chapter 3

Wyrm (Alan Marris)

Wyrm's Lair

April 10th, 2011 Morning

I had an aversion.

Ever since I became Wyrm, I have categorized a lot of changes that I have experienced and of them the ones that stand out the most was thus: beast-like mentality post-stage one transformation, lust after parahuman woman, and an aversion for regular woman. I wondered at first why I was feeling this way.

I mean, I wasn't a virgin when I took Taylor's virginity and I really liked my first … second … third and many more sexes that came before Taylor, so why did I gain this sudden aversion to romancing regular women when I clearly wanted to fuck?

It took a while but I reached a conclusion: my power.

The only difference before I gained this new "my type" of women was the fact that I got superpowers. Yes, I'd fucked a few other women since I came to Brockton Bay, but none of them satisfied me. It just … felt like I was masturbating more than I was having sex.

But Taylor definitely made sex better. Maybe it was because of how tight she was or how the inexperienced teenager's all too honest reaction just turned me on more. Regardless, fucking Taylor and giving her a creampie definitely ranked somewhere in the top five experiences of my lives.

That said, I needed to have a serious talk with her about what her situation and circumstances were before I went out to hunt the Undersiders again.

"Ungh."

Ah, just in time.

Taylor groaned as she tossed and turned on the bed, only to suddenly shoot up and then attempt to cover herself with the bedsheets after realizing she was naked. She looked around and found me sitting right next to her, naked as she was.

"Hello, honey," I grinned as I stared up at her while laying down on my side and keeping my head supported up with my arm. "Did you enjoy the sex last night?"

She stared at me for a few moments before the blush was back.

"Y-Y-You-!"

"Don't be shy," I said while giving her a cocky smirk. "If you forgot my name, then I can certainly take you for round two to make you scream it again."

Her blush grew deeper and spread to more of her. She shut up after that, just glaring at me, before she finally lost her own will to glare and just slumped. "I-I'm really a w-whore now, aren't I?" she mumbled.

I raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"I sold myself to you to spare dad," she spat while glaring.

"... I suppose, but no. You became my woman, so you aren't here for just one night, and thus you are not a whore," I said before gently cupping her right hand and pulling it up. There, on her right ring finger, was a gold ring that I slipped on while she slept after our first consummation.

She stared at the ring with wide eyes before looking back at me.

"B-but I'm ugly."

Ah yes, the self-esteem issue that I've read about. It was something that existed with canon Taylor for a long time.

"I wouldn't say you're ugly," I spoke up to get her attention as I sat up. "If you were, then I wouldn't have sex with you." Before she could speak, I wrapped my arms around her half-heartedly resisting body. "It felt good, right? I didn't just use you for my pleasure."

She pulled at my arms around her chest and neck before giving in and leaning into my embrace.

Most people wouldn't lean into the embrace of someone who coerced them into a relationship. She must have been very starved for affection and touch if all it took for me to get her to be even mildly affectionate was a night of sex, few choice words about her, and a few words about how I wanted her to also feel good.

I leaned down, and she looked up. I caught her lips on mine and slowly kissed her. She froze for a second before her lips moved with mine. She moved hesitantly and unsurely, so I led her in this dance of lips.

We sat there, kissing and touching, until she had to surface for a breath. And she did it with a gasp too.

I chuckled.

"What?!" she hissed at me.

"I just like how honest you are."

She looked torn between wanting to glare and pout, so she did both after a while.

"... Are you going to keep me in your 'lair'?" she asked after a while.

"No."

"Then?"

"The only thing I will ask from you, Taylor, is that you take my name as my woman, know that you will not be my only woman-" she looked hurt but I pressed on. "-and only have a sexual relationship with me."

"... that's it?" she asked a bit bitterly. "You don't want me to work for you because I just control bugs? You think I'm weak?"

"Bugs are terrifying," I told her pointedly, which startled her. "Bugs can be anywhere and everywhere, and unless you are hard countered by people like me, then you can do anything you want."

"Like what?"

Thoughts and ideas I've read in my past life - my life before coming to Earth Bet - surfaced by the dozens. "You can attack without actually being there, using bugs to make avatars for others to talk to you with -" she looked frustrated after a moment, probably because she was scolding herself for not thinking of that. "- if you don't want that, then you can do what you did when you met me; using large swarms to both intimidate and attack. If you don't want to fight, then you can use your bugs to pollinate orchards and farms to rake in money by the tens of thousands per job."

"Really?" she looked surprised.

I snorted. "You would be surprised how much of the world's food production depends on pollinating insects."

"... Okay. What do you think I should do?" she asked hesitantly after a while.

"What I want you to do is to be beneath me as I impregnate you every single night for the next decade," I growled as I kissed her neck, and she shivered and moaned a little. "But that's not what you want: cooped up and being a broodmare."

"No," she glared at me.

I pulled back from kissing and biting her neck. "So I won't make you. Instead, I want you to be honest with yourself. Why do you want to be a hero?" I asked.

"Because heroes are -"

"Be honest."

"-... right?" she finished.

"Wrong. Modern heroes are celebrities. You do not dress like a celebrity."

She frowned at me in frustration. "Then what do you think I want?"

"You want to relieve your stress. You want to fight. You want to be in control of the situation."

"I-" she stopped. "... Do I?"

Maybe sex really did loosen her up a little. Canon Taylor would have never admitted that she was wrong unless it was objectively wrong (and even then, canon Taylor would excuse - and did excuse - her actions as necessary).

"All parahumans do. It's a known fact. Powers seek conflict," I replied before I flipped her around. She squeaked, finding herself nude in front of me. "I just seek something more than just fighting."

"W-W-What is your power?!" she asked hastily.

I stopped leaning down to kiss her and pull her. It was obvious what she was doing, still being unfamiliar and uncomfortable with me and having sex.

… I would let it go for now.

"I am the better Lung," I said as I just forced her to straddle me while I kept her close with my arms around her waist. She squirmed and blushed as our naked bodies touched each other, and her eyes refused to meet mine as she felt throbbing dick underneath her.

"But you used electricity. And whatever you did my insects."

"Yup. I can control lightning as well as air. All I did, Taylor, was compact the air to extreme degrees, causing abrupt heightening of air temperature, where I felt peculiar disturbances. In essence, your bugs - as I learned your powers to be - died from being exposed to extreme air pressure and heat."

She stared at me. "T-That's ridiculous."

"On the contrary, my control over the elements isn't stable. As I am now, I can only control so much." So show her, I picked up the current of the air in my bedroom, and all it did was cause her hair to flutter. After a moment or two, I stopped it. I then created three lightning balls that began to orbit around us, and she yelped when one of them got close to her back and caused a static discharge.

I chuckled as she pressed herself against me, and I tightened my arms' hold over her, forcing her to remain pressed against me.

She looked up at me and glared.

"You did that on purpose."

"I did not," I said as I allowed the lightning balls to disperse. "This, however, I mean."

I leaned down and kissed her.

'My woman,' I thought as I pulled her down with me as I laid back onto the bed and kissed her until she couldn't breathe as I grinded my shaft against her clit. I left her breathless and needy again and again and again.

Then I flipped us around, looked at her, and rammed my dick into her. She screamed in ecstasy for the next half hour as I filled up her womb with my cum.

+++

An hour later, I came out of the bathroom, having thoroughly washed myself after Taylor had. When I entered my bedroom, I saw Taylor tittering with her costume on but without her mask.

"Yes?"

"S-So you want me to come back, right?" she asked.

I blinked twice before sighing and walking over to her. She yelped when my naked body pressed against her, and I wrapped her up in a hug.

"Have a safe trip, Taylor." She hugged me back hesitantly and then fiercely.

"Okay."

"Oh, by the way."

She looked up while we hugged. "Hmm?"

"I might be going out to hunt the Undersiders sometime soon and I might do it as a fully fledged dragon, so you might not want to be in my path."

"Why?"

"I can't think straight when I am a full dragon."

"... But you beat down the Simurgh."

My fight with the Simurgh had been publicized. I was the second Lung with more firepower and more powers in general. I grew bigger faster, and I struck harder and faster. Everyone was worried about me, and I knew - guessed - that the PRT and Protectorate ENE wanted to keep me from going all-out.

They lost against Lung; what could they do against someone who was not only bigger than Lung but had more firepower than him when they couldn't take the lesser version of me down with their entire rooster?

"And I wasn't thinking. If I was, then I would have bombarded her from a mile away, though I suspect with what she did to me, that her "range" is just her sandbagging."

Taylor looked stricken at the thought that the Endbringers were pulling their punches.

If I was from Earth Bet, then I too would be stricken but I was not. I didn't have the same emotional and historical connection to the Endbringers.

I shrugged as I removed my arms from her. "I'm sure we'll be fine," I replied. "If anyone comes at us here in the bay, then I can always use a Round 2."

She fidgeted for a few more moments before gathering her courage. "Okay. I'll be going."

"By the way, didn't you have school today?"

"... ARGH!"

I laughed. "By the way, Taylor," I said before she left. She turned around to look at me. "My name is Alan."

She stared at me before nodding. "I'll be back, Alan." And then she left to wherever she wanted to go. Considering her personality, she might go back to school.

Speaking of her school, now that Taylor was mine her issues were also mine.

I would have to speak with the school board soon.

As I watched Taylor wave me a hesitant "see you later" and leave my bedroom, I was left with a conundrum.

School board or the Undersiders?

The incompetent officials or the petty thieves?

Those whose inaction hurt my first woman or the ones that stole directly from my hoard?

Choices, choices, choices…

…

Or I could just continue with my original plan. Yes, let's do that.

+++

Dinah Alcott

April 11, 2011 Noon

Dinah ran as fast as her legs could carry her, splashing dirty alley water as she tap-tap-tapped her way to her freedom.

Then there was a fork that was coming up.

'Is left safe?!' she screamed mentally even as her head felt like it was going to crack in half.

[17% chance of leaving the alley if left is taken,] her power responded.

Dinah sobbed as she turned right without slowing down a little bit and slipped, and slammed into the wall as a result. Even though her face hurt from hitting the wall, she ran forward as her white dress became dirtier and dirtier.

She tripped and fell down, scratching her knees against the muddy and trash littered ground. She cried out in pain as she rolled, but she got up on shaky and burning legs before she took off again.

The end of the alley! She could see it up ahead!

"She's over there!" someone shouted from far behind her.

She pushed herself faster. Even as she felt her blood dribbling down her legs and cool in the spring winds, Dinah pushed herself to go faster and further with each stride.

Then she made it out-.

And got scooped up.

"Let me go, let me go!" she shouted before realizing where she was. What she thought had been the end of the alley was merely a wider alley between the compact buildings of the Downtown.

"Shut up," the man growled, and she froze. She slowly looked up and her eyes widened. She saw who'd picked her up by her waist, and saw a man with a scowl on his face with short black hair and shark-like teeth. She saw his face before on TV. Everyone in Brockton Bay saw it because he did something no one else had done; he'd torn down the Empire Eighty-Eight, the longest lasting and most numerous parahuman gang, by killing its leader, Kaiser.

"W-Wyrm…?" she croaked hoarsely. 'Is he going to hurt me?' [2.9% chance of Wyrm hurting us.] "H-Help me!"

"From who?" he asked with a grunt. "Them?"

He shifted her over so that she could look at the alley, and saw the people who'd been chasing her were now laying face down on the ground with new strangers… holding guns…

She hiccuped.

He shifted her back so that she couldn't look deep into the alley anymore, and she trembled while looking at him in the eye.

"Yeah, I'm Wyrm and I know that you're a cape." She shrunk into herself despite being held up in the air by his hands on her waist. "I saved your life, so work for me."

"Bwah?"

"You speak and understand English. Speak English."

"W-W-"

"I saved your life, little missy," he grunted as the new strangers who'd done something to her chasers stepped out of the alley. They all wore dark green bulletproof vests, helmets, thick looking pants, and steel-toed boots. If it wasn't for the dangerous looking guns, the dark green scheme, and the teeth-like logo on their upper left chest, then Dinah might have thought that the three professional people in front of her were from the PRT.

But the logo was a dead giveaway that they weren't from PRT.

As were the guns.

And the blood on their boots.

Dinah trembled but Wyrm ignored her. His head turned to these new people and grunted. The "soldiers" saluted and dispersed, disappearing in seconds. He turned back to her.

"I saved your life. You owe me," he grunted to her. "So work for me. I'll give you protection, you give me answers with your powers. Good?"

She nodded hastily. If that was all there was to this, then she wasn't going to say no.

He set her down. "Good. We'll go to my lair now."

+++

Wyrm

Wyrm's Lair

April 11, 2011 Dusk

My talk with Dinah's parents over the phone went roughly. I was basically forcing her to work for me because I saved her. It wasn't heroic, but I wasn't trying to be a hero. Her parents were against it, but I reminded them that I was Wyrm; I got what I wanted, and I wanted Dinah to work for me and I had her with me.

I reminded them that yes, they could call the PRT, and no, the PRT would not be able to do anything against me.

Was I kidnapping her?

Officially and legally, yes, I was taking her away from her unsafe household.

Unofficially, Dinah herself agreed to it. I never said I would harm her if she refused. Was it a douche move?

The better question was this: was my decision to get Dinah to work for me in what I considered a safe environment better than dumping her in the PRT where she was likely to get kidnapped or back in her home where her parents did not take her seriously and where she would get kidnapped?

I was the least evil of them all!

I even gave her a salary.

In gold.

The thing about being an elemental mastery dragon, which was what I was, was that I could pull up the earth whichever way I wanted. Including copper, gold, silver, and titanium to name a few, but also by iron, platinum, rare earth metals, and so much more. This was part of the reason why I took one of the warehouses in the industrial district of the Docks South and made my lair by digging down. The mere act of digging exposed the earth to me, and I could more easily shift things around and pull more out when there was more surface area to pull them out through.

My Dragonteeth organization, comprised mostly of formerly homeless veterans from the US military who have been dissed by the government because they wouldn't join the PRT, was not funded by drug market, forced prostitution, or gambling. They were paid by the money I made from pulling out minerals from the earth and selling them.

In essence, I was in charge of an illegal mining operation, and most of my organization spent time transporting goods out of the warehouse to be sold to refineries in Boston and southern Brockton Bay.

Things like Palladium, which was used to resist corrosion, was also used in electronics as catalysts, but Russia, the world's biggest producer of Palladium, wasn't selling to the USA because Leviathan cut off the world's shipping industry. The price of Palladium, as a result, skyrocketed along with other materials especially since Tinkers needed it, and the USA Protectorate had a lot of Tinkers among their ranks.

USA and Canada combined produced maybe twenty thousand kilograms annually, and everyone wanted - no, NEEDED - it.

A kilogram of raw Palladium ore went around three thousand dollars these days.

And I produced a kilogram of Palladium every two days along with many, many, many other minerals and elements.

Hell, I was thinking about having my own refinery to make selling this shit easier. Since I also didn't pay taxes, my profit margin was literally 100%.

The best point was that I did this without making giant mines, holes in the ground, or other destructive means. I just shoved refuse concrete into the earth - the broken concrete that no one wanted - that I - my intermediaries - received money to take away from construction and demolition sites.

Was Fortress Construction one of my suppliers?

No. I wasn't that high up in the business ladders and Fortress Construction tried to remove themselves from "black market" - read: "any kind of business transaction that was not done formally with paperwork and banks" - transactions.

It probably was just Coil being Coil, separating identities and whatnot.

It was through this mining operation, which was completely dependent on me spending several hours every day in a week or a full day or two in a week to draw out the minerals out of the earth slowly and quietly without alerting anyone, that supported the Dragonteeth.

As an organization, the purpose of the Dragonteeth was based on two principles: discipline and subservience. The Dragonteeth would never become some criminal gang. Only those who have proven their worth were allowed to join, and the entire organization belonged to me and thus all within served me.

On a minor note, most of the ex-military who were with me in the Dragonteeth were different from the mercenaries Coil hired. Coil's mercenaries were professionals from around the world and wielded tinkertech. My "Teeth" - as I called my soldiers - were less soldiers and more members of the Dragonteeth community.

Money was important, yes, but it wasn't everything in the Dragonteeth. I handpicked the two hundred and more members of the Dragonteeth over the last two months based on what they represented.

Downtrodden, neglected, and misunderstood.

I didn't care if you were gay and got kicked out of the military because of it some two decades ago.

I didn't care that you were scapegoated into being discharged dishonorably.

I didn't care that the government that you bled for ignored you.

"Will you work for me?" I had asked.

"Yes," they had answered.

Why?

Because I promised them prosperity. I promised them power. I promised them many things and I required service in return.

The Dragonteeth was not the Merchants that addled themselves with narcotics. The Dragonteeth was not ethnic gangs that the Pure, one of the two rememnants of Empire Eighty-Eight, and Azn Bad Boyz, Lung's hideous "pan-asian" amalgam gang, were.

The Dragonteeth was a promise of a better tomorrow through service and reward.

Considering that I was paying them, I already fulfilled my half of the promise. In the days to come, they would show me if they could serve me well.