Chapter 11: The Dust Settles

Miscellaneous Merchant Minion

The fall of the Merchants meant the end of the good times, at least for him.

As a high ranking Merchant, he had all the money, women and drugs he could ever want. If he saw a sexy bitch, he could have her bouncing on his cock by the end of the day, it didn't matter if she was married, had kids, was a kid, or if she wanted it, because this was their turf and they fucking ruled.

Until some golden cunt showed up and ruined it all for them.

But he was a survivor, it's why he stayed back and didn't join the others in getting shot up with mystery drugs for the big assault, it's why he was at the back of the pack, and it's why he cut his losses and ran for the hills, which is exactly what Skidz himself did just a few minutes later so he didn't feel particularly bad.

So now he just needed to grab some cash and move on to greener pastures, he couldn't join the Empire or ABB cause he was black and that meant it was time to ditch the city entirely.

Spotting a mini-mart that had one of the creepy banners Midas was hanging around displayed proudly in the window made his target easy enough, might as well stick it to the bastard who ruined the good times before he left.

The man behind the counter had been completely calm, just folded immediately like the pussy he was and emptied the till and safe, and he'd been out in minutes a few grand richer and a lot happier, and as he was leaving he realised something.

…had the Trainyard always had so many cameras?

Running through the alleyway, a duffel bag in his hands and a backpack on his back, he realised that no, no they did not.

As a black car pulled up at the end of the alleyway, he froze and went to turn and run back the way he came, freezing again as a pair of very large men walked into the alleyway, black and gold jumpsuits telling him exactly who the frowning men were.

Dropping his bag, he went for his gun and screamed as the unmistakable feeling of a taser putting fifty thousand volts through his body as he dropped to the ground, twitching painfully as one of the men calmly took his gun away.

Taking the bags, he let out a sigh of relief as they took them to the car, a feeling which was promptly ruined when he saw them start pulling out long black batons (with fucking gold highlights) and pass them out as they advanced towards him menacingly.

Unable to move, he didn't even have a chance to defend himself as they just started raining down blows on him, not a word said as they stared down at him in disgust, their metal batons breaking his bones with ease in the hands of these unnaturally strong men.

He lost consciousness quickly, and when he came to, he was naked, bloodied and bruised… at the edge of the PRT territory, the former Merchant territory behind him and the words 'Thief' spray painted in gold onto his chest.

Bob, the legally blind guard minion

"Here you go, chief." Bob said, tossing the two bags in front of the shopkeeper, making the old Asian man chuckle as he looked through them. "A few grand, a twelve pack, some cigarettes and a chocolate bar. Guy had good taste in beer, shame he had shit decisions in everything else." Bob chuckled, his bloodied baton still strapped to his waist.

"Heh, keep the beer, your boss said he'd keep my shop safe and damn if he didn't deliver. The cops would have taken weeks to tell me my money was gone, even if they managed to catch the fucker. You kill him?" The old man said, making him chuckle.

"Nah, boss wants 'responses appropriate to the crime', can't kill unless the target killed someone." Bob answered, taking the offered beer. "We just broke a few bones, stripped him and tossed him out of our territory. If he comes back, the boss says we can 'escalate', we have his name and face now."

"Works for me, you boys do good work. What your boss is asking for his protection each month isn't even a tenth of what the Merchants would rob in a month, and I'd rather make a direct payment than have some twichty junkie take it at gunpoint." the old shopkeeper said, patting him on the back. "You boys ever need a drink or a snack while you're doing your rounds, you come see me." he said, picking up the bag full of money with a little effort.

"Will do, but I gotta run. Some dumbass is trying to mug people three blocks over and I'm gonna go introduce them to Old Whacky." Bob said, patting his baton as the old man chuckled again, heading inside with a wave.

Making a mental note to have one of the techies watch the cameras around this street a little more seriously as he headed off, putting the beer in the back of the car.

It was pretty good to be on patrol duty, you got to beat people up and get thanked for it.

What more could a guy like him need?

Jin

Laying back on the bench, I mentally count as I lift the weights. I'm not using my golden form of course, I don't think working out with golden metal muscles would have any effect but I have a theory that the stronger my base form is the stronger I will be in general. Besides. working out was a good distraction from all the planning and paperwork.

I have made my bones golden, which makes me considerably heavier and noticeably slower than normal but it's something I'll have to get used to as I don't want to leave myself without at least a single layer of protection, even if that layer is under my skin.

I considered making my internal organs gold as well, but decided against it since I realised I was forgetting to breathe and that's something easily noticeable for anyone even remotely observant.

If I'm in a situation where I'm expecting danger, I'll turn my organs golden as another layer of protection, skin and flesh really isn't that important and more importantly I can just use the healing beds to fix it.

I've made a new gym, in my personal quarters because while I like my minions, working out in a room with a dozen loud, sweaty men was rather distracting.

"Boss~" Rabbit's teasing voice says as I calmly continue pumping iron, glancing over at her as she practically prances into the room, Whirligig, or Leah, following behind her awkwardly.

The cause for her awkward behaviour is fairly obvious as I give her a quick once-over, her baggy clothes replaced with nothing but a small white thong and sports bra, and her long hair trimmed and placed in a ponytail, her face on display instead of hiding behind her long bangs.

"Rabbit, Leah." I say, greeting them easily as they approach. I've given Rabbit, Jaina and a select few others (all female, of course) permission to use my private gym.

Rabbit herself has replaced her usual outfit with a very small pair of pink mini-shorts and a matching sports bra. I'm still not sure how her clothes even work as she is a projection and always seems to reappear in the same outfit.

"Leah wanted to talk with you~" Rabbit says, unable to say anything without it sounding teasing as Leah approaches me, stopping a few feet from me as I put the weights back on the machine and sit up.

"I did, I… I wanted to know what happens now. The Merchants are gone, Skidmarks ran for the hills, and I'm sober without getting the shakes for the first time in fucking years, so… what happens to me now?" Leah asks as I raise an eyebrow at her.

"I believe that is up to you, my dear. Our deal was simple, you provide information on Skidmark's movements and don't fight in the battle and I'd spare you and get you out of the Merchants. You kept your end, and I kept mine." I say, making her nod. "You aren't a prisoner, and you are free to leave at any time. That said, if you'd rather stay then there is a place for you in my organisation. You look good, by the way, I take it you decided on a change in appearance?"

"Yeah, I never took care of myself before, and Whirligig has a certain look, long unkempt hair and messy clothes, with better clothes and a haircut I was able to walk around the street without anyone noticing who I was." Leah admitted with a small smile. "Of course, I had to borrow clothes from Rabbit so…" she says after a moment, looking down at her thong clad ass. "Well, I attracted a different kind of attention."

"An ass like that shouldn't be covered up anyway, you're lucky I was even willing to lend you some booty shorts, it's a crime to let you cover all this up." Rabbit teased, moving behind her and reaching down, slapping Leah on her exposed ass, dark brown cheeks jiggling as Leah yelped slightly before she rolled her eyes.

"God you're the horniest person I've ever met, and I've been a Merchant for… I dunno, a couple of years?" Leah said easily, turning back to me. "I think I want to stick around, at least for now. I didn't exactly make many friends as Whirligig, and my power isn't useful enough for me to go independent or join a different group. I'll pull my weight, not got any interest in being a parasite." Leah promises, making me smile slightly.

As if she could leave, her rep is awful thanks to her unimpressive power and her time in the Merchants. She had nowhere to go.

"Then I look forward to working with you." I say, making her smile slightly. Once she's gotten nice and comfortable, I'll slowly start working on rebranding her into a new cape, because if there's anything that can impress people it's rehabilitating unstable and dangerous capes into a force for… well, not good but order.

Whirligig isn't dangerous, honestly she's kind of a joke since her power is just an uncontrollable telekinetic cyclone around herself, and one that can only seem to pick up light things.

On one video of her in action, it struggled to pick up a loose brick. I have a theory that she's just been too high to work out how her power actually works, because she was already a Merchant when she triggered, if my timeline is correct.

If I can make her useful, it'll make me look good and give me a loyal cape.

"Yay~ welcome to the harem!" Rabbit cheers, groping Leah's small breasts from behind as she pauses.

"Harem?" Leah asks, making Rabbit grin as she plays with Leah's body.

"Yup, every female cape who joins Midas's gang is a part of his royal harem, it's tradition." Rabbit says seriously, making Leah pause.

"She's forgetting to mention that she's the only female cape who is a part of my organisation." I point out, making Leah's lips twitch.

Technically I'm keeping the Undersiders 'independent', since they are more useful that way, dancing to my invisible strings instead of openly being a part of my organisation, which means Rabbit is technically the only female cape since Jaina is basically a civilian, even if she's a very useful one.

"Every tradition needs to start somewhere! By the way, it's tradition for female capes joining the gang to sleep with the King." Rabbit says, making Leah roll her eyes even as Rabbit slips her hand up her top.

"Lemme guess, it's been tradition for two minutes? Come on, White, I was a fucking Merchant, I'm easy enough that you don't have to try and trick me into his bed." Leah laughs ruefully. "I owe you big time, boss, even before you fixed me up, getting out of the Merchants isn't easy, unless you like the look of the insides of a PRT cell, so if you wanna take me for a ride, you don't even have to ask. You're cuter than Skidmark, better smelling too, I've definitely upgraded… and I didn't even end up locked in a cell like Squealer." Leah offers casually.

"I feel like being cuter than Skidmark isn't much of an accomplishment, but thank you all the same." I deadpan back, getting a shrug from her.

Unable to restrain herself any longer, Rabbit pounces and climbs onto me. I was surprised she managed to keep her panties on so long since she's been on her assignment lately.

"Don't you know working out alone is dangerous? Don't worry, Boss~ I'll spot you." Rabbit says as she sits in my lap, grinding her ass against my clothed crotch.

"It's dangerous for people who don't have throats made out of solid gold." I reply easily as I lay back down, going back to my workout as Rabbit undoes her sports bra and tosses it aside, grinning down at me as she pulls my cock out, pulling her mini-shorts aside to reveal her wet pussy, no panties, obviously as she lines herself up and drops onto my cock.

"Is she always like this?" Leah asks, amused as Rabbit starts to ride me, her breasts bouncing wildly as she moans.

"She's a nymphomaniac, and she's been away for a couple of days… so yes." I reply, still lifting the weights as I focus on what I was doing.

I'm good at multitasking.

"I'm just gonna spend some time on the treadmill, it's been a while since I've even tried to stay in shape… even if some of the drugs I was on kept me skinny." Leah says, moving away after a moment.

Do I want her? Yes, with an ass like that how could I not? But she's spent the better part of five years in the Merchant's where she didn't get to decide when she was getting fucked, and it'll be easier in the long run to just wait for her to come to me, unless I just want to replace Skidmark in her mind which isn't ideal considering she just betrayed him.

"One~ Two~" Rabbit starts counting as she rides me, timing her bouncing to match me lifting the weights.

Well, I wanted to get a workout.

Jaina

Jin had given her an important role in his organisation, and she had a serious duty to perform.

She was in charge of their protection services, picking out businesses in their territory and offering them protection on Midas's behalf.

And it was protection, not the thuggish equivalent the other gangs offered. Those who took their services paid them a small, quite reasonable, cut of their profits, and in exchange their business would benefit from their protection.

When a business accepted their services, they were given a number they could call if they needed help, a banner to prove they were protected by Midas, cameras were set up around their business and the minion's patrol routes were altered to include the new business.

The bigger businesses or the ones willing to pay more even got a couple of guards permanently stationed nearby, or even inside depending on the owner.

They'd started small, convenience stores and gas stations mostly, but word was already spreading of their efficiency and trustworthiness.

Which led to people actually approaching them instead of her having to pick new businesses to approach.

It meant she had phone calls to make, emails to read and schedules to make, she was in her element and happier than she had been in a while.

But it also meant she was very busy, which was how she liked it, only…

Moaning, she pumped her fingers into her slit in time with the phantom cock she could feel entering her.

Rabbit was insatiable, and it seemed Midas could keep up with her, and really… you try making a serious phone call while getting fucked by proxy.

The Golden Syndicate had a reputation to uphold, she couldn't be moaning over the phone.

She'd given up trying to work through it, it was just too damn distracting for her to ignore, and that meant whenever Rabbit was horny, she was horny.

She'd rubbed herself raw a dozen times over the past week, she'd even missed the damnable sensation while Rabbit was out indulging in her other hobby, burglary.

Her professional shirt was tossed on the floor, her bra alongside it as she groped her breasts roughly, feeling Midas's mouth sucking on her nipple, his tongue swirling around it.

As she came, she had to keep reminding herself that she wanted her relationship with Midas to be professional, as tempting as it was getting to just go and experience it in person, she wasn't as easy as Rabbit.

The feeling of warmth flooding her womb made her groan, and as she felt Jin's cock slip out of her pussy she prepared herself.

They weren't done yet…

Feeling the bulbous tip of his dick press against her virgin asshole, she braced herself and forced down a moan.

Of all the ways to find out she had a thing for anal, this had to be the weirdest.

Jin - Later

"Thanks, Boss, we needed that." Rabbit says as she hops off me, uncaring of the cum leaking out of her ass and pussy.

"We? Ahh, Jaina was pent up as well then?" I ask rhetorically, making her grin. Rabbit knows everything Jaina knows, so if Jaina is horny then Rabbit will act on it.

"Yup, with me busy stealing and her too prudish to act on it, she was getting all worked up with no way to take care of it~" Rabbit agrees.

Leah slipped away after the first hour, she's out of shape as she was clearly exhausted from nothing more than a little light running. I'll have to get her into proper shape later.

Skidmark might have been willing to have his followers be so lazy and out of shape, but I have standards.

"I take it you succeeded then?" I ask, making her grin widely.

"Yup~ I knew where someone had stashed a few unique shinies so I went and liberated them for you, I put them in the vault next to the stuff you yoinked from Armsy, wanna go see?" Rabbit asks as she casually flips off the bench.

...I'll have a worker clean this place up.

"Of course, lead the way." I say easily, fixing my clothes. I'm not in my suit but I don't need to dress so formally all the time, and my exercise gear will do fine for now.

Heading to the vault, which is fairly close by since I like having it close to my private rooms, I pause as I walk in and see the pile of loot on the floor.

A life-sized jade cat figurine stares back at me, as several over cat themed jewels, figurines and artwork lies around it.

...next to the loot is a black catsuit and bullwhip, along with a bag.

"Rabbit, where exactly did you get all this?" I ask, making her giggle.

"There's a two-bit thief in Brockton with an obsession for cats, and I knew she kept a bunch of the expensive jewels she stole, so I just went and… liberated them. Is it really stealing when you're stealing from a thief?" Rabbit asks as she picks up the bag. "I also borrowed her suit and whip, she doesn't have a spare so I figured it'd keep her distracted for a little while."

"You robbed Catwoman." I deadpan, perhaps I should have seen this coming. "Should I prepare the base for a cat burglar?"

"Probably~ but she'd have tried to rob you either way, she's always had something to prove when it comes to me, because I'm better than her in every way. Plus, she likes shiny things and you have shiny things." Rabbit points out, making me nod as I mentally order my researchers to start looking into traps and base defences. We've already started placing cameras in key places, along with building a security room from which they can monitor my lair and territory.

"And what's in the bag?" I ask, making her grin as she reaches in and slowly pulls out a small black piece of silk. "Her underwear, of course you stole her underwear."

"I even got the ones out of her washing basket, don't worry about the unwritten rules, Catwoman lives in her hideout so it's free game." Rabbit assured me as she twirls the tiny black thong around her finger with a grin.

"...excellent work?"

I'm definitely getting some traps set up, something tells me I'll be having a visitor to my old base, sooner rather than later.

Selina Kyle

Staring at her empty stash, she growled and slashed at the fluffy white rabbit doll staring up at her mockingly.

As she tore it apart, she paused as she smelt a very familiar scent, her cats all suddenly paying attention as the catnip spilt out of the doll, making her groan as she mentally cursed the White Rabbit.

She'd kept a few choice pieces over the years, all cat themed that she couldn't bring herself to sell, and she'd stored them in a tinkertech safe…

So why the hell was the safe wide open? She knew the Rabbit knew where she lived, but this was bold even for that smug bunny.

The fact that she'd also taken her suit and whip just added insult to injury.

But she wasn't too worried, because Rabbit didn't care for what she stole, she just stole to start her games.

It was a big flashing sign saying 'chase me if you want your stuff back'.

Heading into her bedroom, she sighed as she hopped into the shower, she didn't know where the Rabbit even was, she'd been keeping her head down after a little mix-up with the Empire, how was she supposed to know that the Empire was funding that art exhibition?

Kaiser hadn't been happy when they pulled down the curtains and saw that she'd cut the painting out of their frame, but she'd already sold them to Coil and she wasn't in a rush to 'negotiate' with Kaiser.

He wanted as many capes as possible, so usually the negotiations between the Empire and Independents like her just turned into a one sided intimidation.

Rabbit was unpredictable at the best of times, and she couldn't leave her treasures with that second rate thief, so she'd have to hope that Kaiser was too busy to bother with her.

As she got out of the shower, she dried off and went to her clothes drawer, opening it before she paused as she looked at the empty drawer, her underwear replaced with a small scrap of paper.

'These panties have been claimed in the name of King Midas!'

The mocking drawing of a rabbit holding up a peace sign made her scrunch up the paper as she growled.

Who the fuck was King Midas anyway?

Jin

Sitting in my office, I look over my growing set of files on the over gangs and threats in Brockton Bay.

There are two people I see as major threats at the moment, Coil and Bakuda.

Bakuda because I don't want my city to blow up because she lost her temper, and Coil because there's only room for one scheming underground-lair loving villain in Brockton, and I'm better looking.

Lung is keeping Bakuda under control, for now, but canon shows what she is like when left unchecked and I can't risk the butterflies sending her into an explosive frenzy so early.

Coil I want dead so I don't have to waste my time worrying about him, and a part of me wonders if I can grab Bakuda and make her create the explosives I would need in order to destroy Coil's base.

I plan to grab her soon anyway, and blame it on the Empire if I can pull it off. I don't want to let her get set up since the longer she has to prepare the more dangerous she is.

Some ABB men have been seen delivering chemicals to a warehouse that's deep in ABB territory, my hackers have access to the city's various cameras (mostly the speed cameras) and I was able to track them back to that warehouse after they raided ACE chemicals. The fact that the ABB are performing heists on chemical labs in the middle of a gang war tells me everything I need to know.

I don't want to get involved in the Empire/ABB war until I have dealt with Coil, but Bakuda is too much of a threat to be left to her own devices.

I know where Coil's base is, but it's too big and too well defended for me to try a frontal assault, it's located in an abandoned 'incomplete' Endbringer shelter, and it's been reinforced to high hell.

Tattletale has given me his real identity, Thomas Calvert, but he's been reported missing by his wife and he hasn't shown up for work in over a week.

He won't leave his lair as long as Blank is fucking with his powers, even if it damages his long term plans.

My Blank has tiers, and it started out on the highest tier which actively messes with Thinkers attempting to use their powers on me, which is what is happening to Coil as any time he uses his power it has to model me.

But if I lower it down to just preventing their powers from affecting or modelling me, then he'll think his power is working again and when he comes out of hiding I can turn it back on and assassinate him.

There's also an option that allows me to feed false information back to anyone who is trying to read me, but it's locked at the moment and it doesn't say how to unlock it.

Speaking of unlocking however…

Schemer Upgrade Quest Complete

New Thinker Power unlocked

[Prodigal Learner]

This Thinker power allows you to learn skills at an incredibly accelerated rate, turning years into days.

Tutorial Complete

Villainous Gift Box added

I've already tried the new power, and after a single day of practicing I am already fairly skilled at playing the piano, a skill I was always interested in but frankly never had the time to learn.

The gift box is interesting however, because according to the item description, the things within were chosen by my system's creator, Lord Kuro.

According to the description, he chose them based on how I acted during the tutorial, though Neith did put a warning that her father is something of a troll and incredibly lazy so he might have just thrown whatever into it and called it a day.

Accepting the tutorial completion makes a small black box with red ribbons appear in front of me, and as I carefully unwrap it, black mist starts to pour out.

As the box opens itself and the mist rushes towards me, I can't help but wonder if this is what opening Pandora's Box felt like.

Skill Added

[Noctis Cape]

Since you seem like such a busy guy, you can have the power to never need sleep. You can still sleep of course, sleeping is amazing after all, but you just don't need to. Also you'll never forget anything, yay bonuses.

Skill Added

[Power Guru]

You like making other people do your fighting for you, take a power that lets you make your followers more useful. Simply put, this lets you jailbreak and alter the powers of other people (not yourself because that's the path to bullshit), and since I've been informed my original version was 'too powerful' and 'game breaking' I've needed it to stop people from whining at me. Once you make a modification to their power, you can't affect that person's power for a fairly lengthy time period, also I've limited what changes you can make as well. The changes you can make are based on the original power, but hey, get creative and make it broken anyway. Gamers are meant to be bullshit.

Skill Added

[Harem Lord]

Like all gamers, you can't keep it in your pants, so take this one to help with that. With this power girls you've claimed as part of your harem are almost guaranteed to never cheat on you, lesbians are more likely to make an exception for you and a few other things for you to find out.

This power can be upgraded to Harem King later, but it's up to you to work out how.

Noctis Cape is going to be very useful, because if I can skip sleeping then I have eight more hours a day to scheme, practise or otherwise better use my time. I always get eight hours because a bad sleep schedule can lead to lowered mental faculties and it's important to avoid that.

Sleep deprivation can lead to a lot of dumb mistakes.

The Harem power is interesting, but mostly unimportant for now.

But Power Guru? Now that sounds very, very interesting. I can see why people would be worried it was too strong, but I still think I can get a lot of use out of this.

Sending a message for Jaina and Rabbit to come to my office, I idly check my messages while I wait.

The show you put on was rather wonderful, even if I didn't have the best seat. The Merchants made poor subjects, their minds too addled by their drugs, and no one will mourn their passing. I look forward to working with you, I have some personal affairs to put to order but I will be by your base once I am done.

Dr Crane

Ahh, excellent. I have a lot of respect for Dr Crane, especially now that I've looked into his past in this world a little more.

Johnathan Crane used to be a Parahuman psychologist working for the PRT, and while a lot of the details are hidden it appears he was working on a theory on how applying fear could create new Parahumans,

Essentially, he was taking prisoners and manufacturing a trigger event, and if it succeeded they'd offer the prisoner a deal to get out of jail if they joined the PRT. It was all voluntary, the prisoners were offered time off their sentence to take part in the experiment without being given the details.

It turns out, torturing criminals into triggering makes villains, something the PRT expected but believed they could control. They couldn't and Dr Crane's experiment was stopped, he was discredited and later he would be fired for continuing the experiment on homeless 'volunteers' on his own time.

I know all this because the mostly insane capes he left behind weren't exactly quiet about their experience, and you can't expect crazy to keep to a NDA.

Why he wasn't prosecuted is another story, but he lost his job, funding and his home, disappearing from Boston where he had been working and eventually ending up here.

Brockton Bay seems to be a dumping ground for capes, everyone ends up here eventually.

The second thing worth my attention is that someone is running a PR campaign to make me look good… and it's not me.

Someone, going under the name of La Brava, is piecing together footage captured by bystanders, speed cameras and other footage that I'm not entirely sure where it came from, and she's editing them into well made videos extolling the virtues of my men and I.

She's even included actual irrefutable evidence that I'm good for the city, data on crime rates before and after I took over, and actual police reports that she somehow got her hands on admitting that their lives will probably be easier (as long as they avoid provoking me), among other things,

Going over their message history, it appears she was fast to start paying attention to me, their earliest messages in reference to me coming right after I captured Squealer, and they seem… fanatical.

I have no idea what I did to get this girl's attention, but she's doing good work making me look good to the regular people, and apparently she's a fairly well known user on PHO, one that predates my appearance by a few years at that.

Which means people believe she isn't a plant, and that makes everything she is doing more believable… which makes her very useful.

Writing up a message, I send it to her with a lazy smile. I can appreciate the skill she used to make her videos, and I can definitely appreciate the fanaticism she has put into her work.

Hearing a knock on my door, I call for them to enter and close my computer, turning to face Jaina and Rabbit as they walk into my room, Jaina taking a seat in front of my desk as the Rabbit chooses instead to sit in my lap, already grinding her ass against me.

"You called for us, Sir?" Jaina asks, fidgeting slightly as she feels my growing erection pressing against her ass.

"Ooh~ is it time for Jaina to put out? She'd look so good bent over your desk." Rabbit adds making Jaina flush as she looks at me hesitantly.

"No, I have no interest in ordering Jaina to sleep with me." I say simply, watching her relax slightly.

"Why not? She'd enjoy it, she's dreamt of you taking advantage of her." Rabbit says with a sultry tone as Jaina blushes, looking away.

"I'm sure I would enjoy it as well, but that's not why I called you both here." I deadpan, giving Rabbit a light spank as she grins at me, Jaina jumping as well. "Behave, or I'll have Jaina send you a way for the meeting."

Pouting at me, she simply lays her head on my shoulder, her breasts pressing against my chest.

"Thank you, Sir. She can be a handful. What did you need us for?" Jaina asks, clearly trying her best to avoid showing the feelings she is getting from Rabbit.

"It's not what I need from you, I have an offer for you, one that's entirely voluntary. I am a Trump, one capable of modifying and improving other peoples powers. I trust you understand the importance of keeping this secret, but you have both proven yourself trustworthy and reliable, so I'd like to offer you an upgrade." I explain calmly, watching Jaina's eyes widen as her mind races.

"Are there any side effects? What kind of changes can you make? Is there a cost?" Jaina asks, making me smile at her caution. I knew I liked her for a reason.

"There aren't any side effects, and the only cost is that once I make a change to your power I can't do so again for a certain length of time, one that varies depending on the change I made. The changes I can make vary depending on the original power, so I don't know how I can improve your power yet, only that it will follow the theme your power already has." I explain, letting her think about it.

Rabbit seems to understand the seriousness as she stops grinding against me for a moment, just cuddling instead.

"I… I trust you." Jaina says as she rises. "What do I have to do?" she asks, watching as I rise and move Rabbit out of my lap.

Walking around my desk, I offer her my hand which she slowly, hesitantly takes and as we touch, I reach out with the power I can feel within myself and connect to her own power.

Her shard notices the connection of course, but it seems more intrigued than anything else as I examine it and see what I can do.

I could modify the sensation sharing aspect, preventing Jaina from feeling the pain that Rabbit feels, but that would also stop the pleasure she gets and I don't particularly want to do that. I could also give Rabbit a short range teleportation, because that would be in line with the 'never be captured' theme of her power.

I could make Rabbit faster, more agile, I could even give her a luck based power not unlike Domino from Marvel, though it would be weaker than Domino's since it'd take multiple upgrades to get it up to that level.

After some thought, I make my decision and start to gently change her power.

Scion

Pausing, he stared off into the distance as he felt one of his powers change.

Was it supposed to do that?

Mentally shrugging, he continued flying through the air. The change was small and the power was a weaker version of something he already had so it didn't mean anything.

Elsewhere, if she wasn't currently brain dead, Eden would have facepalmed at her partner's short-sightedness.

Jin

"And done, now we just need to test it." I say as I break contact, picking up a sensation of happiness from the Shard as I disconnect.

"I don't feel any differ-" Rabbit starts before her eyes widen and she jumps back, moments before I would have swung at her. "…never mind."

"I figured a danger sense would suit a flighty rabbit like you, it only warns you a second before you would be hit, but with your speed and reflexes I think that'll be enough until I can improve it." I explain, teleportation is useful but not if you get caught by surprise and can't respond, so I figured it'd be better to give her a small spidey sense first. "Also…" I start, looking towards Jaina, watching her eyes widen as she steps back, clumsily falling to the floor as she tries to avoid the punch she knows is coming. "Since it's a Thinker power, it works for both of you." I finish, quite smug about my work as Jaina rises. "I don't expect you to need it, but it's nice to have all the same." I say, helping her up.

"Hey boss, you got any plans for today?" Rabbit asks casually, making me pause before I chuckle.

"I have a meeting in a few hours, but I'm free until then." I say, utterly unsurprised as Rabbit pounces me, roughly kissing me as she leads me back to my chair, sitting me down and dropping to her knees.

"Good, then I can properly thank you~" Rabbit says as she undoes my trousers, wasting no time as she immediately takes my dick into her mouth, deep-throating my cock without hesitation.

"I… thank you, Jin." Jaina says, her eyes lowering to look at Rabbit who is enthusiastically blowing me. "I'll give you two some privacy." she says quickly, practically fleeing the room as Rabbit giggles around my cock, pulling back.

"She's so stubborn~ if I wasn't here, she'd probably have taken my place but she doesn't want to let me win." Rabbit giggles, making me chuckle.

She's definitely an interesting one.

"If you want her, you need to make the first move, she's the type of person who'll keep running away forever." Rabbit advises, before she goes back to pleasuring me.

"I'll keep that in mind." I say idly, running my fingers through her long white hair.

Manami Aiba

Staring at her computer in shock, she get her mouth run dry as she read over the message she had received for the tenth time.

She was expecting another angry message from PRT or New Wave fanboys over her support of King Midas, but as she spotted the user who had messages her she'd frozen in shock and awe.

Midas had noticed her, he'd even thanked her for her support…

She'd started paying attention to Midas when he first bust the White Rabbit out of the PRT convoy, and while his confidence and style had impressed her, she hadn't given him much thought beyond that.

Then he started his war against the Merchants, wasting no time as he started his work wiping out one of the worst plagues Brockton residents had to deal with, their drugs did more damage to the city that even Lung could do on a bad day.

Okay that might be an over-exaggeration, but the Merchants were a constant issue and Lung only went on a rampage when he was pushed.

It wasn't just his actions that attracted her, but the utter confidence and gentlemanly attitude that he kept no matter the situation, whether he was dealing with Armsmaster or Skidmark, he just gave off this air of style and… well, royalty in everything he did.

It enthralled her, she could only dream of having so much confidence in her actions, and she found herself wanting to see him succeed.

He didn't need her help, why would he need some shut in when he wiped out an entire gang that had plagued the city for years in a week? Even still, she wanted to do her part and help him.

She had no personal goals, she didn't even leave her room other than to answer the door to receive her deliveries, but for the first time she had something she wanted to do, and Midas's success became her success.

It probably wasn't healthy, and it was certainly risky as she hacked into the local police servers to see what they had on him.

She couldn't risk trying it on the PRT, their systems were much, much better, but as she read through the police reports she was convinced she had chosen the right person to worship.

The police themselves were relieved that the Merchants were gone and enjoying the rapidly lowering crime rate, and they were lowering their own patrols in Midas's territory to avoid provoking him, by order of the Mayor.

Essentially, the city was letting Midas govern his own territory because they knew he'd do it better, even if that wasn't the wording they'd used.

It made her all the more sure that she needed to see Midas succeed, she wanted to see those banners flying all throughout the city and she'd do anything to see it happen. All she could do for now was make other people see the good Midas could bring to the city, but Midas had noticed her efforts.

Midas had noticed a nobody like her, he'd thanked a nobody like her.

He appreciated what she was doing, and that made her heart race, her cheeks turning bright red as she deleted her rambling reply for the fifth time.

This had only solidified the feelings she had growing inside her, and she couldn't deny it.

She loved Midas, and she'd do anything to see him succeed.

Victoria Dallon

"Ugh." Victoria groaned as she practically threw herself onto Jin's couch, the older man watching her in bemusement.

"Rough day?" he asked idly, looking up from his paperwork.

"Yup, no thanks to your brother. Have I told you that he's an asshole, because he is." Vicky whined as Jin chuckled, putting his paperwork away and moving over to her as he helped her up.

"Follow me, I think I can help you out a little." Jin chuckled, taking her hand and guiding her out of the office, making her smile wryly as he led her into his bedroom, towards the big king-sized bed.

"Heh, you could have just said you wanted to fuck, I could use the distraction." Vicky said with a smirk, making him shake his head.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, not yet anyway." Jin countered, making her pause in confusion as he slowly stripped her out of her costume, then her underwear.

"…you don't want to fuck but you're stripping me?" Vicky asked, making him chuckle again as he guided her to lay down, face first on his bed completely naked.

"You clearly need to relax, and I can help you with that." Jin said kindly, his hands reaching up and grasping her shoulders as her eyes widening, a light moan slipping out of her as he started to gently knead them.

Oh fuck yes, she could definitely go for a massage, and Jin clearly knew what he was doing as he started to slowly work his way down her back.

"So, what's bothering you so much?" Jin asked, working out knots in her muscles she didn't know she had.

"Ugh, what isn't bothering me? The PRT, Midas, Dean, Mom. Mom has gone full-fledged paranoid because Midas reminds her of Marquis and now he's said he looks up to her, New Wave's rep is in the garbage with Midas shovelling more and more shit onto us, Dean is fucking some slutty fake alien, and the PRT keeps bothering me because they want to meet you and they have a million questions about you, I've given them your number like you said but they just keep question me, also they're pissed I beat Dean up but whatever." Vicky groaned, holding in a moan as Jin moved to her legs and started to work his way up them, pausing as he got to her upper thigh. "Dude, we've fucked, it's a little late to get hesitant to massage my ass." she giggled as he gave her a little spank.

"This is a massage, and I know how worked up you can get. We can fuck later, so down girl." Jin chuckled as he went back to her legs.

She was a little disappointed, but it felt too good to complain as he went to work on her body, turning her to putty in his hands.

"I've heard about what Midas had to say about New Wave, and it helped me understand his plans a little more. He's waging a PR war against both New Wave and the PRT, making himself look good while ruining the reputations of everyone who could oppose him. Public opinion is a powerful thing, after all." Jin explained, making her nod as she bit back a moan, Jin's talented hands moving to her inner thigh, the side of his finger brushing against her dripping slit as her legs parted to give him more access.

"It's working. You know I got an offer recently? A new sponsor for New Wave, offering a lot of money… with only a little request." Vicky scoffed. "They wanted me to take part in a fucking porno, as Glory Girl. Turns out there's a big market for pornos of heroines being 'defeated', they wanted me to take part in a gangbang porno, even offered to let me choose whether it was fake ABB, Empire or Merchants that 'defeated me'." Vicky scoffed. "A month ago, they'd never even dare make an offer like that, now they seemed surprised that I got angry, pointing out that I wouldn't be showing anything that isn't already on the Internet."

"Ahh, that must have been unpleasant. It's no wonder you're so stressed. Turn over please." Jin said, watching as she turned onto her back, looking up at him with a smirk as his eyes lingered on her tits.

"Yup, but I'm picky, and even if it's on the Internet, I'm choosy over who gets to see me naked, even more so over who gets to touch me." Vicky giggled, taking his hand and placing it on her breast, moaning as he squeezed it lightly.

"Lucky me." Jin chuckled, getting to work on her front as she groaned in satisfaction.

"Fuck information, can I hire you to be New Wave's personal masseuse?" Vicky groaned, weeks of stress vanishing as his talented fingers moved along her arm.

"Somehow I doubt your mother would accept that deal." Jin deadpanned as she laughed.

"If anyone needs some stress relief, it's her. If I have knots then she must have the massage equivalent of the Gordian knot, I don't think she's taken any personal time in years." Vicky admitted, melting into a puddle as he worked on her legs again.

"Well, you can be the one to offer it, because I'm fond of living and your mothers lack of a sense of humour is rather well known." Jin deadpanned again as he worked his way up to her upper thighs again, chuckling as her legs immediately parted. "Slow down, girl… there's no rush." Jin teased, deliberately brushing his hand against her pussy as she glared at him jokingly.

"This massage better have a happy ending." Vicky warned playfully as he chuckled, leaning down and giving her a light kiss.

"As if I'd be so cruel as to leave a horny girl like you unsatisfied, I take customer service very seriously, and at this massage salon, the customer always comes first, and second and third as well." Jin joked, making her giggle.

"Promises, promises." Vicky replied, just laying back and enjoying the way he worked out stress she hadn't realised she had.

Dean never gave her a massage, and she'd never gone for a professional one either, but somehow she didn't think she'd enjoy a professional massage as much as she was enjoying having Jin play with her body.

"It doesn't surprise me that the PRT want as much information as possible, Armsmaster has shown what going into a situation blind can result in, but I have to admit I'm surprised at Dean, he didn't seem the type to move on so quickly from what little I've seen." Jin said, making her groan.

"Okay, I might have misunderstood a little since Starfire told me that she can transfer information through kissing, and apparently she didn't speak English before she met Dean, but still… she said he was 'large' and you should have seen the way he couldn't keep his eyes off her legs." Vicky complained, making Jin chuckle.

"I've seen pictures of this Starfire, I can't blame the kid, teenage boys are easily distracted by mini-skirts and long legs." Jin admitted making her shrug.

"Yeah, true. She rocks that mini-skirt, I'm still pissed off at Dean though… you know, we talked a little bit and Starfire mentioned she was looking for her sister." Vicky started.

"Does her sister go by the cape name of Blackfire?" Jin deadpanned, making her pause.

"Of course you already know something." Vicky said with a light chuckle.

"Not enough, rumours and second hand information mostly." Jin admitted. "She's a minor wandering villain with a mixture of an Alexandria package and blaster powers, she's hit a few banks around America but she doesn't stay in one place for long."

"But you could find out more?" Vicky asked, making him shrug.

"Almost certainly, what are you up to?" Jin asked, giving her an amused look.

"Wanna help me cuck Dean? Or more importantly, wanna fuck another sexy heroine?" Vicky asked, a cruel smirk growing on her face.

Dean thought he could move on? Not a fucking chance.

"Why do I always get caught up in your crazy schemes?" Jin asked, making her giggle.

"Because you're one of the only people I can actually trust anymore, as sad as that is." Vicky admitted, her tone showing more hurt than she wanted.

"I'll play along, but Starfire is a hero, and a possible future ward so there's a limit of how far I'll let this go." Jin warned, making her nod.

"I don't want to hurt Star, she actually seems really nice, or at least I don't want to now that I've calmed down a little, but she wants information and I know she's broke, besides you're hot and she seems easy." Vicky said easily, reluctantly moving away from the bed and picking up her phone, moving to the bed and laying back down so Jin could continue his massage.

Calling a number, her eyes widened as Jin finally moved his hands down to her slit, gently storming her lower lips as the call was answered.

"Hello, Glory Girl! How can I help you?" Starfire asked, making Vicky bite down the moan that was trying to slip out, glaring at Jin.

As he went to stop, she clenched her thighs down around his hand, making him smirk at her.

"I've told you, you can just call me Vicky. Anyway, I was actually thinking about how I could help you, remember how you mentioned that you wanted to find your sister? W-Well, I know an information broker who can help you track her down." Vicky explained, her words stuttered as she suppressed a moan, Jin slowly pumping his fingers into her.

"You do? That's wonderful… but I'm afraid I have very little money, I'm not sure I could afford to pay this broker of information." Starfire admitted sadly.

"Don't worry about that, he doesn't mind making alternate deals, I'm sure you two can come to an agreement. Besides, it doesn't cost anything to just meet him and find out how much he would want in order to track her down." Vicky said quickly. "Prophet is a reasonable- oh fuck." Vicky moaned, unable to stop herself as she glared down at Jin, his head between her legs as he started to eat her out.

"Are you alright, my friend?! Do you require assistance?" Starfire asked quickly.

"Oh n-no, I'm fine! I just knocked something over." Vicky reassured her. "As I was saying, Prophet is a reasonable guy, and a hero himself so there's no harm in meeting him, I'll even come with y-you."

"I see! I will not forget this kindness, my friend! I owe you greatly for your assistance in my mission! I would love to meet this heroic broker of information." Starfire said cheerfully, excitement in her tone.

"Great, I'll contact him and arrange a time when we are all free, I'll be in touch Star."

"Please, my friend, call me Kori! I will look forward to your call." Starfire said cheerfully, making Vicky feel a tiny bit of guilt, before she got rid of it. Kori would benefit from this, the only person who wouldn't would be Dean, and fuck Dean.

Metaphorically, of course.

"You are a cruel, cruel man." Vicky moaned, finally able to let loose as she ran her fingers through his hair, wrapping a leg around his head as he stared up at her in amusement. "Keep going."

It didn't take long for him to push her over the edge, a long, loud moan leaving her lips.

Unwrapping her legs from his head, she panted slightly as he stood up, wiping his mouth clean with a playful grin.

"I'll be back in a minute, like I said… the customer comes first, and second and third. I've kept my word on one of those, but you've got a lot of stress we need to work off." Jin chuckled as she grinned happily.

Scion damnit, Jin spoiled her.

Pausing, she opened her phone and sent a quick text.

'Just had the best massage of my life, u gotta try it cuz'

Laying back down, she grinned to herself happily, she definitely felt a lot more relaxed than when she arrived.

Plague Knight

"Hehe, Mona? We're in trouble." he giggled nervously, making his assistant and crush look over at him.

"…because there's a couple dozen men dressed in black and gold outside our lab?" Mona asked, looking at the security feed.

"Yup, also Midas burnt down all the other labs. I knew we should have left sooner. We shouldn't have waited to pack everything up." Plague said idly, scratching the front of his plague doctor mask.

Skidmark had been a good source of funding, since all he wanted was slightly improved basic drugs which an alchemical Tinker like him could make easily, letting him use the rest of his cut for his own purposes, working towards brewing the Ultimate Potion.

Plus Skidmark was kinda a moron and he'd be easy to escape, when it was time to move on.

"Are we running?" Mona asked, making him shake his head.

"They've blocked off the secret exit, and they're armed. Too many to fight, and they know we are here. If Midas wanted us dead, he'd burn the lab down with us still inside it, so I guess we are going to go and see what he wants." Plague said, nervously laughing as he checked his 'potion' supplies.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" Mona asked after a moment.

"Hehe, probably not."

Bonus Scene - Path to Money

"Everything on Red 11." Contessa said calmly, the dealer hesitating before he moved the chips and called for any last bets, reluctantly spinning the roulette wheel and freezing as the ball stopped on Red 11.

Without Cauldron's resources at her beck and call, she needed to gather her own if she was to complete her path.

She could already hear the footsteps coming from behind her.

Path to acquire funds

Step 1: Go to Vegas

Checking her path one last time, she smiled and fixed her hat.

'Step 137: Turn 76 degrees, Step 138: refuse to go with them, Step 139: sidestep the attempt to grab her and draw her gun.'

Alexandria

Looking over the news report from New Vegas of a woman wearing a fedora robbing a gang operated casino, killing twenty-seven members of the Royal Flush gang in her escape, she thanked her foresight to look at this in private as she slammed her head against the desk, cracking it slightly.

Contessa was nigh impossible to actually capture, because while her paths could be faulty like every other large scale Thinkers power, it still functioned to help her avoid their attempts to capture her, and every attempt to grab her was interrupted or she was long gone before they could arrive.

As her phone rang, she sighed and straightened up, taking a breath before she answered it.

"Save the complaints, Emily." Rebecca said coldly, cutting off Director Piggot. "I was well within my rights to go over your head, and if Armsmaster had actually taken any reinforcements, Midas would be behind bars by now. I simply ordered him to capture Midas, I didn't expect him to go alone." she lied.

Glancing to the piece of paper she'd found on her nightstand, she frowned to herself.

'Path to neutralising Simurgh, step 1: contact Armsmaster and tell him to apprehend Midas.'

She had no idea what Contessa was doing anymore, but her paths seemed to be functioning again. How else could she escape from a Cauldron base (on another world no less) and so easily avoid capture?

She had no idea if this would work, but if it had even the slightest chance of actually working, she'd do it.

"But he didn't, and thanks to your orders, he lost his gear, and made the PRT a laughing stock, which Midas wasted on time capitalising on to turn the public against us. If you'd sent the order to me, I could have made sure the glory hound didn't run off alone." Piggot practically growled. "I have a gang war getting hotter every day, and now I'm down one of my most useful capes. Why would you even want him captured anyway, you've had no issues leaving Brockton Bay to burn so far."

Of course she hadn't, too much outside interference would alter the results of their Parahuman Feudalism experiment, but with Coil now cowering in his base, they'd changed their focus.

Midas served just as well as Coil's replacement, as he personified the very concept of Parahuman Feudalism given his actions with his new territory.

They wanted to see how a city would function under the control of a Parahuman, they didn't particularly care which Parahuman it was. She'd prefer Coil rule, because he owed them and they could leverage him.

But everyone could be controlled with enough leverage, or guided with the right bait. Midas was no exception.

"If you have to ask, perhaps you shouldn't be a director. Midas and Prophet are two of the only Thinkers in America who don't seem to have problems using their powers, I want to know why. Let's cut to the chase, Emily, I'll send you the reinforcements you've been begging for, but I want to be clear. Midas and Prophet are very high priority, I want you to recruit Prophet, or if that's beyond your capabilities at the very least form a favourable relationship between him and the PRT. We missed our chance with Midas, he won't turn now that he's so well established."

Which meant it was time to rely on less heroic methods to get Midas.