Inheritance (Original MC fic) (Patreon)

(Contains Mind Control and Exposition!)

“In here. Quickly.” Lori Lavender had never had what Justin would consider a ‘commanding’ presence in his life. Until today, in fact, she’d just been the friendly next-door neighbour/Aunt figure who occasionally stopped by to chat with his mother and share the occasional rhubarb pie. With long dark hair and a kind face, in maybe the early stages of her 40s, she just didn’t have much of a presence. Right now, though, he couldn’t even imagine defying her orders.

He darted inside the door she had opened – one that had, up until she’d stopped walking next to it, appeared to be an ordinary part of the brick wall that continued on either side of it – and only released the breath he was holding when it closed behind him. “Do- do you think they lost us?”

“Hopefully,” Miss Lavender said, her expression utterly serious as she moved around the small metal room that the two now found themselves in, and began typing on a monitor embedded in the far wall. “If not, this facility’s defences should be able to hold them off long enough for us to get our bearings and plot our next move.”

This had not been how Justin had planned to spend his 18th birthday. In fact, up until about an hour ago, if you’d asked him who, on a list of anyone in the whole wide world, he’d like to spend this special milestone with, Lori Lavender would definitely have been near the bottom of the list – if not dead last.

That had all changed when the black vans had pulled up outside his home at around noon. His mother had been antsy all day, watching the street through closed blinds whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, but he’d just put that down to crazy mom stuff. She did a lot of things like that, like how none of the bills that came to the house were addressed to their family name, and how she refused to keep any new phone she bought for longer than a week. Totally normal, right?

But apparently there had been actual method to her madness this time. The instant the vans had arrived, she’d…. Well, it was like she’d become an entirely different person. One who was twenty years younger, at that. She’d grabbed both him and his sister and ushered them into the back of the house without a word of explanation, telling him to head down into the basement while she took Silvia through to the garage. Given her serious expression, he hadn’t questioned her. Now he wished he had – he hadn’t seen either of them since.

At first, his trip downstairs had been an annoyance, but when he heard something smash its way in through the front door, it had quickly become something else entirely. He’d flipped the lights off, and hidden himself away at the back, breath caught in his throat as he heard loud footsteps stomping about up above, searching the house.

He’d nearly jumped out of his skin when Miss Lavender suddenly put her hand on his shoulder, appearing next to him out of the shadows. Fortunately, her other hand had stopped his scream.

“Anna’s activated Code Twelve,” she’d said, in a tone he’d never heard her use before. “Thumblland’s people have found us. She’s getting your sister to safety and distracting their forces – now I have to do the same for you. Come on.” And she’d pulled him through a secret passage that he’d never known about, right behind the old lawnmower pile, and spirited him away from his suburban family home.

What had followed was a blur of speeding scenery and near-death experiences, as his honorary Aunt had dragged him through a horrifying car chase through the dense streets of the city. Her car – a family sedan with a surprising lick of speed - wove through traffic and dodged pursuers with turns so tight they would have cut off the circulation in a pinkie finger. She drove with incredible skill, so unlike the Lori Lavender he knew – and by the time her car skidded to a halt in the bottom of the Megadrome Cinema carpark, he had an endless wave of questions for her.

She answered none of them, though – instead just urging him over to the hidden door in the wall, and pulling him through. Now, here they were.

“What about Mom? Is she here?” He was already looking around for signs of his family’s presence.

But she shook her head. “If all has gone well, Anna will be three states over by now. Little Sylvie’s probably going wild on her as we speak.” A small smile quirked her lips, before straightening back out. “If it hasn’t, then… Well, what we do about it will be up to you, Sir.”

Whatever question Justin was going to ask next was stifled immediately. “S-sir?”

Lori nodded. “Yes, Lord Justin. Sir. As of today, you have reached the age of maturity – and thus, in accordance with his commands, your father’s inheritance is now yours to command. Including me. To an extent.”

She finished her typing, and another wall slid open – this one revealing a large, large complex waiting just beyond. Shining metal walls and floors waited past the door, a long, leading corridor with many branching door-like openings stretching out before them.

“I… I don’t understand…”

His Aunt smiled and patted him on the head. “I know Sir. Don’t worry. He’s left a message for you in the core. It should explain everything.”

“He? … Wait, you mean, my dad?” Justin’s father had vanished years and years ago. So long ago that he could barely remember the man’s face. He’d never known what had happened to him, and his mother had never spoken about it, shrugging the subject off every time he’d asked. Now, in this strange place, was he finally going to get answers?

With more than a little building trepidation, as well as plenty of left-over panic from the car chase, the new man followed his familiar-yet-not guide into the unknown, peering into various rooms as they passed them. In one, he saw an odd-looking apparatus that glowed with blue light, hovering softly over a lab bench. In another, he saw a very heavy-duty looking chair with in built restraints and an odd looking helmet attached…

What was this place?

The core, as it turned out, was a giant machine hub in the centre of it all, surrounded by moving machines and hissing steam. It lit up as they approached, holographic screens materialising in front of them – one of them with a play button on it, hovering right in Justin’s face. He looked at it, then at Lori.

“Give it a go,” she nodded, offering him a supportive smile.

Well, it wasn’t like he had a better option available. Carefully, he reached up, and pressed his fingers against the holographic button. It lit up at his touch.

“Justin!” Suddenly, the image of an older man – one that just barely rang as familiar to the 18 year old – appeared hovering in the air, bigger than the rest of the screens. “My boy, I’m very glad to know you’re receiving this message.”

The man was scruffy, for lack of a better word. Scruffy hair, scruffy beard, scruffy glasses. Even a scruffy lab coat. Still, there was something reassuring about his presence – something the younger man couldn’t quite put his finger on, but found comforting all the same.

“If it is you getting this, congratulations, my boy! You’re finally ready to inherit my legacy. Well, the parts of it that I’m not leaving to your sister, anyway. If it isn’t you, then not to worry – the staff I left behind will be dealing with you – now. Ha! Did you get ‘em? Woulda killed to see the look on their faces when that happened.”

Blinking, Justin looked around – but nothing was happening. At his side, Lori just laughed and shook her head, redirecting his attention to the screen.

“Anyway. I’ll assume that I’m speaking to just you now, son. Maybe with one of my slaves present as a guide. Lori, is that you? I know you’ll be the one keenest to handle things properly.”

“Oh Master,” the dark-haired woman sighed, rolling her eyes with a smile on her face. “Always the charmer.”

“Yes, I did a bang-up job with her. But that’s in the past now, my boy. What we have to discuss here is your future!” The man on the screen nodded to himself, adjusting his glasses. “You see, there’s a bit of family history that you’re probably not aware of – at least, not as long as all of my programming has held strong.”

Again, Aunt Lori spoke up. “Of course it has, Master. As if you could make any mistakes~”

This was an incredibly weird day, Justin decided. Possibly a dream. Hard to be sure yet.

“I’ll assume it has, and start from the beginning. The important thing to know, Justin, is that you are the heir to an ancient mind controlling conspiracy – the kind that used to rule the world!”

“Wh- what?” Okay, now he was interrupting, but in fairness, how was he supposed to stay silent for that kind of revelation?

“It’s true!” The man nodded to himself again. “For generation after generation, our family, in conjunction with two others, have steadily, slowly, increased our hold over the globe. Magic. Politics. Technology. All of it. We’ve become masters of mental manipulation. For the last century, our grasp has been complete. We were the masters of the earth! No one and nothing could deny us anything we wanted.”

It sounded absurd, and his look to Lori said as much. She just laughed. “Keep listening, Justy.”

“Unfortunately…” Here, his father deflated a little. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid I screwed it up for us a little. Call it a pang of conscience. Call it a moment of weakness. Whatever you want to call it, I… fell out of favour with the heads of the other two houses. Penelope Whiya and Norm Thumblland. They united against me, and stole all but my most loyal slaves. I was forced to flee with a handful of women. a few basic bits of mind controlling tech… And you. My children.”

The man bowed his head, his expression nothing but bitter remorse. “… Knowing that my rivals would continue to hunt me, I had little choice but to isolate myself from you and your sister. I gave your mother orders designed to protect you, and assigned Lori, along with a few other reliable slaves, to guard you both to the best of their abilities until you came of age… And then, headed out, on my own, to try to reclaim the empire that my own hubris had lost me.”

“… If you’re seeing this message, then I’ve failed. A shame, that – though not entirely unexpected. Still!” The man perked up, grinning as his glasses shone in the light. “The fact that you are seeing this message means that at least the plan to keep you safe worked – and that’s all that matters!”

Justin turned and looked at Lori wordlessly, his mouth hanging open, a thousand questions fighting amongst one another for supremacy in his mind. His Aunt… His… father’s slave…? Just patted him on the head again. “Don’t think too hard about it all. Just let him finish. Master was always a bit… overwhelming, once he got going.”

Huh.

He turned back to watch – just in time to see his father holding what looked like a plastic toy gun up by the hammer, dangling it in front of whatever camera he was recording into. “So! I’m going to leave a few slaves working away down here in the lab to try to extend the place and give you some good space to work with, but like I said, I don’t have much tech left to give you. You’re going to have to go about securing that all yourself. The only thing I can leave you to help you on your way – aside from the computer archives, which I think you will find quite helpful once you get started – is this. The Brain Blaster 5000! Cool right?”

“… He was also always pretty terrible at names.” His Aunt sighed.

“Just point this thing at a girl and pull the trigger, and her brain will be obedient mush in no time! Just make sure she’s looking at you when you do it, or things might get awkward. I’ll let you figure the rest out yourself.” A mechanical arm, like one of the ones you’d see in a claw-crane game in an arcade, dropped down from the ceiling – its metal fingers grasping the gun his father was showing him in the footage. “They say the best way to learn something is to do it yourself, right? Well, here’s your chance! Go wild, my boy! The world’s ripe for the taking, if you only reach out to grab it.”

The video shimmered out – only to pop back in a moment later. “Oh, and don’t bother trying to use it on any of my slaves. I’ve already immunise them to it. You need slaves of your own age first, my boy! At least get some experience before you try to tap those milfs, yes?”

The video vanished. And for a moment, Justin wished he could do the same.

“Was… Was he always… like that…?” He finally managed to croak, hesitantly reaching out to take the toy gun. It had a weird metal disk attached to the barrel, with a black and white spiral painted on it…

Aunt Lori shrugged a little… before nodding. “Yeah… Master was kind of… bad at socialising. Sorry, I probably should have reviewed his notes before he recorded this for you.” She paused. “The one he left for Silvie’s 18th is probably going to be even worse…”

Oh god. Justin forcefully shut his imagination down. He didn’t need that image in his head. Instead, he just focused on the toy in his hands, turning it over slowly as he examined it.

“I… guess I should give this thing a test, right…?” He sounded doubtful. There were a few… ethical questions about this entire situation that he hadn’t quite grappled with yet. They’d all been rather sprung on him, after all.

But Lori just patted him on the back and nodded, her confidence helping spur him past the moral dimension with ease. “Definitely. That’s the first step to following your father’s path.”

And maybe finding out what had happened to him in the end. Plus, given the guys who’d shown up on his front doorstep, it didn’t feel like this was an issue he could just ignore. If one of the families who controlled the world was after him, then… He had to use was tools he had to deal with that.

“Alright. Uh. Then I guess… I guess I need a target?” Justin pondered out loud. A target, a target… Should he go for someone specific? Or maybe just someone random on the street…?

But he didn’t have to worry – his family had him covered. “That’s right, Lord Justin. But in honour of this very special day…” Aunt Lori grinned, and then typed a few commands into one of the floating consoles. “… I thought I’d get you a proper birthday present for you to unwrap.”

Another claw hand descended from the ceiling – this one carrying a person. “Hey! Let me down from here! Who are you people?! I’ve been stuck in here for hours!”

Blonde. Beautiful. Busty. Justin stared, mouth open in shock. He didn’t need an introduction – everyone knew Amy Times. She was the head cheerleader, prom queen, and number one wet dream of her entire school.

“I… Can… Can I?” He looked between her and his Aunt, and then down at the gun in his hand.

Lori just shrugged. “You’d better. Otherwise she’ll go to the police and this entire thing’ll get incredibly messy.”

“What? Do what?” Amy struggled pointlessly, shaking in her claw, legs kicking in the open air. “I swear, if you don’t get me down from here, I’m gunna-!”

Justin raised the Brain Blaster and fired.

“I’m gunna- I’m gunna…!” Immediately, the cheerleader’s words cut off, stumbling and repeating a few times, before coming to a complete stop. Her gaze was locked tightly on the spiralled disk on the front of the gun, which had started spinning the instant he pulled the trigger. Slowly, he saw her jaw go slack, drool starting to drip down her chin as black and white spirals filled her eyes…

And once the disk stopped thirty seconds later, they kept going.

“I’m… gunna… Gunna… I’m gunna suck your cock!” Slowly, life came back to the blonde, but there was a different kind of energy to her now. All of her anger and righteous rage was gone – now, there was only frightfully loyal obedience. “Master! How can I serve you?”

“Holy crap…” Justin stared down at the toy in his hands, before hastily looking away from it, lest it affect him too. “It’s that easy?”

“Depends on the method,” Lori admitted, looking over Amy approvingly. “Some techniques are fast, some are slow. You’re going to have to spend a lot of time working out which ones suit you, and how to use them.”

Then she grinned, and stepped back. “But for now, maybe you should unwrap your present, Sir. There’s a bedroom just through over there. I’ll… take a tour of the lab, and see if your father left anything else you can use, now that you’re ready to take his place in the world.”

Ah. Ah. Oh boy. Justin blushed as he looked up at his new slave – who was still struggling, but now it was to get out of her clothes instead of to escape. She looked… eager.

Swallowing, the new man stepped up – and then straightened. Once again, he looked down at his new toy, and then up at his even newer toy. A small smile spread over his lips as he reached to untie her. He’d never had the most commanding presence… But soon, he decided, there wouldn’t be anyone in the world that could imagine defying his orders.

This was a pretty cool gift. He wondered what they’d get for him next year~