Sherrel
The Docks
It’s been a two weeks since her boyfriend slash boss decided to go gallivanting through the fucking multiverse as a ‘magical experiment’, and truthfully, Sherrel Denise Bailey was starting to get a little bit worried.
She’s been doing that a lot recently.
It seemed so silly considering just who and what her boss was, but what the hell could she do when the guy she was concerned about just so happened to be the same guy she kinda-sorta-maybe loved in a not-so-platonic way? That kinda shit didn’t come with an off switch, which is why she’d tried to stay away from that level of affection and care for the longest time when it came to him. Birds chirped, dogs barked, whores creamed, and Sherrel worried about her loved ones.
That’s just how it was.
Still, a lot of that worry was illogical; that much she was well-aware of. Jason Black was by far the strongest man she’d ever met- hell, the strongest man she’d ever heard of. From the day he kidnapped her sorry ass from being just another drugged up slut in Skidmark’s shitty, half-assed gang, she’d known that there was something different about him.
Something extraordinary - like he was there to shake things all the way up.
And although getting the drugs and addictions and diseases flushed from her system had helped her decision-making capabilities, she had still thrown her full weight behind the young man over a decade her junior, pledging herself to his cause as a Tinker, an advisor, a friend, and a warm body to come home, release his stress inside of, and, Hell, raise his fucking kids if he wanted. She didn’t need to be ‘the one’. Didn’t even think she was capable of it.
Nah, Sherrel just needed to be a one. She only needed a piece of that sweet, sweet Black pie, and the fulfilling existence that came with it. ‘Concubinage’ wasn’t even too far off the marker, and Sherrel was A-Okay with that. She wasn’t even sure if she could still handle being loved romantically after everything she’d been through with Skidmark. Didn’t even know if she wanted to be. So, for now, she was happy with her lot in life.
Very happy.
Some, mostly chaste and boring middle-aged ‘feminists’, would call her decision perverse. Short-sighted. Selfish.
Demeaning.
Sherrel preferred the term ‘smart as fuck’.
After all, just look at them now.
Invictus was by far the most popular independent superhero team in America- shit, in the world, and if she had to nut up and say it, Sherrel would even argue that they were pound by pound the strongest, too. Maybe not in raw physicality, but when you were as dangerous as some of their members, you didn’t need to be Alexandria. You just needed to be yourself.
Aisha was a literal perfect assassin, infinitely better than anything Oni Lee could’ve ever been even if he hadn’t died like a bitch - that was how scary her Stranger power was. It had a few weaknesses, such as surveillance footage still being able to catch her likeness on video… But when she also had fucking Illusion magic that made her invisible or mastered hostiles to be friendly, or attack each other, or just flat out fall to the ground paralyzed-
Then what was the point of resisting?
If that girl wanted you dead, you were dead. Because if the whole ‘you can’t see me’ thing didn’t work out, you still had to deal with a hyper-lethal murder blender gremlin with a magical katana that gave her bursts of super speed, and could cut through even Tinkertech-modified alloys with ease. Without a doubt, Aisha was probably the one Sherrel didn’t want to fight the most.
Just the thought of it made her tits sore.
Trainwreck, meanwhile, was simply a tank. Not literally, though the thought was amusing - no, the man had simply taken to the idea of being an unstoppable fortress for the team and ran it ten toes deep into the concrete. You ever see a ten foot tall suit of steaming steel blast towards you at supersonic speed while swinging a roaring, fifteen foot long rocket hammer?
Yeah, most people couldn’t. It was impossible. And if they did, they were dead - just like Mannequin, and anyone else who thought to threaten Invictus.
And then… There was Cerberus.
Rachel’s dogs treated motherfucking Crawler like a chew toy, tore rooftops off of entire warehouses with a casual swipe of their claws, and were able to wrestle Snowcone down to his back whenever the frost dragon (and wasn’t that fucking insane to casually mention) was feeling playful enough to roughhouse.
Rachel herself was casually boasting a couple points in the Brute/Mover category now thanks to Amy’s ‘Apex Serum’, and from what Sherrel heard from Aisha, who heard it from Amy, who was requested it by Rachel… She was probably going to get a couple more bio-enhancements soon, all of them wolf-related. By and far, outside of their fearless leader, ‘Cerberus’ brought the most raw physical strength to the group.
Obviously, after seeing how flawlessly it worked for Malcolm, Rachel, and all of her dogs, the others got Apex’d up, too - Sherrel included. That had been the only day where most of Invictus hadn’t been out patrolling the streets. They’d chosen to get the procedure done together, and Amy had already grown several more of her ‘Bio Pods’. It’d taken several hours, but by the time the group evolution was complete, Sherrel, Aisha, and Sabah were wholly transformed, pushed to the very peak of what humanity was capable of.
Sherrel was a mechanic, and a Tinker. She blasted fuckers from the safety of mechanized weapons of mass destruction. She hadn’t even needed the upgrade.
She’d just done it for the love of the game.
And holy shit, Miss fuckin’ Universe wouldn’t have shit on her now.
Their patrol efficiency only increased due to their heightened physical and mental abilities, not that they even had too many superpowered jackasses to lay the smack down on these days. Thanks to Jason’s reputation as the one and only ‘End Slayer’, and their subsequent dismantling of the Slaughterhouse Nine, no one wanted beef with Invictus - which meant, no one wanted to lay their grubby hands on Brockton Bay.
You could count the number of actual villains still calling this city their ‘home’ on one hand.
Kaiser was dead. Coil was dead. Lung and Oni Lee were dead. The rest of the Empire capes were either dead or locked up tighter than a virgin nun’s pussy. Uber and Leet were apparently still around, but according to Aisha, they’d announce on their channel that they’d be taking a ‘hiatus’ to figure some shit out. Sherrel thought that they were just tryna figure out where the hell they’d go now that BB wasn’t dealing with their cringeworthy loser ‘pranks’ anymore.
The Undersiders, meanwhile, were long gone.
Last Sherrel heard about that condescending bitch ‘Tattletale’, she was partnered up with some newbie hero calling herself ‘Skitter’. They were establishing some sort of ‘Intelligence Broker’ business, trading information for favors and favors for more information. It was small-time so far, and Sherrel didn’t know much about the Skitter chick outside of her being able to control bugs, but ultimately the duo was irrelevant. They didn't have the moxxie to stir shit up.
The only other remaining Undersider, Aisha’s older brother Brian, was slowly being funneled into the main Brockton Bay Protectorate lineup as their newest rookie. Unfortunate timing on his end, considering they were kinda getting sidelined right now, but eh…
He was a decent kid. She wished him the best.
That left mostly neutral parties like Faultline Crew out in the lurch, twiddling their thumbs and waiting to see what ball would drop next. The Palanquin was still open every night on the dot, so those mercs were still around. Watching. So long as they kept their noses clean of the Bay, Sherrel didn’t give a rat’s ass what they got up to in their spare time.
Brockton Bay, for the first time in decades, was completely free of supervillain control.
She could see it in the way the city breathed. The way that the clouds actually gave way to sunlight, and civilians wandered the Downtown strip without huddling beneath the collars of their jackets and power-walking to their next stop.
Even the mayor was finally getting his ass into gear, ordering street cleaners to begin scraping away the swastikas, E88’s, and other Neo-Nazi propaganda from the Empire’s former territories, while government-funded construction companies finally turned their attention to fixing and paving roads that should’ve been fixed a long, long time ago.
It was a slow process.
It’d take more than a couple weeks to carve away years of corruption and rot. But the people of Brockton Bay were taking the first ever steps, and that was all anyone could ask for. At least in the Downtown area, the city was putting its best foot forward, and the crime had slowed down to a snail’s pace due to the severe lack of villainous capes looking to put their neck up on the chopping block.
Now, as for the Docks-
Well…
CRACK!
Overdrive tossed aside her newspaper and squinted up through the tinted, slat-covered windshield of her latest side-project, watching with half-lidded eyes as a tall, athletic-looking Asian man in bright red and green clothing was slammed bodily through a third story window by a large, metal-clad hand the same size as his torso. It gripped him by the waist, pipe-sized fingers digging into the man’s body hard enough to wrench the breath from his lungs.
And through the opening of the broken window, she could hear the muffled screams of several terrified young women, eclipsed only by the frantic shouts of panicking men and the brutal crack crack crack of gunfire.
Trainwreck grunted something incomprehensible through the open comms and retracted his hand - though not without releasing the flailing ABB goon. His body plummeted the remaining forty or so feet in what felt like an instant, splattering against the concrete sidewalk and folding in on itself like a lazy boy made of wet, broken flesh. He was clearly still alive, but whether he’d ever walk again was a completely different story. Judging by the way jagged lengths of red-stained bone were tearing themselves out of his lower body-
The answer was ‘probably not’.
Overdrive clicked her tongue. “Trainwreck, sweetie…”
“Eyup-”
He was interrupted by more screams and more gunfire.
Sherrel heard the telltale click that signified that the big dumbass had just muted his end of the comms, and then a massive explosion shook what felt like the entire fucking street, shattering the glass of every window on the second floor of the inconspicuous ‘massage parlor’ slash illegal brothel. Although Overdrive couldn’t really feel the effects through the kinetic dampening field spread across her APC, she knew what a full-powered swing from Trainwreck’s rocket hammer sounded and looked like after working with him for as long as she has.
It was the silence that always followed after that was the most telling.
She could already feel the headache coming on.
“You’re supposed to be goin’ non-lethal, you big oaf. Meanin’, no blowin’ up one half of the fuckin’ building!”
There was a beat of silence, occasionally broken up by the muffled voices of women speaking rapid-fire Mandarin in the background. Overdrive fiddled with the controls on her console, half-heartedly attempting to patch back into the surveillance feed transmitted by Trainwreck's helmet, but lo and behold - the connection was iced. Hardware malfunction, not software.
The bastard broke the camera.
Whatever.
“… The women’re safe ‘n secure. Made sure of that before I swung. Needle-dick fuckers shot me,” Trainwreck finally grunted. He sounded more annoyed than out of breath or in pain. “A lot.”
Overdrive groaned, equal parts exasperation and bemusement. “C’mon. Whaddya think they’d do, Trainy? Roll out the red carpet for the ten foot tall metal Sasquatch throwin’ their boys through second story windows? Maybe give you flowers ‘n chocolates?”
“Gay,” was his immediate response.
Then-
“An’ I’m allergic to chocolate.”
“Just secure the fuckin’ floor. And for the love of God, make sure you ain’t jostle those poor girls too badly. I’m gonna go ahead and call it in, get the PD and medical down here to take over.”
Fortunately they were on speed-dial. Two clicks on her console later and the sound of ringing filled the carbon black frontal compartment of her newest child.
This was the fifth sex-trafficking ring they’d busted this week alone, and honestly, Overdrive was getting pissed off. Not at the girls, of course. Never at the girls. No, she was getting pissed off because the remnants of the Azn Bad Boys were motherfucking cockroaches.
Hell, at this point they could barely even be called the ABB.
All that remained of the once notorious gang were a bunch of pitiful, leftover stragglers. Scared, desperate thugs trying to wear their lizard daddy’s Christmas-colored suit like it still fit, clinging to the name of a group that had already been gutted and thrown in the ditch several weeks prior. Literal insects. The annoying thing about bugs, though, is that they have a tendency to survive. To hide away in little nooks and crevices where light doesn’t reach, so that they can breed and grow their number.
Hunting down these little problem spots and breaking bones was like spraying a can of RAID on a nest of ants. It killed that nest, sure, but what did you do about the hundreds of eggs gestating in the walls of your home? How did you take out the root of the infestation?
Someone smart and stupidly capable like Jason’d probably say to target the city itself.
Give jobs back to the people.
Burn the corruption out of the institutions.
Create a self-sustaining ecosystem where the average dumb-fuck didn’t need to sell his soul to crime for a worthwhile paycheck, and where young women didn’t need to fear disappearing in alleyways and trafficked halfway across the Atlantic by a bunch of grimy creeps. He’d say something profound and cheesy in that deep, chocolatey drawl of his, like, ‘Crime can’t thrive if there’s nothin’ fertile for it to grow in.’
And he’d be right. Because of course he would.
But Jason wasn’t here, wouldn’t be ‘till he was, and Overdrive had never been quite as patient and ambitious as her fearless and charismatic leader..
She failed Economics 201 in college.
She didn’t do politics.
But she did do vengeance. She did gearboxes and steel and big, fuckoff war machines that screamed down streets and didn’t stop moving ‘til everyone in front of the bumper was red mist or zip-tied to a stretcher. Her babies didn’t run on hope or idealism - they ran on diesel, blood, and the sort of cathartic hatred that didn’t need much reason beyond ‘these assholes had it coming.’
And these needledick ABB cockroach motherfuckers?
Oh, they had it coming.
Her radio buzzed, crackling faintly with grainy interference. Overdrive held the speaker up to her lips, a wide, humorless smile turning her beautiful, suntanned face into a mask of cold determination. “Attention, Brockton Bay Police Department - Overdrive of Invictus here, callin’ in yet another busted ABB sex operation. This one’s on Lawrence Street, right off the corner; front’s a skeevy massage parlor called the ‘Slip ‘n Tug’…-
Brockton Bay wanted to fully heal. It did. She saw it every single day, like a baby fawn taking its first steps.
But shit like this made it really, really fucking hard.
So until her Jason came back and played Patron Saint-
Overdrive would salt the earth, gather her exterminators, and take a flamethrower to each and every nest that she could find. She’d do it with a shit-eating grin on her face.
And hope that Jason, wherever the hell he was, would be proud of the way she led.
He left some stupidly big boots for her to fill, after all.
________________________________
Several Hours Later…
Jason Black
Invictus Palace
It felt so fucking good to be back home-
“AMYYYYYYYYY!”
… A feeling that I clearly shared with my girlfriend, judging by the embarrassingly high-pitched mating call she released as we stepped out of the closet/portal room and into the bedroom proper.
Eri and I watched through tired, half-lidded eyes, as Cassie all but sprinted out the door, nearly tripping over a small pile of dirty laundry in her haste to get to the third in our unusual throuple. I couldn’t blame the expediency; although it had only been, what, twelve hours since we’d last been on Earth Bet, I’d also done a great many of things in that very brief timeframe, including but not limited to killing over a hundred men, beating the fuck out of a cripple, and getting my own ass beat in turn by said cripple now Strongest Man Alive.
Talk about a fucking story for the age, eh?
Of course I’d already healed what Recovery Girl couldn’t, but the mental exhaustion was still there. Neither Hysh or Restorative Magic - or, at least, as far as I was aware - had a spell that perfectly substituted a good eight hours of sleep. And if it did, I don’t think I’d wanna use it anyway. No, what I really wanted to do was find all of my girls, pull them into bed, and pass the fuck out for the next three days.
And then after that, I could call a team meeting, get everybody caught up, and figure out what I wanted to do about this Epic Quest.
… Actually, no. I knew what I wanted to do, and how I’d go about doing it. I just wasn’t sure how I’d go about having that bittersweet conversation with the rest of the team.
“Big Bro…?”
My thoughts were oh-so-cutely interrupted by the bundle of snowy white curls cascading over and around my head. Eri’s palms rested softly on my chin, her cheek nestled against the controlled chaos that were my own currently white dreadlocks. I tilted my head up slightly, just enough to see the young girl blinking drowsily back down at me.
“Yeah, squirt?”
“Who’s ‘Amy’?”
…
Shit. Right.
Man, what was up with me and kidnapping clueless girls with absolutely no context?
“Tell you what,” I chucked wryly, reaching above my head and easily pulling Eri down into my arms. “While Cass is out there wakin’ up the entire Palace with her… Cassieness, how about I give you a lil’ summary of who and what we are. That sound fair?”
I could see it as clear as day; the little trooper was exhausted - emotionally, physically, and psychologically. But Eri was stubborn, too, both in that silly, childish way that children got at the mere idea of actually falling asleep for some reason, and in a much deeper, much older way that came from several undisclosed months of experiencing things that no human being should ever have been made to experience, nonetheless a six year old girl.
She curled her lip, jutted out her chin, and nodded at me once, adamantly. Like a soldier snapping to attention. “Yes, tell me!”
I grinned. “Alright, little lady. Hold on, let’s get comfy first. Big bro’s tired as hell.”
Of course, I didn’t give her the opportunity to actually react. By the time her brain was just starting to acknowledge the meaning of my words, I’d already teleported us halfway across the room. We fell into the triple king-sized bed in an explosion of displaced sheets and comforters, Eri’s surprised squeak utterly muffled by the abundance of magically-softened fabric.
By the time she managed to poke her head up through the mess and glare at me, I’d already gotten myself comfortable against the headboard. One gentle tap on the empty spot beside me was all it took to wipe away her pout and replace it with a dimpled smile. Eri lunged across the comforters like a three foot missile, drowsily giggling as she face-planted into the pillows halfway and crawled palm over knee the rest of the distance.
A jaw-cracking yawn forced its way out of her mouth, and I snorted.
“If you fall asleep now, you won’t get to hear the story.” I murmured, faintly amused. “I wouldn’t blame you, though. You’ve had a really, really long day, Eri. Longest of the fu-… freakin’ century. You deserve some actual good sleep. I could always give you a tour tomorrow, introduce you to everyone.”
She pouted again. I don’t think she even knew she was consciously doing it. Kids were funny like that.
“But if you tell me now, it’ll be like a bedtime story…”
Her mouth stayed open for a half second longer, as if she wanted to say something more, but no words came out. She clamped her lips shut a moment later, wide scarlet eyes glassy and moist, and I didn’t even bother thinking more about it - I simply wrapped my right arm around her small, delicate body, and brought her even closer into my side.
My body was hotter, now that I was a dragon. Very much hotter than it had ever been back when I was human…ish. Eri practically melted against the warmth, because that was what I was nowadays to the various traumatized young ladies who lived with me. A fancy, glorified heated pillow.
“Fine,” I sighed, and felt rather than saw Eri smile against my shirt, “But if you fall asleep while I’m talking, I’ll be expecting a one page essay tomorrow on everything I said up until that point.”
That caught her attention.
Eri wrenched her head back just enough to stare up at me, her open-mouthed expression a strange mixture of awe, surprise, and slight nervousness. “Essay? Like homework, a-and school?”
I paused. “… Yep. You, uh- know how to read and write, right? Like, at a basic level?”
She was nodding her head vigorously, even before I’d gotten the question fully out of my mouth. There was a hopeful, innocent excitement in the motion, like the idea of actually getting to do something as repetitive and mundane as homework was something that made her happy. Considering how and where she’d spent the last year or so of her very short life, I couldn’t blame her.
Riley would need some kinda schooling too, right? Now that I wasn’t planning to just drop ‘em off in some peaceful world and leave to go get milk and cigarettes. Shit.
… I’d figure something out. I always did. But for now, I’d just free style it off the top and see what shakes
I grinned. “Sweet. Then listen up, short-stuff, ‘cause you’re actually the first person outside of my team that I’ve told the entire story to.”
“I’m listening, Big Bro!” Eri clenched my black t-shirt with both of her little fists, the sleepiness apparently evaporating into thin air in the excitement of receiving an actual bedtime story. I could literally see the stars in her eyes as she stared up at me, a toothy white grin splitting her lips. “I can handle it!”
In spite of everything she’d been through, she was a fiery little fire cracker. I didn’t know anything about the Eri of the original My Hero Academia timeline beyond what Cassie had summarized to me in that cat cafe, but I couldn’t help but wonder if she was anything like our Eri. The Eri that screamed ‘you got knocked the fuck out’, and was rooting for me to pulverize Yagi back during our fight.
I guess it truly didn’t matter at the end of the day. What’s done is done, and I wouldn’t trade the outcome of our little trip for anything.
“Hm. Let’s start with the beginning, shall we? I’m gonna explain something big off rip, and it can be a little confusing, so try to stick with me. ‘Ight?”
“‘Ight!”
I chuckled. “Uh-huh. My full name is Jason Lamar Black, and I’m not originally from this planet. Ain’t from yours, either. Nah, I appeared here, on Earth Bet, about four months ago, with nothing to my name but a wallet that smelled like butt sweat, a pair of pajama bottoms, and an untapped well of infinite magical power…-“
…
I gave Eri the full story, only mincing words when absolutely appropriate.
Some people may criticize my tendency to talk to a six year old kid like she’s someone several years older, but that was how I was raised - and it was how I decided, a very long time ago, that I would raise my kids if I ever had any. I didn’t believe in baby-talk and infantilizing children that weren’t literal toddlers. I didn’t believe in putting wool over their eyes and blinding them to the truth of the world, only so that they’d be blindsided once reality ripped the cotton outta their ears when they least expected it.
Especially not to Eri, who’d already experienced the worst humanity had to offer. It felt disrespectful, in a way, to her unwitting sacrifice. And although I’d only just met this girl and didn’t even know if I had it in me to be a proper father figure for anyone, I didn’t want to half-ass anything. That just wasn’t how I rolled.
So I told her the truth - or, at least, the same truth I gave everyone else.
I told her about the Celestial Grimoire and the Coven of Goddesses who granted it to me. I told her about my first meeting with Cassie, and how I’d known I would fall in love with her mere days after we met. I told her about how I received my first costume from Sabah, kidnapped Sherrel from the Merchants, and took Amy on a magical Quetzalcoatl ride over the city. I explained how I formed Invictus from the ground up, brick by brick, and eliminated every superpowered threat that stood between me and keeping my city safe.
Oni Lee.
Lung.
Kaiser.
Coil.
Leviathan.
We’d only barely gotten through the bloody, timey-wimey bullshit that was the Hunt of Thomas Calvert when I realized that the sleepy, half-slurred commentary had ceased to drift from the pale little bundle curled against my side. A quick glance downward revealed exactly what I’d been expecting to see; shut eyes, a small, content smile, and a thin stream of drool that stained my shirt darker than it already was.
It was the most at-peace I’d ever seen her. The sight warmed something deep in my heart; some dormant, protective instinct that I’d only felt once before, while comforting Riley. It wasn’t a bad feeling, per se, but it was new to me. And although I could juggle new powers and adapt to shit like becoming a motherfucking mana-breathing dragon with ease, new emotions still had a tendency to make me nervous. Especially when they were so damned strong and sudden.
…
Eh. Fuck it.
I was overthinking shit and being overtly critical of myself again. My therapist - that is, my girlfriend - had warned me about getting too deep into my head about the things I felt, and I was trying to work on that bad habit. Ultimately, it was better to just go with the flow and enjoy this unconventional fatherhood for what it was than to spend weeks being introspective and uncertain about it.
I had the money, power, time, resources, and support network to make these girls’ lives fun, safe, and full of chaotic misadventures. I could get them tutors and schooling from the absolute best magical academies across the entire multiverse, and toss them into epic, isekai-level journeys when it was time for them to fly the roost and grow into themselves.
Hell, if I ended up falling in love with more women (which, I can’t lie, was an insane statement), and the establishment of the dimensional sanctum went as well as I planned it to, then my family could grow even bigger. We could branch out across the entire multiverse, create interdimensional anchors to connect said worlds to our own sanctum, and see the name Black praised and rejoiced for millenia to come. Forever, if I had anything to say about it.
The slumbering dragon inside absolutely loved the idea, judging by the way my chest heated up and tingled at the mere thought.
Considering that dragon was now me, I guess that meant I loved it too.
Then again, maybe I was getting ahead of myself-
Epic Celestial Quest Issued! (2/3) 👑
“Seed of the Worldfather”
You are no longer just a man, beloved. You have become something more. Something vast. Within you coils the breath of worlds and the pulse of godly creation. The Grimoire has awakened your heritage, your magic, and your soul - so now, the divine current of your ascension must pass through flesh, blood, and fertile ground.
You are not just meant to protect the multiverse.
You are meant to sire it anew.
From queens in their ivory towers to warlords painted in ash and blood, from elven priestesses to dark, traumatized witches, from lonely goddesses to neglected monster girls - each world you anchor to your sanctum is ripe with possibilities for true love. Let desire be the gateway, let love be the root, and let lust be the blade. Court these women, claim them, and through passion and purpose, reshape the stars.
Every child born of your dragonseed strengthens your claim to eternity, young Godling.
This is not conquest.
This is the first beat of a new pantheon.
Objectives:
Seduce and form true bonds with ten powerful women from across the multiverse, and breed them full of your thick, virile, divine draconic seed. Maximum per world is three.
(0/10)
Anchor at least five different worlds to your sanctum, forming permanent bridges between your realm and theirs.
(0/5)
Sire your first divine heir, and welcome the start of a new generation into the multiverse.
(0/1)
Reward:
(1x) Legendary Erudition Perk
(1x) Major Dominion Perk
(1x) Major Might Perk
???
???
Huh.
Spoke too soon, I guess.
… What the fuck was up with this vulgar ass description of my spunk?!
I stared blankly at the star-embroidered Quest Entry floating within my mind’s eye, my expression stuck somewhere between incredulity and deadpanned, deeply amusement. If the cute little crown symbol wasn’t evidence enough that the Norse Goddess of Love, Fertility, and War, the contents of the quest definitely was. It damn sure wasn’t Hecate, that much I knew one-hundred percent, and the giggly Goddess who’d rewarded me for losing to All-Might had a different vibe.
Less… sexual, more whimsical and innocent.
“Thick, virile, divine draconic seed,” I muttered flatly beneath my breath, careful not to disturb the sleeping girl curled into my side. A hooked, sharp-toothed grin curled my lips. “Jesus, Freya, you fuckin’ horndog. How ‘bout you buy me dinner first?”
Still… it made a certain sort of poetic sense, didn’t it?
This entire journey - both Invictus and the Celestial Grimoire - had always been as much about creation as it was destruction. You couldn’t fix a broken world by punching its problems in the face alone. That was a short-term solution. Satisfying, sure. Effective in the right moment. But legacy… legacy was what truly mattered at the end of the day. Legacy in the shaping of minds and the molding of bodies. Legacy in the building of something that could survive, long after you were gone. It was why I started this team. This family.
And now I wasn’t just being asked to build a different kind of legacy..
I was being tasked with fucking it into existence.
Godsdamn.
Despite the crudeness of the delivery, I couldn’t deny that the idea lit a strange, primal fire inside me.
A dynasty of draconic mages. Families raised in power and love. A sprawling Sanctum nestled at the heart of countless interconnected worlds, each one made safe and prosperous by magical, multiversal champions sired and beloved by me and my own. Sons and daughters tutored by legendary figures from across realities, growing strong enough to embark on their own adventures and spread the Black name across galaxies.
Lovers-turned-goddesses at my side, not as trophies, but as equals. Partners. Pillars.
I could see it. I could feel it.
And more than anything else?
I wanted it.
I-
Sniff.
-Paused mid-thought.
Sniff sniff.
And there it was again.
A familiar scent; sweet and floral. Earthy. Clean. Like lavender and warm sage and just the tiniest spritz of marijuana, but not the loud, unappealing kind that smelled like skunk shit - but the bioengineered, Ghyran-grown kind that smelled like caramel and chocolate. There was only one woman in this world with that very unique combination of scents, and with my newly enhanced nostrils, it was impossible to miss.
Amy.
Excitement and love speeding up my bloodflow, I gazed toward the thick bronze door of our shared bedroom. The lights were still dim, the air still tingling with residual mana from the Wormhole’s recent activation, and every thread of soft, warm fabric around me practically begged me to stay still and rest. But what kind of boyfriend would I be if I left Amy out in the lurch? I could hear them whispering outside - Cassie’s higher-pitched voice, quick and excited, paired with Amy’s slower, more velvety murmur.
I couldn’t make out the words due to the sound-dampening enchantments woven into the metal, but I could tell that they were talking about me.
I waited patiently, hands absently stroking through Eri’s silky white locks, my second Epic Quest temporarily pushed to the back of my mind in light of more immediate concerns-
The door cracked open.
A tiny sliver of hallway light spilled into the room, casting a thin line of pale radiance across the marble floor. Cassie’s head peeked in, flushed and beaming, a black lipstick imprint still fresh and glistening on her pink-tinged cheek. Her eyes swept over the bedroom, from her cluttered, pink and blue computer and server setup, to Amy’s gothic little book nook beneath the window, and finally over to where I was lounging back on our oversized bed.
Our eyes locked. I could practically see the excitement spark to life in her bright gaze.
Cassie pointed at me, jammed her thumb over her shoulder, and then made a come here gesture so dramatically exaggerated that I almost broke the silence via snorting like a bull. Instead, my grin widened, and I answered with a slow, deliberate nod.
Time to meet my witch.
Moving slowly and gently, I glanced down at the bundle pressed to my ribs. Eri was still out cold, her little hand clutching a small fistful of my shirt, her lips parted in soft, even breaths. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly when I adjusted my posture, but her face never lost that small, sleepy smile. Carefully, reverently, I slid her hand from my shirt and tucked the blankets tighter around her small form, brushing a stray lock of silver-white hair from her forehead.
I thought of saying something, maybe murmuring a spell to help with bad dreams, but I didn’t want the sensation of magic to wake her up. I’d get her used to it later on, but for now…
I vanished with a simple thought.
When I reappeared, it was just outside the door, which I closed behind me with a gentle bump of the hip. The corridor of the West Wing looked the exact same as I’d left it, like something pulled directly from Greek Mythology, but my eyes weren’t on the decor. Neither were they on the smugly grinning cyber-sorceress rubbing her hands together in the shadows like some kind of sick voyeur.
No, I only had eyes for one woman.
Thick, shapely, pale-skinned, with dotted freckles that stood across her cheeks and shoulders and large, soft breasts like specks of cinnamon. Amy stared at me in turn, her brown and green eyes as wide as dinner plates as she had to crane her head back a bit to get a proper look at my face. She was wearing a sheer black negligee and panties, her lips lightly glossed with black lipstick and her eyes outlined by dark, smoky mascara and eyeliner. She smelled like flowers and soil and the Green, and I knew without asking that she’d been in the Garden of Eden, working on yet another project.
We’d seen each other only twelve hours before, but I was genuinely surprised by how happy and content just seeing that she was safe made me feel. Like some sort of burning flame in my chest that I hadn’t even been aware of was just calmed back down into a warm smolder.
I grinned, and her wide-open gaze fell down to my lips and teeth. “Long time no see, pretty gi- Mmf?”
The kiss was full of a desperate, all-encompassing yearning that twelve and a half hours couldn’t possibly have created. Love, worry, anxiety, anger, concern - I tasted each and every emotion through the soft, wet suppleness of Amy’s lips, and then on the violent, scourging invasion of her long wet tongue as it scraped and prodded against the inside of my mouth.
I was strong - one of the strongest beings in this world, without a doubt - but even I had to brace myself against the door to properly leverage so much woman clinging to my body, her fat, creamy ass overflowing in my hands despite them having grown a whole glove size larger.
I wanted more.
My blood became fire, my heart a war drum. A storm of lightning overwhelmed my brain, and I could feel primal, draconic instincts begin to claw their way out of my chest. Amy’s scent was intoxicating, her taste like spiced wine, and I knew at that very moment that I wanted to tear her clothes off in this very corridor, hook her ankles behind her own neck, and ravage her body and mind with an otherworldly, primal pleasure until her pussy overflowed with my seed. For hours. Days, if I could. Because I’d missed her, and she’d missed me, and she was mine.
And for the love of me I would mark her as such-
“Mmh…MMF- J-Jason… yessssss…”
Amy’s pleading moans cut through the rutting-filled haze of my mind immediately.
I paused, one hand wrapped around a thick, silky tangle of her hair, wrenching her head back and granting me access to the sweat-stained, hickey-bruised expanse of her milky white neck. She shuddered against my body, a single freckled breast hanging free and heavy out of her negligee, its fat brown nipple firmly gripped between my teeth - the flat front ones, not the sharp canines. The heady, sweet scent of arousal filled the corridor like invisible smoke, trying its damndest to incite my lust even further.
I felt it wet and hot against my stomach, dampening my t-shirt with its stickiness. Given a few more seconds of indulging, I probably would’ve mounted her right here in the corridor, uncaring of whoever or whatever heard or saw us.
Exhaling softly through my nose, I carefully palmed Amy’s heaving tits back into her top and released the firm, dominant grip I had on her hair. She was panting, lipstick smudged to hell and back, and her eyes were glazed over with an intensity that seemed unnatural.
… I think I broke my witch.
“Amy,” I murmured, a sheepish, slightly embarrassed smile forming on my face. “… I’m sorry ‘bout the aggression, sweet-stuff. Still gettin’ used to these instincts, and I missed you-“
Her gaze sharpening was the only warning I received, before, for the second time in the past few minutes, I was interrupted by a forceful kiss.
But this time, there was no desperation. No confusion. No anxiety.
It was sheer, unadulterated passion and love.
Amy tangled her fingers into my messy, shoulder-length dreadlocks, her grip tightening with a possessive fervor that tingled at my scalp. She’d always been the more dominant one between her and Cassi ; whereas the hacker teased with a bratty submissiveness before lying on her back and begging to be dominated, Amy fought. She took what she could without mercy, and submitted only when her thirst was quenched - or she lost the battle.
This time, I allowed her to have her fill. It was only fair after I went a little crazy there, after all.
By the time our mouths separated, there was no lipstick to be seen - and my tongue tasted faintly of blackberries. Amy rested her slick forehead against mine, struggling for the breath that our make-out session had deprived her of.
The sight made my lips twitch.
“Don’t,” she muttered against my skin, opening one mascara-smudged eye to glare at me. “I can feel how smug you are right now, Jason. Let me speak before you ruin the moment with some cocky one-liner.”
Yes ma’am is what I really wanted to say, but she had that light in her eyes - an almost manic sort of intensity that reminded me of the first time she tasted my cum. She and Shaper were probably having a fucking field day with my new biology. Everytime I got a perk that changed my body on a fundamental level, there were always fireworks and explosions-
Except this time, it wasn’t just elf ears or peak human genealogy.
“Cassie’s already given me the run down. The yakuza, saving ‘Eri’, the battle with this ‘All-Might’ guy. Becoming a literal dragon. Jesus, Jason, you’ve been busy,” my gothic witch continued, tugging ever so slightly on my hair to regain my attention. Her voice was low, throaty, and distant all at the same time, as if she was focusing on several things at once.
Knowing her, she was.
“And while I’m distinctly unhappy with the fact that you almost fucking died to give some old man his confidence back, and that this ‘twelve hour adventure’ you supposedly had kept the two of you away from me for half a fucking month…”
I wasn’t expecting that.
At all.
“How-“
“I’m entirely willing to forgive you for all of your transgressions under three conditions.” She raised one finger, watching me like an eagle would watch a particularly fat rabbit. I heard Cassie shuffling off, trying her best to be quiet, but the scent of lust that followed in her wake ruined any and all attempts at stealth.
Amy was clearly building up to something, so I let the whole time dilation thing run down my back. The team would catch me up later, and getting the time ratio wrong had always been a distinct possibility. It was why I hadn’t wanted to spend more time than necessary in the other world.
Besides, I’m pretty sure I got it down pat now.
“Alright, fuck it. Hit me.”
She wasted no time.
“Firstly, and most importantly,” Amy murmured, wiggling her ass more firmly into my hands, “I expect a full, thorough examination of your entire body. And I mean all of it. Twice. Once in the Garden, once in bed. In that order. We’ll start with your blood, scales, claws, and mana, and end with the potency and power of your cum, and how much your prostate can pump out before even your new stamina is spent.”
I blinked.
Slowly.
“Amy…”
“I can already feel it.” She leaned in closer, gaze hooded and glassy, lips parting slightly like she wanted to taste my skin. “You’re different. Your body’s producing at least four to five times the average volume of seminal fluid, Jason, and that’s without us actively having sex. Fully stimulated? Your prostate’s output potential will probably be closer to eight to ten times what it used to be, with your current glandular resilience. Maybe more. I can do so much with that amount of cum.”
…
Did I miss something?
What happened to my shy, innocent Amy from twel- no, two weeks ago?
“You sound more excited than I am,” I noted wryly.
“Of course I am!” Amy hissed, practically vibrating. “Do you have any idea how rare it is to watch a species-level transformation like this in real time? Let alone to ride your dick while it’s happening?! You have no idea how hot that is, Jason. How extraordinary.”
“Oh, I think I do,” I murmured with a smirk, glancing down at where she was slowly, subtly, gyrating her hips into my abs. This shirt was absolutely finished, but I couldn’t care less.
Amy only smirked, a warm red hue lighting up her freckled cheeks. “Cocky. But yes, full examination and gratuitous amounts of sex, in that order. You’re my test subject for the next couple days. That’s my first condition.”
“I don’t think you’ll find much disagreement here, lil’ witch. Though, most girls just ask for cuddles after a long absence,” I noted with a dry amusement.
She only snorted, her hands gliding from my face to rest lightly against my chest. “I do want cuddles, obviously. Just after I drain you dry and dissect your dragonhood.”
Dissect my-…
“Ech. Don’t say it like that, creep. And never reference my prostate again. Shit’s a boner killer.”
“Awww. Am I making the big, bad dragon God uncomfortable? I’m sorry, my king…”
This time, it was my turn to bite back a chuckle. “What the hell happened to my sweet little Amy? Not that I’m mad at what I’m gettin’ right now. The whole ‘sharp-witted goth witch’ vibe is hella sexy.”
That ‘warm red hue’ deepening into a scarlet burn that nearly consumed the entirety of her freckled face, Amy smacked my chest playfully.
“Hush. I’ve just gotten more comfortable with everything, I guess. My needs. My powers. Us. Don’t read too deep into it, mister.” She shook her head, the obsessive, feverish intensity in her eyes finally cooling down into something approaching normal. “Sorry if I went off on a tangent there, though. I was… distracted. As for the second condition, and this one is absolutely non-debatable…”
I nodded my head slowly. “Okay?”
“You take me with you next time.”
I blinked, caught off-guard once again.
The playfulness in her posture didn’t disappear, not completely, but it softened. The sharpness in her voice dulled to something quieter. Rawer. “I don’t care if the next world is more dangerous, or more complicated, or if it’s a fucking apocalyptic wasteland filled with psychoes and sirens. I don’t care if you think you’ll only be gone an hour or a week or a year. I want to be there. I want to be with you. With Cassie.”
Her eyes searched mine, vulnerable and soft. “I missed you. I missed her. Invictus is great, and I appreciate everyone here… But they’re not you. They’re not the loves of my life. They’re not the pain in my ass who always forgets to eat until I force-feed him toast because he’s always thinking about the next damsel to save or the next spell to learn. And they’re not my bratty little girlfriend who still gets all stuttery and shy when I kiss her on the cheek.”
“…Amy,” I started, smile fading away into a guilty frown. “If I would’ve known the dilation could’ve been that long, I would’ve warned you. I can’t imagine how shitty that must’ve felt.”
“Thank you. But- I’m not mad, Jason. I don’t want you to think that,” she added quickly, shaking her head and looking away, cheeks coloring slightly. “Of course not. Shit, I even told you to leave me behind. It just… sucked, and I don’t ever want to feel like that again. Hence, the second condition. You two leave, I’m coming with. No exceptions.”
“Psh. Of course you’re coming with us next time, Amy. That was never even a question. Y’sure you can handle all that, though?” I waggled my eyebrows, hugging her plush curves even closer to my body. “We stepped out into a literal battlezone last time, beautiful. This one guy - Aizawa - was getting his head slammed into concrete hard enough to shake the whole building. I thought you didn’t like violence?”
She pursed her soft, pouty lips. “I don’t like undue violence. But I’ve been furthering my understanding of the Green Wind, Jason, and I’m confident I can handle a few megalomaniacal losers with superpowers, or hentai goblins, or whatever. I’ll summon treants to hold them down while I shove magical thorns down their ure-”
I blanched.
“Jesus, Ames, I get it.”
“Besides,” the witch giggled, narrowing her bright honey-and-green eyes at me, “I’ve already missed my chance with that ‘Overhaul’ fucker, and I refuse to lose out on more potential bio-experiments. Shame you killed him, but after hearing about what he did to that Eri girl, I can’t blame you. I probably would’ve done much, much worse…”
…
Wait.
Cassie, that cheeky, cheeky little minx.
I grinned like a loon.
“Oh, sweetheart,” I whispered, leaning in to place another soft kiss against her lips, “I think you’re gonna like the surprise I brought home. We’ll unwrap it tomorrow- MMF!”
Judging by the way she shoved her tongue back down my throat, she was definitely a fan.
I’m not ashamed to say that we made out and dry-humped in the hallway for half an hour like horny teenagers - because, I guess, we were. Amy came four times. I didn’t even get halfway to my own climax.
She blamed it on going two weeks without my dick.
I’d like to think that I was just that fucking good.
But in the end, we were both too exhausted to go further, and I wasn’t gonna kick Eri out of my bedroom just to have sex. We ended up heading to the Bathhouse for a nice, hot soak - where we discovered Cassie desperately taking care of her own voyeuristic arousal, and yet another make-out session was had. This time, in a threeway.
Boy, was it fucking good to be back.
… Even if it was only for a short while.
__________________________________
Jason Black
Palace Backyard
The following afternoon saw the entirety of Team Invictus reunited for the first time in two whole weeks, minus Snowcone - who seemed hellbent on staying the fuck away from me for reasons I could probably guess at. Something to deal with soon.
I’d woken up a fair bit later than I’d intended - the whole ‘creating Wormholes across entire realities and keeping them open indefinitely’ thing apparently took more out of me than I’d thought - but Cassie and Amy were absolutely cracked girlfriends, and acted in my stead. By the time I was awake, freshly showered, and dressed in a loose, black and white Adidas tracksuit and sports-mode Crocs combo, everyone was hanging out in the backyard of the Palace, already caught up on the past twelve hours of me and Cassie’s life.
I was clearly not caught up on theirs, though, because I was completely stunlocked when I stepped outside and saw the women.
It was almost like I was looking at completely different people.
First off was Sherrel. She’d always been on the fitter side, with the sun-tanned beauty of a southern belle and the fieriness to match it, but a dose of the Apex Serum - that is, my nut potion - took that archetype by the horns and flew it into the fucking sky. She was taller now, only a few inches shy of my new height, and packed with dense, whipcord muscle that didn’t rob her of an ounce of her femininity.
If anything, it only accentuated it.
The lines of her physique were sleek and solid - a build made for long-distance and endurance rather than explosive, powerful bursts of strength like Rachel. Combined with the golden-copper hue of her tan, she looked more like a beautiful goddess made of radiant sunlight than some normal, mundane human woman. Her skin gleamed with a thin sheen of sweat, a byproduct of her early morning sprint up and down the beach, and her hair was much longer, bright, and tied back into a pony-tail that only just reached her ass.
Complete with her full pink lips, bright blue eyes that almost glowed with youth and vitality, and the sheer confidence in the way she stood, hands on her hips and said hips cocked sassily to the side…
I had to admit; I’d started visually fucking her the second she’d came outside for the meeting. And I knew she was eye-fucking me, because she wasn’t even being subtle about it. The licking of the lips and the slow, up and down scans were abundantly obvious.
“See somethin’ ya like, sugar?” She purred, tilting her head.
Somewhere off to the side, where Rachel’s newest litter of monster puppies were playing with a squealing Eri and a giggling Riley, Malcolm and Rachel both let out disgusted groans from where they were sun-tanning on plastic lounge chairs.The couple - because no fucking way they were still dodging their feelings for each other - probably meant to be quiet, but neither of them were built for any type of subtlety.
Sherrel shot them an annoyed glare.
“Like, missed, want… Take your pick,” I chuckled, and was rewarded by the bombshell mechanic’s full-faced flush.
She coughed into her fist. “Flirty whore. Don’t think you can just pop up outta nowhere all big and glowin’, waggle your eyebrows ‘n smile, and I’ll just drop to my knees. ‘Cause I will. But I don’t like you thinkin’ it.”
“Heh. I wouldn’t dare. You look fucking spectacular, Sherr. I’m honestly speechless”
“Shucks…” Sherrel rubbed the back of her neck, non-too-discreetly flexing one muscular bicep. “Thanks, Jay. It’s nice to have you back.”
Inevitably, my gaze drifted down the line to Aisha. I didn’t wanna take up too much of everyone’s time. Not when there was so much to talk about and establish.
Her transformation was a bit less overt than the others’. Still about 5’6”, give or take a couple inches, with short, messy black hair streaked a bright purple with dye - or maybe it was permanent, now - Aisha’s foundation was still pretty much the same. The only real difference was in her physique, and the natural prettiness of her face. Before, she’d been a pretty girl, just on the cusp of beauty, but now she’d taken a full dive into the deep-end. Minimized pores, zero blemishes, fuller lips, the whole shebang. Hell, even her eyes were different - a bright, gleaming violet.
And her body? I refused to look at her in that way, regardless of my now being only a year older than her, but she was cut. Lean. Dangerous. Like a panther or a tiger, lazily stalking its prey. Muramasa rested in its sheathe on the small of her back, the hilt glinting from fresh polish, but the outfit she had on looked like something you’d wear out to the mall. I was gonna question it, but ultimately decided it didn’t even matter.
Trying to understand Aisha Laborn was an exercise in futility, and I didn’t feel like dialing back up Hidden Intuition to figure it out.
She caught my eye while I was examining her, raised both eyebrows, and shot me a very obvious and flirtatious wink.
“Nope,” I stated simply, and her lips spread into a wide, shit-eating grin.
Were those fangs?
"Long time no see, boss man. You like ‘em?” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, accentuating the ‘BRATTY’ emblazoned across the top.
I idly scratched at the hair growing on my chin.
“What, the fangs?”
Her right eye twitched, the sharp-toothed grin growing more amused than flirty. “Heh, fuck off. A bitch gets a whole ass magical boob-job and she still can’t get the BBC? I’m literally one year younger than you.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, waving away the argument the same way I did the last ten times she made it, “Love you too, Aisha. You look good. Seriously.”
They were all beautiful and eye-catching in their own way. That was inevitable, when your body was rebuilt with the goal of ‘literal peak human perfection’ in mind…
But surprisingly, it was Sabah of all people who threw me for a loop.
The woman who usually enjoyed lurking beneath the radar even more than our resident ninja-assassin-mage.
She was watching me with this small, smug little smile on her face, her plush red lips half hidden behind the edge of her porcelain doll mask. It wasn’t that I couldn’t recognize her - she still had that same warm caramel complexion and chocolate brown gaze, but just like the others, the scale of her beauty was like night and day.
But even more than that was her body, and the way her new gorgeous white dress hugged her voluptuous curves.
Unlike Aisha, Sherrel, and Rachel, Sabah didn’t seem intent on displaying her superior athleticism in the toning of her body. Instead, she was all soft, pliable flesh, not necessarily unlike Amy in that regard, except Amy hadn’t had the opportunity to undergo an Apex transformation. Sabah’s body practically radiating a mature, sensual appeal that meshed perfectly with her quiet and graceful nature. And if she was wearing a wig, I genuinely couldn’t tell; the long, glossy blonde ringlets of her hair looked more natural on her head than her previous black locks.
Amy had turned my team into literal out of this world supermodels while I was gone, and I was at a genuine loss for words.
Which was pretty embarrassing, considering the fact that I’d been the one to announce my arrival and call this team meeting.
“... Y’know,” Cassie broke the silent four-way stare down, stepping out into the middle of our little half-circle huddle and crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t think I like this anymore!”
Sherrel blinked, visibly pulled from her own thoughts, and glanced down at the petite hacker. “What’s wrong, girly?”
“This!”
Before anyone could even do so much as cough, Cassie lunged forward and smacked Sherrel right on top of one large, jiggly tit. The mechanic gasped, more out of surprise at the sudden attack than pain or fear, but Cassie was already hyped up and on a roll. She whirled around, bull-rushing a grinning Aisha and slapping her dark, supple breast - smaller than Sherrel’s without a doubt, but still multiple sizes larger than Cassie’s own.
She actually pushed her chest forward, giving her more real-estate to hit.
My mouth fell open. “Cassie, what-”
“No,” Sabah rose one dainty, gloved hand, cutting me off before I could admonish my salty girlfriend. “Let her vent, Jason. It’s only healthy.”
I could only stare, deadpanned, at the exotic, beautiful sadomasochist. “You ain’t clever.”
But she only offered me a small, joyful little smile - one that grew into a grin as Cassie’s hand came around to smack, and then grab a handful of soft, overflowing brown tit-flesh. “Oh, my. Handsy today, aren’t you Cass?”
Cassie shot her a pouty glare. “Hush, Sabah, this is serious frickin’ business.”
“What, breast cancer?” Aisha asked, boredly digging into her ear with her pinkie. “‘Cause that’s not really a laughing matter, you know. My aunt had breast cancer. I know Amy can, like, cure diseases and shit, but still-”
“No! No!” Cassie shouted, exasperated. “Don’t make jokes! This is a crisis!”
Sherrel raised a brow, her lips twitching at the corners. “A… titty crisis?”
But Cassie just spun on her heel, doing a full 360 spin in the dew-covered grass just to point dramatically down at her own tiny mosquito bite-sized breasts. She was wearing a sports bra, but it was clearly not needed. “I used to feel- well, not prideful about my chest, but confident. Back in the early days, before all you fuckers came along, my little handful was enough! Hell, even Amy used to compliment me when we were cuddling! And now-... now-”
She swung an accusatory finger toward each of them in turn, starting with a grinning, wildly-amused Sherrel. “You! You’ve got magic muscle mommy milk jugs!"
She pointed at Aisha, who smirked wider.
“You! Teenage bombshell with hentai stripper genetics! And you-”
She jabbed a finger at Sabah. The seamstress stepped forward gracefully, her hands folded in front of her waist like a princess confronting the masses. “Yes, my beloved friend Cassie of whom I adore and would never say anything mean towards?”
The hacker promptly folded like origami.
“… You're literally a goddess now,” she almost whimpered, her cheeks growing pink.
“Why thank you, dear. I do try.” Sabah paused, her polite smile growing slightly more wicked. “At least, Amy does. I’ll be sure to tell her ‘thank you’ again, on our next shopping trip.”
Cassie sank down onto her knees with dramatic aplomb, rubbing at her temples like she was combatting the century’s worst migraine. “It’s not fair! Amy’s got the whole goth witch bad-bitch aesthetic down pat, Sherrel’s got the wrench wench thing with that stupidly sexy Southern drawl, God was horny or something when he was sculpting Sabah’s genetics, and Aisha’s probably got like seven succubi in her lineage! But poor ole’ me? I just got a really nice butt!”
Sherrel choked on a laugh.
Aisha snorted so hard she had to cover her mouth and nose in fear of snot.
And Sabah…
Sabah merely listened with that same serene expression on her face, nodding her head understandingly.
I bit my cheek to keep from smiling.
“You’re beautiful just the way you are, babe,” I offered, doing my best to be the supportive and empathetic boyfriend.
Cassie turned to me with an expression of pure betrayal. “Don’t you dare patronize me, dragon boy. You like tits. You love tits. Don’t think I didn’t see you this morning with Amy’s entire nip in your mouth like you were drinking the nectar of the Gods-”
“Alright!” I called out, throwing both of my hands up. “Damn, chick. I get it. Well, not really, ‘cause I’ve always been hella secure with my dick size, but-”
A series of groans rang out from my team of super hot superheroes.
“TMI, babe. Ew. Men.”
What.
“Geez, Jay - maybe tone it down a lil’ bit, darlin’?”
The.
“The room is literally full of women, bro. Read it.”
Fuck.
“Cringe,” Sabah added in a teasing little whisper, the curl of her red lips betraying just how hard she was trying not to laugh.
I stared at all of them.
Absolutely, utterly betrayed.
“Oh, yeah alright. Eat my ass,” I grumbled, shoving my hands into my pockets and scowling, Y’all got to talk about your big ol’ tits for five straight minutes and no one blinked, but I mention my dick once - once! - and suddenly I’m the freak?”
Cassie reached up and tugged my sleeve gently, eyes wide and innocent like I hadn’t just watched her commit titty battery on three separate women. Women who enjoyed it, mind you. “Sweetheart… baby… dragon of my life… we already know you’ve got a monster cock. You don’t need to advertise. Let us have the illusion of modesty.”
…
They were going to kill me. Absolutely run my blood pressure through the fucking roof. And I think I have a lot more blood, dragon ‘tings, so the chances were higher now than they were before. Probably. I’d probably find out when Amy got around to riding my hips into the ground and dissecting my body.
“Right,” I sighed, running one large hand through my hair. “We’re gettin’ off topic.”
“Her boobs.” Aisha jabbed a finger at Cassie, who nodded her head sharply in appreciation.
I cleared my throat. “We’ll get her boobs handled. ‘Prolly about time Cass got the full upgrade package, anyway, considering what’s happenin’ next.”
That caught their attention. Even Rachel and Malcolm’s, who perked up from their own little world with the kids and the dogs and turned an ear in my direction. Amy had retreated back to the Garden a couple hours ago. She hadn’t told me what she was working on, and I didn’t want to release Overhaul from the Archway without being there to ensure everything went well, but I’d already planned on having a separate conversation with her and Cassie about the next world-hop regardless.
I knew the Epic Quests wouldn’t be easily fulfilled. It would probably take a long ass time to fulfill the objectives. But I wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t start, and what better way to begin than taking an extended trip to a realm of sword and sorcery?
A world of real-life fucking magic.
How would I shape-up against actual wizards and mages?
“Well, don’t leave our dicks half-hard,” Sherrel grunted impatiently, gesturing me onwards with both hands. “Let’s hear it. You already went to another world and saved a super sweet little girl, killed a buncha yakuza goons, and got your ass kicked by that world’s strongest hero. What the hell else could you be itchin’ to do already?”
There was an undercurrent of tension behind that question, too. I could sense it. Could see it in the way the others’ went quiet, shielding their wariness behind a curious silence.
They thought I’d go MIA for another two weeks without warning. That I was turning into a deadbeat dad.
It was heartwarming, but it also made me feel kinda guilty.
“Let me start off by apologizing,” I began, humbly inclining my head. “I should’ve been here. I didn’t expect time to move that fast over in… Quirk-Earth, but I’m here now. And I’ve figured out how to ratio out the time between dimensions better, so there shouldn’t be anymore surprises from here on out. Not unless I do ‘em on purpose.”
There was a pause of silence. The girls all looked between each other, doing that thing chicks did whenever they communicated without actually speaking out loud. In the corner of my eye, I could see Eri riding on the back of one of the puppies - a puppy the size of a full fucking grown Pitbull, wielding a gnarled stick like a sword. She was cackling as she chased after Riley, who seemed both terrified and overjoyed, riding on the back of a slightly smaller pup. I’m pretty sure I heard Eri refer to her puppy as ‘Jay-son’.
I hadn’t re-upped on my translation spell this morning.
But the sight and laughter warmed my heart, and I knew, without a shred of doubt, that I did not regret a single thing I did in the My Hero Academia-verse.
Sabah stepped forward in the silence, inclining her own head in solemn gratitude. “Thank you for your apology, Jason. As you said, it’s not as if you meant for it to happen, so apologizing isn’t even necessary… But it’s nice to hear it, regardless. We all missed you.”
Her gaze shot over to Sherrel, who abruptly turned her head and began whistling beneath her breath. A small smile pulled on the fashion-designer’s lips, but she dutifully hid it behind her mask. “Some more than others.”
“Yeah, yeah, cut the simp shit out,” Aisha bulldozed into the conversation, one hand resting lazily on the golden and black hilt of Muramasa. She walked closer to me, craning her head back to stare straight into my eyes with visible suspicion furrowing her sharp black brows. “You’re holdin’ out on us, old man. What did you mean by ‘what happens next’?”
Cassie nodded her head vigorously, wrinkling her nose. “And why do I need nice, jiggly boobs for it, Jay? That’s hella suspect.”
I shot her a tired glare.
“The Apex serum, dumbass, not ‘nice, jiggly boobs’,” I paused, attempting to figure out how, exactly, to drop the next bomb. I wasn’t necessarily worried about their reactions; my team was solid, they were loyal, and I was planning to take Quantum Timey Wimey precautions to avoid the problem that occurred with the Quirk-Earth (for lack of a better name) adventure. It was moreso the fact that I’d only just gotten back, and I still felt kinda bad for leaving the majority of my team high and dry while I explored the fucking multiverse.
It wasn’t like they’d have to stay away for too long, though. Eventually, we’d be able to branch out and send different members to different worlds for all sorts of reasons. But until then…
Fuck it.
I’d do what literally any mythological hero ever did in the stories and blame it all on my divine sugar mommy and her ‘epic quest’. Something told me she’d find it amusing.
“And about what’s coming next,” I licked my lips, put on my most charming smile, and spread my arms wide. “Daddy’s got a reaaaally big quest from ole’ Grimmy, and it may or may not involve creating a magical, interdimensional sanctum that exists in a realm beyond both time and space. In other words, our very own pocket dimension that we can link to countless other worlds across the multiverse.”
“Fuck,” Aisha muttered, blinking slowly. “That’s sick.”
I snorted. “And really difficult. That level of magical expertise, right now, is a lil’ bit above my current pay grade, so I decided to plan another trip. This time to a world full of magic. At least, that’s the ‘vibe’ I’ll be aiming for. Magic, fantasy, wizards and dragons and all that nerdy shit.“
“Oh, my god,” Cassie gasped, squeezing my arm. “We’re going to Hogwarts?!”
I blinked.
“What? No. I mean, I don’t think so…-?”
A sigh escaped my chest.
“Look, the point is that I, we need to learn more about magic. Not just more spells or abilities downloaded from the big ass divine book in my soul, but actually immerse ourselves and experience the true arcane. ‘CauseI’m gonna be honest, I hardly have the first clue on how to go about this Quest, and I don’t think motherfucking Myrddin will have too much advice for me.”
Sherrell sucked on her teeth, her expression thoughtful and ever so cautiously excited. “Shit, sugar- I can’t even be mad at that. Mainly ‘cause a ‘sanctum between worlds’ sound fuckin’ badass, and there are definitely some places I wouldn’t mind scavvin’ for parts.”
Aisha snapped her fingers. “Ooh! Denise, imagine Star Wars! That’d be fucking sick, dude. I’d suck Jason’s dick for a purple lightsaber.”
I nearly coughed on my own spit. “Bro.”
“Call me ‘Denise’ again and I’ll spank your ass raw, little girl,” Sherrel cut in, shooting the smirking assassin an annoyed glare. It disappeared quickly, however, as the gravity of what I was proposing began to fully register in her mind. “You make a good point, though. I’d also suck Jason’s dick for a starship. Momma wants the fuckin’ Millennium Falcon.”
When the Hell did I become the straight-man in this circus of actual gooner idiots?
“I don’t know much about video games or movies, but I’m willing to learn if you all don’t mind showing me some of your favorites,” Sabah spoke up, only somewhat awkwardly. She waved a hand airily in the air. “My bucket list is practically nonexistent after Jason offered to pay for my fashion designing degree, but I’ve learned that my powers work better with with animal byproducts - if there’s a world with magical and legendary beasts that we could link to this hypothetical ‘sanctum’, that would be nice. Although I’m not much of a hunter…”
“Girl,” Cassie giggled, lightly prodding the slightly taller woman with slim elbow, “Dontchu worry, Cassie’s on the case. We’ll have you committing war crimes against cute little critters in no time!”
“Well, let’s not do that,” Sabah blanched.
I chuckled warmly. “Assuming I figure this whole sanctum business out, you’ll all have your fill of adventure. It’ll be safe. Locked-down. You’ll all be able to freely go back and forth, so long as we create a secure anchor on the other side.”
Aisha stretched her arms out above her head with a groan, slowly folding her hands back to clasp behind her neck. “Problem’s figuring out how to make an interdimensional whatchamacallit in the first place, huh? Damn. I was planning to get on your ass about leaving us again, but now I’m kinda excited.”
“We won’t be leavin’ too soon. Maybe about a week,” I replied easily, gesturing towards Brockton Bay with an idle flick of the wrist. “I wanna check up on the city, make sure everything’s runnin’ alright. Not that I don’t trust my gorgeous co-captain’s leadership skills, of course.”
Sherrel only shook her head. “By all means, big guy. I wanted to talk to you ‘bout the Docks, actually. Villains are practically gone. No big conflicts anywhere in the city. But the remnants of the ABB… they’re like cockroaches, Jay. We can keep burnin’ their asses, but that ain’t how you stop crime altogether.”
I hummed, deep in my chest.
It was about what I expected. Killing their cape leadership and a few handfuls of their men wouldn’t just wipe the gang off the map. The Empire was different - they were fucking neo-nazis, and I was an African American superhero who slayed Leviathan. Those skinheads began scattering like chickens the instant they realized I hung their leader by his own neck tie, and the rest of Invictus slaughtered most of their other men by the dozens.
The ABB hadn’t experienced anything so drastic. They weren’t as scared. And with how fucked the Docks were, they were able to scuttle into those shadowy little cracks and wait out the storm.
Funny.
“Guess we’ll see about that,” I finally murmured, shooting Sherrel an appreciative, distantly feral grin. “You did good, but I’ll handle the issue personally while I’m back. Make a few calls and visits while I’m at it.”
“Roger roger,” she saluted with her own beautiful smile, white teeth glinting like ivory beneath the sunlight.
I gazed at the others with an eager determination in my eyes. “In the meanwhile, keep doin’ what y’all are doin’, alright? If anything comes up, I’ll let everyone know. ‘Till then, it’s business as usual. Understood?”
A chorus of respectful affirmatives sounded out across the clearing - with even Rachel joining in, because Malcolm had somehow been roped into joining Eri and Riley in their little game of ‘Dragon Riders’. I didn’t worry about him being lost; the guy was practically always lost, and so long as we kept him fed and let him tinker, he’d blindly follow my lead. That was just the kind of guy he was.
The meeting had gone well, mostly everyone was on the same page, and I already had my goals for the week planned out: stomp out the rest of the ABB, fix up the Docks, and figure out a way to make Brockton Bay’s economical status not as… absolutely doo-doo booty. The latter wasn’t something I could figure out in a week’s time, but laying the foundation for something better… That I felt moderately more confident about. And I had no doubts that Sabah could help (read, carry) me through the worst of it.
And I still had an examination with Amy coming up, too, which would give me the opportunity to finally try out my full transformation in a safe and secure environment. If literally anything went wrong, there was no one I’d want by my side more than Amy.
Plus, she offered me hella sex. That was probably more exciting than the physical.
‘Everything’s comin’ up Jason.’
All I had to do was maintain that momentum throughout the week, so that I could jump head-first into my next multiversal adventure.
What a fucking busy seven days.