A Novel Approach (Worm Libriomancer system- Gamer lite OC)

by MalcolmTent6730

Simon Collins hates Brockton Bay. But that's alright. Brockton Bay hates him back. It hates pretty much everyone as far as he can tell. Now he's got superpowers, and without all those pesky horrible experiences to give them to him. Brockton Bay is a cape playground, and it's playtime for Simon. Sometimes, you can believe everything you read.

13. Chapter 13

January 28th, 2011 Secret Base, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire 7:00 PM EST- SP:109,100

I was pissed. More than that, I was scared. I wasn't used to that. I was literally invincible now, and when I'd been in Remnant, it had been so easy to just shrug off any danger. What was the worst that could happen? I mean, sure, seeing a new friend die would have sucked, but I didn't know any of them well enough that it would break me.

But here…I had weaknesses. My mom, my girls, my friends. I'd gotten complacent and forgotten that I wasn't untouchable yet. It wasn't about Drakken, I barely knew the guy, it was about what he represented. I could be threatened. Could be controlled.

It would be easy to just write my people off. Shego was a lot of fun, but I wasn't responsible for her beyond good sex and theft. But I was. Not just Nightfall, even Vagabond wouldn't hear about ditching our girls. Not that I would have, but it was notably one of the first times all three of us had agreed on anything.

More than that, this Dark Dragon asshole was a threat in a more immediate sense. Even if I sacrificed everyone or fucked off to another world, he'd grow in power and take over Brockton.

Brockton might be a shithole, but it was MY shithole. I wasn't like my deadbeat dad, who would just bail when things got tough. I mean sure, I'd considered it. But in the end it was too…cowardly. Too weak. It wasn't who I wanted to be. I'd stay and fight for my city. But I just didn't know how to do both. Nightfall and Vagabond both agreed we couldn't abandon Shego, but we couldn't bail on the Bay either.

Which meant I needed to deal with things directly. I needed to prepare a way to take out the Dark Dragon after he got what he wanted.

Well, I'd try to take him out before that. Once he dealt with the bomb in Drakken's head. Beyond that I needed to figure out a backup plan for THAT, in case he double crossed me. I didn't trust that snake fucker further than I could throw the ship his creepy minions lived in. Agreeing to his terms was more to buy time than out of any actual presumption he would follow through.

But unless I could find a "brain bomb remover" in a book somewhere, I was going to be taking a risk with anything I attempted. Best bet would be to try to have him do it, then if he didn't do it myself and then kill him for the double cross.

There were SO MANY points of failure in that plan though. The more things could go wrong the more preparation I needed, and I couldn't drop too many resources on this because Leviathan was coming, and the artifact I found to deal with the bastard was A-class and expensive. I needed…I stopped. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths.

I needed to calm down. To consider my resources. To consider my options. I was reacting and not acting, just like they wanted. You don't stage a show like that unless you're trying to throw someone off their game. The Dark Dragon had given me a scenario, and framed it in such a way that I would think I had to react in a limited number of ways.

In reality, I had other options. Firstly, I didn't need to remove the bomb OR wait for him to do it. Because they'd told me that he didn't implant it himself. A tinker in the ABB had installed the hardware, and could presumably remove it. If I could find and capture that person, forcing them to do what I wanted, I could sidestep the whole problem, then team up with Long and Lao Shi and maybe even Lung to put that bastard down.

So, my enemy had shifted from the shadowy draconic menace I'd never heard of the shadowy draconic menace who made everyone in town wet their pants at the mention of his name. Lovely.

The worst part was I couldn't just go at this head on. I might be able to take Lung in a fight at this point, but even if I did I'd just scare the bomber into hiding. No, I needed something else. I needed to boil the water so slow the frog didn't even realize it was heating up. Which meant I needed to increase street level pressure on the ABB.

And in the spirit of maximizing resources, I had JUST the way to do it. "Shego!" I called, yelling for the green tinted villainess. Her head stuck through my door within a minute.

"What's up boss?" she asked tiredly. "I'm just helping settle Doctor D in. He's…he's in a bad way. He's a big teddy bear, you know? This kind of rough treatment ain't his comfort zone. What do you need?"

"Minions," I said bluntly. "Drakken has them right? Preferably lots of them?"

She shrugged. "I mean, maybe twenty guys. They're mostly big menacing idiots though. I can cut through ten of them with one hand behind my back."

"Can they fire a gun?" I asked. "That's really all I need."

"I mean, yeah," she said slowly. "Regular bullets don't do much against even low level brutes, but they're decent enough shots to drive off poachers looking to pick the Doc's lab clean. Normal gang members steer clear of the lair."

I grinned at her. "Bring them here. And bring me all their weapons. Ammo too. I've got some gifts for them and then a job. I can pay."

That was exactly what I needed. Hired guns with decent aim and a grudge. Twenty guys would be just right. My Horadric Cube let me merge gems with items. While a big honking Lucky gen could enhance a weapon a lot, I was betting the smaller dust crystals would work fine combined with a bit of normal ammo. We'd have to test it, but if it worked like I had been planning, my new muscle would be packing elemental ammo.
Of course, if necessary I could buy some guns and ammo with points, since they were normal items I could get them for practically nothing, with even high quality weapons only costing a hundred points for ten, but every point was precious.

It didn't take long for them all to show up, only about an hour, and they arrived carrying crates of guns and ammo, exactly as I'd hoped. I had them all drop the crates and go stand guard, figuring Drakken might feel more at ease with them around, then got to work on upgrading all the ammo and testing it out.

First up, I used a bit of lightning dust (the shitty sand stuff, most of my high quality lightning dust had been blown up killing that scorpion) and a box of ammo, slipping them both into the Horadric Cube.

Sure enough, when I removed them, the ammo was shot through with veins of yellow crystal. The base had a shooting range for practice, and I'd had them bring the guns to me there, so it was pretty easy to load up and test it out.

The bullet slammed into the target dummy, a small explosion of electricity arcing out and burning the front place of the armored target. Approaching, I found that there wasn't much penetration there, the effect had spread over the body, but that kind of voltage would definitely drop somebody without a Brute rating, possibly even permanently.

Grinning, I started testing out new configurations. Fire exploded, obviously, and ice created a coating that bound people in place. Gravity dust made the person hit with it crushingly heavy for about a minute, and the effect had cracked the dummy I used it on, so I was guessing it would crush a normal person.

Earth punched a big ass hole through the middle of the dummy, apparently creating some sort of condensed force shell compressed to an extreme density. I had no clue WHY, but it was definitely one of the most effective, and might even be usable on brutes.

Wind dust created a knockback effect, essentially blasting a person away with enough force that it might break some bones. My last dust type, Steam Dust, was probably the most impressive. A steam bullet exploded into a cloud of superheated mist that directly melted the damned dummy into slag.

I knew that Steam, like Gravity, was a combination dust type, and I had to wonder how much stronger the secondary types were. I made a mental note to experiment with new combo dust types, seeing if I could fuse them with the cube. For now though, I identified the most effective street level bullets.

Ice, Lightning. And Wind. While Earth, Fire, and the two combos were more destructive, I was worried demonstrating that kind of damage potential might turn some of the neutral factions less neutral. As long as we stuck to restraint and debuff stuff, chances were good none of the really big boys would get involved. Not to mention Drakken was kind of cuddly for a villain, and I didn't see his people wanting to blow up body parts with every shot.

I spent the next hour or so creating the three kinds of rounds. As I went, I did more testing, managing to identify that some ammo types worked better for certain types of dust. Shotgun shells amplified the effect of wind dust, for instance, and hollow points were more useful for ice. Lightning rounds did better in low caliber stuff, weirdly, seemingly more concentrated by the small size.

It was probably the most fun I'd ever had with my clothes on, though I was glad no one was around to see. I'd never fired a gun before the first time I used a forty four the gun flew out of my hand and hit me in the face. It did zero damage, obviously, but it was embarrassing enough that I checked for observers, including my cat, for about two minutes before heaving a sigh of relief.

Once that was done, I had Shego call the minions back. "Alright," I said as they arrived. "I'm Vagabond. Shego works for me. I'll be subcontracting you all for a little while while Doctor Drakken gets back on his feet. We don't have vision, we don't have dental, and if you die your families get nothing. However," I gestured to the crate of converted ammo. "I have a crate of tinkertech bullets. Who wants to try?"

They were all wearing goggles and weird skin tight hoods, but despite that the eagerness was plain to see. I passed out the guns after getting everyone's agreement, and they all decided to sign up.

Meanwhile, Shego grabbed the biggest gun she could find and started testing out all the dust rounds. I even let her play with the lethal ones, and when she settled on the earth rounds as her favorite, I gave her a few boxes directly. She stared at me, expression complicated, then grabbed me by the shirt, pushing up my mask and smashing her mouth against mine.

"Go get that fat bottomed cat slut," she growled at me hungrily. "I made you a promise a while ago, and if I'm taking that massive bitch breaker up my ass I want her to tongue my pussy while you work it in." I knew they'd flirted a bit when they were hanging out, but I hadn't realized they were threesome close yet. Admittedly Shego was a fucking fox, so maybe she just figured Blake would be down to pound.

She turned, slapping her tightly wrapped ass for emphasis as she strutted away, and I stared at the green and black wrapped cheeks as she left.

Hurrying out of the room, I ran to find Blake, basically throwing her over my shoulder as I hauled her off, much to the pouting annoyance of Bonnie and the aroused interest of Squealer. When we go to Shego's room, she was naked on all fours waiting for us. She shook her ass at me, and I noticed the lube she'd applied to her rosebud to prep. "Took you long enough, pussy's getting cold kitten. Come eat up."

January 28th, 2011 Secret Base, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire 8:00 PM EST- SP:109,300 (nsfw warning. Tags:anal, threesome, bisexual, oral, maledom, petplay)

Blake, despite her combat awareness and the changes from the heart of fire, froze up. Shego looked fucking amazing spread out on the bed like that, and Blake was clearly interested, but her brain seemed to come to a screeching halt. Deciding Shego was being good, I figured I'd give her a little help, my hand snaked out, cracking down on the abundant rump that Blake's costume showed off so well a sharp report.

"What are you waiting for, cat slut? Put that smart mouth to work and go eat your tuna." My hand, still on her fat cheek, groped a bit, enjoying the elastic feel of grade A faunus booty meat. "Unless you don't want it? You can go if you aren't up to the job."

Based on Shego's proposal, I was sure the two of them had talked about this, at least briefly. Blake, fighter or not, was a subby little bitch in the bedroom, and Shego was a switch. I could pound her into submission, but she liked to be in charge. I'd given that a try, but it wasn't really my thing. Watching her ride Blake's pretty face though, that would be a treat.

Eyes fixed on Shego's dripping pussy, Blake lipped her lips. "No, master I want it, let your kitten lick her cream," she was breathing fast and light, and with another slap on the ass I sent her forward, all but diving into Shego's cunt as she buried her face in the villainess's bubbly green ass.

Shego moaned, head lolling back. "Oh fuuuuck, get it you little whore, lick that pussy. Fuck, boss, she's getting after it, slurping my hole like it's her favorite snack. You've eaten snatch before haven't you bitch? I know an experienced rug muncher when I feel one. Good little slut, show mommy what that tongue does."

Walking up behind them, I unbuttoned my pants. Seeing Blake's fat ass bounce and wriggle in her costume as she devoured Shego, I was half tempted to break in her bodacious back door, but I'd been waiting for Shego's rear hole for a while, so I just left a matching hand print on Blake's other cheek. "Get under her, this fat ass is in my way. You only get one hole tonight, don't block my access to the other."

I grabbed her hair, yanking her back, and she gasped as I did, looking over her shoulder. Her pretty face was dazed and slick with pussy, a massive grin splitting her soaked glistening mouth. "Sorry master," she simpered as she flopped down on her back and slipped between Shego's legs like a mechanic sliding under a car. She shoved both thighs, and like the blocks had been pushed out from under a pair of tires, Shego's propped up ass plummeted, her cunt smashing into the face of a gleeful Blake.

My kitten, being the generous and thoughtful girl she was, sank her fingers into Shego's sweet green ass as she ate, spreading the cheeks to expose my entry point into my first villainous rectum.

Shego's asshole looked…tiny. Sure, it was lubed, but it was also tight and small, like a little starfish, and with Blake pinning her hips down and distracting her by tonguing that pussy, there wasn't much movement to make lining up harder. My cock, which I'd taken out while Blake was changing positions, slipped between the spread cheeks easily, and I planted my hands on Shego's lower back to hold her totally still.

The head of my cock looked pretty much apple sized against her unspoiled back door, and I saw her freeze in place, looking over her shoulder at me almost fearfully, and then I started to push. There was a delay, a resistance as her tiny asshole tried to fight off my invading shaft, but the resistance was token, and with a slight pop the head of my dick slid past her entrance and into her ass.

I had to stop once it was inside. Her ass was…incredible. Obviously not as wet, but hot and tight and because of the lube, greasy. She groaned and her hips dropped, smashing her twat into Blake's face even harder, grinding it against the girl's catlike tongue. "Fuck!" snapped Shego. "That's a fat cock boss. You're gonna destroy my asshole. It's fucking huge. I can take it though, you fucking earned this ass. Keep going."

Hands still pinning her lower back, I started to slide in. As I did, I let my palms slide down to her cheeks, cupping Blake's frantically clawing fingers. But only on one side. As soon as I entered Shego, Blake's hand flew down between her thighs and started frantically rubbing her pussy, I could hear her masturbating desperately as I slowly fucked my green bruiser.

She'd offered me her asshole, and I wasn't turning it down. With the head in, I knew I could bottom out, and I started slowly sliding deeper. Inch by inch, I penetrated her asshole, drawing whines and grunts and curses from the experienced thief as she gave up her tightest hole.

Finally, my hips slapped into her cheeks and she screamed, body shaking as she exploded, flooding Blake's face with cunt juice.

"Blake, get out of there," I ordered my kitten. She slipped free and Shego fell flat on the bed, my whole cock still buried in her ass. I slid out of Shego's rear slowly, reaching full extension before sliding myself implacably back in. I did it again, and again, speeding up over time, and the sharp snap of hips on ass rang alongside Shego's animal grunts as I used her back door.

Shego looked half drunk on sensation, and her hand was between her legs, schlicking furiously as I used her butt. She wasn't talking anymore, just muttering strings of barely coherent curses. I nodded at her her flushed face. "Blake, your turn for some tongue action. Get up there and shove her between your legs."

My kitten giggled ecstatically, clambering up the bed. When she realized there was a bit of an access problem, I grabbed Shego, lifting her and spinning her on my dick like a rotisserie chicken, letting her flop onto the bed back first.

Blake squeaked happily and plopped down on Shego's face, groaning in contentment as the older woman got into her cunt tongue first. "Oh shit that's nice. Fuck master she's good at that. She knows just where to lick. She's better at this than I am."

I grinned at her, leaning down and grabbing her hair to mash her face against mine. I explored her mouth as my cock pulverized Shego's asshole, enjoying the taste of the green woman's pussy as I enjoyed the feel of her ass. "She doesn't sound as into it though. What got you so hot to fuck her? She do something naughty to you?"

Her shuddering breath was almost a whine as I pulled back. "She touched my pussy master. Told me that she knew I was a little slut and that she was gonna give me what I deserved for shaking my fat ass around on the dance floor. She put her hand up my dress right there in the club. Feeling her fingers on my pussy while she whispered in my ear was so fucking hot. She said you knew about it. Said you gave me to her to enjoy. She wanted to drag me to the bathroom to make me eat her out but the source showed up."

I had given Shego permission to fuck Blake, though I hadn't expected her to just put a hand up her dress in the club. I forced myself into her asshole a little harder, angling my hips to smash down into her back door, and the steady whines of enjoyment between Blake's thighs turned to frantic squeaks. I didn't let up though.

"Oh I did," I told Blake hotly. "But I expect to hear about every thing she does to you. I don't mind you girls playing with each other, but don't forget you're all mine."

Blake nodded frantically. "Fuck, yes master, oh gods she's so desperate now, she's licking so fucking deep. I'm gonna, I'm gonna… FUCKING CUM!" With a scream, she locked up, and I looked down to see her squirt violently into the flushed, slick face of Shego, then fall backwards onto the upper bed.

Face uncovered Shego fucking SCREAMED. "OH FUCK! My asshole is breaking, it's fucking breaking! Fuck I've never had it like this before. You're so deep I can feel you in my fucking BRAIN boss. I'm so fucking full!"

I reached down and twisted her exposed nipple roughly. "Did you hear what I said earlier, slut?" I asked harshly.

Her ass tightened, and her other hand came down to her cunt, fingers digging in while the first worked her clit. "I'm sorry boss," she moaned. "I'll tell you next time. I'll fucking take pictures. I'll let you watch every time I use that slutty fucking cat."

I sped up again, getting deeper as my balls tightened, I was going to cum soon. "Fuck yes you will. These fucking holes are mine. Your ass, your pussy, and every inch of that horny little feline bitch. You want to play with my property you better make sure I can see it, you fucking hear me!" I felt her ass clenching, and I knew she was getting close too.
Most people think anal orgasms aren't a thing. Those people are idiots. I could see Shego getting closer and closer to cumming. Based on the angle and reaction I had found the perfect spot, so I slammed into her ruthlessly as I got closer. I couldn't stop fucking, her ass was so tight and needy and it gripped me so fucking good. It was so much hotter and tighter than pussy, even if it wasn't quite as slick or inviting.

"I swear boss!" she squealed. "I'll make sure you see it all. I'll make that little bitch beg and send you the videos. Just fucking finish it! I can't take much more of this!"

She did…something, and my eyes went wide as the heat around my cock exploded into something so much more intense. I glanced down to see my cock smashing into a green glowing energy coated hole. Shego was channeling her powers to her ass. I didn't think she even realized it, but it felt amazing.

I was pretty sure she'd never done this before because if I hadn't been me this might have actually injured me. Since I was though, I could feel the heat and power of her asshole surging into me, supercharging my extremis.

With a guttural scream my balls contracted, my cum bursting out and painting the inside of her ass with white hot liquid fire. Her powers obviously protected her from any extremis based damage, but her head snapped back and she wailed, cunt squirting furiously as she came feeling my cum coat the inside of her superpowered asshole.

I came for about three straight minutes before falling to the bed next to her. I felt the heat and power recede from my dick, and gave Blake a nod. My kitten activated her aura before enveloping my cock in her warm, wet mouth, cleaning me off.

"That…" Shego looked dazed. "I've never done that before."

I laughed, winking at her. "It was good," I told her with a grin. "Amazing actually. Next time you're gonna do it with your pussy." I reached down to grope her still sensitive cunt and she whined, wriggling under my touch, but she wriggled closer not further away.

Blake finished up and climbed up to snuggle between us, moaning contentedly as Shego's hand slipped between her thighs. Chuckling to myself, I closed my eyes, I would fuck both of them again when I woke up, but that super orgasm had really taken it out of me. I couldn't wait to try it again.

January 29th, 2011 Secret Base, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire 10:00 AM EST- SP:109,500

"Alright, so you've all got your range time in? No issues working the new ammo?" I'd left the minions to play with the new toys when Shego dragged me off, and wonder of wonders they'd actually stayed on task. Since it was Saturday, I'd decided to join them in a little ABB rousting. Namely, we were going to hit the gang where it hurt, right in the prostitutes.

The biggest of them, a guy I mentally named Goon 1, puffed up his already comically large chest. "Yes boss," he barked like I was a drill sergeant. "We've been experimenting with loadouts. We found that the best combo seems to be Wind, Lightning, Ice, in that order. The Wind knocks them back, the Lightning stuns them, and the Ice freezes them in place. Most of us have our guns loaded in sequence."

That was actually really smart. I held out a hand, gesturing for someone to pass me a gun. They did, and I took aim and squeezed off a few rounds. Burst of wind, shock, freeze. I put three rounds in one dummy, then the next, and then a third, grinning down at the weapon.

"Now that is just…NEAT," I told him with a laugh. "Good work Goon 1."

He blanched. "Um, boss, my name is Jerry…"

"There's no time for that Goon 1," I told him firmly. "You can pick a name later, it's time for us to go."

Shego, standing next to me, was choking back her chuckles. I raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you laughing at? You can't come." She frozen, eyes boring into me dangerously, but before she could open her mouth I cut her off. "We're supposed to be raising hell incognito. The whole point of this is to roust the ABB so we can find that tinker, and not to get connected back to the rousting until she's saved Drakken. You're fucking GREEN, and your hands glow. You are not subtle."

I looked at the other girls in the room. "Similarly Blake's powers are noticeable, Squealer is a known quantity, and Bonnie has really obvious abilities from her cosmic rod. If you all go on this run, you won't be able to be active until we sort this whole thing out. I don't honestly think it's worthwhile to burn you all in the short term just so you can go shoot up a couple of whorehouses."

They all looked ready to fight me over this…but they knew I was right. All of them wanted to continue working with my team as Vagabond in the near future, and finding out they'd be benched until the conclave if they went with us made them all hesitate.

Finally, they backed down. At least most of them. "I can still go," insisted Blake. "I won't wear the costume, I can put on baggy pants and a bandana or something on my face. As long as I don't use Aura or my Semblance I won't be too obvious. I gave her a searching stare, but she glared back at me. "Boys, go gear up, and have Squealer get you in a car. Something big but not overly notable," I told the minions. "Everyone else, give us the room."

They did, albeit reluctantly. When we were alone, I leaned back against a table. "Hey, what's this about? Like, I know that you want to help, but these women are getting saved either way."

She looked away from me bitterly. "You know how Faunus are still used as slaves in some parts of Remnant? Miners, servants, cheap labor? Well in Mistral, they have famous Faunus brothels. Pretty Faunus girls dressed up like dolls to be used by rich men who want a taste of something exotic. They buy them young from the mines, before they get too beat up, and then train them."

Her amber eyes snapped to mine. "These girls are the same. Innocent kids who get snatched up by violent men and sold to predators. I did some research on PHO, did you know that Brockton is a sex tourism destination? Wealthy men come from all over the country for vacation to pick out some pretty little thing. This Lung promotes himself as some kind of protector of his people, but plenty of the girls that are taken come from areas under his own jurisdiction."

She was shaking now, eyes sparking with rage. Literally, actually, as she drew on the Heart of Fire in her weapon.

I stared at her, because…she was right. I said it all the time. Brockton was a shithole. Not just because of the capes and the violence, the gangs did real harm here. It was easy to ignore the Merchants because they were more passive, but the ABB regularly kidnapped young girls and sold them, and people fucking KNEW about it. And they did nothing. Because Lung was scary.

Even I was kind of scared of him. Not that he would hurt me, but that if I picked a fight before I was ready that he'd hurt my friends or family.

Which made me feel like shit. Because I hadn't cared either. I wasn't a good person, I made no bones about that, but I wasn't a monster. I gave a shit when bad things happened to innocent people, or at least I did when they were in front of me.

Suddenly this raid didn't seem like just an excuse to ruffle feathers. We could help these girls. Not just letting them escape, but drawing fire from the ABB to help them STAY escaped. But to do that, we needed to give them somewhere to go. I made up my mind.

"Alright, you can come," I told her quietly. "I might need help pulling this off. We won't be using our powers, just the guns. But we can't afford to fuck it up. We've got people counting on us."

Her shoulder relaxed, the fire in her eyes cooling, and she gave me a glowing smile. Which felt…nice. She was looking at me like I was an actual hero. I might not be a great guy, but to Blake I was amazing, at least at the moment. It made me want to do more shit like this, to help more people so I could see her smile like that again. I imagined Kim would smile the same way.

I could almost understand why people would be full time heroes. Almost. Of course, most of them didn't have big booty catgirl sex as an incentive, so maybe I didn't understand quite so well after all. Regardless, Blake and I changed quickly, or at least I did. My kitten might have taken a bit of extra time wriggling out of her pants knowing I was getting a show, though not long enough for my liking.

Once we were dressed (all black, hoodie and ski mask for me, hoodie and bandana for her) and met up with the boys (also ski masked and wearing all black) in the garage with Squealer. My wrench wench look sulkily at me. "You know how much I hate sex trafficking, and you don't even invite me along? I could wear a mask too you know."

"You're a tinker," I pointed out. "Your whole schtick is doing machines. If you go out there and do machines it'll be obvious who you are. Blond car girl with bowling balls on her chest? Wonder who that could be."

She glared at me. "You're an ass," she spat. "You could be nicer about it."

"I could be," I admitted. "But that would be a waste of time those girls don't have. I get that you want to help, but it's not about you. It's not even about me. It's about them, and I think you know that, or you wouldn't be so gung ho to come with us."

Slumping, she nodded. "You're right. I had a rough time in the beginning when I joined the Merchants, but those girls…fuck, the things I hear they do to them. My pride ain't worth slowing you down. But I'm surprised, I thought you were doing this to hurt the ABB, not to help the girls. You have a change of hear?"

I shrugged. "Stuff can do two things. Those brothels are Lung's big earners, so taking them out will seriously affect his bottom line, but someone reminded me of the human element."

Blowing out a breath, she gave me a wry smile. "Well, that's actually decent of you. This whole experience has been more pleasant than expected honestly. Been more than a week and you haven't asked me to bend over yet. I was expecting it on day one, not that I'm against it mind you, but you showed more restraint than I took you for."

"You'll let me know if you're interested," I said simply. "It's not like I'm hurting for women. I already have too many to handle. Now what's our ride today?"

She snorted, pouting at me slightly for the dismissal, but turned to gesture to a large black SUV. "This is the most basic bitch I've got. It's a black escalade with an armor plated interior and bulletproof windows. The engine is only a few thousand horsepower, so it's pretty sedate as far as my babies go. I even removed the saw arms like they asked." She gestured to one side, where a pile of long metal limbs ending in rotary saw lay piled on the garage floor.

She did NOT mention the various other contraptions underneath them, things like crossbows, rpgs, and what looked suspiciously like an air horn. I wisely decided not to comment.

While it was an absurdly overdone car for this kind of job, it was understated enough that unless we lost it no one would be likely to know, which was good enough. "Alright everyone, load up and get your asses in the car. We've got work to do."

All the minions scrambled to grab extra ammo pouches and a spare gun where they could fit one. Blake stepped up next to me. She had her bow on under her hood, just in case, and she looked tense but excited, practically buzzing with suppressed energy. "Don't use your Aura actively but don't suppress it." I told her. "I'd rather kill or silence a witness than see you get shot or stabbed or something."

The ABB was light on capes, so I doubted there would be a powered guard at any of the brothels. Blake should be safe enough against normal thugs even without Aura, but if shit got bad her safety was more important than anonymity. Cheshire wasn't a known quantity yet so if we benched her until the conclave no one would make the connection.

Climbing into the truck, I turned the key and pulled out, merging seamlessly into traffic off the nearest exit as we headed for ABB territory. The ABB ran the east end of town, and it didn't take long to arrive outside of a surprisingly well marked…place. It was called the Broken Sparrow, and it was well kept and brightly lit, with a neon sign depicting a ballerina dancing over the door.

That was actually super fucking dark. I'd figured Lung would keep this kind of thing in an unmarked office building or a warehouse. But this place had fucking signage. Blake tensed.

"Hold up," I said quickly. "We need a plan. Which means we need to scope the place out. Lucky?"

My cat meowed, emerging from the dashboard and scaring the shit out of Goon 1, who had leaned forward to listen. I snickered at the reaction before turning to my feline companion. "Hey bud, I need you to scope this place out and get back to me with a floor plan. Take some readings of the structural integrity too." He meowed in acceptance and vanished, and the others looked at me questioningly. I didn't elaborate, just sitting back with an evil smile. I already had the beginnings of a great idea.

January 29th, 2011 Broken Sparrow, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire 11:00 AM EST- SP:109,700

Entering the brothel was an exercise in caution. As easy as it would be for me to bust in with my powers like the kool-aid man screaming "OH YEAH!". That would defeat the whole purpose of doing this. In order for the ABB to move out in force they needed to be under the impression they were under attack by a weaker numerically inferior force.

I wanted the rank and file hitting the streets, beating the bushes, making some noise. Once that happened, we could backtrack all of them and use them to find the ABBs bases, one of which would presumably contain the tinker we were looking for.

This had the extra benefit of concealing us from Lung and the Dark Dragon until we could get Drakken fixed up. This meant that any method of entry that tipped them to our powers was out. It did NOT mean that we had to go in quietly are carefully. Just that the way we did it had to be possible for a normal human.

Hence my current plan. Lucky had scoped the place out, gotten me readings on the distribution of prisoners, the layout, and the structural integrity. Which is why I was perfectly at ease with what I was doing as I pulled around to the back of the building, put the truck in reverse, and then gunned the engine, peeling out towards a seemingly innocuous section of wall at top speed.

In the back, all seven of the tightly packed in Goons went still, screaming in confusion, and even Blake locked up, looking momentarily bushwacked as the car smashed at top speed into the brick, my voice rising over the deafening impact as I bellowed that sweet and irresistible "OH YEAH!"

The inside of the truck cab jolted harshly (though less than I expected, way to go Squealer) and the windshield was splattered with debris and coated with dust as the bricks were smashed into powder by the reinforced hood. Shoving the door open, I leaned out of the car, raising my gun and firing a dust round into the wall. The explosion of air blew the dust out of the hallway, revealing the disheveled forms of about five different gang members, blinking owlishly at the sudden flood of sunlight from outside.

My gun barked again, two bullets into the closest gangster, and I was joined by another, and then another, as my people got over their shock and squeezed out of the car through one of the unobstructed doors.

The ABB members snarled, screaming for backup and snapping orders as they took cover behind corners or the frozen forms of their own friends. The stunned gangsters didn't last long, because while our bullets were designed to stun and incapacitate, their bullets were…just bullets, and frozen people don't do great when you shoot them.

Bloody chunks of human being exploded like cracked pyrex across the hallway, and I saw Blake slip through the chaos, her unnatural grace perfectly suited for bypassing this little blockade. Meanwhile the rest of us crouched behind the open doors of the SUV, taking cover behind the armored shapes as we cracked off shots, picking away at the reinforcements still incoming.

Apparently, either the ABB gave their members free "one on one" time with the girls or gangbangers had a LOT of disposable income, because there were a ton of guys here. They were also all really strapped. I cursed as I caught a round in the calf, though I don't think anyone noticed, because one of my guys distracted them by getting his fucking ankle blown off, prompting another two to have to drag him back into the truck.

Snarling, I called for Lucky. I instructed him to jam any surveillance, and then, under cover, I snagged a flash bang grenade from the box of supplies and decided to try something new. I dropped it into the Horadric Cube with a handful of Lightning Dust sand, and then pulled out the resulting device with relish. I judged the distance, figuring I should get it as far away as possible, and bellowed "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" as I winged it in a long, low arc down the hall, over the heads of the enemy.

Covering my face, I waited, and was gratified to hear a roar of sound that shook the hallway and left my ears ringing seconds later. Of course, i had super healing, so it took seconds to repair the damage, and then I was peering through the window to check on the progress of our siege.

Which was…over. A dozen gang members lay on the ground, twitching like fish out of water, and no one else was entering the hallway. Destroyed frozen bodies, and currently frozen or stunned gangsters peppered the hall as well, and I grinned as I stood up and called back to my boys. "Hey, someone get down there and start securing prisoners, and I want a pair of guards on the other end of that hallway in case a few more of them slither out."

"Boss," called one of the minions. "Lyle is hit real bad. His whole foot got blown off. We managed to stop the bleeding with a tourniquet, but he's gonna lose the leg below the calf if we don't remove it soon."

I cursed. "God damn it Goon 3 no names! We're raiding a dangerous gang stronghold. What are you, fucking stupid? I'll take care of Goon 5, just leave the tourniquet, I can fix the damage."

He went silent…but after my repeated demonstrations of amazing power, I'd apparently earned some trust. He didn't call up again, though he and another of the Goons were muttering to the injured man, telling him everything was going to be alright. I heard a bottle open and assume they'd given him painkillers, but my attention was stolen by Blake as she emerged from a side hall.

"Boss," called, apparently deciding that was going to be my callsign for this. "I took care of a few guards, and a client or two…I found the girls."

I winced at her sickened tone as I shut the car door to make room and slipped past the SUV. Blake had seen some shit with the Fang, if she was this bothered it was probably pretty bad. I followed her down the hall into one of the better fortified rooms, which she had apparently used as a gathering point to ensure the safety of our rescue targets.

Entering the room I was…nauseated. There were about fifteen or twenty girls there, ranging from late teens to a girl who looked to be about eight. The younger ones were dressed up in unnecessarily frilly outfits and pigtails to highlight their youth, with a discordant amount of makeup caked on their little faces.

Some of them were wrapped in blankets, the few revealed parts of them showing enough skin to explain why the coverings were needed, and they all looked dazed and a little bleary. "What's wrong with them?" I asked her. "Beyond the very obvious fact that this place is a fucking hellmouth."

Blake hissed with rage. "I questioned one of the guards. Apparently the customers don't usually like when they scream and cry, so they give them coke to make them more compliant. They're all high."

I closed my eyes, turning away from the disgusting tableau and counting to ten to stop myself from walking out into the hall and literally tearing the gang members out there apart with my bare fucking hands. I kept my voice calm and pleasant, trying to make sure the girls couldn't hear me as I turned to Blake. "Go to the car, get a gun loaded with regular bullets, and put a round in the head of every one of those captives."

She nodded sharply, then turned to leave, but I stopped her. "Shit, no wait," she turned to glare at me, as if offended I might be taking pity on the monsters who did this. "It would be better if they had a woman here to help them. They need to gather their things if they have any, and we're going to call someone to come get them. I'll take care of the prisoners."

Her tense shoulders slumped, and she nodded. I headed out of the room and back to the hallway, fishing around in the SUV for a gun. I had to check a few to find one loaded with normal nine mil ammo. Once I did, I walked down to where the prisoners had been secured…and calmly shot them in the head one at a time.

Some of them had woken from the stun trance that the flashbang had put them in, and they screamed, but I ignored them. I wasn't going to do them the "kindness" of doping them up to keep them quiet. They deserved what was happening.

My stomach was knotted, burning with rage, and my heart was ice cold. I felt like I was about to vomit. I'd been to another world, fought monsters made of pure darkness, and nothing I'd been through prepared me for this. It felt like I'd been pretending before, been playing a game with costumes while girls like this had suffered because of people I had dismissed as harmless or pointless.

I fished out a burner phone I'd prepared, and called a number I'd gotten off PHO. A familiar voice picked up. "New Wave, Laserdream speaking, how may I save you today?"

"Crystal, I told you not to answer the phone like that!" Called the annoyed voice of her mother from the background, and if I'd been less numb and sickened I might have laughed. It felt strange that there were people acting casual and playful when I was seeing something like this…but then, I guess someone was seeing something like this all the time in Brockton.

"My name is…Darius," I said in a fake accented voice. I tried to sound nondescript and european. "I am currently at the Broken Sparrow. The forces of the ABB who held this place are dead, and there are many young girls who need help here."

The line went silent. "I don't know that location," said Crystal seriously. "Can you give me the address?"

"That depends," I said. "Do I and my friends need to leave before you arrive? There are many gang members dead, but I would prefer not to leave these girls alone. If we wait for you, will you try to arrest us?"

She hesitated, muttering something to someone off the phone, then came back. "We're a small team," she said casually. "We don't have the numbers to pursue everything. We have to prioritize. Victimized little girls are a bigger priority than a few men who happened to be nearby when an incident occurred."

"Bring Panacea," I told her tiredly. "Aside from one of my guys getting his foot blown off, they doped the girls up with drugs to keep them compliant. Hopefully she can detox them in the least painful way possible."

Another tense silence consumed the line, before Crystals cold voice said. "Understood. We'll be there soon. Now give me that address."

I did, and then I hung up, heading back into the room to finger Blake. She was hugging the youngest girl, who was staring numbly at the wall as my kitten tried to get her to engage at all, to no effect. "New Wave is coming," I told her. "We have a guarantee of safe passage once they get here. Panacea will help clear the drugs from their system and heal up an damage…at least any damage to their bodies."

"And then?" she asked quietly. "What do we do after that?"

"The same thing we did here," I told her bluntly. "We help. There are at least six other places like this I managed to track down through the grapevine. We'll hit the out of the way ones first. One or two of them are in China town, and we need to scope those to make sure Lung isn't around. It's not time to run into him yet. Oni Lee…we'll play that by ear."

I wanted to make the ABB fucking SUFFER for this. Helping Drakken was important, and I would search for the tinker we needed, but on the way…I was going to make the Azn Bad Boys bleed. And after we fixed things…I was going to kill Lung. I wouldn't abide living in the same city as someone who ordered something like this. As soon as we took care of the bomb in Drakken's head, I was going to slay myself a dragon.

January 29th, 2011 Broken Sparrow, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire 7:00 PM EST- SP:109,900

We spent the rest of the day clearing out brothels. One after another, we busted in, shot the place up, and then released the girls. We moved fast, and I had Lucky working recon to make sure we avoided getting actually caught, but we did have a few close calls. By the time we got back to the base, we were all pretty drained emotionally.

I slumped into my chair with a groan, grinning at the girls, who had come to meet us when we got back. The grin was tight and I knew it didn't reach my eyes. Today had been a bad day. I'd seen a lot of terrible things I knew I'd never forget, but they didn't need to know it.

"Beehive kicked," I proclaimed cheerfully. "Shego, get in touch with Faultline and tell her to keep her ear to the ground? I don't believe that given how stirred up the ABB is we can't get a line on their tinker."

Shego looked at me steadily. "You alright boss? You don't look so good."

I shrugged. "Not exactly a day at Disneyland. I'll be fine, you know me. Can't keep an egotistical asshole down."

Her eyes were a bit conflicted, but she eventually sighed and nodded, turning to head out. I sent Bonnie and Squealer to check out the car, then Blake and I headed back to my place after we changed into civvies.

We walked, not feeling much like powers at the moment, and I put an arm around her shoulder to help stave off the cold as we made our way back to the house. "You alright?" I asked her. She'd been quiet for a while, not that I could blame her.

"No," she said bluntly. "But I haven't been alright for a long time. I've been obsessed with fighting against things like that for as long as I can remember, so I'm used to this headspace. You though…you don't strike me as the kind of person who liked to introspect too much."

I laughed at that. "Guilty, I prefer doing to thinking. It's part of what drew me to reading. Distracting myself from my problems. Escaping. But no everyone can do that."

"No," she agreed. "Some people don't get to escape."

I shook my head sharply, physically trying to dislodge the bad mood. "Blegh. Too heavy. Lost the happy, but the happy's back." I gave her a big cheesy smile and a pinch on the ass. "See, I'm good as new."

She burst into giggles. "Yeah, I guess being an insatiable pervert probably helps with distraction. I'll sit on your face when we get home and see if that helps."

My answering chuckle was a little lighter. Not just because I was horny, but because Blake cared enough to try to tease me out of my funk. I forced myself not to dwell on the faces of those suffering girls, pushing past them to focus on the now.

"I'll hold you to that, you bett-" my eyes widened as I got a warning from Lucky about something incoming. I tightened my grip on Blake's waist and yanked her aside as a rain of fucking stone spikes smashed into the ground.

Spinning, I caught sight of a figure behind us, standing under a streetlight not far away. A relatively small girl in a set of samurai armor, wearing a half face mask with a fanged mouth on it. I frowned at her. "Ah, the But-" I didn't get a chance to finish as she vanished. My reflexes went into overdrive, shoving Blake away as I activated my aura, completely ignoring any complicated identity nonsense in the current state of my danger.

The Butcher, formerly a woman who went by the cape name Quarrel, appeared in front of me with a massive explosive blast, sending me flying backwards. Another wave of stone spikes rose out of the ground, and my foot planted on one of them, pushing off to avoid being hit, only for space to fucking WARP as the spikes slammed into my aura, diminishing it slightly.

I cursed. Quarrel's power, based on my research (or rather, based on the information packet I'd bought about The Butcher from Faultline) was some kind of can't miss space warping. I'd forgotten it because it hadn't happened at first, but apparently it just had a range limit.

I landed lightly, unharmed by the spikes, scowling at the monstrous cape. "Hey, the fuck are you attacking me for? Hell, why are you even out? Shouldn't you be on the run from both your own people and the Dark Dragon?" I stoked the fire in my chest, channeling it into my hand to slowly increase the power of my Burning Sun Blast.

The Butcher just glared, then vanished again. Cursing, I dove forward into a roll, barely avoiding the explosive teleport in behind me as I whirled and let loose a column of flame right at the bastard.

She vanished again, and the fire blast (which wasn't completely charged, obviously), hit and melted a nearby wall, even as a sea of stone spikes I couldn't fucking dodge erupted from the ground to skewer me. "Will you fucking SAY SOMETHING?" I spat angrily. I saw Blake about to get into the fight but I waved her off. Even if my aura broke I'd survive, but The Butcher had a LOT of bullshit powers.

Speaking of bullshit powers, she glared at me again, and I felt all the muscles in my body lock up. Agony generation. That one I'd known about. Apparently another range limited ability, since she hadn't hit me with it from the start, but still annoying. Pain roared through me, no source and no possible counter, just…hurt.

I felt my fucking heart skip a beat from the sheer agony, but I ignored it. I couldn't die of a heart attack, or anything else. I gritted my teeth, spreading my face into a painful grin. "Is that it? I was expecting more. I thought this power was supposed to hurt. Hey Blake, if you see The Butcher, can you tell her her grandma was here trying to work me over?"

Blake snorted, but she looked too tense to be amused. The Butcher glanced at her, and as soon as she broke eye contact I pushed off. Kanshou and Bakuya dropped into my hands and my blades flashed out. Her eyes widened and she teleported again, but I caught her with a quick slash to the arm along the elbow before she vanished.

I did NOT kill her, or even try, obviously. Firstly because fuck that, I didn't want to be possessed by an evil super ghost. Secondly because half the scary bastards in this town were looking for her and if I became The Butcher they'd be looking for ME.

An explosion rocked the area as she appeared on top of a building, holding her arm. She glared at me hatefully, but then her eyes jerked up and widened in…was that terror? She vanished again, and I heard the explosion from further away a second later. Then further still. I turned to Blake. "That was…weird? You ok? Why the hell did she ru-"

My sentence trailed off. Because behind Blake, on a nearby rooftop, was the very obvious reason. A dragon. A huge, powerful, mostly humanoid dragon, with night black scales and colossal wings. Its eyes blazed with milky moonlight, and its lips were peeled back from an oversized muzzle full of very sharp teeth.

"Well," it boomed, its voice so low it could have been the bad guy in a space opera. "What do we have here?"

The Dark Dragon. "You know Lung, I know you're not exactly PC, but that kind of cosplay is seriously offensive." It only took me a second to decide how to handle things. In my current identity I was protected by the Unwritten Rules. If I played dumb, he would either need to return the favor or just break all pretenses.

Which, surprisingly, is what he did, just not how I expected. He snorted. "A sophomoric jest. But I suppose one should only expect such a response from a schoolboy. You are Simon Collins, whose alternate identity is the hero Nightfall."

I froze, freaking out, trying to figure out how he'd connected my two selves…and then I realized. He hadn't. I hadn't used and obviously Vagabond flavored abilities. The heat blast could have been a weapon of some kind, and I'd used Aura and my blades, but both had been allocated to Nightfall.

Vagabond, despite having a run in with his forces, had never met the Dark Dragon, so he had no reason to associate my civilian identity with that version of me.

"That kind of talk is dangerous," I said coldly. "Outing a cape in their civvies?"

He snorted. "The younger generation gets more and more unruly. I don't have time to argue with you, boy. I have quarry to hunt. Count yourself fortunate. Next time we meet, you may not be quite so lucky." With a glower, he spread his great wings and beat them, taking off into the sky.

I stared after him, angry, conflicted, and a little worried all at the same time. Blake stepped up next to me. "Ok…what the actual fuck?"

"I have no idea," I said with a grimace. "None of that made sense. The Butcher attacking might have been to draw me into the fight and stall the Dragon, but why would the Dark Dragon know me? I'm not famous, and sources aside I've barely been active. He even recognized Kanshou and Bakuya, and I've only used them in combat once."

The Dark Dragon had sources in Brockton. Good ones. I'd known that he had some people on the villain side, given his connection to the ABB tinker, but the only people who would be in a position to hear about my Night and Fog dust up would have been someone in the Protectorate or PRT. Vicky had given a report of the events afterwards.

Did that mean the Dark Dragon was inside the PRT? Lung made it sound like he'd stayed away from Brockton before, but was that true? The Butcher had shown up pretty soon after Coil's downfall, and the Dark Dragon had been waiting.

I shook my head to clear it. Speculation accomplished nothing, I'd have to add a few more questions to my list for Tattletale's thinker. I had a bad feeling something more was going on here than I'd expected. I could see how some of the moving pieces were clicking together, and I was not enjoying the picture those puzzle pieces were forming.

I grabbed Blake's hand. "Come on, we gotta go. I don't want to be sitting out here if they come back." I had Lucky do a quick pass around the area to find any observers, and he'd been jamming surveillance, so my identity should be safe enough.

But this made me worry infinitely more about my girls and my family. If the Dark Dragon had a reason to pay attention to me, they might be in danger. I could put Lucky on my mom, and attacking the hospital directly was likely to call down a shitstorm the likes of which I could hardly imagine, especially with Panacea working there, but the other girls.

Checking my points I realized that I was at exactly a hundred and ten thousand. I had another hundred points coming too, but with this I had enough to buy Kim's new power up and still afford my Leviathan counter measure.

When I got home, it would finally be time to do some shopping. After all, I needed some training with that anti Leviathan item before the big scaly fucker showed up. More than that, I was excited to see what Kim would be capable of with those Spider powers. The only downside was that she'd probably pick a new hero identity. I'd gotten kind of attached to "Lenore".

AN:/ As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters on that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoys.