starfire's life in the process. Blackfire was right, that wasn't really the work of a villain, now was it?

He-

"Quit your fucking introspection and fuck me already you fucking bastard."

Blinking at Blackfire's curse-laden demands, Lucien laughs and nods. In a few quick movements, he frees his cock from its confines and slips Blackfire's panties aside under her skirt. And then he's inside of her. He doesn't do it gently or slowly of course, correctly deducing that as she currently is, Blackfire wants a little pain. She wants to be distracted from having to confront her own feelings.

Perhaps if their relationship was healthier, Lucien wouldn't have gone along with this. Maybe he should have been the bigger person, put a stop to this, and truly forced Blackfire to confront her feelings regarding both him and her sister and their past experiences once and for all. But not only did that stand the greatest chance of driving her away at this point in time… Lucien was no therapist.

The one thing he did know beyond all else… was Blackfire's body. He knew what made her tick, he knew what made her arch her back and moan, and best of all, he knew her limits. He could give her what she wanted, while also giving her some of the best orgasms of her life. So why the fuck wouldn't he?

Driving deep into her from below, pounding her down the length of his cock right then and there, Lucien immediately sets a harsh and brutal pace. His 'take no prisoners' attitude has Blackfire gurgling for a moment before she tosses her head back and howls in a mixture of pain and pleasure. The way she clings to him all the harder makes it clear he's doing something right, even as her cunt walls tighten and flex around his cock.

However, that tightening does nothing to stop Lucien from slamming her down onto his mast again and again, taking her right there in the empty warehouse in a standing fuck. He plows up into her with a gusto second to none, his hands continuing to claw at her ass cheeks as she holds onto him and rakes her own nails down his back.

There's nothing gentle or tender about this. There's nothing loving or joyful. In a way, Blackfire is letting it all out on him as he fucks her. Lucien just heals the worst of the damage as they go, her clawing hands definitely drawing blood but the wounds vanishing in mere moments. All the while, he's ramming into her cunt, reshaping her pussy to his cock for what feels like the hundredth time at least.

Blackfire is right. She did have him first. Starfire might believe that he and her were together before Blackfire ever came onto the scene, but that wasn't true. Perhaps they'd tell the younger Tamaranean that one day. She probably wouldn't even be that upset given how everything had turned out. Hell, if Blackfire could forgive him for manipulating her into finally seeing that her sister wasn't the source of all of her pain and suffering, then Starfire could probably forgive him as well.

At the same time, Lucien would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about the Titans. He understood why they had all but kicked him and Blackfire out so they could deal with Slade Wilson on their own terms. Deathstroke was serious business, but the Titans had fought him before. And after just finding out that Terra was a traitor, they were undoubtedly gun shy when it came to newcomers like Lucien or former enemies like Blackfire.

Still, for Starfire's sake if nothing else, Lucien would keep an eye out and step in to help if it proved necessary. For now though, Blackfire occupied much of his attention as he drove in and out of her. She was insistent about things, incredibly demanding… but Lucien was well-equipped to give her what she needs by fucking her silly. Eventually, she'll tire herself out completely and finally pass out on his cock.

And ultimately, that's precisely what happens.

-x-X-x-

"Mrow."

I know buddy, here you go."

"Mrow!"

Lucien tilts his head to the side as he tosses the ball and watches Spot chase after the bouncing thing. Snow Leopards weren't exactly made for playing 'fetch' of all things, but poor Spot really didn't get out as much as he probably should. Thanks to Lucien's powers, he didn't have to worry about the cub getting fat or unhealthy or anything like that.

Indeed, all Lucien had to do was make sure Spot got lots of meat, and then a single petting session would allow Lucien to direct all of those nutrients where they needed to go so that the cub continued to grow into the perfect specimen of health.

… Eventually, Lucien wanted to incorporate other things into his pet. Once Spot grew to his full size, he would be quite the big strong lad anyways. However, compared to the dangers of this world, and especially the dangers that Lucien had a feeling he would invite simply by existing as he did now… Spot wouldn't be ready for any of that. Not unless Lucien made him ready.

But he wanted to let the Snow Leopard Cub grow normally for a while first. Or rather, as 'normally' as he possibly could when he was keeping Spot confined in the apartment and using his powers to make sure he stayed healthy, nonetheless. Still, he could worry about augmenting his pet once Spot was a little further out of adolescence.

For now, Spot comes bounding back to him with the ball clenched firmly between his teeth, having literally chased it all over the room as it bounced from wall to wall just like it was designed to. With Lucien's hand-eye coordination being a hundred times better than it ever was before, he could literally plot out the exact trajectory of the ball in his mind ahead of time, allowing him to plan a course that would result in minimal damage to the apartment itself.

… There were still scratch marks everywhere, of course. Spot's claws were getting bigger day after day. But the place was still relatively intact. Taking the ball from his Snow Leopard after a short tug of war with the cub, Lucien rears back to throw again… only to pause at hearing the change in breathing from the other room. Tilting his head to the side, he gives the expectant cub at his feet an apologetic smile.

"Sorry bud, last throw."

He rises to his feet and tosses the ball one last time. Spot chases it down of course, but this time, showing his enhanced intelligence already, the growing Snow Leopard doesn't return to Lucien's side. Instead, he takes his ball under the table for a nice long chew session, while Lucien moves to the bedroom to check on Blackfire.

He finds the exiled Tamaranean Princess laying where he'd left her. The difference this time is that her eyes are open and she's staring at the ceiling in silence. Leaning against the doorframe, Lucien clears his throat. She barely reacts, making it clear she'd already detected his approach.

"… How are you feeling?"

Blackfire huffs after a moment and floats up into the air.

"Like I need a shower. Make us some food."

Lucien raises an eyebrow at that, but he's not so insecure that he can't help out a very close friend when they're clearly going through some shit. With a shrug, he turns back to the kitchen and makes them some food, just like he was asked. By the time Blackfire is out of the shower, freshly cleaned and freshly dressed, Lucien is already plating the quick meals and setting them down on the table.

Unfortunately, before either of them can sit down to eat… something else happens that gives them both pause. Namely, the entire room turns red. Lucien blinks and so does Blackfire, while Spot growls under the table. Both of them look towards the apartment's sliding glass door, where the red is all coming from.

Moving over, they look out… and then up, to see that the source of the red is the sky itself. No longer blue, the sky has turned blood red… and instead of the big white fluffy clouds from a moment ago, there are dark portals swirling into existence as far as the eye can see, going far beyond the city's limits from the look of things as well.

"… Shit."

It was an invasion, that much was for sure. Creatures were already starting to pour out of the portals. Lucien doubted it was localized either. It wasn't just the city, which meant it was more than likely the entire world.

Except… looking out into the distance, there was a massive dark pillar coming down from the sky over near the center of the city. Much bigger then the portals that were even now disgorging enemies. And if that meant what he thought it meant…

"The Titans. Something's gone wrong."

Blackfire gives him a look, her face cycling through a number of emotions. In the end though, she stays silent. She neither demands they go to help her sister, nor does she say anything like 'good riddance to bad rubbish'. Instead, she leaves the ball in Lucien's court.

But even still… what is he supposed to do? If the invasion is world-wide, the Justice League will surely step in right? Even if the Titans are at the center of all of this, they'll receive assistance from other heroes soon enough. Right?

Lucien's jaw clenches as he looks at the distant pillar. Screeching sounds make it clear that even if they don't do anything, they're still going to have to hunker down and defend themselves until this is over. But that's far more likely to end with their lives intact then doing anything else…

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Hunker down and defend themselves and Spot, let the real heroes handle this - 11%

[ ] Evacuate entirely, there's probably somewhere less populated to hide out - 4%

[X] Go straight for that pillar to try and stop this and save the Titans - 85%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Jun 20, 2024

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#468

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

... This is fine.

-x-X-x-

"Fuck me…"

Blackfire raises an eyebrow at that, prompting Lucien to sigh and slump his shoulders.

"We have to go and help."

The exiled alien princess doesn't say a word to that. But in a way, the fact that she's completely silent speaks volumes in and of itself. No 'why would I go help those twerps', no 'I hate my sister, I hope she dies'. Not even a 'they kicked us out and told us not to interfere, they're on their own'. Just… silent agreement.

In fact, Blackfire doesn't break her silence until Lucien reaches down and scoops up Spot from the floor.

"Mrow."

"You're bringing the cat?"

She sounds baffled and a little perturbed, but Lucien just scoffs.

"Snow Leopard. And yeah, I'm bringing him. Look at that shit out there. This apartment building might not even still exist by the time we're done. He's safest with me."

Lucien wished he could be as confident about that as he was managing to project in his tone. But the truth was, he had no desire to abandon Spot to almost certain death. Those demons coming out of the sky weren't going to be kind to anyone or anything, that much Lucien was absolutely sure of. And sure, bringing Spot to the center of this madness probably wasn't a good idea, but it was the least bad of a bunch of bad ideas, he figured.

Blackfire just grunts and shrugs, following his lead as Lucien pushes out onto his apartment's terrace. Almost immediately, the movement down below causes some of the red-skinned monsters flying overhead to screech and wing down towards them. But Lucien and Blackfire aren't the easy targets that the demons probably expect. Rising up into the air off the terrace under their own power, the two of them shoot forward.

"Mroooow!"

Lucien has Spot tucked under one arm, and protecting the Snow Leopard Cub takes precedent over going on the offensive, so he stays on the defensive while Blackfire races upwards, striking down enemies with blazing purple hands, throwing energy bolts this way and that. Lucien, meanwhile, just blocks attacks and slams his free hand curled into a fist through the chest of anything that gets close enough.

God does he wish he hadn't gotten attached to the Titans. If only he'd kept his emotional distance from them, he wouldn't feel compelled to save them now. Sure, the Justice League would probably step in, but if the invasion was world-wide they were going to be stepping in all over the planet… and they might figure out that this was the epicenter much too late.

That meant it fell to Lucien and Blackfire to do something, as much as it irritated him to no end to have gotten to this point. Fortunately, between the two of them they're able to get through the first wave of enemies with relative quickness. Unfortunately, the second, third, and fourth waves are already coming down from the multitude of portals in the sky overhead.

"We can't afford to be bogged down here! Come on!"

Blackfire nods sharply and moves to follow him… only, as they both try to race towards the massive pillar of darkness in the distance, the demons seem loath to let them go. They harass and harry them every step of the way, and there's even a few close calls where their attacks almost reach the far less durable, far more vulnerable Spot.

Until suddenly…

"Enough! Keep going! I will hold them off!"

There's a denial on Lucien's lips immediately, but as he looks around, the words never come. Nor does Blackfire wait for a response. Blazing with purple flames, the Tamaranean snarls as she lunges into the largest mass of demons, drawing them to her like moths to a flame and roaring her challenge for everything in the sky to hear.

Lucien doesn't have a choice at that point. It's either stick to Blackfire's side and get fucking nowhere… or make her sacrifice mean something. Cursing under his breath, Lucien puts on the gas, speeding up to the point that Spot is whimpering pitifully in his arms from the fast speeds. But it gets them away from the largest concentration of winged monsters at least, and finally they're closing in on the massive black pillar.

Hesitating near the thing's perimeter, Lucien quietly comes down from the air and lands on the ground, noticing that this area seems to have been a warehouse district before it was completely destroyed by whatever the pillar represents.

Setting Spot down on shaky paws, Lucien looks his Snow Leopard Cub in the eye.

"Find a safe spot nearby and hide, alright?"

This area was already destroyed. More than that, there were barely any demons around here. Instead, they were spreading out from this place, going in every other direction except towards the big fuck off pillar. It might not have been the safest place imaginable, but it was the best Lucien could come up with.

Spot's enhanced intelligence shines in the Snow Leopard's eyes as he gives a quiet 'mrow' before putting one of his growing paws on Lucien's chest for a moment. Then, he sneakily slinks off, moving through the debris and destruction carefully and stealthily.

Lucien watches him go for a moment, pleasantly surprised on how quickly Spot seems to blend in with his surroundings. But then, that stealth was half the reason he'd chosen a Snow Leopard in the first place. He just hadn't expected the cub to wind up meaning so much to him.

Moving just as quietly, Lucien slips closer to the pillar… and after circling around to its other side, he finally finds all of them. The Titans. And Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. Except it's not just them versus him, unfortunately.

"Friend Raven! Please, you must break free! Come back to us!"

On the ground, holding a bloodied and battered Robin, Starfire pleads up at a floating Raven. Flying high in the air above them, the half-demon's eyes are glowing bright red… and Lucien has to do a double take as he realizes there are four of them on her face, two sets of two. He's only seen that once before. Trigon.

"Foolish mortals. My daughter serves her purpose, as she was always meant to. She heralds the coming of my armies, who will pave the way for me to arrive upon your world in my true form, so that I might bring your dimension to its knees like so many before it."

Trigon's voice comes out of Raven's lips and Lucien winces. Must be hell on the poor half-demon's throat. But then to be fair, he's not sure any part of the possession is good for Raven. Having a Demon Lord using your body like a cheap suit wouldn't be good for anyone, even someone 'made for it' like Trigon was implying.

Down on the ground, the remaining Titans are all gathering up. Robin is forcing himself to his feet with Starfire's help, Beast Boy and Terra are coming in from the sides to stand with their friends. Lucien is pleased to see that Terra was serious about turning traitor. Just unfortunate that for whatever reason, their attempt at ambushing Slade hadn't worked out.

In the face of their defiance, Trigon looks to Slade and then waves one of Raven's hands dismissively.

"Kill them all."

"As you command."

It's only then that Lucien realizes Deathstroke is flying. The man had been standing on nothing with his hands clasped behind his back, looking more like he was standing on an invisible platform rather than floating like Trigon. But now a red symbol of power blazes to life on Slade Wilson's mask and he lunges forward, heading towards the Titans like a rocket.

Eyes widening, Lucien lunges forward as well, trying desperately to intercept him… but Slade is faster. Lucien arrives just in time for the dust to clear and the sight of Deathstroke's hand thrust though Robin's chest to greet him. The villain holds the hero's heart in his grasp behind Robin's back, even as the others process the scene in horror. Then, he pulls back through Robin's excavated chest cavity.

"I don't need a protégé, now that immortality is within my grasp."

Slade's voice heralds the slump of Robin's body as he hits the ground.

"NO!"

Starfire's scream of pain and rage sees her lunging forward to attack Slade, to fight and kill him. Lucien is forced to make a choice in that moment. If he tries to heal Robin (if he can even heal someone who's probably already dead) then Starfire will likely die. But if he tries to help Starfire, then the chance of healing Robin vanishes completely.

In the end, he chooses Starfire. Lunging forward, he throws an energy blast at Slade's side, distracting him from delivering what might have been another killing blow to Starfire. Then he's at Star's side, fighting with her against Deathstroke. The mercenary is unamused and silent as he fights them both, proving to be far stronger than either of them alone. Even with all of his recent gains, Lucien feels like he's a child facing down an adult.

The worst part is when he manages to tear open a section of Deathstroke's armor, revealing the flesh underneath. Lucien is so far past the point of trying to hide his true powers that it's not even funny… but it doesn't matter because the moment he makes skin contact with the mercenary, he finds he can't do anything to him.

Deathstroke is already dead. He's a literal walking corpse. More than that, he's filled with Trigon's power and that resists every attempt Lucien makes at dismantling him, of scattering the very cells of his body into dust once he realizes he can't just shut off the signals to his brain.

A fresh scream of horror pulls Lucien's attention away just in time to see blood seeping out of glowing black blocks as Trigon contemptuously waves his daughter's hand at them. Judging by the look of pure, unbridled anguish on Terra's face, that was Beast Boy. And now he's dead.

Taking advantage of their moment of distraction, Slade backhands Starfire hard enough to send her flying into the nearby pillar, where she slumps down at the bottom unmoving. And then he's got his hand around Lucien's neck and is lifting him up off the ground.

"Hold. This one… I recognize this one."

Before Slade can kill him, Trigon stops the mercenary in his tracks. Floating closer, the Demon Lord tilts his daughter's head to the side, staring into Lucien's eyes.

"Intruder. Thief. You were whisked away before, but something tells me that won't happen a second time. I shall enjoy this."

Lucien's eyes widen as he feels a pressure on his mind. A single word slams into him with the force of a thousand bullets.

Submit.

He resists, of course. But it just comes back tenfold a moment later.

SUBMIT.

Trigon is trying to turn him into a slave. He's trying to make Lucien his puppet, to use the demon blood inside of him to force him to submit. Lucien can fight it, but it's not easy. He… he doesn't see another option. He does the one thing he can do, the one thing he hasn't even considered since the first time.

Lucien Luthor reaches inward… and ends his own life.

-x-X-x-

Death is waiting for him, of course. Though not like the first time. He doesn't come to with her riding his cock and promising him an eternity at her side. Instead, he wakes up on his feet, with her seated behind a desk and smiling at him.

"You made the right call, Lucien."

She always seems to know what he needs to hear. Still, Lucien scoffs all the same.

"You told me I'm not infinite or endless like you. I have a finite amount of lives, one that I just wasted."

Death sighs and shakes her head.

"It was still the right call. Better to lose a life than to lose your free will. Trigon would have turned you into a puppet… and he was right, I couldn't interfere like I did before. Not without consequences. You took the only way you had out. And now you have a chance to go back and do it again."

Right. There was that. It was the reason he was willing to pull the trigger on himself in the first place. Because he knew it wouldn't be permanent. Unlike whatever Trigon might have done to him, which definitely would have been permanent. And yet…

Falling into a chair in front of Death's desk, Lucien puts his head in his hands.

"… What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fight something like that? I couldn't even defeat Deathstroke, let alone Trigon. And… I lost most of my allies so damn quickly. First Blackfire, then Robin, then Beast Boy… not even sure if Starfire survived that blow… fuck me."

"Normally I would be happy to take you up on that offer, Lucien. But alas, this doesn't really seem like the time or place. Perhaps under less stressful circumstances. As for what you're supposed to do… that's up to you, isn't it?"

Lucien grimaces, wanting to bellyache about how unhelpful Death's advice is. On the other hand… he knows exactly what she means. It is up to him. He has all the choices in the world now, really.

"… How far can I go back?"

"As far as you want."

Shit, that was a lot of options. Lucien immediately discards most of them though. He's built something real this time around, since his first death and resurrection. He's not going to just wipe all his hard work. At the same time though…

"Did I make this happen? Did something I do accelerate this or something?"

Death is quiet for a moment before tilting her head to the side.

"… I cannot tell you everything, Lucien. What I can tell you is that the events you just lived through always happen in some form. Maybe not quite in this way, maybe not this early or this late, but Trigon always comes for Earth, and his daughter is a direct conduit for him. Raven will always be his herald."

But that doesn't mean he always succeeds or that Raven has to die or anything. Lucien is confident that Trigon was defeated and sent packing the first time around, in the life where Lucien had never even met the Titans. Something had happened in this timeline, something HE had done had caused Trigon to escalate severely. And things had gone bad.

Now he needed to figure out how to make them better. Though… one last question.

"No matter how far I go back, no matter what I change… our interactions will remain untouched, right? You'll remember the same as I do?"

Death gives him a fond, gentle smile at that… and a reassuring nod, much to Lucien's relief.

"Yes, Lucien. No matter what happens, I will remember every single time we interacted. You can no more erase my memory of you then you can erase your own memories."

That was… comforting, Lucien supposed. And with that, he knew when he had to go back to.

-x-X-x-

A/N: So admittedly this was always kind of the plan for this fic. To have time looping moments where Lucien got in over his head and died, forcing the use of his resurrection ability. Just kind of let it fall to the wayside for a while there, lol.

I know I'm taking a big swing here, so let me know what you guys think of this. If I get enough of a negative reaction for instance, maybe it just never happens again xD

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Go back to the apartment at the start of the invasion, he and Blackfire can fly stealthier - 4%

[ ] Go back to the team meeting in the common room, don't let the Titans dismiss him and Blackfire this time - 15%

[X] Go back to before he incorporated Raven's DNA and caught the attention of Trigon, that was probably why this happened so suddenly right? - 81%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Last edited: Jun 20, 2024

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Jul 4, 2024

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#491

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

R-R-Rewind!

-x-X-x-

Lucien wakes up in bed surrounded by beautiful naked women. Hey, what else is new? Grinning a little at his own joke, he takes stock of the situation. It's the night before shit hit the fan… which is crazy to think about, because the events of the next twenty-four hours feel like they took place over the span of months.

He's just gotten done fucking Koriandr, Komandr, and Tara. They're all asleep now, curled up into his sides. Even knowing what he now knows about Tara's allegiances, he can't help but feel a bit of affection for her. She was just a scared young woman in over her head at the end of the day.

Still, he's come back to before he incorporated Raven's demon DNA into his physiology. Now he knows better. Now Lucien knows that he won't just be incorporating her half-demon physiology, he'll be literally making himself a son of Trigon in the process, which connected him to the bastard and maybe made all of this happen in the first place.

Except… Lucien's brow furrows as he remembers what Tara had said while she was being interrogated by the Titans. Slade had been having her spy on the Titans for a while… but the Titan he'd been having her spy on in particular was Raven. Did that mean Trigon was always going to try something with his daughter around this time?

Only Lucien didn't remember shit being nearly as bad in his previous life. He definitely would have recalled a moment where the sky turned red and portals from a Hell Dimension opened up to discharge demons down onto their heads. The fact that that hadn't happened when Lucien wasn't involved meant that it was his involvement that had caused things to grow as messy as quickly as they did.

More than that… he looks over at Blackfire with a hum. Him giving her back her memories had immediately set Raven off. They'd never truly resolved that either, because before Raven and Starfire could actually hash out the issues between them, Terra had stolen the show by admitting she was a spy. From there, Raven had been left to stew in her own emotions, forced to just bottle it all up inside while she and the rest of the Titans had gone off to confront Deathstroke.

No wonder it all went to shit. Not only were they not facing off against Slade Wilson with anything close to their usual cohesion and level of teamwork, but they'd also been unaware that they were sitting on a ticking time bomb. A time bomb that Lucien had clearly set off in more ways than one.

… He'd come back to after he'd incorporated Beast Boy and Terra's biology into his own physiology, but before he'd done the same with Raven's half-demon DNA. Obviously he wasn't going to touch that with a ten foot pole now that he knew it would make him an artificial Son of Trigon and connect him to the Demon Lord in the worst way possible.

Still, it was frustrating to have come back to before he gave Blackfire her memories back, allowing for them to make substantial progress in her and Starfire's relationship. Unfortunately, he couldn't in good conscience do things the same way again, not if that was one of the things that had lit Raven's fuse.

Lucien needed more information. He needed answers to the numerous questions that he had because while he was aware of some things, there was a lot he didn't know. Like what the fuck Slade Wilson had to do with Trigon, and how things got so bad for the Titans when they went to confront the bastard.

Fortunately, Lucien had an 'in' didn't he? Tapping both Kori and Komandr with his fingers, he makes sure that the two Tamaranean Princesses won't wake up until morning, no matter what. Then, he slowly shifts his way out from under the both of them, climbing up out of the bed. This in turn wakes up Tara of course, but that was intentional. With one hand bringing a finger to his lips to shush her and the other beckoning her to follow him, Lucien lures the blue-eyed blonde out of the bed with him.

Together they move quietly over to their things, getting dressed with Lucien leading the way. The geokinetic looks eager to follow though, perhaps because she wants to impress him, or perhaps because she hopes to get some one on one time with him now that they're leaving the other women behind.

Lucien isn't so full of himself to think that it was his dick alone that persuaded Tara to flip on Deathstroke. Raven herself had said that the blonde actually meant it when she said she was sorry and that the Titans were her only friends. Tara's guilt must have been eating away at her for quite some time before now, even as she'd been reporting on Raven to Slade.

That all said, he hoped that this plan of his would still work. He needed to understand the enemy better. And if he was going to understand the enemy better, he needed to confront the enemy.

Once he and Terra are fully dressed in their costumes once more, he beckons her over again and scoops her up with an arm around her waist. Terra lets out a quiet 'eep' at that before blushing and going wide eyed as she covers her mouth with her hand. She looks back at the bed, but neither Starfire nor Blackfire wake up to the noise thanks to Lucien's powers.

Giving her an amused shake of his head, he lifts them both off the ground and takes Terra to the nearest window, letting the two of them slip out of the Tower without anyone being any the wiser. Flying her away from the tower and into the city, he heads sort of in the direction of where the big black pillar had risen out of the ground, though not directly towards it.

Even still, he can feel Terra tensing up in his arms as they enter the city's warehouse district. She doesn't ask him to stop or anything like that, but she becomes distinctly uncomfortable, even as Lucien brings her down onto the roof of one of the warehouses.

"What… um, what can I do for you Lucien? W-Why did we need to come all the way out here at this time of night?"

Her eyes dart down to his crotch and she licks her lips.

"U-Unless you wanted to… but we could probably find a cleaner place than this, right?"

She's cute, but he's not so easily swayed. Smiling thinly, Lucien gestures to his masked up face.

"I'm Remedy right now. Just like you're Terra."

"Oh… right! Sorry! … sorry."

Shaking his head, Lucien just sighs.

"I want you to take me to meet Deathstroke."

Terra freezes in place at those words. Her reaction alone gives her away to be honest, her eyes widening as she stares at Lucien in disbelief.

"What? I-I mean… I don't know what you're t-talking about?"

Lucien tilts his head to the side and smiles.

"Are you asking me or telling me that, Terra?"

"T-Telling! I really don't know why you would say something like that!"

Stepping forward, Lucien looms over Terra, using his larger size for its intimidation factor for a moment.

"Because I know you've been spying on the Titans for him, Terra. You can cut the crap. I know everything."

Terra shakes like a leaf, staring up at him with a quivering lower lip.

"You… you do?"

He didn't, but she didn't need to know that. And he definitely knew enough that it didn't matter what he didn't know. At least as far as Terra was concerned anyways. Lucien lets his smile widen a bit.

"You're working for Slade Wilson, Terra. But he's not working for himself. He's a mercenary who's working for someone higher up on the totem pole."

That information is clearly news to Terra, who gapes for a moment in surprise before quickly swallowing thickly.

"I… I didn't know."

Lucien shakes his head.

"Of course you didn't. It's simple compartmentalization, darling. I work for the same boss that Slade works for. And I need to speak with him so I'm using you as an intermediary. Make sense?"

Slowly, Terra begins to nod before stopping her eyes suddenly widening as she looks at him in a new light.

"W-Wait… yours and Slade's boss… is he…"

Lucien makes a show of shaking his head sharply, his eyes growing flinty.

"Don't pry, Terra. Just do as you're told."

Terra squeaks.

"O-Okay!"

She definitely believes him. Because she thinks she's just 'cracked it'. After all, he hasn't told her his last name yet, but she's seen his face and she's clearly managed to put two and two together thanks to the familial similarities. She knows Lex Luthor is his father and now she's convinced herself that he and Deathstroke are both working for Lex.

Shoulders slumping in what might be both defeat and relief, Terra just hangs her head.

"Come… come on. I'll take you to him."

Perfect. Lucien lets Terra lead the way, the two of them moving down to ground level so that she can get her bearings and find the right warehouse. After flitting through the district for a little while, they eventually arrive at the right place with Terra hesitating for only a second before leading him inside.

Lucien's guard is up, his every sense on edge as they walk into the darkened warehouse. The memories of Slade Wilson cutting through the Titans like a scythe through wheat are still fresh in his mind's eye even if it never actually happened. If Slade was already empowered by Trigon, Lucien didn't know what he would do. Probably die again, at this rate. But at least he'd have a bit more information and could-

"Terra. Who is this? Treachery, girl? After all the help I've given you…"

Deathstroke's voice echoes through the warehouse, alerting them to his presence even as both Lucien and Terra stop where they stand. Clearing her throat, Lucien watches as Terra steps forward even as he throws out his senses, trying to get an idea of where Slade is. Unfortunately, the mercenary is too good at what he does. Not even Terra's geokinesis allows for Lucien to figure out where the man is… which makes sense given Slade would be prepared for such a thing since Lucien had brought Terra with him.

"N-Not treachery! This… this is Remedy! He needed to speak with you… about your mutual benefactor!"

Terra's squeaky explanation causes silence to fall in the warehouse. Slade's disbelief is palpable, even if he doesn't say anything for a long moment. When he does finally speak, incredulity stains every word that drops from his mouth.

"Really now… our mutual benefactor, is it?"

Deciding it's probably time for him to step in, Lucien speaks up.

"That's right. I have received dreams from our Lord. He's told me that it's almost time for the plan to commence and on his word I've managed to infiltrate the Titans to prepare for the final phase. However, before that can happen, he's had me come here to you… to prepare you as well."

"Prepare… me?"

In for a penny, in for a pound.

"I'm a healer, Mister Wilson. You've done good work for our Lord. Now that things are nearing the end, he has decided to reward you… and to make you stronger for what is to come."

Terra, bless her heart, pipes up again.

"I-It's true! He's healed us quite a few times since he joined the Titans. He can pretty much do anything with a touch!"

Though at the same time, the blonde is giving him weird looks. Lucien can understand why. He'd let her think that the higher power he and Deathstroke were both working for was his father. But now he was calling their boss 'Lord' and acting all reverent and shit. Still, Lucien had never outright told Terra that Lex Luthor was behind all of this. She was only assuming and you know what they said about that…

All of the sudden, between one blink of an eye and the next, Slade Wilson appears before them. In that moment, even without touching him, Lucien can tell… the man is already dead. However, the red symbol on his forehead isn't glowing with nearly the same amount of power that it was in the future Lucien saw.

Tilting his head to the side, the zombie mercenary looks between Lucien and Terra for a long moment.

"Healing."

The incredulity is still palpable, even as Slade tastes the word on his tongue. After all, he doesn't need healing… he needs a complete resurrection. Or at least a guarantee that Trigon is going to let him live as an undead forever. Lucien is prepared for Slade's disbelief though, smiling and shooting a quick glance towards Terra that she doesn't notice… but that Deathstroke definitely does.

"Healing comes in all shapes and sizes Mr. Wilson. Sometimes it requires… sacrifice. But anything can be healed. Anything."

Could Lucien bring the dead back to life with his powers over biology? Probably not. Then again, he wouldn't know until he tried. He wasn't here to test that theory tonight though. He was only here to deal with Slade Wilson… if at all possible.

As the undead mercenary continues standing there in silence, Lucien decides to make the next move. He takes off his gloves one after the other and then offers a bared hand to Terra. Confused, not quite understanding the implication, the blonde pulls off one of her black gloves and takes his hand in her own.

Then, Lucien offers his other bared hand to Slade. It takes a moment… but slowly, finally, Deathstroke reaches down and removes one of his armored gloves, revealing the mummified flesh underneath it. Some of the skin on his fingers is torn, showing bones.

Terra gasps at the reveal, even as Slade's skeletal fingers reach out to touch Lucien's. Finally, the geokinetic picks up on what Slade had already figured out Lucien was implying.

"W-Wait, no-urk!"

He can't have her interrupting, so Lucien paralyzes her with a single though, freezing her in place. Then, he reaches out and grabs hold of Slade's zombified hand, feeling himself expand through the undead man's biology in an instant.

He's still deader than a door nail… but Trigon hasn't empowered him nearly as much as he would in the future. There's still a kernel of Trigon's influence buried in Slade's body, but this… this is much more doable.

"Well?"

Lucien smiles as he looks up to meet Slade's expectant eyes.

"Have patience Mr. Wilson. These things take time."

Then, he gets to work.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] Play it safe, try to turn Deathstroke's dead body into dust quickly so Trigon doesn't have time to react - 79%

[ ] Play it dangerous, try to actually restore Deathstroke to life while at the same time cutting out Trigon's influence - 21%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

Spoiler: and other Links

Last edited: Jul 4, 2024

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Jul 18, 2024

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#504

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

All's well that ends well amirite?

-x-X-x-

There's an argument to be made for trying to restore Slade Wilson to life. Deathstroke is a very dangerous man, a mercenary said to have almost no peers. He's got such a legendary reputation that even Lucien had heard of him after all. The man's feats involve going toe to toe with some of the strongest people on the planet at times and still managing to come away alive if not always unscathed.

Having a man like that on Lucien's side would certainly be a massive boon. Having Deathstroke owe him both his life and freedom would give Lucien an excellent tool…

… If the mercenary could actually be trusted to follow through on such a life debt. And there was the rub of it. Would Slade actually recognize what Lucien had done for him in not just bringing him back to life but also freeing him from Trigon's influence? Or would he, mercenary that he was, just chalk it up to a run of good fortune and bail immediately?

If there were a contract involved, Lucien might have believed there to be a higher chance of entangling Deathstroke in his affairs but seeing as he'd had to lie to the undead mercenary just to get his hand on him, that wasn't in play.

And more than that, the risk of trying to restore Slade to life while also cutting off Trigon's influence was… substantial. He might draw the Demon Lord's attention and ire, and then it was possible that all hell would break loose. Literally.

No, in the end… Lucien didn't really have any other option. The best choice he could make was the path of least resistance.

It doesn't take longer than a few seconds to prepare. He's already spread his senses throughout Slade's body, though now he does so more completely, until he's literally feeling every cell in the walking, talking corpse in front of him.

"Well? I don't feel any-!"

Just as Deathstroke begins to get impatient again, Lucien acts. The results are immediate. One moment, the undead mercenary is standing there, all mummified and rotting flesh… the next he's gone. Lucien destroys every ounce of Slade's body, completely annihilating it and turning it into so much dust. There's a poof inside of his armor, and then the now empty armor crumples to Warehouse Floor.

That doesn't mean it's done, however. Even as Lucien's hand is suddenly free, no longer having to hold onto the undead mercenary's grotesque, bony, rotted fingers, he's already moving forward. Letting go of a still-paralyzed Terra, Lucien brings both hands forward and for the first time summons the purple energy that Blackfire is so known for. They burn brightly just as the center of the empty armor begins to glow red… which is when Lucien brings his blazing fists down on top of the kernel of Trigon's influence that remains behind.

His hands go right through the empty armor, only to encounter resistance for a moment. He can almost feel something malevolent reaching out, trying to fight back… but it all happens just quickly enough that he manages to succeed. The red gem that apparently represented Trigon's hold over Slade Wilson's soul shatters under Lucien's fists and the 'Blackbolts' covering his hands.

After a moment of still glowing ominously, the shards of that red gem dim and turn dull and dark. At the same time, the glowing red symbol on the 'forehead' of a now empty mask fades away as well. He's done it. It's over. Or at least, he hopes it is. He's not sure how exactly Trigon managed to possess Raven, but he knows for a fact that the Demon Lord wouldn't have wasted so much energy on Deathstroke if he wasn't integral to the plan.

With this, Lucien could hope that things would settle down… at least for now. Of course, just because he'd headed off a potential apocalypse, as well as a great amount of personal loss… didn't mean he was fully out of the woods yet. First thing first, Lucien turns to regard Terra, who is staring at him with wide blue eyes.

To be fair, the blonde can't do anything else. Her body is frozen in place, tense as can be due to his powers locking her up. She's trembling, trying to move or speak or anything, but thanks to Lucien all she can do is breathe in and out through her nose. Her lungs expanding and collapsing over and over again are all the wiggle room he's given her.

Stepping back up to Terra, Lucien sighs and tries to give her his most comforting smile.

"It's alright, Terra. It's over. I'm going to free you now, alright? All I ask is that you don't attack me until I have a chance to explain myself. Is that understood?"

"M-Mm!"

That's about the best he can expect, he supposes. Still, Lucien isn't dumb enough to just assume that she'll hear him out. That's why, even as he reaches out to remove the paralysis, he also prepares himself in another way. And good that he does too, because the moment Terra is able to, she whips her arms, using her powers to try and lift up the concrete around him so she can capture him in it.

At the same time, she spins and tries to make a break for it. Of course, Lucien is on edge so he's able to easily counter her powers, stopping the slabs of concrete from encasing him while at the same time liquefying the concrete under Terra's feet so she begins to sink into it like quicksand. The geokinetic yelps, trying in a panic and also in vain to pull herself free, even as Lucien sighs.

"Terra… use your powers."

Stopping, the blonde blinks, looks down at her legs encased in concrete, and after a long silent moment of embarrassment, frees herself from the trap. Fortunately, she doesn't try to run again. Instead, she cautiously turns to face him, seemingly happy to have put some space between them.

"Y-You…"

"I asked for the chance to explain myself, didn't I? That's all I want, Terra. Slade Wilson was working for an extradimensional Demon Lord. I dare not say his name lest it draws his attention onto us even more than it probably already is."

Terra gapes, looking to Slade's empty armor and then back to Lucien. Disbelief and incredulity are writ large across her face, which honestly… it's a little frustrating.

"Terra, you saw his hand. You saw the bones; I know you did. Slade Wilson was literally already dead. I didn't kill him… I didn't have to. I just put down a zombie who had sold his soul to a Demon Lord."

Swallowing thickly, Terra evaluates his words, as well as what she saw. In the end, she squirms for a moment before responding.

"It just… seems ridiculous."

Lucien raises an eyebrow at that.

"Ridiculous? Terra, you realize you're on a team with a green-skinned shapeshifter, an alien princess, and a literal half-demon, while you yourself somehow have the ability to manipulate earth… right? And to top it all off, you all let yourself be led by a young man with no powers, just a whole lot of physical training. If you want to talk about ridiculous…"

Terra winces at that, looking away for a second as Lucien scores some very solid points. At least in his opinion anyways. Finally, she looks back at him, frowning.

"But you said you and Slade had the same boss!"

Seriously? Lucien resists the urge to facepalm, even as he plasters a smile on his face.

"I lied, Terra. Sorry about that, but it had to be done. Slade and his Demon Lord boss were planning to invade our world and I had to stop them, no matter what it cost. In comparison to losing everyone, lying to you in order to get us here so I could touch Slade was… well, it was a no brainer."

Mulling over Lucien's words, Terra bites her lower lip.

"Y-You… are you going to tell the Titans about Slade? About what I was doing for him?"

He'd already thought about this. The right thing to do would be to tell on Terra. That would be the heroic thing to do. But it was never his intention to become a hero. Truthfully, looking back on his time with the Titans, he really had let himself get caught up in their pace way too much. This reset… it was good for more than just a chance to stop the apocalypse and save their lives. It was a way for him to get back on task.

"No, Terra. I'm not going to tell them anything."

Terra's big blue eyes widen at that.

"Wha- why not?!"

And then she suddenly freezes in place, clearly coming to her own conclusion.

"Are you… planning on making me work for you instead? You and… your father?"

And there it was. To be fair, it wasn't a bad assumption. Even if it was completely wrong. Lucien shakes his head.

"I doubt my father even knows who you are, Terra. He certainly doesn't know who Remedy is or what I've been up to recently."

Terra gapes, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish for a few seconds.

"W-What? How is that possible?"

Lucien shrugs his shoulders.

"If Lex Luthor knew what I was capable of, if he knew what I'd been up to, he would have sent teams of highly trained mercenaries to capture me and spirit me away to a research lab for testing and experimentation, Terra."

His deadpan delivery causes Terra to blanch in response, the blonde blinking rapidly now. To really drive his point home, Lucien lets her in on another tidbit of his personal life.

"He's literally dragged me to a laboratory every year on my birthday since I was little to test me and see how I'm developing, Terra. Obviously I've hidden my powers from him, I'd be an idiot not to."

He leaves out the part about the tests having more to do with his sickliness than anything else. Terra doesn't need to know that part. In the end… she finally seems to relax, the tension bleeding out of her as Lucien shares some tidbits about his awful relationship with his father.

"O-Oh. I… I guess… you saved the world just now, didn't you?"

Grinning crookedly, Lucien shakes his head.

"No Terra. WE saved the world."

That gets an owlish, wide-eyed look from the blue-eyed blonde. Gesturing around them, Lucien chuckles.

"Could I have found this place without you? Maybe. But could I have tricked Slade into letting me 'help' him without you? Doubtful. I know you didn't know what was going on, but this… you deserve plenty of credit for helping to stop this particular demon invasion."

As expected, hearing that from him does wonders for Terra's self-esteem. She ducks her head and then tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear self-consciously.

"Do you… do you really think so?"

"I know so. Like I told you, Slade was already dead. He never would have believed I could bring him back to life without a proper 'sacrifice'. That was where you came in. He was all too ready to give you up if it got him his life back."

That might have been the wrong thing to say, because Terra shuts down a bit at the reminder that her 'Mentor' had been ready and willing to kill her. Still, she needed to know. She needed to understand that Slade wasn't just a bad guy, he was a bad guy who would have turned on her at the drop of a hat and likely not even considered it a real betrayal. Judging by the look on her face as she processes his words, Lucien thinks she gets the idea.

"Would you… could you have done it? Used my life force to bring him back? Sacrificed me to resurrect him?"

Lucien scoffs, lying his ass off immediately.

"Of course not. My powers don't work like that, Terra. You saw what happened when I tried to heal Slade. He turned to dust because he was already dead so there was nothing to heal. In this case, my power thought that the best way to 'heal' him was to help his body finish decomposing entirely, bones and all."

Terra eats that right up, nodding along with wide eyes. The fact that she immediately believes him is nice, judging by the relief that wracks her frame. Though of course, that doesn't mean the questions are done.

"What… how DO your powers work, Remedy? Because… w-well…"

Lucien smiles crookedly.

"Because I used Blackfire's powers to destroy the gem, and I used your powers to trap your feet?"

Terra nods hesitantly.

"Healing is my base power. But when I heal people… I get copies of their powers as well."

He can't exactly put the cat back in the bag now that she'd seen what he was capable of. So better that she think she knew something everyone else didn't, but without him revealing his true nature or the depths of his actual powers. Slowly, Terra nods again. She doesn't raise a complaint, so he assumes she considers the tradeoff fair enough. Healing for powers isn't so bad, really. Then, she looks back over at Slade's empty armor.

"What… what now?"

Considering it for a moment, Lucien reaches out and twists his hand. The concrete under Deathstroke's 'remains' liquefies and swallows the armor whole. Sending it down beneath the foundations of the warehouse, he nods to Terra.

"No one ever has to know we were here. So long as neither of us say anything, all of this can stay between us."

Biting her lower lip again, Terra nods rapidly. It's obvious she very much likes the sound of that. This time around, he's preempted her guilty conscience. The likelihood of her ever exposing herself to the Titans had dropped to nearly zero now. After all, it was one thing to be spying on them for Slade. It was another entirely to find out she'd been spying on them for an undead Slade Wilson backed by an extradimensional Demon Lord.

Ultimately, with the problem resolved and Trigon's plans derailed for the time being, Terra had no reason to ever tattle on herself… and therefore no reason to tattle on him either. All was well that ended well… at least where the apocalypse was concerned.

There was still the other issue as well. Blackfire and her memory loss. Lucien was still a little annoyed about the progress he'd lost on that subject. Sure, it hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped what with Raven's interruption and then the whole apocalypse kicking off just as he and Blackfire were coming to an understanding. But… oh. Now there was an idea.

As he and Terra leave the warehouse behind, with Lucien carrying the blonde back to Titan Tower, he realizes he doesn't necessarily have to go through all of that again.

First and foremost, he won't give Blackfire her memories back anywhere in the tower itself, to avoid Raven immediately detecting the change. But secondly… he doesn't have to just give Blackfire her memories back. He could also give her his memories as well. Not the memories of Death of course, but he could show her what had happened in the future that never was.

It would involve bringing her further into his confidence, of course. She would find out about his immortality. But considering she was supposed to be his prime 'henchwoman', maybe that was alright. Maybe learning that he could turn back the clock when things went wrong would tie her all the closer to him.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Give Blackfire just her memories back, like last time - 12%

[X] Give Blackfire her memories back but also memories of the timeline that never was - 88%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Threadmarks Chapter 38: Next Steps New

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Aug 1, 2024

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#510

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Lucien brings Blackfire further into the fold than ever before.

-x-X-x-

"Yes? What is it? Why did we have to meet here privately?"

In everything that had happened, he'd almost forgotten that as far as Amnesiac Blackfire was concerned, their connection was through Starfire, rather than Starfire being their target. So getting Blackfire to come to his apartment with little explanation had been easier said than done. Still, it HAD been done, and now the two of them stood in his kitchen while Spot was under the table, once more consuming a slab of microwaved meat.

As the Snow Leopard Cub goes to town on his meal, Lucien sighs and steps closer to Blackfire, making her tense up. Though she doesn't back away, because in the end, regardless of the amnesia, they've already been intimate several times. As such, she lets him place his hands on her bared shoulders with very little fanfare, causing Lucien to smile as he explains while working his magic.

"Because there's something you've forgotten. And we're here to remind you of it."

He watches Blackfire's eyes clear up as the block on her memories is lifted, her amnesia cured and her mind fully restored to her. He also watches as those same eyes suddenly narrow, blazing with anger over his perceived slights just like last time.

When her fist comes up, blazing with purple energy and aiming straight for his head, Lucien is prepared for it with a glowing hand of his own, catching the punch in his palm. Then… he goes for broke. Because he really doesn't want to have to go through all the angst and anger again. Even if the hate sex was fun, he'd rather skip to the part where Blackfire forgave Starfire for the things outside of her control.

That's why, holding her hand, Lucien goes in and tries to… upload memories of the events that never happened. They aren't from Blackfire's point of view or anything like that, hell they're barely from Lucien's point of view. Instead, if he's doing it correctly, it should be almost like watching a recording of what happened, albeit through his eyes, but without any of his thoughts, feelings, or emotions attached to it.

The act causes the Tamaranean Princess to go slack, her eyes blanking out for a moment as she's forced to process all that he's forcing upon her. Lucien has made sure to cut out the part with Death in it however, making it instead seem like he died and then subsequently woke back up in the same bed where he'd originally given her memories back and caused the whole mess in the first place.

Stopping it there before anything he'd done so far in this timeline, Lucien watches as Blackfire slowly comes out of the daze he's put her in, blinking rapidly and looking somewhat baffled.

"What… what was that? What just happened? You… those were not my memories."

Lucien shakes his head solemnly.

"No, they were not. I have a confession to make, Blackfire. When I die, I don't stay dead. I go back in time and get another chance to make things right."

Pulling away from him, Blackfire shivers as she moves backwards until she's up against the wall. She's clearly still processing everything she saw, along with the confession he just made. Lucien just waits quietly, giving her the time she obviously needs. Finally though, she clenches her hands into fists and huffs.

"How many? How many times have you relived these events?"

Did she think he'd lived hundreds of times and only decided to let her see the latest? He's almost tempted to lean into that belief. And maybe he will, just a little bit.

"Just the once since we've met. And I've already subverted the events that I just got done showing you. I had Terra take me to Slade Wilson last night while you and Starfire slept and dealt with him and his connection to the Demon Lord who would have kicked off everything. For now, at least, the Titans and the rest of the world should be safe from his machinations."

Crossing her arms over her chest, clearly deep in thought, Blackfire lets out a shuddering breath as she nods at that. She's probably still coming to terms with everything. To be fair, Lucien himself has barely allowed himself to think about it. From Blackfire basically sacrificing herself to give Lucien and Spot a chance to get away, to watching the Titans get dismantled and torn apart one by one, either killed or worse than killed.

He knows he'll probably have nightmares about the crunching sound Starfire's body had made when it was flung against the obsidian pillar for a while. Whether she'd survived that throw or not didn't really matter given everything was pretty fucking doomed by that point.

"Then if the problem is already dealt with… let's get the fuck out of here."

Lucien blinks at that, raising an eyebrow at Blackfire. But the Tamaranean Princess doesn't back down, all but hissing as she clutches at her own arms where she's crossing them.

"I'm serious. The demon bitch is just going to flip out once she realizes that I've got my memories back, so we can't go back to their Tower. Let's just leave. Go somewhere else. You can do it, can't you? You're Lex fucking Luthor's son. You've surely got the funds to relocate to a new city. And even if you don't, with your powers we can just carve out a spot wherever we want."

… Honestly, Blackfire was sort of speaking his language. In a manner of speaking, he'd already gotten everything he wanted out of the Titans. His methodology might have changed, but his goal hadn't. He was still going to make Death cum one day. But now Lucien knew that it wasn't just about being tougher or stronger than Death of the Endless (a tall order to begin with) or even just having more stamina than her (probably impossible).

Sure, he still needed to be able to last long enough in bed with her to bring her to climax, but he couldn't just expect to fuck her like a jackhammer until she came squealing his name. That sort of thing worked on someone like Blackfire, but not someone like Death. Lucien needed more subtle methods of drawing pleasure out of the woman of his dreams, and that meant adding further powers to his skillset.

Yeah, he wouldn't pass up a chance to get ahold of Kryptonian DNA so he could build himself into one of those powerful motherfuckers, but he also needed other things. He needed to be able to try everything at least once on Death.

So yes, Blackfire was right. The Titans and Jump City in general didn't have much left for him. It was time for him to move on. But Blackfire…

"And what about Starfire? Would she come with us? Or are we leaving her behind?"

Blackfire stiffens, even though she had to have known he would bring the other Tamaranean up. For a long moment, she just stays quiet, like a form of silent protest. But when she realizes he's definitely waiting her out, she finally rolls her eyes and grunts.

"We're leaving her behind."

When he STILL stays quiet, clearly continuing to wait her out, Blackfire throws her hands up in the air.

"FINE! You want me to talk about it? I'll fucking talk about it. I forgive her, okay? Or rather, I realize I was an idiot. Tch, that other me would probably have something to say right now… the idiot literally threw herself into a swarm of demons so you could go save her sister and you couldn't even manage that."

Lucien raises an eyebrow at that interpretation of events. Blackfire would know better than him what was going through her own mind, he supposed. Still, she's not done yet.

"I still hate our parents and our people with all my heart. But… I don't hate her anymore. I can't. But I also can't be around her right now either. I need fucking time, okay? And seeing as her friends hate me with all their guts, it's better if we all give each other some damn space."

Glaring at him intensely now, Blackfire growls.

"So you tell me here and now what you're doing. You city hopping? Because if you are, I'll still be your 'henchwoman' or what the fuck ever. But if you want to stick around, this is where we part ways."

Ah, she honestly sounds a little insecure, and even afraid. Though she tries to hide it to the best of her abilities, Lucien is very good at reading people at this point. He can tell she doesn't want him to 'abandon' her by choosing to stick around Jump City. Fortunately for both of their sakes…

"You're right, of course. I'm more than ready to leave this city behind. And yes, I should have the resources to make it happen. I'm even in agreement that we should leave Starfire behind as well. Her friends need her more than we do and if you need time away from her, I'm sure she'll understand."

Blackfire stiffens at that.

"What? We're not going to tell her or anything. I'm saying we leave right now! No notice!"

But Lucien just shakes his head, having already expected as much.

"We're telling her. She deserves an explanation, Blackfire."

Bristling, Blackfire grits her teeth.

"And how are you going to explain us leaving her behind? Remember, she thinks you two are a couple. What, are you going to tell her the truth? That you seduced her solely to placate your first 'henchwoman'?"

The truth? Fuck no. Lucien just smiles mysteriously.

"I have a plan."

-x-X-x-

They meet Starfire on the roof of his apartment building. Before she can do or say anything, Lucien rips the band-aid off right then and there.

"Blackfire has her memories back."

Starfire freezes in place, going wide-eyed as she immediately focuses all of her attention on her older sister.

"K-Komandr, I-!"

"No. Don't start. Just listen because I'm only going to say this once."

Then, clearly rallying herself for something truly groundbreaking, Blackfire breathes in through her nostrils and…

"I'm sorry."

Even Lucien is a little surprised by that. He didn't think Blackfire had it in her. Starfire certainly looks gobsmacked, before quickly trying to talk anyways.

"N-No, it's me who-!"

"Shut. Up. Didn't I just say to listen only?"

Starfire clams up, defaulting to her submissive tendencies as she squirms under Blackfire's gaze.

"You weren't at fault for how our people compared me to you. It was my parents and the rest of Tamaran that were to blame. I hate them for what they did to me… to us. And I'm sorry for taking all of that hatred out on you."

Starfire's eyes water with unshed tears at that, and she looks like she wants to speak… but knows better. Blackfire gives her a few seconds with which to mess up, but when she stays quiet, the older Tamaranean nods approvingly and continues on.

"I need to leave. I can't stay here in this city with you and your friends. Not just because your friends hate my guts and will never trust me after all I did to them in the name of getting to you, but also because of everything that's happened between us. I need time away from you to get my head on straight and figure out my next steps. That's why you can't come with me."

There's another pause, longer this time, before Starfire finally realizes Blackfire is done talking and she's allowed to speak again. Blackfire doesn't say it of course, but that's typical Blackfire. Of course, now that Blackfire has laid it all out so clearly, Starfire doesn't quite know what to say. Her sister is being reasonable for the first time in their lives, and Starfire's first impulse, to beg to go with her, has already been shot down.

For a moment, Starfire just looks around the rooftop frantically. Before finally, her eyes land on Lucien. And then…

"E-Even if I can't come with you, please take Lucien with you, sister!"

Blackfire freezes in place, incredulity writ large across her face as Starfire earnestly offers him up on a silver platter to her. The incredulity isn't just because of Starfire's words though, but rather because… yep, this was Lucien's plan. Pretty simple, but if there was one thing he knew at this point, it was how both Starfire and Blackfire's brains worked. He would have bet almost anything that Starfire would come up with this idea without too much urging. Hell, he'd pretty much bet their ability to have a clean break on it.

"I-I know it's a lot to ask Lucien, but please… w-would you consider it? We can still talk on the phone and everything, but Blackfire… I'm sorry sister, but you really shouldn't be alone. And since you and Lucien are so close already…"

Lucien and Blackfire exchange a look, where Blackfire just looks even more incredulous that his damn plan had somehow worked without him seemingly having to do anything, and Lucien very carefully doesn't show an ounce of smugness or gloating on his visage or in his tone. Finally, he slowly nods.

"Alright Kori… if that's what you want… and if Komandr is agreeable, then I'll do it."

"… Tch. Fine. He can come."

Starfire whoops with glee, even lifting off the ground for a moment as she clasps her hands together in front of her and does a twirl. After a moment though, she comes back down and looks at them both expectantly.

"Where will you go, exactly? Ah, maybe Lucien has an idea, given he will be funding this venture?"

He did actually have a couple of ideas at this point. There were lots of places all over the world to travel to, but he didn't necessarily want to leave the US yet. In the meantime, while there were a lot of cities within the United States as well, two in particular had caught his attention.

Number One was Metropolis, of course. Home to Superman, Supergirl, and Power Girl. Three Kryptonians meant more chances for him to maybe get his hands on one of them or even just on one of their blood after a particularly hard battle. However, it did come with its downsides as well.

For one, for all their strength, he and Blackfire would be small fish in a big pond in a place like Metropolis. The place was routinely threatened by villains who could go toe to toe with Kryptonians after all, and that resulted in a lot of property damage. For two, Metropolis was where his father and LexCorp were located. Lucien had never followed up on his father being a clone, nor had he gotten back in touch with Mercy ever since they'd last parted ways. By setting foot in Metropolis, he was sure to be putting himself on his father's (or his father's clone's) radar in a big way.

Number two was Gotham City. Original home of Robin and also current home of the 'Bat Family'. Most of Gotham's heroes and heroines didn't have powers for Lucien to pick up. They were, by and large, baseline humans like Robin from what he understood it. Just highly skilled and trained combatants.

However, the villains and villainesses of Gotham City were a different story. Plenty of them had unique physiologies and powers for Lucien to pick up, and better still, he and Blackfire should be two of the tougher folks in town. At the same time though, there were some downsides. Lucien remembered hearing something about Batman coming down way harder on anyone TOO strong showing up in his city, and even going so far as to kick out more powerful heroes who wanted to help him out. So they would have to lie low to keep from attracting too much attention.

As well, there was something about Gotham that was just dark, twisted, and corrupted. Something unnatural that made it a place where plenty of visitors never made it back out again. That said, that pallor of death was sort of a mix between a downside and an upside, because one of the reasons Lucien wanted to go to Gotham was to investigate it and see if it had any connection to Death of the Endless herself.

Really, both options had their upsides and downsides. And Lucien knew he was dead set on choosing one of them. But now, it seemed, he needed to decide which.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Lucien decides they're going to Metropolis - 37%

[X] Lucien decides they're going to Gotham - 63%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Threadmarks Chapter 39: Calling for a Favor New

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Aug 15, 2024

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#540

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

In which we get in touch with a character we haven't spoken to in a while~

-x-X-x-

"… Gotham. We'll go to Gotham City."

The reactions Lucien gets from the two Tamaranean Princesses are initially the same. Both go wide eyed at the name drop. However, from there they differ. Blackfire's gaze turns thoughtful and considering, and slowly but surely Lucien can see a glimmer of interest and excitement appear in the alien woman's eyes.

Starfire on the other hand, blanches after the initial eye widening, wringing her hands in front of her and looking more than a little concerned. On the one hand, her and Lucien's relationship was pretty clear cut along the lines of submissive and dominant. On the other hand, she cared for him and Blackfire deeply, and so she couldn't really bring herself to be quiet.

"I… a-are you sure, Lucien? That… does not seem like a good idea. Robin has told me much about Gotham City. It is a place of perpetual darkness."

Lucien just smiles and nods.

"That's what makes it the perfect place for us to lie low for a while."

"But… what about the Batman?"

But Lucien just shakes his head.

"We won't be going there to fight crime or anything like that, Star. In fact, I don't think I'll take the Remedy identity with us. It'll be better for both Komandr and I if there's very little connecting us to our pasts. And seeing as we're planning to just up and vanish, I'm guessing Robin will probably put out an alert about Blackfire at the very least… the last place they'll be looking for her is Gotham though. She'd have to be crazy to hide out right under Batman's nose, wouldn't she?"

Starfire bites her lower lip, even as Blackfire snorts.

"It's a good plan, I say. Gotham is as good as any if I have to stay on this stupid mudball of a planet."

Lucien raises an eyebrow at Blackfire's rather ham-fisted manipulation of her fellow Tamaranean. And yet… it works. Starfire's breath catches at the thought that they might go off-world, going even further away from her. In an instant, she sets aside her reservations, nodding rapidly.

"Y-Yes! I think Gotham City is the best place for you to go too!"

All too easy, in the end. And honestly, that was part of the reason Lucien felt like it was better for all of them if they had some time apart from the very manipulatable Tamaranean Princess. Seeing how both he and Blackfire were naturally manipulative people, Starfire just couldn't help bringing out the worst in them. That said, there needed to be one last bit of manipulation.

"You won't tell anyone where we're going, right Star? Not a single soul can know."

Starfire blinks, but then nods in agreement, looking a little downcast but also resolved.

"Yes… you're right of course. I won't tell anybody. I… thank you Lucien, for looking after her for me."

Blackfire scoffs, arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm not a child to be babysat."

But for once, Starfire isn't paying her any mind. Instead, she steps up to Lucien and takes his face in her hands, kissing him deeply on the mouth as her eyes shut. Lucien kisses her back of course, recognizing that this is a 'goodbye' moment between two lovers for Starfire and giving her exactly what she needs to say that goodbye.

Finally, they have to pull apart for air and after one last look at both him and Blackfire, Starfire takes to the air and flies away, leaving them behind. There's a brief pause as Blackfire watches her disappear into the distance before turning to him with an incredulous look on her face.

"I can't believe you managed to convince her that you coming with me was her idea… or that it was even YOU coming with ME instead of me going with you in the first place!"

Lucien chuckles, shrugging his shoulders as they head back inside the apartment.

"I did tell you that I could get it done, didn't I? And now…"

Blackfire huffs, rolls her eyes… but nevertheless drops to her knees as Lucien moves to the living room and sits down in the armchair there. Crawling across the apartment, the Tamaranean Princess gives him a half-hearted glare as she situates herself between his legs and pulls out his cock.

A moment later and she's dutifully sucking on his dick, paying the 'penalty' she 'owed' for losing the little wager they'd made before they contacted Starfire. Basically, Blackfire hadn't thought Lucien could pull it off. Making Starfire send him away of her own volition to look after her sister seemed too farfetched for the selfish Tamaranean, but as Blackfire had learned, not everyone was as self-centered as she was… especially not her sister.

This was the price she now had to pay for being wrong about that. Not that she seemed to mind that much, bobbing up and down on his cock with increasing enthusiasm. No doubt she thought he would be fucking her soon enough and she was already looking forward to that.

Instead, Lucien pulls out his phone, causing Blackfire to pause and look up at him with narrowed eyes. He gives her an apologetic smile that's really not very apologetic at all.

"Sorry, but if we're moving to Gotham, I have to get things in place for us. You don't mind, right?"

The look in her eyes makes it clear that she definitely does mind… but they both understand their power dynamic. She's the henchwoman and he's the boss, and in this case, she lost a bet. So Blackfire keeps sucking, even as Lucien calls someone he really doesn't want to call… but really, has no choice.

"What is it?"

As the slightly cold tone of Mercy Graves comes over the phone, Lucien winces. They hadn't ever really patched things up between them since the time she'd figured out he was lying to her. He probably could have reached out and tried to repair their relationship, but he honestly hadn't wanted to touch anything to do with his father with a ten foot pole, especially after finding out the current Lex was a clone.

Ultimately however, Lucien knew better than to just up and disappear off of the face of the Earth without warning. Maybe he could have gotten away with it if his father, clone or otherwise, still thought he was the same weak and sickly boy he'd been for most of his life, but that ship had already sailed and Lucien wasn't looking to rewind that far back, no sir.

Basically, to avoid having Lex Luthor hunting him down with all of his considerable resources, Lucien had to get 'approval' to move to Gotham. But obviously, no part of him wanted to actually talk to his father about that sort of thing. Given Mercy hadn't turned him over to Lex yet, he could safely assume that the version of his father running around was still a clone even all these months later. And that meant he and Mercy still had their tentative truce.

Speaking clearly with a no-nonsense tone and giving absolutely no sign whatsoever that he's currently being blown by a gorgeous alien princess, Lucien makes his pitch.

"Mercy, I want to move to Gotham. And I need your help to… smooth things over and make the move as easy as possible."

There's a long pause from the other end of the line as Mercy processes that request. Finally though, she speaks.

"Gotham. You want to go to Gotham. Why?"

Lucien considers how much of the truth to tell her. In the end, he decides to obfuscate things a bit, while giving out some half-truths.

"Jump City has started to grate on me. Specifically, I've had a few run ins with the Titans and I don't want them to start digging into my past."

"Oh? And why are you having run ins with the Titans of all people, Lucien?"

Her disapproving tone brings a smile to Lucien's face. He glances down at Blackfire, who continues to suck his cock. In the end… given the surveillance he's under, there's no doubt in Lucien's mind that Mercy already knows about Blackfire. She shouldn't know about the other things, he'd gone out of his way to hide his actions as Remedy from the bugs in his apartment, as well as using a device to cover up some of the conversations he'd had here like the one with Raven.

But Blackfire had shown up when he wasn't expecting it, like a stray cat who'd followed him home. The fact that no one ever came to check on him after that meant Mercy had taken a personal hand in his surveillance coverage, obfuscating some of what was happening with him from his father's clone. Basically, she was his nominal ally despite the bad blood between them, and right now she was giving him another chance to come clean and not lie to her quite so much this time.

Obviously, it was a chance Lucien was happy to take given what he already knew that she knew. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"I met someone. You might be familiar with them. They go by Blackfire."

Blackfire looks up at him with surprise at that, but Lucien just gives her a reassuring smile. Only to be surprised himself by Mercy's next words.

"You mean the alien princess you currently have kneeling between your legs gobbling up your knob as we speak?"

On an intellectual level, Lucien knew it was likely that there were electronic eyes in his apartment, on top of electronic ears. And also, it was entirely possible Mercy was watching him in that moment. However, he hadn't exactly expected her to admit it as easily as that. Humming, Lucien rests a hand in Blackfire's hair, not to prompt her to pull away, but to encourage her to continue sucking his cock. After a beat, Mercy huffs on the other end of the phone.

"You really are your father's son, Lucien. No sense of shame whatsoever."

Chuckling, Lucien rolls his shoulders.

"Like I said, Mercy… I want to move to Gotham. Me and my… new friend."

"You realize the leader of the Titans is from Gotham, right? Trained by Batman himself? Who, in case it somehow skipped your genius mind, is the primary guard dog of Gotham as well."

Lucien hums.

"That's what makes it the perfect place to go, Mercy. Robin will definitely try to hunt Blackfire and I down after we leave. But Gotham is the last place he'll expect to find us. With your help and a little obfuscation, he'll look everywhere else first and by the time he thinks to check Gotham City, we'll either be too established and entrenched for anyone to do anything about us, or we'll be long gone."

There's another long pause as Mercy mulls over his words. Until finally, she gets down to brass tacks.

"You're not just asking me to obfuscate your trail from the heroes, Lucien. You're asking me to do the same for him as well."

The fact that she says 'him' and not 'your father' or 'boss' or 'Lex' tells Lucien all he needs to know. The Lex Luthor everyone is seeing in public is still a clone. His real father still hasn't shown up or contacted Mercy in any way. And that means she's still tentatively on Lucien's side. Not out of any loyalty to him, but because she's upset with his father.

"… That's right. Obviously if I just try and run, I'll be hunted down. But if you work some magic on your end, make it all above board and keep things… smooth, then he probably wouldn't even pay much attention presumably. I'm assuming all he really cares about is that someone is keeping tabs on me. So as long as I'm still under YOUR watchful gaze, no alarms will sound, right?"

Another pause, before Mercy finally sighs.

"That is… not incorrect, yes. He's currently working on his latest plan to kill Superman and has left dealing with you completely in my capable hands, along with many other projects. I suppose, given that… I could move you and your 'friend' to Gotham. But what would you even do there, Lucien? You realize if your new friend makes a mess of things, Batman is likely to find you out far faster than Robin, and from there, I can't tell you what will happen."

Lucien hums, glancing down at Blackfire, who is still sucking his cock of course. Not that she's putting much effort into it at this point. She's more suckling than sucking at this point, just quietly nursing at his pulsing member as she waits for him to finish his call. She's never going to make him cum like that, but to be fair, she clearly wants his undivided attention before she puts her back into it any further.

"You don't have to worry about Blackfire, Mercy. She won't raise a fuss without my permission. As for what we would do there… well, I suppose you're right that just 'lying low' isn't an acceptable answer. We'd be at our wit's end in no time. Maybe… we could start a business."

Even Blackfire, who can only hear half of this conversation, looks a little incredulous at that. Mercy, meanwhile, scoffs on the other end of the phone.

"A business. What kind of business, exactly?"

Lucien hums, considering that for a long moment. A clinic seemed like the most obvious answer, given his powers. He could heal people literally from anything except death… if it'd been too long. Opening a clinic in Gotham might also put him into contact with a lot of folks, including those with powers, maybe.

But at the same time, he was planning on leaving the Remedy identity behind. So maybe a clinic was a little bit too 'same-y'? They could open a research lab instead. That would also be a great way of getting access to a lot of different DNA for his power to feast upon.

Or hell, they could open a shell company. Just a simple office with no real employees except for maybe a secretary. A business to cover up… more clandestine dealings, maybe? The majority of powered individuals in Gotham were villains, after all. A business that let him make in roads with them might be best.

Lucien has taken a moment to increase the speed of his perception, so he has plenty of time in his own head to consider Mercy's query as only a second or two passes in the real world. Still, what's the best option? Now that he's going to Gotham, he needs to decide what the hell he's going to do there to further his goals…

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] Open a clinic in Gotham for healing purposes - 57%

[ ] Open a research lab in Gotham for research purposes - 35%

[ ] Open a shell business as a cover for clandestine dealings - 8%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Aug 29, 2024

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Lucien makes his choice.

-x-X-x-

Thinking about it long and hard in that moment of near-frozen time after speeding up his perception, Lucien can't help but feel caught between two different goals. On the one hand, he wants to lay relatively low. He doesn't want the Titans to be able to track him and Blackfire to Gotham. In that regard, perhaps the research lab or the shell company would be his best options.

On the other hand, part of him quite enjoys helping people. It's a little silly, especially because he's already decided he's not going to be a hero, and yet… he likes how it feels when he heals someone. Whether their injuries are minor or certain death, Lucien enjoys helping them. He likes helping people.

Ugh. He needs to keep his eye on the prize, of course. Death is the goal. Death will always be the goal. He's going to make himself into someone worthy of her, and he's going to give her the companionship she needs and truly deserves. But… at the end of the day, there's a multitude of roads that all lead to his ultimate goal of making Death of the Endless cum for him. He doesn't have to take the one that seems the fastest or the easiest if he doesn't also think it'll be the most enjoyable.

Besides, in a way… it was merely doubling down on what he'd already decided, right? Like he'd told Mercy, Gotham was the last place Robin would ever expect to find him and Blackfire. The Titans Leader was almost certainly going to try to hunt them down once he found out they were gone and Blackfire had her memories back, but he would never think to check Gotham.

By the same vein, they would never expect Remedy, a healer, to just up and start a clinic in Gotham. Refuge in audacity. That was what it was, plain and simple. Would it work? Maybe not. But Lucien figured he could burn that bridge when he got to it.

Slowing down his perception and subsequently speeding time around him back up to normal, Lucien smiles, barely a handful of seconds having passed since Mercy had asked what kind of business he wanted to start. Down between his legs, Blackfire still sucks his cock slowly, practically nursing at his dick.

"A clinic."

There's a pause from Mercy's end of the line. There's also a pause down below from Blackfire, who looks up at him with a modicum of incredulity in her eyes.

"… a clinic?"

Smiling wryly, Lucien nods.

"Yep. I want to open a clinic. A place where I can offer medical care to people. And maybe… extra services to the particularly wealthy."

"Extra services. Does this have to do with how you miraculously went from sickly and frail to in peak physical condition all those months ago on your birthday?"

Lucien could have held back the wince, but knowing Mercy is watching through a hidden camera right now, he doesn't bother. He lets the wince come, knowing full well from the blonde's dry tone that he'd definitely fucked up. To be fair, he'd known that of course. All the way back then, when he'd originally lied to her about his powers.

He'd told Mercy that he knew about the nanochip in Lex's head because he'd suddenly developed a six sense that allowed him to see the entirety of someone's biology with a simple touch. However, when she'd asked him if that was all, if there wasn't anything else he wanted to tell her… Lucien had prevaricated and claimed that was everything.

It was a downright idiotic move on his part, all things considered. Mercy was one of the people who knew him best, even if she had barely known him at all before he'd come back in time. She knew him as a sickly, weak young man who had literally spent his entire life unable to do anything or go anywhere because of his frail constitution.

From her point of view, he'd suddenly become completely healthy and actively stronger and faster than he should have been out of nowhere one day. And when she'd given him a chance to come clean, he'd flat out lied about the full extent of his powers.

To Mercy's credit, she'd never forced the issue with him. She definitely could have, but instead she'd simply stopped keeping touch and they'd drifted apart. In terms of reactions to his obvious lies, he'd probably gotten the best he could possibly hope for from her.

Now though, well…

"… Yeah. I can do a lot more than just look, as I'm sure you already knew."

There's another pause, with Lucien waiting for Mercy to lay into him, to read him the riot act… to do anything. Instead, after a long moment of silence, she continues on as if nothing ever happened.

"Very well. Forging the paperwork won't be easy, I'm sure you know. And I won't be able to keep things completely separate either. Everyone in Gotham is expected to have a little bit of sleaze on them."

Lucien's eyes narrow.

"What do you mean, exactly?"

He can hear typing on the other end of the call, meaning that Mercy is at a computer and is already going to work.

"It means your clinic is going to be funded by LexCorp. I assume you aren't averse to disguises for you and your… friend, right? You'll have to utilize such things if you don't want to be caught with her immediately."

Glancing down at Blackfire, Lucien nods.

"Yeah. I can handle the disguises."

The typing pauses for half a beat before resuming.

"I see. Then you figure out your disguises and send me photos and I'll get your identification and accreditation set up. There's a small but somewhat famous clinic in Gotham City run by a woman named Dr. Leslie Thompkins. The Thompkins Clinic, also known as the Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic, is funded by Bruce Wayne through the charitable Wayne Foundation."

Lucien blinks at the impromptu history lesson. Heh, the last time he'd thought about Bruce Wayne had been back when he'd first got Spot and that invitation to the Wayne Manor Gala had arrived. He'd wound up ignoring the invitation, and at this point the Gala had come and gone, completely passing him by. Still… where was Mercy going with this?

"LexCorp's footprint in Gotham City is practically nonexistent. That isn't to say we don't have any holdings there, but it's all vacant real estate. Any effort to try and invest into the city is opposed by numerous different sources, though your father is convinced that it's Bruce Wayne and Batman working together to oppose him. As you're no doubt aware, Batman and Superman are allies on the Justice League after all, and it's somewhat of an open secret that Wayne has to be the one bank-rolling Batman and his entire extended family of vigilantes."

Ah, now Lucien was beginning to see what Mercy was getting at.

"You want my clinic to be funded by the Luthor Foundation, don't you? The Powers That Be might be able to stop any sort of actual commercial business LexCorp tries to set up from getting a foothold in the city, but they can't exactly prevent a free clinic based on charity without causing backlash, can they?"

He can practically hear Mercy nodding over the line as she continues typing away.

"That's exactly right, Lucien. Not only that, but it'll also put the focus on LexCorp, not on you and your… companion. Oh sure, the Batman will still look into you, and he might even be able to figure out that your papers are forged. But so long as your physical disguises are up to snuff, they'll be looking in the wrong direction, trying to figure out what Lex is up to more than what you're up to. The only question is… will your physical disguises be good enough?"

Considering Lucien could change himself and Blackfire on the cellular level if he wanted to… he smirks.

"Yes. They'll be good enough to hold up under serious scrutiny."

Pausing for the umpteenth time on her end, it's obvious Mercy wants to demand answers. The only problem is… Lucien is loath to give them to her over the phone, even if this line is probably one of the most secure in the world all things considered. Still, if she did ask, if she did demand answers… he would have offered to meet with her so they could clear the air between them.

Instead, the pause ends without Mercy saying a word in that regard.

"Good. I'll start getting everything set up then on my end and you get me those photos of what you and your 'friend' are going to look like once you get to Gotham. With any luck, if all goes according to plan, they'll be more focused on LexCorp and what we're up to then your true nature, and you'll fly right under the radar."

Lucien smiles. It was just like Mercy said. Everyone in Gotham was expected to have a certain level of sleaze to them. Even newcomers to the city couldn't possibly be pure-hearted or entirely good-intentioned… because if they were, they wouldn't be so stupid as to move to a place like Gotham in the first place.

If he'd just gone straight to Gotham by himself and tried to do anything he'd had in mind, it would almost certainly have shown up on Batman's radar pretty much immediately. And so would this of course, but… by putting the Luthor Foundation's charitable funds behind it, suddenly he, his 'friend', and their new clinic became just a pawn in a game between businessmen, rather than a curiosity and an oddity in their own right.

"Thank you Mercy, for everything."

Mercy snorts.

"Don't mention it. Seriously… do not mention it."

Lucien grins at that.

"I won't."

With that, the line goes dead. The call is over. But the first steps of the next stage of his life have just been taken. On her knees between his legs, Blackfire looks up at him for a moment with his cock still in her mouth… and then pulls off of his dick with a pop and climbs up into his lap.

Lucien grunts, his hands going to Blackfire's waist as she sinks down onto his cock without so much as a 'by your leave'.

"You know we're probably being watched, right?"

Blackfire just scoffs.

"What, by the woman on the other end of the phone? Is she ugly? Fat?"

Lucien blinks, picturing Mercy for a second before slowly shaking his head.

"Err… no. Neither of those things."

Positively purring, Blackfire smirks as she grinds down onto his cock, swiftly beginning to ride him at a fast pace.

"Then let her watch."

Blackfire makes a show of it, moaning up a storm as they fuck like there's no tomorrow. She bounces up and down on Lucien's dick hard and fast without hesitation, clearly wanting to give Mercy quite the spectacle, if the blonde IS watching like they assume. To be fair, Lucien thinks it's probably a tossup whether she's watching them or not. On the one hand, she'd been watching while they were on the phone together and working on setting up the clinic at the same time. On the other hand, now that they weren't talking anymore she didn't have any real reason to keep watching, right?

His alien henchwoman certainly seems to think she does, because Blackfire doesn't let up for even a moment. She cums a few times before finally managing to make him cum as well, causing him to fill her with his seed. Then, without missing a beat, she pulls herself up off of his cock and takes him by the hand, tugging him up out of his chair and towards the bathroom.

Lucien realizes her intentions then, as they strip naked and climb into the shower together. It's probably the only secure place in the apartment when he's not using the scrambler… which Blackfire doesn't actually know he has.

Once they're under the hot, beating water, she narrows her eyes at him, finally saying what she wants to say.

"So… you're going to change my appearance?"

Lucien tilts his head to the side, not really surprised that the cat's out of the bag on that one.

"I'm planning on taking care of both our disguises, yes. We won't be any weaker of course, we'll still have all of our abilities… but if we want to truly make this work, we need to look like completely different people."

Blackfire grunts, looking down at herself, and then eyeing him as well for good measure.

"… Yeah, that makes sense. So you're going to make me look like a human. I suppose you'll be the doctor of this clinic… and I'll be the nurse?"

He can't help but smile a little at that mental image. Blackfire, even disguised, in a nurse's uniform. Of course, in his mind's eye the nurse's uniform is basically fetish attire instead of normal nurse scrubs. Alternatively…

"You could also be my receptionist instead if you don't want to be a nurse."

Blackfire as a secretary would be super fucking hot. Heels, pantyhose, pencil skirt, blouse, and jacket. He can see that in his mind's eye as well and ho boy…

"… Hmph. I suppose either role is one that a henchwoman should be ready to take for her boss, is that right?"

Lucien grins at her.

"Well, you don't have to go with me. Though if Starfire found out you'd bailed, she might be a little disappointed…"

Blackfire scowls at the mention of her sister before rolling her eyes and pushing him back against the wall of the shower. She kisses him deeply then, rubbing her tits against his chest, and it's obvious they're going to fuck again sooner rather than later. When they finally pull apart for air, Blackfire's gaze is lidded.

"I get to decide what I'm going to look like."

Blinking, Lucien chuckles at the ultimatum.

"That was always the plan, my dear."

Pausing, Blackfire pretends like that doesn't make her flush slightly in embarrassment.

"Well… good."

The two of them talk for quite a while about what their new appearances will be. And once they're both ready, Lucien goes ahead and does the deed before sending the pictures off to Mercy so she can build identities around each.

At this point, they're locked and loaded. It's only a matter of time now before they reach Gotham City, onto their next adventure…

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Stick with Lucien's POV - 21%

[ ] Switch to Blackfire's POV - 14%

[X] Switch to Oracle's POV - 52%

[ ] Switch to Batman's POV - 13%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Sep 5, 2024

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Oracle POV!

-x-X-x-

There was always something, wasn't there? The thought brings an involuntary rueful smile to Barbara Gordon's face as she sits in her wheelchair in front of a rather large bank of monitors, eyes darting back and forth across the screens.

Once upon a time, Barbara had been the original Batgirl. A crime-fighting sidekick who took to the streets of Gotham to try and clean them up right alongside the legendary Batman himself. It had been her, Dick, and Bruce back then near the start. Just the three of them, with her and Dick far too young for the life they'd led, but unable to stop anyways.

Even all these years later, Barbara didn't blame Bruce for any of it. Not letting them fight crime, nor supplying them with the gear and resources to do it. If not for him, they would have done something anyways… and probably wound up far worse for it. Watching his parents die had changed Dick irrevocably and her… well, she grew up as Jim Gordon's daughter, seeing how the city of Gotham constantly beat her father down, only for him to get right back up again and keep on taking punches.

How could she do anything less in the face of her father's obstinance? How could she sit still and be the good girl who got straight A's and never got in trouble at school, while everything went to shit around her?

What she and Dick had become wasn't Bruce's fault. Gotham had a way of taking its best and brightest, chewing them up, and if they were lucky, spitting them back out. Always had.

These days, Barbara Gordon wasn't Batgirl anymore. She hadn't been for a long time, on account of her confinement to a wheelchair at the hands of the Joker. Shot in the spine, she'd been paraplegic for years at this point. But that didn't mean she was out of the fight. Refusing to succumb to despair, Barbara had taken her fate into her own hands just like she always did. She'd reforged herself as The Oracle, going from crimefighter on the streets to the Gal in the Chair.

Using her skills with computers, she'd built up a worldwide information network that put most to shame. She used it to help other superheroes across the planet with their work, providing some of the best intelligence anyone on Earth could ask for, as well as the coordination and organization that so many superheroes, even those who were part of the Justice League, lacked.

As Oracle, her work took her outside of Gotham City in a way that being Batgirl never had. She was literally monitoring multiple things at a time across the face of the entire planet. But Gotham was still her city, in the same way that the Gotham Clock Tower was her residence and the secret lair of Oracle.

From Gotham Clock Tower, she could keep a bird's eye view of the entire city, providing the more mobile members of the 'Bat Family' as some called it with up to date information. Of course, as much as Barbara loved Bruce and all of the others, there were times when she couldn't rely on them. Times when it felt like because she didn't wear a bat-themed cowl anymore, she was separate from the group.

This wasn't entirely a bad thing, and in fact it was partially by Barbara's own design. She wasn't a teenage vigilante with a chip on her shoulder anymore. Now she was a grown adult woman with a chip on her shoulder. As much as she would always love and respect Bruce and the others, she had to be her own person, her own entity.

Unfortunately, being confined to a wheelchair made that a little harder. Everyone always tended to assume her paralysis made her less of a person, that because she was disabled, she needed help with every little thing. Yes, she was confined to a wheelchair, but that didn't mean her intellect had been diminished in any way. And she certainly didn't need minding.

That was where the Birds of Prey came in. An all-female team of superheroes, the Birds of Prey had had a few roster shifts at this point, though the main three remained. Her, the founder of the group, alongside Dinah Lance and Helena Bertinelli, the Black Canary and Huntress respectively.

Neither woman got along with Batman very well. Neither could be called part of the 'Bat Family'. But they were nevertheless Barbara's family these days, the people that Barbara could call on with the most certainty that they would drop everything to help her. They were her hands, her boots on the ground so to speak, even as she was their eye in the sky.

That did not, of course, mean that she had stopped working with Bruce in any way, however. Regardless of them maybe drifting apart, Oracle was still happy to play overwatch for Batman and the other members of the Bat Family whenever necessary. As well, she was happy to take on tasks for Bruce whenever he needed an extra pair of eyes and hands on a more… delicate matter.

All of that said, she was somewhat regretting taking on this latest request of his. Mostly because… she hated false hope. She hated it with a burning passion. And this latest situation positively reeked of false hope.

Something that Barbara and Bruce unequivocally agreed on was the simple truth that Lex Luthor and LexCorp needed to be kept out of Gotham City at all costs. Things were bad enough here without the baseline man who constantly went toe to toe with Superman coming in and mucking things up.

Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp were bitter business rivals by nature of course, fighting a constant economic war between their two businesses as well as subsidiaries and proxies galore. Unfortunately for Luthor, during one of his 'incidents', Wayne Enterprises had managed to extend itself into the city of Metropolis, LexCorp's main turf.

This had of course pissed Lex Luthor off, and ever since he'd been trying to push back. He couldn't manage to pry Wayne Enterprises out of Metropolis, because by the time he'd righted his own ship and cleaned up his latest mess it was too late to do so. However, the megalomaniac of a businessman had deemed it suiting and fitting that if Wayne Enterprises got to carve out a piece of Metropolis, then he should get to do the same with Gotham.

Nobody wanted that except for Lex Luthor. Gotham City was volatile enough without him bringing his particular brand of insanity and inexplicable hatred for Superman into the mix. As such, he'd been stymied every step of the way so far. For a time, it had even looked like he might be finally giving up. There hadn't been a single mention of LexCorp trying to shove its way into Gotham in months. Beyond the handful of pieces of real estate they'd managed to get their dirty paws on but failed to renovate due to Wayne Enterprises' stonewalling, LexCorp had no business in Gotham City whatsoever.

… Until now. Though the way in which Luthor was finally managing to sink a claw into Gotham was as unique and inspired as it was insidious and despicable.

Since LexCorp had been turned away at every junction from setting up shop in Gotham, it seemed that they'd gone a different route this time around. Namely by using the Luthor Foundation to set up a charity clinic. There was even precedent for such a thing. Dr. Leslie Thompkins ran the Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic, which was funded by the Wayne Foundation.

This wasn't something that Wayne Enterprises could block, obviously. All of the paperwork was in order, everything seemingly on the up and up, and whatever the scheme was, it wasn't immediately obvious on the face of it. By all accounts, this was truly just the Luthor Foundation bringing its massive charitable coffers to the impoverished and ailing city of Gotham, no less and no more.

But of course, Barbara and Bruce knew it HAD to be more than that. Unfortunately, Gotham didn't do 'peace time'. So just because Lex Luthor had finally managed to slip something by them didn't mean Bruce could drop everything to investigate. There was always something to be done, and for all that Batman had reached mythological status at this point, he was still just a man under the cowl, unbeknownst to everyone. A man who needed sleep and only had so many hours in each day.

That was where Barbara came in. If there was one lesson she was glad Bruce had actually learned over the years, it was delegation. That's why she didn't mind him throwing this case involving the Luthor Foundation's new clinic her way. It wasn't the kind of thing that Bruce Wayne could attack on his end, nor could Batman be seen to be ransacking free clinics either. And thus it fell to Oracle to figure out precisely what Lex was truly up to.

So far, she hadn't been able to uncover much, unfortunately. Oh, she'd certainly uncovered more than just the cover story thankfully. It wasn't as 'on the up and up' as it seemed at first glance. For one, when she peeled back the layers a bit, it was obvious to someone of her skillset that the 'doctor' the clinic had hired was a fake.

The documentation was nearly perfect and was in fact properly backdated to the point where Barbara couldn't even report them to the proper authorities and expect anything to come of it. However, she was better than the proper authorities, as much as it always hurt her to admit it. And this… Doctor Luke Maximillian was as fake as could be. As was his 'assistant', a Ms. Kamara Blackwater.

Luke was a handsome man in his mid-twenties with a chiseled jaw and dark brown, almost black hair. Kamara, meanwhile, was of actual black hair, with blue eyes and pale skin. The look she gave the camera in the picture that Barbara had of her was one full of menace and danger.

Obviously, Luke was the doctor that the clinic was built around. Ms. Blackwater on the other hand… it was less clear exactly what role she was supposed to be fulfilling within the clinic itself. She was logged as Dr. Maximillian's assistant, but she looked like she could easily have been anything from a secretary to a nurse… to security.

And that last bit was both troubling and interesting, because why would a free clinic need security? Sure, one might say 'well it IS Gotham', but while the Thompkins Clinic did currently have a 'security guard', it hadn't always and for much of its life it'd done just fine. Why would a free clinic just opening its doors make its second employee after the Doctor clearly someone who could handle themselves in a fight?

Well, that had taken a little more digging, but eventually Barbara had uncovered two more interesting tidbits. Number One, Lex was really doing his level best to make it seem like this wasn't one of his schemes. The information was buried almost to the point where it seemed like it was supposed to be what they wanted covered up, but Barbara had found it anyways. Namely, every last bit of this endeavor in setting up a free clinic in Gotham had been signed off on not by Lex Luthor himself, but by his right hand woman, Mercy Graves.

By all rights, one might think that she'd done all of this behind her boss' back… if one didn't already know that Mercy was as loyal to Lex Luthor as she was competent and skilled. The bodyguard was the perfect henchwoman for a perfect asshole of a man, and there was no world in which she would do anything without his approval.

The other tidbit that Barbara had uncovered was something that sent a shiver down her paralyzed spine. It couldn't possibly be all there was to this new clinic's secret true purpose of course. Rather, it had to be a cover within a cover. Still, if you went through the right channels, if you knew the right people, if you had the right level of affluency… it was said that the clinic's doctor, Luke… could go beyond what modern medical technology was capable of. It was said he could provide healing beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Sickness, disease, injury, even age. Those with enough wealth could make use of this clinic's 'private services' to gain access to healing that sounded like magic… or at the very least a metahuman ability.

A trap. It had to be. Barbara didn't want to think too highly of herself. She didn't want to be too egotistical. And yet, just looking at all of this, it felt like they had prepared this Siren's Call with one person in mind.

The Venn Diagram of those who knew she was Oracle, and Oracle's status as someone confined to a wheelchair… well there was a lot of overlap between the two circles. That said, both circles were very, very small. Barely anyone knew that Barbara Gordon had even been Batgirl, let alone that she'd then gone on to become Oracle. And just as few people knew that Oracle was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

But what if? What if Lex Luthor had found out somehow? Barbara was well aware that her assistance to the Justice League and both Superman and Supergirl had been instrumental in stopping some of Lex and his cronies' schemes a handful of times at this point. If he'd caught wind that Oracle was the source of his enemies' information about him, and then figured out who Oracle was…

Sure, maybe she was being paranoid. But was it really paranoia if they were actually out to get you? Part of her longed to wheel herself down to this clinic to check it out in person and see if they could actually heal her. She had more than enough money squirreled away to pay for their hidden services.

But another part of her wondered… if she rolled into this new clinic, would she ever come back out again? She couldn't quite shake the idea that this trap was designed with specifically her in mind. Or maybe not her specifically, but at least for Oracle, her shut-in persona.

… She didn't have to go herself. In fact, she shouldn't go herself. Bruce had merely asked her to look into things, and she could and should get back to him with her findings and let him take it from there. However, she didn't really feel like she'd uncovered enough information yet to really report back to him.

That said, she had other options. She'd just been thinking about them in fact. The Birds of Prey. Either Helena or Dinah could go in her stead, case the joint and maybe see about getting some of those hidden services for themselves to see what it was all about.

Admittedly, that did mean sending one of them into danger… but then, Barbara had long come to terms with that facet of their relationship. She was the Gal in the Chair and they were the boots on the ground. That was simply how things worked.

Still, Barbara finds herself hesitating, her hands hovering over her keyboard until she finally makes a decision.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Send the information back to the Bat Family, wash her hands of the temptation - 4%

[ ] Send the information to Helena, the Huntress and have her investigate - 6%

[ ] Send the information to Dinah, Black Canary and have her investigate - 13%

[X] Give in to temptation and go in person to investigate herself - 77%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Sep 12, 2024

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Barbara goes and gets herself some healing~

-x-X-x-

This was almost certainly a mistake. And yet, she hadn't been able to help herself. Here she was not even a week later, with an appointment to meet with one Dr. Luke Maximillian. She'd told no one where she was going, knowing full well that anyone she COULD tell would either try to talk her out of it at best or go out of their way to stop her at worst.

That said, Barbara hadn't been completely foolish about things. For one, she'd set up a dead man's switch that would go off in the event that she didn't check in within the day. That was just common sense, really. If she was out of contact for more than twenty-four hours, then the information on Luthor's new clinic, as well as her location, would be sent to a select few people and they would decide what to do with it from there.

Barbara didn't know exactly how long this magic healing was meant to take, of course, but nothing had talked about staying overnight or needing to be out of contact for days. So she figured it was a pretty safe bet to assume she would be done and able to take care of the dead man's switch before it went off in the event that this wasn't somehow a trap.

Of course, on top of that, she'd also disguised herself, producing a false identity to go along with this whole charade. Even if Luthor and his cronies didn't know that Barbara Gordon was Oracle and formerly Batgirl, she was still the Police Commissioner's daughter, and she didn't want them thinking they might be able to use her as leverage against her father. That would just be embarrassing.

Fortunately, Gotham had no shortage of rich, dead families. People died in Gotham all the time, but more than just the amount of death, the sheer amount of orphans who inherited immense estates only to vanish for a little while and then return with some plans for revenge were so numerous it was bordering on ludicrous.

Setting up her false identity as one such rich hidden heiress had been as simple as finding an old Gotham family with a daughter that had been completely wiped out by gang violence, and taking that daughter's identity for herself. And so Barbara Gordon was now a brunette with brown contacts named Hope Laville.

She'd managed to 'survive' her family's massacre, albeit not without being shot in the spine during the slaughter, resulting in her paralysis and wheelchair ridden state. It also explained how Barbara had the money to pay for this special procedure that the new clinic offered to rich clientele, because as the inheritor of the Laville Fortune, of course she was loaded.

That said, Barbara doesn't just wheel herself in through the front door or anything like that. No, as it so happens, the clinic has a private entrance for the more affluent clients such as herself. And so after jumping through hoops to get 'Hope Laville' this meeting with Dr. Luke, Barbara finds herself driving into the private parking garage hidden under the clinic.

Once the car, modified for a wheelchair user to drive, is safely parked away, Barbara brings her wheelchair around and transfers herself over to it before locking up behind her. Even as she's wheeling over to the nearby elevator however, it's already dinging open… to reveal the clinic's only other employee besides the doctor.

Barbara stops in her tracks as Kamara Blackwater steps out and pins her with an incredibly intense stare. Black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin, just like her pictures. Except, the pictures really didn't do the woman justice. She was striking in a way that made Barbara's heart beat a little faster in her chest, while her gaze was… well, Barbara had weathered worse, but had Hope Laville?

Swallowing thickly, currently brown eyes widening in fright, Barbara plays her role to the hilt. She's a sheltered young heiress who saw her entire family gunned down and then spent the intervening years confined to a wheelchair. Independent but wary, hopeful but desperate. That's where she wants to take this.

"A-Ah… I have an appointment? I'm Ms. Laville?"

Kamara continues to stare her down for a long moment more before finally stepping forward. Barbara tenses up and doesn't untense even as the other woman strides around her and takes control of the wheelchair, pushing her wordlessly towards the elevator. As the disguised young woman brings her hands up to the armrests, she tries not to clutch at them too tightly.

Barbara hates being wheeled by anyone, truth be told. She hates the loss of control. She thinks the character she's trying to embody would hate it too, but she also thinks Hope would be too… well, hopeful about being healed to possibly complain.

And so she strikes an uneasy middle ground, letting her nervousness and trepidation leak out, but not actually saying a word in protest of the harsh treatment.

Even once they're in the elevator, Ms. Blackwater doesn't say a word. Barbara tries to make small talk, but it's like talking to a stone wall. Finally though, the elevator door dings and opens and they're admitted out into the clinic itself. Barbara doesn't bother trying to hide her curiosity. Hope Laville would be curious as well, so instead of being suspicious by trying to be subtle about it, she makes it incredibly obvious she's taking everything in, even craning her neck to look through open doors as well as glass windows as they move down the hall.

She sees… well, she sees a lot of state of the art medical equipment and supplies. A tremendous amount of it, in fact. Just off the top of her head, there must be millions in value in this place. Not surprising… but dangerous. Very dangerous.

Before they can reach the end of the hall, the door there opens and the man himself steps out. Doctor Luke Maximillian, an identity as fake as Kamara Blackwater. His pictures don't do him justice either. She'd noted the chiseled jaw before, but damn if it didn't look better in person. All of him looked better in person under that lab coat he was wearing.

Tch, if they really wanted to make him pass as an actual doctor, they shouldn't have given this man the same physique that she'd only ever seen on the men of the Bat Family.

His smile, as well, is white almost to the point of blinding as his eyes fall upon her.

"Ah! Ms. Laville, a pleasure to meet you."

Striding forward, he thrusts out his hand, even as he continues talking.

"I'm Dr. Maximillian, but you can call me doc, Dr. Luke, or Luke! Whichever you prefer!"

Good cop, bad cop. That's the thought that immediately rushes through Barbara's mind, even as she hesitates for a second before finally taking Luke's hand and giving it a shake. The doctor's charm offensive is like a breath of fresh air after the stonewalling and intense, almost spiteful silence from his 'assistant'.

But then, that's obviously intentional. Kamara plays the part of silent and hostile, which in turn causes any patients to see the doctor in an even better light as a result. Even knowing it's all a trick, the corners of Barbara's mouth are trying to lift up of their own accord. Since she's playing a character anyways, she goes ahead and lets them after a moment, hesitantly smiling up at him.

"T-Thank you, Dr. Luke. I… I appreciate you scheduling me in. Are you absolutely certain that you can… give me my legs back?"

She makes sure to inject the right amount of desperate hope and incredulous disbelief into her voice, even as she hides her true feelings. In response, the doctor just chuckles and winks at her before finally letting go of her hand.

"Well, you paid quite a lot of money to be here, my dear… so I'll let you in on a little secret. You're our first paying customer! We've had some modest foot traffic for the free side of things, but you, my dear, represent the side of the business that will allow us to keep running and helping the poor and destitute of Gotham for years to come!"

Whoa. Laying it on thick there, buddy. At the same time, Barbara is honestly a little surprised. She knew from all of her snooping, of course, that she was the first one to actually give this a try. However, she hadn't expected him to just admit it.

"Come then, Ms. Laville. Let's get you healed, shall we? Ms. Blackwater, I'll take things from here. Thank you my dear."

Barbara blinks, but before she can even formulate a response, she's already been passed off. Kamara Blackwater still doesn't say a word, even to her boss, as she turns and walks away. Meanwhile, Dr. Luke wheels Barbara into one of the side rooms, leaving her to wonder what was in the room he'd come out of a minute ago.

However, she doesn't have long to wonder, because she suddenly finds herself staring at a horizontal tube. It was clearly incredibly advanced technology… at first glance. Oh, it had all the bells and whistles one would expect. In fact, your average layperson would think it was alien, probably. And since she was playing a role…

"Is that… alien?"

Glancing at her, Luke smiles with a twinkle in his gaze.

"Good eye, Ms. Laville. Yes, this is not entirely of our world. Not to worry though, it's perfectly safe."

That WOULD have been her next question, to keep up the act. Barbara lets her mouth click shut as he preempts her, even as her mind whirls with about a billion questions she can't actually ask. At least, she can't ask them without giving the game away. Because this… this wasn't alien technology.

Moving to a nearby console, Dr. Luke presses some buttons and the tube cycles open. Barbara watches him and the machine, biting her lower lip. She wonders, not for the first time, what the hell she's doing here… and what she's getting herself into.

As the Oracle, she's worked with many groups, including the Justice League. And she's handled aliens of all sorts, as well as their technology. Her information network might not extend TOO far outside of Earth, but she had aspirations of one day pushing it further. Regardless, as a result… she knew what alien technology looked like. She also knew what fake alien technology looked like.

While Barbara wasn't going to pretend that she knew every single alien civilization in the universe, nor could she claim to have studied all of their different, separately developed technologies she did know humans. She knew humans very, very well. And she knew what human-made, fake alien tech looked like.

This tube and all of the machinery around it positively screamed to someone of her skill set 'I was designed by humans to look alien and mysterious!'. It screamed it at the top of its lungs, at least to Barbara Gordon. But of course… she wasn't Barbara Gordon right now. She was Hope Laville.

"May I?"

As such, when Dr. Luke approaches her with arms outstretched, asking for permission to lift her up from her wheelchair and put her in the tube, Barbara as Hope can do nothing more than smile and nod hesitantly. His own smile is clearly meant to be warm and reassuring, as he carefully lifts her up.

Letting one of her arms dangle loose, Barbara slips a bug on the underside of the tube right before he sets her down. He doesn't seem to notice, thankfully, even as she lays there in the tube.

"Alright, this shouldn't take long, Ms. Laville. A few minutes tops."

Blinking in honest surprise, Barbara can't help but repeat his words.

"A few minutes?"

Dr. Luke grins at her.

"It's very good technology. Now please lay your head back and just breathe. It'll be over before you know it."

God she wishes that she could interrogate this smug, handsome bastard. But there's no world in which she can get leverage over him, not right now. So she just lays her head back on the tube's cushion, watching as the tube cycles closed over her. There's a glass window on the front of it at least so she's not entirely enclosed in a dark space… but to be fair, even if she were, Barbara isn't claustrophobic.

She watches as the inside of the tube lights up. She watches as it goes through this strange cycle. She tries to feel out what it's doing to her, and wonders briefly if this is how she dies.

But… beyond the lightshow and fancy colors, nothing seems to happen. Barbara's brow furrows as she stares up through the viewport of the tube. A few minutes pass… and the lightshow ends. She still can't feel her legs or anything… so did it not work? Is that perhaps how this is meant to begin? A scam where it fails the first time, allowing them to get her to give them more to make sure it succeeds or… or something?

Even Barbara finds that to be rather flimsy. The tube cycles open, but before she can do or say anything, Dr. Luke takes hold of one of her hands in his own, giving it a firm, comforting squeeze.

"How are you feeling, Hope?"

Barbara hesitates for a moment, before forcing herself to blush as much as possible. Hope would definitely be a little embarrassed and maybe a little happy to have a handsome man like the doctor get so familiar with her. Though she would also be disappointed it hadn't seemed to work so…

"I… I don't feel any different. Did it not work?"

She waits with bated breath for him to confirm that part… only to blink in shock when he just chuckles and shakes his head.

"Give it a moment, sweetheart. You should be feeling it any second."

Furrowing her brow, Barbara opens her mouth to respond… only for her currently brown eyes to shoot wide open and snap down to her legs… which are beginning to twitch. She can't even begin to describe it. She's been paralyzed for so long she'd almost forgotten what it felt like to have working legs.

And yet, there they are, starting to move under her command. Her spine has been healed. Her body has been repaired. She's going to be able to walk again. Not right away, she assumes… until suddenly, Dr. Luke picks her up out of the tube and instead of putting her back in her wheelchair, sets her down on her feet.

"There you go!"

"W-Wait, I-!"

As she clutches at him, expecting her atrophied lower body to completely fail her, Barbara is cut off by her own shock as she feels… well, as she feels her feet land on the floor with more surety and strength than she was expecting. In fact, beyond being a little wobbly, she feels fine… her legs have apparently regenerated right alongside her spine. She's almost certainly still weak, but she's able to walk again, right away.

"Heh. Well? What do you think, Ms. Laville?"

Barbara stares up into the fake doctor's eyes with her jaw hanging open in disbelief. She has more questions than ever before… and she can't ask a single fucking one.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] Stick with Barbara's POV - 80%

[ ] Switch to Lucien's POV - 20%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Sep 19, 2024

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

The people have spoken, more Barbara POV it is~

-x-X-x-

When Barbara doesn't immediately answer him, Luke lets go of her and steps back, causing her to jolt out of her introspection as he looks at her concerned.

"How are you feeling, Ms. Laville?"

It's a testament to how out of sorts Barbara currently feels that she reacts with incredulity to that question, at least initially. How is she feeling? She can walk again! But then she realizes the fake doctor isn't asking her how she's feeling mentally or emotionally, but physically. He's doing his duties still, as though he were a real doctor.

Barbara knows better of course, but he doesn't know she knows better. So she has to continue playing her role, even if every fiber of her being currently wants to find a way to gain a position of strength and advantage in this conversation so she can interrogate him properly.

Instead, looking down at her legs, working for the first time after so many years, Barbara purses her lips and focuses on how they feel, moving from foot to foot, rolling on the balls of her feet.

She's a little wobbly, as previously noted. Definitely still a bit physically weak. However, all the muscles that should have been atrophied and the bones that should have been weakened by years of disuse… feel fine. They've all been regenerated it would seem, right along with her fixed spine. She can not only walk again, she's in better health than she's been in years and years.

"I feel… good. Better than good, really. I feel amazing. You… what is that thing? What did it do to me?"

Looking at the tube he'd put her in, Barbara gestures to it helplessly, still playing her role. She wishes she could ask the real questions, of course. Like for instance, where the actual technology is. She'd recognized the tube as a fake piece of alien technology before, but did that mean it was entirely fake, or was the alien veneer just that… a façade to disguise whatever was going on 'beneath the hood' so to speak?

God, what she wouldn't give to be able to take it apart right now. The device she'd attached to its underside would give her some information, hopefully, but she wouldn't be able to access that data until she'd left the clinic behind. That meant while she was still here, she had to do as much fact finding as possible, with the limited authority she had.

Put simply, she wasn't Barbara Gordon right now, nor was she Batgirl or Oracle (fuck, she could be Batgirl again!). No, she was Hope Laville, and the most 'authority' she could exercise at the moment was as a patient who had just been through an untested medical procedure. Sure, it was an untested medical procedure that had seemingly worked, but she was still entitled to her concerns about the long term effects.

Dr. Maximillian smiles at her and Barbara does her best to ignore how handsome his smile is as he glances at the tube as well.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you much, Ms. Laville. As you already know, it's not of our world. This device is… well, let's just say it was hard to come by and cost a pretty penny and leave it at that, okay? Not to worry though. I can guarantee the success of the procedure you just went through personally. As well as the lack of any long term side effects. In fact, there's only a couple things you need to do in order to ensure your health in the following days."

Barbara finds herself listening intently, not just because she's still intent on sussing things out here, but also because she very much intends to keep this good health she's miraculously gotten, on top of getting her legs back.

"First, take one of these pills each day for the next five days. Second, take it easy for at least the next three days. No strenuous activities. No running, jumping, or climbing. I'm sure you're not the type to go parkouring around Gotham anyways Ms. Laville, but it still bears noting."

The former Batgirl, who had very much been the type to go parkouring around the city once upon a time, carefully doesn't freeze up at the fake doctor's words, even as he hands her a small bottle filled with five large pills. The instructions on the bottle repeat what he said, to swallow a whole one once a day until they run out.

Still, a comment like that… did he know? Barbara is careful not to give anything away, even as she looks into his eyes with a soft, hesitant smile on her lips.

"T-Thank you, Doctor. I didn't… I didn't think I'd ever get to walk again. You've changed my life."

She doesn't think she sees any knowing glint in the handsome man's eyes that might give away knowledge of her identity. Luke just grins as he clasps his hands behind his back and nods.

"It was my pleasure, Ms. Laville. And to be fair, it's not like we did this out of the kindness of our hearts. You paid quite the sum of money, and we provided a service in turn."

Even the humility seems entirely genuine. Barbara huffs and lets her smile grow a bit stronger as she decides to take a different tack with the fake, handsome doctor.

"Well your service still changed my life, Dr. Luke. As evidenced by the fact that I'm standing on my own two feet. Maybe…"

She makes a show of thinking about it for a second, before looking at him and 'subconsciously' licking her lips.

"May I have a pen and paper?"

He raises an eyebrow at that, and Barbara thinks she can see the light of understanding in his eyes, but he gets both items for her, nevertheless. Quickly, acting like she's moving as fast as she can so as to not lose her nerve, Barbara goes ahead and writes down a phone number.

"I know you already have my number… but this is my personal number. In case you wanted to… call to chat."

She makes sure to bat her eyelashes as she hands him back the pen and the paper. The number isn't actually her personal line, but she'll still get any calls to it, rain or shine. When you're someone like her, you don't really have a personal line… just an ever-increasing number of lines for different groups and people that you have to juggle.

Since it doesn't seem like the Hope Laville identity has been burned quite yet, maybe Barbara can stretch out the heiress' use a bit longer… certainly, as the fake doctor glances down at the number before putting the paper and pen away in the pocket of his lab coat, he doesn't seem that upset by the overly familiar overture.

"I appreciate the offer, Ms. Laville. I can't promise anything, given how busy running a clinic like this leaves me… but I'll keep you in mind."

Barbara beams at him, playing the socially starved, innocent and vulnerable crippled young heiress to the hilt. If Luke wasn't as good a man as he seemed, he SHOULD want to take advantage of her, or rather of Hope. And seeing as he worked for Luthor and was clearly not a real doctor… well, they would just have to wait and see.

"Now then, you have your pills and your instructions, yes? Let's get you to your car."

Barbara finds herself escorted out of the room with her wheelchair in tow, allowing herself one last lingering look back at the 'alien' tube before the door shuts behind them. From there, she's handed off to Kamara Blackwater again, who is just as silent as the last time, even as they descend back to the private parking garage together.

Taking one last chance as the doors to the elevator open, Barbara steps out into the parking garage and then turns to look at Kamara, still acting her heart out.

"Um… Ms. Blackwater, right? Do you know if… if Dr. Luke is single?"

For the first time, Barbara thinks she sees something besides the silent intensity and all around prickly personality of the woman standing with her. For the first time, she sees a hint of amusement in Kamara Blackwater's eyes. There's not a single twitch of her mouth however, her jaw remaining set in a perpetual frown. But she definitely sees something in the other woman's gaze.

Of course, staying true to form, Blackwater doesn't speak even then. A moment later the elevator doors close, leaving Barbara alone in the parking garage with her now empty wheelchair in her hands.

Biting her lower lip, Barbara waits for just a second to make sure the security cameras pick up on her indecisiveness. Then, she heads to her car, hurriedly getting in and pulling out of the parking garage. As soon as she's able, she gets her onboard systems up and running, beginning with connecting to the bug she managed to attach to the machine.

It's unfortunate she couldn't get a bug anywhere else in the clinic, because while the device is capable of picking up audio, it's not like Luke and Kamara are going to spend all their time chatting in that room anyways. That room is clearly meant for the high roller patients, not for any private conversations between the two of them.

At the same time, the data flowing in from the device regarding the tube that supposedly healed her is still mission critical, as far as Barbara is concerned. Unfortunately, there's an issue with what she's getting from it all… namely, a whole lot of fucking nothing. The data is claiming that the tube that healed her isn't just fake alien technology… it's fake technology altogether.

That doesn't make sense… but at the same time, it sort of does? In the end, it really means one of three things. One, the technology is not only incredibly advanced, but also protected against would-be hackers and basically presents a blank when anything tries to get a read on it. Two, the technology really doesn't exist, and Luke Maximillian is a metahuman. Or three, the technology really doesn't exist and magic is involved in some way instead.

Of course, magic healing on this level was just as rare as technological healing. Even Zatanna Zatara for instance, the Justice League's premier magic user after her father's retirement, can't heal on the level that this tube healed Barbara. Else, she would have been walking around ages ago.

Lips pursed together; Barbara looks from the potentially ersatz data coming in regarding the tube to her small bottle of pills. She's supposed to take one a day for the next five days… but like hell is she going to put a single one in her mouth without testing the hell out of them. And that meant she needed to go back to her Clocktower. But first…

Barbara shoots off a quick message to Dinah and Helena, instructing the Black Canary and the Huntress to meet her at the Clocktower as soon as they can possibly get away, and then focuses on getting her own ass back to base.

-x-X-x-

"Babs, wha- holy shit you're standing!"

"What? Whoa!"

By the time Helena and Dinah join her at the Clocktower, Barbara has already begun putting the pills from Luke Maximillian through their paces. Impatient as she was for the results of the high tech scanning she put them through, she'd taken one of the pills and put it under a microscope, just in case there was something she might be able to see with her naked eye.

That's why, when the other two main members of the Birds of Prey finally arrive, it's to the sight of her bent over said microscope, standing. Briefly, she'd considered using her wheelchair until they arrived and making a big reveal out of everything… but given the seriousness of the situation, it didn't feel right.

Pointing over at a nearby tablet, Barbara doesn't remove her eye from the microscope, even as she responds.

"I've compiled everything I have so far into a report on the tablet. Read it and I'll be with you both in a second."

"But Barbara, you're… you're healed!"

"Read. The. Tablet."

Finally, the two heroines do as they're told, taking up the table together. Barbara watches them out of her periphery for a second before returning to the microscope. Unfortunately, the ensuing silence doesn't last long before…

"You did what without us?!"

Yeah, that was to be expected. Sighing, Barbara pushes off of the table and away from the microscope, crossing her arms over her chest as she looks at the closest thing she has to teammates in this era. She's a bit removed from the Bat Family at this point after all, and to pretty much everyone else, she's an information broker. But the Birds of Prey are hers, and Helena and Dinah have been the ones who have stuck around the longest of anyone.

"I know it was a dumb move. I know I should never have gone to the clinic without backup. I arranged a dead drop in case I fell out of contact, but I understand that my decision was tactically unsound and entirely driven by emotion. I'm sorry for not including either of you until now."

Dinah and Helena exchange a glance at that, before both speak at the same time.

"You don't sound very sorry, Barbara."

"You didn't even loop Batman into this, Babs?"

Sighing, Barbara leans back against the table, shaking her head.

"I… it's hard to feel much shame or regret when I'm walking around right now and it all worked out for the best. As for Batman… no. He would never have let me go in alone, just like you guys wouldn't have either."

Before either of them can react to that, there's a sudden beep from Barbara's computer. Turning to the monitor, she frowns as the data from the pills comes flowing in.

"What's all that then?"

Not looking up from the console, Barbara grunts.

"I was given these pills to take for the next few days after the procedure. Obviously, I wasn't going to put anything in my body without checking what was in it first."

"Oh, but you're willing to put your body in some untested machine without knowing what it would do to you, is that it?"

Barbara doesn't try to defend herself from the jab, knowing she probably deserves it. Instead, she keeps studying the results… and her frown only grows.

"… What is it, Babs? Anything dangerous?"

After a long moment, Barbara huffs.

"No, or at least my equipment can't find anything dangerous. All these are, supposedly… are calorie pills. They're basically massive meals in pill form, thousands upon thousands of calories and other vitamins condensed down. It makes some sense. I've run scans on myself as well, and it seems almost like the procedure cannibalized my caloric reserves in order to heal me."

Pulling away from the console, holding up one of the large pills Luke gave her, Barbara stares at it, still frowning.

"Basically, these are meant to replenish what was used up to heal me, I suppose."

There's a pause, in which Helena and Dinah glance at each other briefly. Before finally, Dinah clears her throat.

"Are you going to tell Batman now, Barbara? This seems like the kind of thing he should know about."

Barbara stiffens up at that, her instinctive response being 'no'. But… Dinah was probably right. Didn't make it any easier though.

-x-X-x-

Barbara: "I won't bother pranking them with the wheelchair, I have too much respect for my fellow Birds for that."

Dinah & Helana walking in to see Barbara's fine ass in the air and her back arched as she stands bent over the microscope looking like a fucking snack: "hubabhgulgh"

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Inform Batman of these... developments - 30%

[X] He doesn't need to know yet. This is their case, they can tell him later - 70%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Last edited: Sep 19, 2024

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Threadmarks Chapter 44: Seeking Answers New

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Sep 26, 2024

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#634

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

The Birds of Prey bounce ideas off one another~

-x-X-x-

When Barbara hesitates, Dinah and Helena look at each other again, their concern mounting.

"Barbara, you can't-!"

"No."

She cuts Dinah off at that, making up her mind right then and there. Not just because Dinah says 'she can't', and that phrase has become a bit of a trigger for her throughout these years in a wheelchair… but Barbara would be lying if she said that didn't play a big part in things.

Silence falls at her response, and Barbara huffs before crossing her arms over her chest as she looks at Dinah and Helena both.

"He doesn't need to know yet. This isn't his case. He passed it off to me because he's busy and couldn't handle it himself. He knew that likely meant I would have the Birds of Prey handle it if it wasn't anything too serious or directly tied to him and his business. And that's precisely what's going to happen. We're going to handle this."

There's a pregnant pause at that, in which Barbara stares her friends down with as challenging a look as she can muster. Finally though, she sees the moment that the two heroines both get with the program and get on board with Barbara's proposal.

"… Alright Babs, we're in."

"Of course we're in, you know we wouldn't leave you high and dry."

Barbara smiles at that, basking in their loyalty for a moment. To be fair, neither woman was particularly close to Batman. They didn't even know his true identity. She, as Oracle, was the main connection between him and her fellow Birds of Prey.

However, that didn't change the reputation Batman had, both in Gotham and in the Justice League. His mythos alone was enough to have Dinah and Helena questioning her decision not to bring him in. Still, with that behind them now, Barbara feels a sense of relief wash over her.

"Great. Read the rest of the data on the tablet and then give me your first thoughts."

Nodding, the other heroines do so. Barbara, meanwhile, gets a glass of water and downs the first of the pills. Now that she knows they're not hiding anything dangerous, she's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when the alternative is either prolonging her full recovery, or having to order a metric fuck ton of food to make up for the caloric deficiency that 'Doctor' Luke's machine left her in.

… If it even was the machine. Barbara frowns as she looks over the information coming in from her bug again. Nothing has changed, but it's always useful to check out old information with fresh eyes every once in a while.

Speaking of which…

"So wait, if the tube is fake, how the hell did you still get healed?"

Helena's confusion is understandable, and Barbara tips her head in acknowledgment to the point. Dinah, meanwhile, hums.

"Well… it might not be fake, right? Maybe it's alien tech after all… just alien tech we've never seen before. And also alien tech so far beyond us we don't have the capacity to comprehend it."

Scoffing at Dinah's theory, Helana immediately begins poking the more obvious holes in it.

"So then how is Lex Luthor utilizing it if that's the case? How is this Maximillian Doctor fellow managing to utilize it if it's so advanced?"

But Dinah isn't down for the count just yet.

"Well, perhaps this… Luke Maximillian is actually an alien in disguise? It wouldn't be the first time… not by a long shot. He could be a fugitive… THAT wouldn't be a first either. So he comes to Earth, because lord knows aliens love to come hide out on our planet, and he brings some technology with him. And somehow he and Luthor get in touch and Luthor becomes his patron or something?"

Helana looks more thoughtful now, placing a hand under her chin as she hums.

"… But if that were the case, why would Luthor ever let him use such technology in a free clinic of all things? And yeah, I know that the super healing in particular was far from free, Barbara paid out the nose for it, but all the same… Luthor would be more likely to hole such a prize up in a research lab somewhere, where he could reverse engineer the technology and use it to make himself look like the second coming of Jesus Christ or something, right?"

This… this was why she'd made the Birds of Prey. And it was also why she'd called Dinah and Helena in. Fresh eyes on the situation and already they were coming up with new ideas. Now, did Barbara think Luke was an alien fugitive? Probably not, but she couldn't rule it out. Even if her experience told her that the tube she'd been put in seemed as fake as several other examples of fake alien tech she'd seen over the years… she wasn't infallible. She could be fooled.

"There's also the magic angle to think about girls."

Dinah and Helena both pause at that, before begrudgingly nodding. Helena just frowns some more though.

"If it is magic, my points still stand though. Why is something like that here in Gotham, instead of in a LexCorp laboratory or practically anywhere else where Luthor has more power and influence? Why would he risk such a find in his very first successful push into Gotham City?"

That was a good point. Things weren't adding up. Lex Luthor had tried and failed for years to get a foothold in Gotham. Now here he was, having finally succeeded despite everyone's best efforts. Even still, risking this sort of healing in a single small clinic in Gotham was… well, it was kind of crazy. Unless there was a catch of some sort.

"There has to be a catch of some sort."

Dinah's words echo Barbara's thought so eerily that Barbara can't help but grin. Leaning back against the table behind herself, she tilts her head to the side as she considers the other heroines.

"We need more information, ladies. I have one avenue so far that I'm considering exploring, but I'm open to suggestions as well."

Helena and Dinah both grow thoughtful for a moment, clearly turning the dilemma over in their heads. Finally, Dinah shrugs and speaks first.

"… We could leak the super healing to a criminal or two and see what happens and how the clinic reacts when they're outright attacked? Mr. Freeze, for instance, would probably leap at another opportunity to cure his wife."

Barbara frowns at the mention of the cold-themed supervillain. Freeze's tale was positively tragic, even compared to many of the similarly tragic backstories for Gotham's gallery of misfits and ne'er dowels. He was only doing what he did out of love for his wife and a desire to see her saved, but her illness was so rare and inexplicable that his every attempt to cure her so far had ended in failure.

That said…

"If we tell one criminal, we might as well tell them all. While I'm sure Freeze would guard the information with his life, his PhD is on cryogenics, not cyber security. More than that, leaking information like that would make it impossible for us to control when such an attack occurred… innocents might wind up caught in the crossfire."

Dinah nods, accepting Barbara's critique without issue. Both of them knew Barbara hadn't said an outright 'no' to the idea… which meant that it was still on the table, despite its flaws. It just wasn't their first option.

Helena clears her throat, speaking up next.

"I could go in. Infiltrate under the cover of night and get us more information. I'm sure you could get me a device that would download their files or give a backdoor into their systems. The healing tech might be alien technology beyond our comprehension, but the rest of it is human, right?"

… Right. Barbara slowly nods, even as she eyes Huntress contemplatively. On the one hand, she didn't doubt Helena's skills for even a second. On the other hand…

"It's not a bad idea, but it is an escalation. If you get caught, they'll know we're investigating."

The Huntress scoffs at that, crossing her arms over her chest.

"IF I get caught, sure."

Barbara smiles and rolls her eyes at Helena's confidence. It's well-earned to be fair, but at the same time…

"While you're right that most of what I saw looked like human technology, if the healing tech truly IS alien, then they might have other alien technology as well… like alien security. You're good, Helena, but no one is perfect. And once they know that they're being investigated, they'll be much more on guard."

Dinah interjects then, humming.

"To be fair, if they don't already think they're being investigated, then they're absolute morons. Anything that came of Luthor finally managing to sink his claws into this city even an inch was always going to be investigated to hell and back. The blowhard even put his damn name on it."

"Fair point, but there's a big difference between thinking you're being investigated and knowing it. And a big difference in the way you act as well."

The other Birds both have to nod at that, conceding the point. Barbara, meanwhile, hesitates for a moment longer before finally biting the bullet.

"Helena's plan isn't bad… but I think I want to tackle this from another angle first. If the Huntress shows up at the clinic so soon after 'Hope Laville' received healing, then the Hope identity will be burned. However… I slipped the 'doctor' in charge of the clinic my number. I'm thinking I might be able to play up the part of a hopelessly enamored heiress who just got her health back a bit further… and reach out to him first. It shouldn't be out of the question for me to have a line to him or be overeager enough to call before he does."

"… You want to honeypot him?"

Dinah's skepticism is shared by Helena, judging by the look on the other woman's face. Both are looking at Barbara somewhat incredulously. Barbara pouts at them.

"What? It's the perfect cover. Obviously, 'Hope' has lived a relatively lonely life, not only being confined to a wheelchair but also the hidden survivor of her family's massacre. And of course she's not going to really have anyone else to reach out to or understand social cues. Now maybe he won't bite… but I think it's worth a shot at least."

They still don't look convinced, but Barbara is in charge here, sort of. In the end, she just rolls her eyes at the others.

"Look, all I'm saying is we give it a try before we potentially burn that identity and give Luke and his silent bodyguard a reason to suspect something is amiss. It can't hurt, right?"

-x-X-x-

"… You know, I suspect something was amiss about our first rich client."

Laying back in bed, staring up at the ceiling, Lucien has a thoughtful frown on his face. Meanwhile, Blackfire lifts her head from his bared chest and looks at him with a raised eyebrow. The smell of sex is heavy in the room as the two enjoyed one another's company quite thoroughly for the last couple hours or so after closing up the clinic for the evening.

"Oh? Was it the odor of desperation so heavy it flooded the senses? Tch, and it only got worse after you healed her too. She just went from desperate to get her legs back, to desperate to get into your pants."

Lucien gives Blackfire a half-amused, half-bemused glance at her caustic words towards 'Hope Laville'. It's obvious that the disguised Tamaranean didn't think much of the wheelchair bound girl. Though after she's done shitting all over the poor dear, she does get a frown of her own on her face.

"Unless you're saying she was lying about something. But… you would have said if she wasn't really paralyzed, right? Or would you not have?"

That… Lucien honestly doesn't know. He considers the question for a moment before shrugging.

"I guess I wouldn't have, at least until she was fully gone. Then I would have told you. I mean… she paid upfront, as expected, so it wasn't like it would have mattered if she wasn't truly paralyzed. But no… she definitely was. And it was a bullet that did the paralyzing too, that wasn't a lie either. However…"

Blackfire watches as he furrows his brow, processing his thoughts for a moment before explaining.

"It's just… well, I get a lot of information when I use my power on someone else. And from what I understand… I don't think that was Hope Laville."

Blackfire stiffens at that, and then lifts herself up onto a hand to look at him.

"Then who the fuck was it?"

Lucien shrugs.

"No clue her exact identity. But we of course did a background check on her ahead of time, and… well, the Laville Family definitely looked like our 'Hope'. Even the pictures of Hope herself as a child looked right. But the woman I just healed tonight was a natural red head with green eyes."

Blackfire gnashes her teeth.

"And you healed her anyways? You just let her walk out like that?"

Lucien gives his 'henchwoman' another look.

"Yes. I did. She isn't the only one hiding her true identity, and I wasn't about to give anything away with a confrontation that might blow our cover. Besides, even if she wasn't actually Hope Laville, the money was still good and she actually was in need of healing."

Huffing, Blackfire shakes her head.

"… This isn't over. She's not going to give up. I suppose now I know why she was trying to pry into your love life."

Shrugging, Lucien relaxes back into the pillows and smirks.

"Well it's not like it matters. She might not be who she says she was, but she also wasn't anyone too special, at least biology-wise. Sure, she gave me her number, but I don't exactly have to call her or anything. Real Hope Laville or not, we're probably never going to see or speak to her ever again."

There's a beat… and then his phone on the nightstand begins to ring. Blinking, Lucien reaches over and picks it up, his brow furrowing when he sees that it's an unknown caller… but the number… the number is familiar.

"No way…"

"What? Who is it?"

It's the exact number that 'Hope Laville' gave him earlier, Lucien knows it is. He hadn't saved it to his phone though or anything, so it wasn't coming up as her.

"She's calling."

Blackfire squawks at that, before glaring at the phone as though personally offended. Lucien, meanwhile, is suddenly contemplative. Blowing their cover was one thing. But if this fake 'Hope' was this desperate, then that meant there was probably no stopping her from continuing to pry.

Seeing the incredulous look Blackfire is giving him, Lucien shrugs.

"I mean… it would be a shame not to see where this leads, right?"

Still, he hesitates… was he really going to pick up the phone?

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] Lucien picks up the phone with an open mind (Barbara goes the seduction route) - 79%

[ ] Lucien picks up the phone to shut her down (Barbara has Huntress infiltrate the clinic) - 6%

[ ] Lucien doesn't pick up the phone at all (Barbara goes with Dinah's Villain plan) - 15%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Threadmarks Chapter 45: Honeypot New

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Oct 3, 2024

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#653

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Honeypot scheme is a-go!

-x-X-x-

With Blackfire still giving him an incredulous look, Lucien shrugs one final time and returns the look with a lopsided grin.

"Better the devil you know, right?"

Then, he goes ahead and answers the phone.

"Hello again, Ms. Laville."

There's a brief pause on the other end, before Not-Hope finally responds.

"… A-Apologies for taking the initiative, Dr. Luke, but I just wanted to… talk, if that's alright. You're not in the middle of anything, are you?"

Lucien smiles. It's gotta be an act of some kind, but whoever 'Hope Laville' really is, they're very good. So good that if he didn't know from scanning her that she was born with red hair and green eyes, he honestly wouldn't suspect anything was up. Impressive, to say the least.

"No, I'm not in the middle of anything. How are you feeling, Hope? Have you taken the first of your pills yet?"

He's telling the truth when he says he's not in the middle of anything. Him and Blackfire were already done, after all. Or so Lucien had thought. As if intent on making him a liar, or maybe just trying to teach him a lesson, Blackfire suddenly crawls under the covers. One of her hands wraps around his shaft and the other goes to his balls as she takes the tip of his flaccid cock in her mouth and begins to suck him back to full mast.

Lucien, of course, doesn't react in any audible way. He does let a long-suffering expression spread across his face, even as he listens to Hope's response.

"I… y-yes, I did. And I feel good, Dr. Luke. Better than good, I feel amazing. It's been so long since I lost my legs… and you gave them back to me. I can never thank you enough… or repay you for this gift."

Humming, Lucien tilts his head to the side, even as he lets his free hand drift under the covers as well and slide through Blackfire's silken black hair. She pauses for a moment, but he doesn't take control… rather, he just glides his fingers through her locks and his nails across her scalp as he gives himself a single second to contemplate Hope's words.

Because that was the other thing he'd noticed while scanning her. The natural red hair and green eyes were the smoking gun to be sure, and almost drowned out the rest when it came to exposing the lie… but there were also other signs that 'Hope' wasn't who she said she was. Like for instance, the timeline for the actual Hope Laville's shooting would have put her as barely more than a child, not yet even a teenager when she would have been paralyzed by a bullet in her spine.

However, the 'Hope' that Lucien had treated hadn't been shot that young. In fact, he'd say she was shot in her late teens, early adult years. And before becoming paralyzed, she'd been far more athletic than a girl of Hope's upbringing should have been. He'd seen traces of the kind of physical training and conditioning that he'd expect on bonafide Olympic Athletes or something.

All of this passes through Lucien's mind in just that split second… and then he shakes his head as he responds.

"I told you before, Hope… there's nothing to repay. You paid me for a service, and I provided that service. I'm glad you appreciate what I did for you, but you owe me nothing, not even gratitude. It wasn't like I did it out of the kindness of my heart."

It's far milder pushback than he could have provided. He's acting warm with her, while also making it clear he doesn't consider himself a good guy or any sort of hero. He's curious how she'll respond to that sort of self-flagellation.

Under the covers, Blackfire continues to work her way up and down his cock. He's fully hard by now, though Lucien still doesn't let her provoke so much as a sigh from him, let alone the groan she's probably after. Instead he just sits there quietly, enjoying the enthusiastic blowjob while waiting for Hope's response.

Instead of trying to argue with him though, 'Hope' latches onto something else he said.

"W-Well… service workers are often given tips when they do a particularly good job, right? And I say you did a spectacular job, Dr. Luke. So please… let me treat you to dinner."

And there it is. At long last, they'd come to the point of this call. Blackfire was right. 'Hope', whoever she really was, wasn't going to let this go. She wasn't going to give up. She wanted something from him, and until Lucien found out what it was, he needed to play along.

"Well now, under normal circumstances, I would have to decline for professional reasons. That said, I can tell you're very eager to settle this perceived debt between us. As such… dinner sounds lovely, Ms. Laville."

"G-Great! I'll get us reservations! How does The Ocelot sound?"

It sounded like one of the most expensive restaurants in the entire city, from what Lucien knew. It was also owned by Bruce Wayne. Though to be fair, it was one of several luxury restaurants that the man owned, alongside dozens of other businesses. Still, it fit in perfectly with the rich heiress act that 'Hope' had going.

"That sounds perfect, Ms. Laville. I won't lie to you though; I'm not exactly used to the finer things in life. You'll have to excuse me if I make a fool of myself."

"O-Oh, that's no problem!"

They quickly settle on a date and time, with Lucien rejecting the first and taking the second. Not because he can't actually do the first, in reality his schedule is quite flexible. But he still doesn't want to make things too easy for her, and having her second option for the day and time might just put her a little off her game.

"I'll see you then, Luke!"

"Alright Hope, see you then."

With that, the call comes to an end. Lucien sighs for a moment as he looks down at the head bobbing up and down under his covers. Finally, he grips down tightly on Blackfire's hair and holds her in place as he begins to cum. She swallows every last drop of course, not hesitating to drink down his jizz.

Then, pulling back out from under the covers and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, the disguised alien princess gives him a narrow-eyed look.

"You're really going to play along with this? It could be a trap."

Lucien chuckles.

"It's almost certainly a trap. But like you said, she's not letting this go regardless. So I might as well get some free food out of the deal. Besides, I'm not going in without backup."

Blackfire perks up at that, but before she can respond…

"Mrow."

She and Lucien both look to the door, where a certain Snow Leopard Cub (albeit one that's quickly growing up even now) is sat back, licking his chops while staring at his owner unerringly. Once he has Lucien's attention, Spot doesn't hesitate to lift a paw into the air and paw in his direction.

"Mrow."

The 'feed me now' subtext is quite clear. Rolling his eyes, Lucien hops out of the bed, glancing over to Blackfire as he does so.

"We'll discuss plans later. For now, seems like someone else is hungry."

Blackfire just rolls her eyes and lays back on the bed, while Lucien lets Spot lead him to the kitchenette. Their new place is located above the clinic itself, with both the clinic and the residence being in the same building. Lucien had considered transforming Spot and disguising the Snow Leopard as much as he did Blackfire and himself, but in the end he'd left Spot alone.

For one, he didn't want to mess with the Snow Leopard's growth too much. Sure, he'd made some modifications here and there already, including to his pet's intelligence, but there were some things that needed to happen naturally and Spot growing up was one of them.

As he gets Spot his food, Lucien can't help chuckle.

"You know Spot, I'm going to a place called The Ocelot in a few days. And here I am feeding my Snow Leopard. Funny how that works out, isn't it?"

The look Spot gives him is distinctly unimpressed. Something like 'why are you making small talk with me, just feed me and go back to mating with the other one', if Lucien had to guess.

Smiling awkwardly, Lucien finishes setting out Spot's food, steals some scritches under the Snow Leopard's chin for a moment, and then heads back to Blackfire. NOT to fuck her some more, but to strategize his upcoming date with 'Hope Laville'. Though they do end up fucking again too.

-x-X-x-

Before he knows it, the evening of their arranged date arrives, and as he meets up with the fake heiress outside of The Ocelot, Lucien has to admit… she cleans up very, very nice. Clad in a tight black dress that goes well with her dyed black hair and a dash of red on her lips, 'Hope Laville' smiles as they greet one another, not even hesitating to scoop him up with an arm interlocking with his own.

"Thank you again for giving me this chance to further express my… appreciation for what you've done for me, doctor."

Lucien hums as they walk forward together, waved past a line and into the restaurant itself with barely a moment's hesitation from the doorman.

"Call me Luke tonight, please. We're not at my clinic this evening, after all."

Hope blushes and demurely ducks her head.

"Ah, of course… Luke."

She's a stellar actress, Lucien can't help thinking. He's not too bad himself, he figures, but to be fair, he's cheating. He's cheating massively. Regardless, they go right up to the counter and are being seated under a reservation for 'Hope Laville' practically instantly.

Lucien would be lying if he said he hadn't had some pretty wild fantasies about how far his date for the evening might go tonight. He might have been born to one of the richest men in the world, but it's not like Lex ever acknowledged him or his existence in any meaningful way. So no, he's not had much in the way of 'rich person' training… or at least, Lucien figured that's what normal heirs and heiresses to immense family fortunes got or something.

Part of him had wondered if 'Hope' might go all out and by out the whole restaurant for just the two of them. Another part of him had wondered if she would go for a private room, all the better to try and extract his secrets either through seduction or… enhanced interrogation.

But no, neither of those things happen. Their waiter does call their seats 'the best in the house', but Lucien doesn't know enough about luxury restaurants to be able to say if he's telling the truth or just talking up the table.

The place is crowded with other rich, fancily dressed folks as Lucien and 'Hope' get into dinner. They exchange small talk with one another while Lucien waits for his date to find a way to put the screws to him. Eventually, the questioning starts after their appetizers arrive, as he suspected it would.

"So, Luke… I won't ask something so trite as where you're from. But I have to know… what brought you to Gotham? This city… it's not exactly the immigration destination of the country or anything like that. It's not even a tourist trap. Why Gotham, of all places?"

It's a good question, Lucien has to acknowledge. He, of course, has an answer already prepared. Smiling at 'Hope' over his appetizer, he chuckles.

"Well, as you know, the clinic is funded by LexCorp and I work for their medical division. I wasn't forced to take the posting or anything though… rather, I volunteered to come here."

That was all 'true', if one looked at the falsified documentation made for 'Doctor Luke Maximillian'. Lucien thinks he sees a flicker of doubt in his date's eyes though, and he wonders if she has access to those made up files. Does she believe what's in them? Or does she somehow know they're a lie?

"Pardon my French, Luke… but why the fuck would you volunteer to come to Gotham?"

Lucien grins… and then puts every bit of his power into delivering his next line with complete 'honesty'.

"Because this city needs the support. And I wanted to make a real difference."

His words stun 'Hope' into silence. His sincerity, as manufactured as it was, is clearly winning her over. She can't detect the lie, from the look of things.

As she's processing the 'truth' of his words, Lucien's eyes flicker to the side, to one of the large potted plants lining The Ocelot's main room. It would be an understatement to say that Lucien is on edge tonight. Every fiber of his being is on high alert, just in case 'Hope' turns out to be aiming for a more violent sort of confrontation. He's already checked his food for any drugs or poisons, and only ate once he found nothing.

… And so, with how heightened his senses currently are, Lucien sees it coming before it truly begins. One of the potted plants is growing… and its roots are climbing out of the pot and starting to expand across the ground.

Ah… shit.

KABOOM!

It all happens too fast for him to do anything, even if he wanted to. Shrieks and screams fill The Ocelot as the far wall, a wall with zero tables near it, suddenly explodes. At the same time, the potted plants all explode as well and Lucien has a moment to wonder why the fuck anyone would maintain greenery in a city with a villainess plant controller… before said villainess plant controller herself saunters through the hole.

"EVERYONE DOWN ON THE GROUND!"

Only, Poison Ivy isn't the one to command the room. While she certainly has a commanding presence as she stands there with her hands on her hips and her shapely figure clad only in a green, leafy costume, its her partner who actually does the talking… and who everyone hastily listens to almost immediately.

The Joker might currently be in Arkham, something Lucien himself had checked up on when he'd first arrived in Gotham just to make sure he always knew where the bastard was… but his Queen was still out and about, and she commanded almost as much terror and fear as the Joker himself did.

Smiling wickedly, Harley fucking Quinn hoists a massive hammer on her shoulder like it's easy, even as her gaze sweeps back and forth across the room and her tongue traces out to lick her lips.

"This, my dear rich folk… is a ROBBERY!"

-x-X-x-

A/N: Huehuehue

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Stick with Lucien's POV - 28%

[X] Switch to Barbara's POV - 72%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

Spoiler: and other Links

Last edited: Oct 3, 2024

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Oct 10, 2024

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#674

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

In which lots of questionable decisions are made.

-x-X-x-

No way. There was just no way. This couldn't possibly be happening. Barbara wanted to scream. She wanted to get up out of her chair, confront Harley and Ivy, and ask them what the fuck they thought they were doing!

Obviously, she can't do that. For one, she's not Barbara Gordon, Oracle, or Batgirl right now… she's Hope Laville at the moment. Even Harley, who knows her the best, isn't likely to recognize her, so there's no reason for Barbara to blow her cover. For two, she doesn't have nearly as much sway with Poison Ivy as she does Harley, and the sway she DOES have with Harley has to always be taken with a grain of salt.

Mostly because the bitch was crazy. And that wasn't intended as an insult, or at least not just an insult. It was an immutable fact that Harley Quinn was fucking nutso, for all that her backstory was undeniably tragic.

Going from a bright young psychologist as Doctor Harleen Quinzel to the Joker's main squeeze after he managed to sink his claws and teeth into her was bad, but her story hadn't stopped there. Sure, the Joker had created Harley, but to his no doubt considerable chagrin, he'd failed to keep control over his creation.

See, the Joker liked to think HE was the crazy one. In actuality, he was evil first, crazy second. He wanted people to think that everything he did was on a whim, and that he was the epitome of unpredictable… but that wasn't the case. In truth, as insane as the Joker and his schemes tended to be, he could always be counted on to do something evil, or diabolical, or downright heinous. Evil first. Crazy second.

Harley, on the other hand, was everything the Joker wanted people to believe he was. She was just pure crazy. Broken into a million pieces and put back together by the Joker himself, but he'd fucked up somewhere along the way. He'd failed to instill his particular brand of malevolent darkness in Harley. She wasn't even crazy first, evil second… she was just plain insane.

It had taken years for this to come out, because for years Harley had been the Joker's right-hand woman, his girl, his greatest piece of art. Until finally, he'd gone too far in trying to contain her, in trying to keep her at his side.

Barbara could still remember the night they'd first heard that the Joker and Harley Quinn had broken up. Dick had been the one to voice the question on everyone's minds.

"She can DO that?!"

As it turned out, yes… yes she could. In fact, as they'd all learned over the years, Harley could and would do pretty much anything she wanted. She was the chaos incarnate that Joker wanted to portray himself as, and Gotham itself almost seemed to support her zany and often times inexplicable antics.

However, as chaotic as Harley was, she wasn't evil. In fact, there had been a few times where she had even teamed up with the Birds of Prey to stop some of Gotham's real bad guys. It was enough for Barbara to tentatively see Harley as less of a villain and more of a force of nature… when she wasn't pitying her for being a broken woman who was probably beyond any conventional help.

Unfortunately, Harley wasn't in one of her 'ally to the Birds of Prey' phases right now. Because even though the Joker was currently in Arkham, Harley was still in her OTHER toxic relationship… that being her friendship with Poison Ivy.

Ivy wasn't as bad as the Joker, but that was like saying a hurricane wasn't as bad as a tsunami. They were both evil, plain and simple. Even if Ivy had her own tragic backstory, it didn't change the fact that she was a villain, through and through, and not someone that Barbara would ever even think of working with, even on a temporary basis.

"Wallets, watches, and jewelry on the tables! Yes, that includes the gold and diamond cufflinks, no matter how emasculating you find us calling those jewelry you old fucks!"

As Ivy's plants keep control of the crowd and Harley flits around the room with a wide, shit-eating grin on her face, Barbara assesses the situation, trying to figure out what to do. Only, before she can do anything, a hand suddenly closes on hers and she blinks, looking over to see Luke smiling at her.

"It's alright Hope. You're going to be okay."

Oh. Wow, that was honestly very sweet. Honestly, if she hadn't got so caught up in her own thoughts, she probably would have played her role better. She should have definitely been panicking more at the very least, maybe whimpering and even crying like some of the other women in the Ocelot's dining room were currently doing.

Instead, she'd sat there frozen and incapable of making a move. And Luke had taken that as her fear response and sought to comfort her. She plasters a wavering smile on her face and squeezes his hand back. At the same time though, Harley is closing in on their table, so it was probably time to give up the goods, so to speak.

After she got done divesting herself of the jewelry she'd purchased for the evening, she would be sure to press the panic button she had hidden behind her left ear, signaling for Huntress and Black Canary to swoop in and back her up. Obviously, they were only supposed to be her back up in case Luke somehow proved to be a threat to her, but the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

However, before she can do any of that… Luke surprises her by standing up. Suddenly rising from his seat, the man quickly draws the attention of both Ivy and Harley with his antics, even as Barbara watches on, gobsmacked. What the hell did he think he was doing?!

"Ladies! Ladies, please… there's no need to frighten anyone. You have us all well in hand already, don't you think?"

Harley and Ivy exchange an incredulous look that makes it clear they're feeling the same level of bafflement as Barbara. This is followed by Harley skipping over to their table all the faster, until she's right in front of the tall doctor, peering up into his eyes.

"Hmm… and who are you supposed to be, exactly?"

Harley's eyes do flicker over to Barbara for a second, but they barely seem to register her, let alone see through her disguise. That's good and all, but it in no way salvages the utter disaster that this situation is rapidly evolving into. Especially when Luke doesn't so much as quail in fright before Harley, despite the crazy bitch's ability to fold him in two with a single swing of her hammer.

He also doesn't glare in defiance at her either. The easy grin on his face is likely to be more infuriating to the pair of villainesses however, or at least to Ivy, as he matches Harley's energy with his own.

"Nobody special. Name's Luke, I'm the doctor at the newly opened clinic funded by the Luthor Foundation. Look, I know you gals aren't out to hurt anyone. Surely-!"

Whatever he was going to suggest, Barbara never gets to hear it. The moment that he gave his identity, a change had come over both Harley and Ivy. Harley's attention on Luke, which had been only half there before, suddenly becomes laser-focused despite the poor woman's Super ADHD. And Ivy… Poison Ivy immediately begins walking over to them, her plants keeping everyone else from trying anything foolish.

Mid-sentence, Luke is interrupted by Ivy winding an arm around his neck and pulling him into one of her signature kisses. Barbara chokes on her own spit, hoping against hope that Ivy is using the mind-controlling toxins on her lips tonight, and not the instantly fatal kind.

Fortunately, when she pulls back, Luke doesn't immediately keel over dead. He also doesn't say anything though, suddenly swaying in place with a dazed look on his face.

"It seems we have a volunteer to carry our bags and make sure the police don't make any… mistakes when we leave. Go ahead and collect the payday, Luke."

Mindlessly, the doctor proceeds to do as he's bid by Ivy. The plants form a large basket for him to carry, and he fills it up with all of the valuables from the Ocelot's other patrons. No one can even be that mad at him as he does so, most of them just have pitying looks on their faces. That or relief that they weren't the ones singled out by Ivy or Harley instead.

Barbara sits frozen at her table in disbelief at Luke's stupidity, as he mechanically walks over to Harley and Ivy waiting at the hole in the wall they'd made. Harley cackles and loops her arm in one of Luke's as if he's escorting her somewhere, thrusting her hammer up into the air in victory.

"Booze money secured!"

And then… they're gone. No one moves initially, because the plants are still very much active. But then they retract back into their vases or fall limp where they extended, and everyone takes that as their cue to begin to freak out.

As Pandemonium ensues, Barbara is finally shaken out of her stupor by the sheer cacophony of noise… and curses to herself as she FINALLY reaches behind her ear and hits the hidden panic button there. She should have hit it earlier, but she'd just been so shocked by the sheer idiocy Luke had displayed that she hadn't been able to do much of anything.

… Hopefully, it wouldn't cost the young man his life…

-x-X-x-

Lucien found himself in a bit of a conundrum. It had always been his plan to try and convince Ivy and Harley to focus on him instead of anyone else in the room. This wasn't out of some vaunted sense of heroic spirit or anything like that, however. Rather, Lucien had figured he might be able to nab the blueprints of their biology somehow.

There was always the risk that they would try (and fail) to kill him outright, but he didn't think they would, just based on what he knew of them. They weren't there to send a message or to kill a bunch of rich folk, they were just there to rob them. So Lucien figured it would probably be okay to catch their attention and then open a dialogue afterwards, since he figured he might be able to help both women out with his powers.

His decision to act was also helped by the reaction his date had to their presence. She barely reacted at all, except to stare with a sort of wide-eyed, horrified fascination as everything proceeded. When he touched her hand and pretended to be trying to comfort her, the read he'd got from her biology was that of controlled panic. This situation wasn't her doing, but she also wasn't nearly as afraid as she should have been.

If he wasn't walking into a trap set by 'Hope' by drawing Ivy and Harley's attention, then he figured it would probably work out for the best all the same.

There was just one small problem with all of that, in the end.

"Can't believe how easy this gig was! He literally delivered himself to us on a silver platter, bahaha!"

"Heh, indeed. The bravado and arrogance of men knows no bounds."

"Half a million for each of us… this is the easiest payday of my life!"

"… So long as Black Mask actually pays up, of course. Don't let your guard down, Harley. You and I both know he'll stab us in the back if he senses even a hint of weakness."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't gotta nag me, Ivy, I know, I know! I ain't about to get all chummy with Black Mask of all fuckers. Let him try something, I'll happily put him in the ground!"

… Yeah. They're currently traveling through Gotham's extensive, apparently expansive sewer system on a plant creation made by Ivy that easily holds them all. Lucien isn't restrained or anything, but that's because they think Ivy's kiss has him under her hypnotic control. It doesn't, of course. The toxins in Ivy's body don't work on him, for obvious reasons.

That said, he feels like he has a bit of egg on his face. Apparently, while he hadn't walked into a trap set by the fake Hope Laville, he HAD walked face first into another trap entirely. It would seem that the robbery was just a cover, a complete façade. In actuality, their real target all along… was him.

Lucien should have known, but how could he ever have guessed? Sure, whoever Hope was, she was certainly interested in him to the point of inviting him to dinner, but beyond that, how had he garnered the interest of Gotham's Underworld quite so fast?

As they continue along, Lucien wracks his brain for everything he knows about Black Mask. The man is a Gotham Crime Lord with a fixation on masks and a reputation for being ruthless and sadistic.

… And that's about it. Yeah, look Lucien had never lived in Gotham in his previous life, and while he knew about certain individuals more than others, Black Mask hadn't been one he paid much attention to. He knew OF the man and had heard of some of his deeds, but didn't know much beyond that.

In the end though, knowing more about Black Mask probably wouldn't have influenced the decision Lucien now had to make one way or another. It wasn't really about Black Mask in the end… it was about who precisely he wanted to expose his true nature to… if anything at all.

His first option was to break out of Ivy and Harley's grasp right here and now and knock the two women unconscious before they could even react. They'd definitely know he escaped them though, and they would almost certainly come after him later. There wasn't much point in blocking their memories of him, not when everyone had seen him go with them in the first place.

His second option was to let them deliver him to Black Mask and then once they were gone, break free THERE. He could then block out those memories of anything he had to do, though that would only be a half-measure at best. Still, it would mean only Ivy and Harley would know he'd done something to get free of Black Mask, since they would be the only ones to know they'd taken him to the Crime Lord in the first place.

Final option was to hold off entirely. Blackfire would almost certainly be rescuing him by the end of the night if he didn't rescue himself, so he could allow Harley and Ivy to deliver him to Black Mask, then see what Black Mask wanted with him, and all the while wait for Blackfire to swoop in and bust up the joint getting him back.

It would expose her as his superpowered bodyguard and let everyone in Gotham know that the new clinic was protected by a metahuman mercenary, while keeping his cover intact.

Regardless of what he chose though, sacrifices were going to be made one way or another. Quite the conundrum, to be sure.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Break out of Ivy and Harley's grasp by knocking them unconscious and fleeing the scene - 14%

[X] Let them deliver him to Black Mask so he can break out there and wipe some memories - 56%

[ ] Let them deliver him to Black Mask so he can wait for Blackfire's rescue and maintain his cover - 30%

-x-X-x-

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The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Oct 17, 2024

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Lucien does a little trolling.

-x-X-x-

As Poison Ivy's plant crawler carries them through Gotham's too-big sewers, Lucien finally comes to a decision… and stays put. While he certainly COULD take out both Ivy and Harley right now with minimal risk to himself, he's not sure it would serve him all that well. Everyone knew he'd been taken by the two villainesses after all, and they would wonder how he got away.

Not to mention it would earn him the enmity of both women. Even if he tried to wipe their memories of these events, they would inevitably find out that something had happened when they heard news coverage of their abduction of him later on. So in the end… it was better to just let them take him to Black Mask. It was the path of least resistance.

All he had to do was sit there quietly, pretending to still be under the effects of Poison Ivy's toxins. While doing so, he plays around with what he's gleaned from her kiss and his brief touches of Harley Quinn. Both women are… interesting specimens. Not quite human, either of them.

This is much more pronounced in Ivy's case, of course. The plant controller isn't JUST a plant controller… she's part plant herself. She can even regenerate body parts in the same way plants might regenerate branches and vines. She's also not going to be aging out of that beautiful figure of hers any time soon. Thanks to the way her DNA has been mutated, she's going to live longer and age slower than your average human being so long as she manages to get enough sunlight. Photosynthesis at its best.

Harley on the other hand, is far closer to baseline human. Closer… but not quite there. What Joker had done to her hadn't just broken the insane woman's mind, but also altered her physiology. For one thing, she was immune to the sort of toxins that Ivy could deploy. Which made sense, given she would have to be in order to be around Joker's own crimes against humanity.

She was also tougher, stronger, and faster than a baseline human. Not quite as tough, strong, and fast as a Tamaranean though, but Lucien's power didn't make him pick and choose. He could combine, mix and match, and all around stack such things on top of one another.

He wouldn't right now though, if only because making an entirely new template based on a mixture of his new gains would take time and concentration, both of which were in short supply at the moment.

Indeed, no sooner had that thought crossed his mind than they've pulled out of the sewers and into Gotham's warehouse district, located up against the shoreline. Ivy's plant crawler moves even faster now, until eventually they arrive at what he assumes is their ultimate destination if the goons outside of the warehouse are any indication.

"Hold it. You got the goo-urk!"

The goon who tries to stop them barely gets a handful of words out before one of the plant crawler's limbs lashes out and impales him through the shoulder and into the front of the warehouse. Not an immediately fatal injury, Lucien absently notes as the other goons all tense up.

"Trash like you doesn't talk. Open the door, so that we can deliver Black Mask his prize and claim our reward."

Ivy's tone is icy and brooks no argument… and so no argument is attempted. The large garage door at the front of the warehouse is opened up, allowing for Ivy, Harley, and him to all travel into the warehouse itself in proper style, like a pair of Queens and… whatever he would be in that situation. Servant Boy, maybe?

Regardless, Lucien is reminded of what Ivy had told Harley back in the sewers. They couldn't afford to show weakness to these men, not even for a second. Otherwise, Black Mask would go back on their deal, stab them both in the back, and try to take him without paying.

Harley stands now, still on the plant crawler but with one foot up on the railing and her massive hammer hoisted on her shoulder. She's wearing a wide, wild-eyed grin on her face that makes it clear she almost hopes violence will break out. She doesn't leap down though, even as the plant crawler comes to a stop in front of a man in a Black Mask and about two dozen goons toting guns of varying degrees of size and lethality.

Ivy also doesn't bother climbing down from the plant crawler. Instead, she stands there with her legs slightly spread and her arms crossed over her ample chest, projecting pure strength and confidence.

"Black Mask. Where's our money?"

Lucien can't quite make out everything from his position in the back of the crawler, and he can't crane his neck without giving the game away. He thinks he sees Black Mask moving about though down on the ground.

"Ivy. Where's the merchandise?"

Without missing a beat, Poison Ivy snaps her fingers at Lucien, and he dutifully rises from his seat and walks up to her, making sure to have a blank expression on his face as she grabs him by the neck and roughly pulls him down to show his face to the crime lord waiting on the ground below.

"One Luke Maximillian, Doctor of the new Luthor Foundation Clinic, as ordered. One million dollars and he's yours."

There's a brief pause and Lucien can all but see the cogs turning in Black Mask's head despite the… well, the black mask covering his features. It's obvious the sadistic crime boss is currently contemplating what he might be able to get away with. But Ivy and Harley's show of force was clearly not for nothing, because in the end, he simply snaps his fingers and one of his henchmen comes forward, bringing a metal briefcase with him.

Black Mask opens the briefcase and shows Ivy and Harley the contents, which at a glance definitely look like a million dollars. Then, he closes the briefcase back up and tosses it through the air to Harley, who catches it with one hand easily.

Rather than open it and count it herself, the crazy female clown just hefts the briefcase up and down a couple times consideringly, even sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as if she's deep in thought… or rather, calculations. Finally though, she gives Ivy a cheeky grin and nod.

Ivy grunts and pushes Lucien forward off of the crawler. He could have caught himself, but that might have given the game away, so he lets his body impact painfully with the ground.

"I would say it's been a pleasure doing business with you, Black Mask… but we both know it would be a lie."

The plant crawler begins to back up at that, only for Black Mask to call out.

"Wait!"

"… What?"

For a moment, tension ratchets up again and Lucien prepares himself to be in the middle of a fight between villains. But as it turns out…

"He's still under the effects of your damn toxins. He's no use to me like that. Undo it!"

"Ah. Is that all? It'll wear off in another fifteen minutes."

With that, the plant crawler closes up, blocking Ivy and Harley from view and transporting them swiftly out of the warehouse before Black Mask can even think of giving the order to close the garage or stop them from leaving. Lucien, meanwhile, climbs to his feet slowly, still pretending to be blank faced as the crime lord who's just paid a million dollars for him approaches and looks him up and down.

"Tch, I'd say you're not much to look at… but honestly, you're built like a fucking truck. Sit him down and tie him up, boys."

Lucien doesn't resist as he's tied up and restrained to a chair, nor as a gag is put in his mouth. He's not sure why the gag though… if they have questions for him, won't it just get in the way?

Minutes pass by as Black Mask and his goons wait for Ivy's toxins to 'wear off'. Lucien, meanwhile, is not idle. Honestly, if he ever meets Ivy again, he'll have to thank her for the unintentional boon she's given him. Fifteen extra minutes to prepare? How lovely.

Once he's ready for the confrontation, Lucien slowly pretends to come to, coming out of his blank faced expression by blinking rapidly and jerking against his bindings as he looks around himself in a bit of a stupor.

"Ah, pretty boy is awake. Good."

Black Mask walks up to him then, and Lucien can practically feel the sneer through the mask as he grabs hold of his hair and yanks his head back in what's probably meant to be a painful manner.

"I don't know what Luthor was thinking. Maybe he just got complacent. Maybe he thought because he got one over on the Mayor's Office and Wayne Industries that he was in the clear. But he should have known better. Everyone knows he's not just a businessman. Deep down inside, he's one of us. And if he wanted to set up shop on MY turf, he should have come to Gotham himself to pay me some motherfucking tribute!"

… Seriously? That was what this was about? Black Mask was upset because he thought Lucien's father had made a play for a piece of Gotham without taking into consideration it's criminal underbelly? Paradoxically, that both made a lot of sense and very little sense. On the one hand, it was utterly moronic and completely idiotic. On the other hand, that seemed about right for a crime lord like Black Mask.

BAM!

Something in Lucien's eyes must give away his lack of fear, because Black Mask suddenly punches him in the face. Lucien has his head rock back, and he allows a small trickle of blood to come from his nose… but truth be told, it barely even tickles.

"I'm going to use you to send Luthor a message. He needs to understand that there's a price to doing business in MY city. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to cut off your pinkies… and then I'm going to let you go. And you'll tell Luthor that he needs to have a talk with me if he wants his little clinic to continue existing. Otherwise, it'll be a lot more than your pinkies the next time I have to drag-!"

Wump!

Black Mask pauses and turns to the sound of one of his henchmen just… falling over. The others all do the same. And then…

Wump! Wump! Wump!

Like dominoes, one by one, the two dozen gunmen in the warehouse begin to drop to the floor. Black Mask curses, pulling away from Lucien and pulling out his own handgun as he looks around.

"Did that bitch Ivy come back?! Where is she?! Find her!"

It's a fair assumption, really. But it's not Ivy. Lucien might not have had the time to make an all new biological template for himself, but he certainly had plenty of time to create a sleep toxin that would present as a colorless, scentless gas and begin exuding it from his skin.

Soon enough, every single one of Black Mask's goons are on the ground, unconscious. Black Mask himself is either made of sterner stuff… or more likely, his mask is special and protects him from airborne toxins.

Finally, after a long minute of losing his goons to sleep and no sign of Poison Ivy, Black Mask turns back to Lucien, seeming to come to a conclusion.

"Fuck… Luthor must have hired her to reverse kidnap you. Well fuck that shit! I'll fucking shoot you right fucking now!"

He all but rushes forward, preparing to plant the barrel of his gun against Lucien's forehead and a bullet in his brain. But Lucien, of course, isn't going to have that. His hands come up from where they had previously been restrained to the chair, and he grabs Black Mask by the wrist, yanking the gun up into the air so the single shot that the crime lord manages to fire off goes into the ceiling instead of his face.

Shock and surprise radiates off of the struggling, squirming crime boss as Lucien reaches up with his other hand and pulls the gag from his lips before grinning savagely.

"Luthor doesn't even know who you are."

He waits a beat to see the words impact in the masked villain's eyes, and then he knocks Black Mask out. Truthfully, he shouldn't have said anything, because in the end it's not going to matter. He goes ahead and induces amnesia in Black Mask and all of his goons, wiping their memories of the night as well as Black Mask's memories of even hiring Ivy and Harley to go after him in the first place.

For good measure, he instills a great fear in Black Mask using an incredibly potent and concentrated dose of one of his new toxins, one that should paralyze the masked villain and make it almost impossible for him to make any sort of move beyond trying to keep ahold of what he already had. That should keep the bastard in his lane, Lucien figures.

Dropping the man to the floor, he dusts his hands off just in time for a familiar presence to arrive in the warehouse. Turning, he smirks at the sight of 'Kamara Blackwater' hovering there with her hands clenched into fists, looking around with a frown.

"Not to worry, my dear… it's been dealt with. All that's left to do is decide how best to end the evening."

That gets a raised brow from Blackfire, but Lucien just shakes his head with a chuckle. He doesn't mean sexually.

"Everyone saw Ivy and Harley take me away, but now only those two lovely ladies know that it was at the behest of this idiot. So now I have a choice… either quietly go back to the clinic and act like nothing ever happened either way… or announce my safety to the local news and let them know that once they got far enough away, Ivy and Harley 'let me go'."

Lucien tilts his head to the side, weighing both options and humming consideringly. On the one hand, just quietly returning to his clinic would… well, it would leave people wondering precisely what happened, but unsure of anything one way or another.

On the other hand, going to the news to announce the fact that he'd been 'let go' by his abductors would place a nice little bow on this entire night… while also baffling the fuck out of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, heh.

Oh and either way, he should probably call 'Hope' at some point, to let her know he's safe. Even if she's not who she says she is, he's not supposed to know that.

Finally though, feeling a little indecisive, he looks to Blackfire.

"Well? What do you think?"

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] She suggests just going back to the clinic and pretending like nothing happened - 15%

[X] She likes the idea of announcing his safety to the local news to really fuck with Ivy and Harley's heads - 85%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Oct 24, 2024

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#704

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Misunderstandings. Misunderstandings everywhere.

-x-X-x-

"Just tell us what you did with the doctor, Ivy!"

"A lady never kisses and tells, Huntress!"

"Damnit Harley, you're better than this!"

"Hey now, Big Bird, I'm not the one who came into your home and made a mess of things!"

A mess is right, Ivy has to admit, even as she blocks another set of crossbow bolts from Huntress with a wave of her hand and the creation of another wall of plant life. They'd barely made it back to their place before they were set upon by the Birds of Prey. Harley had literally just turned on the TV so that they could sit down and actually count the money they'd gotten from Black Mask in peace, when Huntress and Black Canary had come barging in.

The one upside to that was that the briefcase hadn't been opened, and was still sitting somewhat innocuously on the floor between the coffee table and the couch. But on the other hand, the Birds of Prey weren't playing around, and at this point, they might have to get serious if they wanted to avoid having their payday ruined by the female vigilantes and their tomfoolery.

Frankly, Ivy herself would have gotten serious already by now, and probably started off that way… if it wasn't for Harley. The clown-themed woman was batshit crazy to the point of teaming up with heroes and villains alike whenever it struck her fancy, and as a result, she had… history with the Birds of Prey that Ivy didn't. She'd never been a full-fledged member or anything like that, on account of the unpredictability and impulsiveness, but they still tried to treat her with the kid gloves when they could, and that meant responding in kind.

Unfortunately for Ivy, Harley was her best friend. And friendship meant compromising. It meant she had to play nice with Harley's other friends, even if she knew Harley would pick her every time. Still… things were getting dangerous. Harley, for all her quirkiness, at least had the good sense to stay away from the couch and table and briefcase with a million dollars in it. Huntress and Black Canary on the other hand…

With a huff, Ivy pushes forward and a plant thrusts towards Huntress in such a way that the acrobatic vigilante has to dodge AWAY from the coffee table and couch, rather than towards it. Meanwhile, Harley is harrying Canary on the other side of the room, keeping that super sonic voice of hers away from the briefcase as well. But all it would take was one momentary lapse of concentration, or one single misstep, and one of those blasted Canary Cries might wind up blowing up the center of the lair anyways.

Gritting her teeth, Ivy pushes Huntress back and also reaches out towards Canary, holding back a little less as she lets some of her darlings explode out of the ground. As the two vigilantes curse at being stymied, Harley looks at Ivy with wide soulful eyes and a mighty pout.

"Hey! I was playing with birdie! You've got your own opponent, Ivy!"

Huffing, Ivy crosses her arms under her chest and rolls her eyes.

"This isn't a game, Harley. They're not going to let up. We need to think about getting serious."

Harley blinks at that, but before she can tell Ivy whether or not she's willing to let her finally take the damn training wheels off and go ham, something else happens. A gas cannister suddenly rolls up against Ivy and Harley's feet, before pretty much exploding. The thing is… it doesn't come from the Birds of Prey. Or at least, it doesn't come from Black Canary and Huntress.

As the gas gets in both their lungs, causing Ivy and Harley to break into coughing fits and stumble away from one another, all Ivy sees is a flash of black before she's suddenly on her back with a razor sharp batarang pressed against her jugular. Eyes widening and pupils shrinking to pinpricks, the plant controlling metahuman stares up into a cowl she hasn't seen in a long time.

"Stay. Down."

As the original Batgirl growls down at her, Ivy doesn't dare move. Meanwhile, Harley is quick to recover from the gas cannister as well thanks to her constitution, but she freezes the moment she sees the situation they're in. Though it's still a toss up whether that's because Ivy is in danger of losing her head, or because of who she's currently being threatened by.

"R-Red? You're… walking?"

Ivy licks her lips at that. She knew minor details at best about what had happened to the original Batgirl. She knew, for instance, that something had left her paralyzed, and that she'd become Oracle, a prominent networking specialist in the Superhero Community.

That in and of itself was more than most people knew, but Ivy also knew that Harley knew more. There were rumors that it had been the Joker himself who ended the original Batgirl's career as a vigilante, though Ivy had never been sure about that, mostly because… the Joker didn't tend to leave people alive. He hadn't left Batman's second Robin alive, that was for sure.

Still, she'd never pushed Harley on the details. She knew better. But now… well, she's kind of regretting it, because Batgirl is back, red hair and all, and she looks PISSED.

"I'm only going to ask once. Where is Luke Maximillian?"

This was a Batgirl trained in the old school style by Batman himself. Before the Justice League, before, some might say, he'd gone soft. Ivy didn't think she would kill, necessarily, but the implicit threat sends a shiver up and down her spine all the same. And really, who gives a fuck about Black Mask? The biggest concern is that the blasted do-gooders might take the money with them when they left if Ivy and Harley gave up the truth. But… well, maybe they could-

"-hat's right! Look, I know they're villains, and I know they've done bad things in the past. I'm not trying to whitewash them or anyways like that. But they didn't do anything too untoward to me. As soon as we were far enough away, they let me go and Poison Ivy's lipstick wore off about five minutes later."

Everyone on both sides goes still as the voice of the very man the Birds of Prey were here to rescue suddenly sounds out among them. Batgirl's eyes slowly move away from Ivy as her head turns to the forgotten television, but Ivy doesn't try to take advantage of her distraction. Instead, she's far too busy craning her head as best she can as well, ignoring the batarang at her neck entirely at this point in order to also stare at the television screen.

There, on the TV Harley had just managed to turn on before they were first attacked by Huntress and Black Canary… is the man of the hour himself. Luke Maximillian. He's standing there speaking to a reporter of all things, looking happy as can be and literally no worse for wear than before.

"You should understand how lucky you were, Mister Maximillian. Harley Quinn is the infamous paramour of the Joker himself, and Poison Ivy is a notable man-hater who has killed dozens with her kiss alone. It's rather hard to believe they just… let you go."

Luke shrugs in response, still smiling.

"Well first of all, it's Doctor Maximillian, thank you. Sorry, but I didn't go to medical school for nothing."

"Ah yes, of course. Apologies, Doctor."

"Apology accepted. Second… look, like I said, I'm not out to whitewash a pair of villains. They did in fact rob and terrorize a whole restaurant of people tonight before absconding with me, and that's bad in and of itself. And we cannot forget their previous crimes."

The doctor pauses for a moment before smiling wider.

"That said… Harley Quinn is as much a victim of the Joker as anyone else, if not more so. And all I can say is that neither she nor Poison Ivy did me a single ounce of harm. They used me to make their escape, sure… but then they let me go. So… at least as far as I'm concerned, no harm, no foul."

"Well… you heard it here first folks! It would seem that in spite of the harrowing experience he went through tonight, one of Gotham City's newest residents has a spine of steel and the chiseled physique to match! Perhaps that jawline of his is why Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy chose to spare Dr. Maximillian! Who can really say!"

…

What. The. Fuck.

As the news report ends, silence reigns for a moment longer before Batgirl suddenly pulls off of Ivy, somewhat awkwardly.

"You… just let him go? Why wouldn't you just tell us that? What was the point of all this if you just let him go?!"

Batgirl sounds unbelievably frustrated. Huntress and Canary look absolutely poleaxed. Ivy, meanwhile, thinks fast. First, she catches Harley's eye and cuts off any response from the other woman with a minute shake of her head. Then, sitting up and rubbing her neck, Ivy smirks.

"Like I told your friends… a lady doesn't kiss and tell. Besides, if we had tried to tell you the truth, would you have believed us? Or would you have kept demanding the 'real answer'?"

Ivy lets the accusation hang in the air for a moment as the Birds of Prey all exchange glances. Then, she lets her smirk grow a bit wider.

"Besides, Harley needed the exercise, lest all of that ice cream go to her thighs."

"H-Hey!"

With that, the situation is defused. Not that all is forgiven or anything like that, she's still Poison Ivy and they're still do-gooders and vigilantes. But they're so awkward about the 'misunderstanding' that Ivy and Harley are able to get them to go away and leave them alone just by turning over the ill-gotten goods from The Ocelot. A paltry sum in comparison to… well.

As soon as the Birds of Prey are gone, Ivy saunters over to the untouched couch, coffee table, and briefcase. A quick check through the senses of her darlings confirms that nobody but her and Harley is left in the area before she picks up the briefcase, sets it on the table, and flicks it open.

Inside… appears to be one million dollars. Checking it over for a moment, she confirms that it seems to be all there, and all very real. That's good… but it does beg the question…

"What's Black Mask playin' at, exactly?!"

Harley took the words right out of Ivy's mouth. Huffing, the plant controller pulls out her phone.

"Let's find out, shall we?"

What follows… is an undeniably strange interaction with one of Black Mask's goons. Ivy isn't so stupid that she mentions the bounty or any of that by name. But frankly, she also doesn't get far enough in doing so before she's basically shut down. By a henchman of all things. But from the sound of it… Black Mask is turtling up.

Whatever happened, it's causing the crime lord to shut down half of his operations and pull back to the center of his power where he can focus on holding onto what he has. He's ending all attempts at expansion… which in and of itself means certain death for him and his organization. It's not enough to just fortify and hold onto what you have in a place like Gotham City. You have to constantly be pushing for more, or you're liable to be seen as easy prey.

Coming out of the other end of the phone call, Ivy looks at Harley and Harley looks at Ivy.

"Luthor?"

"Luthor."

It was the only explanation. Lex Luthor had done something, or more likely, he'd sent someone into Gotham who could actually tango with some of the worst the city had to offer. Ivy's eyes narrow as she thinks back to their interactions with Luke Maximillian, both in The Ocelot and in the warehouse when they'd passed him off to Black Mask.

The conclusion she comes to chills her to her core. Luke Maximillian… was immune to her toxins. Either that or at least extremely resistance. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, because he was doing what he was told anyways, but he hadn't reacted to her kiss quite in the way she was used to. He'd been just a bit too robotic. Too mechanical.

It was almost like… well no. It was exactly as though he was someone pretending to be under her influence, rather than someone actually under her influence.

"Fuck."

Harley gives her a curious look, only for her eyes to widen as Ivy describes what she's just figured out about the damn doctor.

"Wha- but he was behind us in the Crawler the entire time! He could have attacked at any point!"

That was a good point. Ivy rubs her hands on her face and then shakes her head.

"He didn't want to. He basically presented himself to us on a silver platter back at The Ocelot. He knew we were there for him. He knew we would take him to Black Mask. He knew Black Mask wanted him."

It all made sense now that Ivy was laying it all out. They were basically little more than patsies, in the end. They were Luke Maximillian's chauffers to his rendezvous with Black Mask. And whatever he'd done to the crime lord, whatever he'd said to him… had caused Black Mask to completely turtle up and basically roll over and show his belly.

It leaves Ivy's mouth inexplicably dry just thinking about it. But… it also kind of pisses her off a little bit.

"We were stooges, Harls. Played as fools."

Harley hums, pressing a finger to her chin and tilting her head to the side for a moment… before looking to the briefcase.

"Well… we DID get a million smackeroos out of it. Black Mask didn't want the money back, right?"

She hadn't asked, but if he did, she's sure he would have demanded it. So no, Ivy doubted they were going to have to worry about anyone coming for their million. Still… ugh. Lex Luthor wasn't the kind of man even someone like Ivy wanted to tangle with. But at the same time, she utterly despised being tricked.

"What do ya wanna do, Ivy?"

Ivy frowns, appreciating that Harley was willing to back her up on this. Obviously, Harley didn't care about someone pulling one over on her, especially when she came out the other side with this kind of payday. But while the money was good… it wasn't necessarily about the money for Ivy. Still… did she really want to risk getting on Lex Luthor's bad side?

-x-X-x-

A/N: Did Barbara actually go and get the dye out of her hair before suiting up to reinforce Huntress and Canary? Yes. Yes she did. So extra.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Leave it alone, it's not worth it - 9%

[X] Investigate... subtly - 66%

[ ] Investigate... aggressively - 24%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!

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Cambrian

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Threadmarks Chapter 49: 'Subtle'

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Cambrian

Cambrian

The Pimperor - Inspirational as Fuck

Thursday at 3:14 PM

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A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

Barbara takes stock. Harley and Ivy do 'subtle'.

-x-X-x-

"Shit."

Having made it back to relative safety and privacy of the Clocktower, Barbara had pulled off her cowl as she went to grab the burner phone she was using as 'Hope Laville'. Initially, her intentions were to call Luke and give the blasted man a piece of her mind.

… But those intentions fall to the wayside pretty much immediately when she looks and sees that she has a handful of missed calls from the 'doctor'. Groaning, Barbara runs her hands down her face for a moment.

The evening had seemed like it was off to such a good start, too. But then Harley and Ivy had to sweep in and ruin everything. And to make matters worse, Helena and Dinah hadn't been able to keep up with them once they managed to make it down to the sewers. Ivy's plant crawler was just too fast to be followed on foot.

In the end, the Birds of Prey had been forced to rely on Barbara's snooping and knowledge of Poison Ivy and Harley's current haunts to track the pair of villainesses down to their current lair so they could confront them. And Barbara herself had taken extra time to get the black hair dye out of her hair and suit up again, so she hadn't exactly been checking her phone or anything like that.

Checking the time of Luke's calls, its clear that he called after Harley and Ivy let him go, but before going to the news to announce to everyone that he was safe. Barbara grimaces as she rolls a shoulder, wincing a bit at the feeling of a strained muscle there.

… She wasn't ready to go back out in the field, not really. Frankly, they were lucky that Ivy hadn't called her bluff or anything like that, because even though she'd gotten the drop on the other red head and had a Batarang to her throat, all it would have taken was one quick move from the plant controller and Barbara might have become the hostage instead.

Still, it had all worked out in the end… for a given value of the phrase. Everything was still very much up in the air. But if she didn't want to make things worse… Barbara lets out an explosive sigh and calls Luke back.

It takes a couple rings but finally, he answers.

"Hope! I tried to call you, but you didn't pick up. I was afraid something had happened to you!"

He sounds so damn sincere too. Barbara is beginning to wonder if she misjudged Luke from the very beginning, truth be told. Here he is, having all but served himself up on a silver platter to a couple of man-eating villainesses, and he was worried something happened to HER?!

"S-Sorry… my phone was on silent, and the police wanted to question us all at The Ocelot, so I missed your calls. I just saw the report on the news though… I'm so glad you're okay, Luke."

"Heh, yeah. I'm fine. Like I said to the reporter interviewing me, I'm not trying to deny all of their previous crimes… but at least for me, they just let me go. I guess maybe they have a soft spot for doctors or something?"

Barbara didn't think that was the case. Frankly, she still didn't fully understand why they'd let Luke go without harming a single hair on his head. Maybe Harley had had an attack of conscience and convinced Ivy he wasn't worth hurting? Not many people understood Harley Quinn's particular brand of insanity. Even Barbara herself didn't fully get it all the time, hence it being insanity.

… But the poor woman wasn't as much of a villain as many thought. She was the Joker's victim more than anybody, and all these years later, she'd really grown as a person… even if she was still batshit insane from time to time.

Yes, the more she thought about it, the only explanation was that Harley had talked Ivy into treating Luke with the kid gloves. But just because she'd pushed for Ivy to spare him on some whim tonight didn't mean she would do it the next time, so Barbara doesn't tell him her theories. Especially since 'Hope Laville' isn't supposed to know Harley personally anyways.

"W-Well… I'm just glad they let you go. But you were still dumb for standing up to them in the first place, Luke! If you'd just kept your head down, they would have probably left you alone!"

There's a pause on the other end for a moment as Luke hums.

"… I'm not so sure about that, Hope. I guess you didn't see it, but Poison Ivy had eyes on me even before I stood up. I think she had already picked me out as their hostage from the moment they came in."

What? Was that true? Barbara wracks her memories of the night, but truth be told it's all a bit jumbled up. It was… possible, yes. And it would explain why Luke had made such a dumb move, getting up like that. Still…

"Either way… I'm sorry you went through all of that. I'm glad you're okay."

"Heh, I'm glad I'm okay too Hope. I'm just sorry that our evening was ruined. We could try again, if you like?"

Barbara's eyes widen. She'd honestly thought she was screwed, that either the cover or at least the opportunity was burnt up tonight. But if Luke was still interested, than she still had a chance, didn't she?

"Y-Yes! I mean… ahem, yes, I would like that very much, Luke. Maybe… maybe not a high class restaurant though? Maybe something a little more lowkey."

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

Truthfully, she didn't have anything in mind. Or rather, what she had in mind was a goddamn interrogation room where she could question Luke about his true nature to her heart's content and he would answer every last one of her damn questions to her satisfaction! But as much as Barbara wanted that, she knew she couldn't have it. Besides… Luke probably didn't deserve to be treated like a criminal or villain. Despite his ties to Lex Luthor, he honestly seemed like a good guy…

"Maybe a movie?"

Even as she suggests it, it makes her wince. Damn it, how is she supposed to question him during a movie without coming across as suspicious for fuck's sake?!

"A movie and… d-dinner! Home cooked by m-me…"

There's a pause on the other end of the line as Barbara internally beats herself up. But finally, Luke responds with a tone full of warmth.

"I like that, Hope. It sounds lovely, let's do it."

Oh thank god. She hasn't fucked everything up. They quickly figure out the details such as the day and time, and then end the call with one another. Calming her racing heart, Barbara lets out a low sigh and runs a hand through her hair before shaking her head. Fucking Harley. Fucking Ivy.

But… at least they were out of the damn equation now. They shouldn't have any further interest in Luke Maximillian after this point, after all.

-x-X-x-

As he hangs up the call with 'Hope', Lucien can't help shaking his head in wry amusement. Whoever she really was, it was obvious she'd gotten desperate after missing his initial calls. Honestly, he couldn't help but wonder what the hell she'd been up to during that time. He'd figured more than anything she would want to know what was going on with him and that he was okay. But after trying to call her three times, he'd been forced to admit defeat and move forward with his plan to announce his safety on the news.

Still, maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe between her phone being on silent and the police questioning everyone at The Ocelot, she'd simply missed his calls. The desperation to get together with him again made it seem likely that that was the case. Whoever 'Hope Laville' really was, she still wanted something out of him. It would be interesting to see how far she went to get it.

He would have to- Lucien blinks as he suddenly gets an incoming message from Blackfire.

"Yes? What is it?"

"… Sir we have a situation in the Parking Garage."

A situation? Lucien blinks, immediately rising from his chair at the sheer terseness in Blackfire's voice. Whatever is going on down there has his alien henchwoman on edge, and if something has her on edge, then it definitely has him on edge too.

"A situation?"

"… Yes. We have a pair of guests down here. They say they're from Arkham Asylum. They say they need to speak to you."

What? Lucien's brow furrows in honest confusion. Arkham Asylum? Seriously? What the hell were those braindead morons in charge of that revolving door of a facility doing in his clinic?

"I'll be right down, Kamara."

"Very well, sir."

Lucien hurries from his office to the elevator and taps his foot impatiently as it takes him down to the garage. How had these 'guests' even gotten into the garage in the first place? Without an appointment, they should have had to go through the front door, regardless of where they were from.

They-

Ding!

The elevator doors open and Lucien steps out, hackles raised and ready for a fight solely based on the strangeness of this all and the fact that Blackfire had sounded so tense and terse on the call. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he actually found waiting for him in the clinic's private parking garage.

Blackfire is there of course, arms crossed over her chest, legs spread in a manner that makes it clear she's ready to throw down if necessary. The reason why is also immediately apparent. Because their guests might say they're from Arkham… but they most definitely aren't. Or rather, they aren't from the side of the glass in Arkham that they claim to be.

"Hi there! I'm Doctor Harleen! This is my assistant, Nurse Pam!"

Standing before him, 'disguised' as doctor and nurse respectively, are Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Admittedly, they've done their best to hide that fact. Harley has removed her signature face paint completely and cleaned herself up nice and proper. She's even done her hair in a tight, professional bun rather than pigtails like usual.

Ivy, meanwhile, has done something that almost manages to hide the light green hue of her skin, and her distinctive red hair is currently tightly bundled up under the Nurse's Hat she's wearing.

There's just a couple problems. One, while Harley's lab coat is pretty normal, the attire she has on underneath gives off 'Sexy Doctor' vibes more than 'normal doctor'. And Ivy makes it even worse, because she's definitely wearing the stereotypical 'Slutty Nurse' Halloween costume over actual Nurse's Scrubs like one would find a nurse wearing in a hospital, clinic… or asylum.

Admittedly, the tightness of Ivy's Nurse Uniform does draw the eye and distract from her light green skin rather massively, and Harley pulls off 'doctor' pretty damn well despite being crazier than a bag of cats. But at the same time… Lucien isn't an idiot. These two literally kidnapped him a few hours ago. What the fuck were they doing here now? They got to keep the million dollars, after all!

None of these inner thoughts show on Lucien's face as outwardly he maintains complete and total calm while stepping forward and accepting Harley's outstretched hand. He's ready if she tries anything of course, knowing full well that he has her outclasses in the strength department.

But to her credit, Harley just gives his hand a couple of solid pumps, only lingering for a moment with her index finger caressing his hand for a moment before pulling back with a slightly wolfish grin.

"Strong handshake for a handsome man, Doctor!"

Unprofessional, but then this WAS Harley Quinn. Rather than call her out on it, Lucien just grins.

"A sterling compliment from a beautiful woman, Doctor. A pleasure to meet you and your assistant."

He gives 'Pam' a nod, to which the other woman does her best to refrain from scowling at him. To be fair, Blackfire is also doing her best not to scowl too hard on his side of things, so they're equal there. However… they're not really equal anywhere else, are they? It was obvious Harley and Ivy had gotten into the parking garage via the damn sewers now. But WHY? Why were they here, exactly?

"What brings you two all the way down from Arkham Asylum to my clinic, exactly?"

Harley perks up at that.

"Oh! Well, as you may or may not know, we at Arkham Asylum have jurisdiction over all medical facilities in Gotham. Including this one! That's why Pam and I are here now, to act as liaisons and oversights between your clinic and the Asylum! You should have already been informed of this necessity, but the paperwork probably got lost in the mail or something!"

… There was no way that was true. Although, the state of Gotham would make a sickening sort of sense if it WAS true. Still, Lucien didn't believe that hogwash for a second, and not just because Harley and Ivy were obviously not here as representatives of Arkham OR Gotham. No, they were here for their own purposes wearing paper thin disguises that were somehow supposed to fool him and Blackfire.

Good lord, tonight just wasn't his night, was it? Sure, he'd come out somewhat ahead when he got access to Ivy and Harley's biology, both of whom had interesting things for him to pilfer and make his own. And he'd neutralized Black Mask as a threat by sending the crime lord into a downward spiral Lucien was doubtful he would recover from any time soon.

But beyond that, it'd just been one thing after another tonight. And now this was happening. Was he really going to play along with Ivy and Harley for even a second on this? Or was it time to lay down the law and set the record straight, once and for all?

The only thing really keeping him from doing the second right away was that it was probably precisely what they were here for. They wanted to know more about him and putting them in their place would require tipping more of his hand than he'd done with anyone else since coming to this damn city. Well, anyone else except for Black Mask.

Hm, he COULD give the villainesses amnesia now, he supposed. This wasn't like earlier, when breaking out of their custody and leaving their minds blanked wouldn't have solved anything. And yet… while he'd had no qualms about doing precisely the same thing to Black Mask, he found himself hesitating now to do it to Harley and Ivy.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Play along for now, see where they take this - 35%

[X] Don't entertain this lunacy, confront them on what they actually want - 60%

[ ] Knock them both out and block their memories, this is too much of a headache - 5%

-x-X-x-

A/N: Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, would mean a lot!