A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay 36 (Patreon)

A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay
Chapter 36

-VB-

Carol’s assault led to an all out New Wave meeting. As my house was still the only house in condition and capable of hosting the entirety of New Wave with room to spare, my house once more became hosting ground for all of New Wave.

And for some reason, a liaison of the PRT ENE.

“Hello, I am Kelly McNairter. It’s a pleasure to meet Brockton Bay’s latest hero,” the auburn haired woman with black eyes and a sharp nose greeted me with a business smile. Her eyes, however, locked onto my eyes like a cat homing in on a mouse.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, but I have to ask why PRT would involve itself in internal matters of an independent hero team…?” I asked her without making any funny faces that I felt like making. It felt, to me, extremely rude and invasive to come and allow a government agency to take part in this meeting. Had it been someone like Piggot or Armsmaster, I might have raised eyebrows, sneered, and the like, but Kelly here had yet to do anything offensive towards me other than obeying a mostly benign order from her superior.

Unless she was here to use our internal discord as an excuse to get the PRT to intervene. If that was the case, then … then I’ll give her a taste of whatever it was I did that kept making people collapse and sweat like children in sweatshops.

… God, that was a horrible comparison.

“What is this about?” Sarah asked pointedly as she stared at Carol.

“He’s-”

“She attacked me with her power,” I interrupted her before she could speak. Carol might have been able to twist her words to change the first impression the rest of the uninvolved team members might have of the situation, but I was not going to let her do that, which was why I interrupted. “Had I been a civilian without power, then there is a good chance that Carol might be in a jail and I might be hospitalized or in a morgue.”

(But it made no sense. I literally had sex with Vicky yesterday. How did Carol find out so quickly?)

All of the Pelham family present - only Crystal was missing - looked at Carol in shock.

“Carol, what-?!”

“He’s sleeping with both Amy and Victoria!”

Their heads whiplashed to me, though Eric looked ill at hearing about his cousins’ sex life.

“And…?” I asked without drawling or sneering, because it would have made me look angry and not in control of myself. Doing that would be, even in a familial setting, admitting to doing something wrong. “Are you suggesting that they are incapable of giving consent?”

“That is not what this is about!”

“This is exactly what you came rushing at me axe and sword raised to make me bleed, Carol,” I sighed.

“You are already married to Amy, so why are you -?!”

“Umm…”

Everyone turned to Vicky.

“I liked him first?”

“Him?” I wasn’t sure who said that, but from the strangled tone, Carol said it, probably.

“On a serious note, how many people can I even consider for, you know, partnership?” she asked even as her face reddened. “I’m a Brute, mom. I can get married to so many people.”

“But he is already married.”

“And both Alan and Amy were very open with me for a very long time, mom.” Sarah raised her hands to forestall the argument, but Vicky wasn’t having it. “If Amy wasn’t already on him, then I would have asked him to be my boyfriend!”

To my surprise, it was Eric who nodded. “I remember hearing that from Crystal. You told her or something?”

“Yeah, I was like a little drunk when that happened,” she laughed nervously.

“Why are you all talking as if this is alright?!” Carol asked angrily. “This will hurt -”

“This isn’t about Vicky or Amy, Carol,” Sarah snapped. “It’s about why you decided that attacking your own teammate was a good idea with the intent to harm. From where I am, they are clearly happy with each other. I don’t have time to deal with this bullshit! What made you ATTACK a teammate?!”

I realized only once Sarah stopped shouting that I and others had leaned into whatever furniture we had been sitting on. Mark and Neil also looked a little nervous.

Carol glared to the side and refused to respond.

“Alright. Then this is what we’re going to do. Carol, consider yourself on leave from any and all cape activities until I can be -”

The living room broke out into a pandemonium as

“You want me to not fight when the city is in this sta-?!”

“I think that’s a bit too much-”

And myriad of other arguments for and against Sarah’s decision echoed in the living room, but I saw the steely glint in her eyes. Whatever reason she may have had, she was done with-.

She briefly glared at Neil.

Wait. What? What did Neil have to do with this…?

I decided to ignore that little tidbit. Also, to my surprise, the PRT liaison left without speaking a single word after her initial greetings. After her, Carol and Mark left. I wondered what was going to happen from now on…

“Alan.”

I turned to Sarah, who looked at me with a glare of her own. The rest of the families had also moved on, with Amy and Vicky going upstairs and the rest of the Pelhams waiting outside the house.

“Yes?” I asked her.

“I know that you didn’t start as part of the family, but would it have hurt to let the rest of the team know so that … this kind of situation didn’t happen?”

“Once all three of us acknowledged that we were going to go for the long haul, we would have,” I replied back as if it was the obvious thing.

Her glare died down. “Maybe you were the wiser one between you and my sister. Regardless, what is done is done. While you haven’t done anything wrong, I expect you to pull Carol’s weight, too.”

I grimaced. “More time in the patrols then, huh?”

“Yes, unfortunately. “

“What about Carol?”

“She … I don’t know why or how she went off the handle that hard.”

“... Have you checked for possible Master influence? It doesn’t even have to be a direct thing, yo know. Any new capes lately that she’s been in contact with?”

Sarah blinked.

In hindsight, the possibility of a Master, one who could peripherally alter their target’s behavior not unreasonably, made sense in that it was a possibility.

“Asking the PRT for that kind of information might set things off.”

I scoffed. “The liaison, if she was a suspicious one, might already have reported it to her superior. It might make the rest of us look odd when we noticed a change in Carol’s behavior but don’t report it for possible Master/Stranger influence. Besides, how did she find out? I slept with Vicky literally last night.”

Sarah blinked. “Wait, this isn’t …?”

“No, it’s not an old news. It’s so fresh we haven’t even gotten to drying the bedsheet in question.”

Now, she looked alarmed. “Wait then, why didn’t you say anything?!”

“You mean alert the victim of a possible Master influence in their face?” I asked incredulously.

She calmed down. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll have to alert the PRT.”

“I’ll just keep an eye out,” I said with a tired sigh as I stood up.

Because if this entire episode happened because there was a Master out there, I knew that “patrol” would become synonymous with “hunt” for me.