Limits of Flesh 6 (Patreon)

Limits of Flesh
Chapter 6

-VB-

Edward gulped as he followed his friend into an alley.

There, at the end of the alley, was a door.

“You sure this is a good idea?” he asked John.

John, a lanky and tall man with a nice smile, grinned. “Don’t worry! I’m telling you, he’s a good guy!” he replied with too much certainty.

Edward prayed to God that there was no Master involved.

John looked around and then knocked on the door.

A single slot slid open at eye level.

“What are we?”

“‘Flesh blesses.’”

The slot closed with a thunk.

Edward heard half a dozen locks being opened, and the door opened.

A man stood on the other side of the door, tall and bulky. He wore a casual red hoodie without any logo on the front and a pair of deep blue jeans. He also had a genuine and wide smile.

“Welcome, brothers!” he greeted with open arms. “You’ll be surprised to know that the Karcist is with us tonight!”

“Oh, sweet! It’s been a while since we met him,” John replied with a smile of his own. And then he paused. “Ah, right,” he said before jerking a thumb at him. “This is Edward. I brought him to see if he liked what we did.”

The taller man’s smile faded minutely before it rose back up wider than ever. “Ah! A compatible initiate!”

“Yes.”

“Wonderful. It’s always good to see someone new join us. Did you tell him the gist of what we are about?”

“Yes.”

“Then go right in.”

John walked in and Edward followed him. What looked like a short tunnel was actually a stairway underground.

“But you didn’t tell me!” he whispered to John.

“Just chill. It ain’t anything super big.”

“John, the last time you said that, we saw Hookwolf within a hundred yards of us.”

“... Okay, it’s not that bad.”

“Then what is this organization about?”

“Umm… healthcare?” John replied with sheepish chuckles as they headed deeper into the dimly lit and narrow stairway.

“... Bruh.”

Edward couldn’t believe this guy. Was he serious? “Aren’t you, you know, in the PRT?”

“I mean, I am, but in a city like Brockton Bay, I need every advantage and saves I can get. Can you blame me for that?”

Edward grumbled, begrudgingly accepting that John wasn’t saying anything wrong.

And then there was another door. It opened automatically for them, and then the two of them walked into …

“The hell…?” Edward muttered to himself as he looked around.

He expected to find himself in some cramped basement or a Bond villain underground lair.

What he and John walked into was a great hall designed to look like the Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. In this brightly lit up room, there were wooden long tables and benches running along the length of the hall with numerous people laughing, drinking, and eating.

And at the head of the great hall was a masked man sitting at the center of the head table.

“Did you just bring me into a villain’s lair, John? I will beat the shit out of you if that’s the case!” he hissed.

John just laughed it off. “Relax! This is the Cult Club!”

“‘The Cult Club’?”

“Yes, that’s how the man up there likes to call it. We do weird shit like looking into alternate dimensions, improving our health with rituals, and shit like that.”

“You brought me into a cult?!”

“Seriously, you’re too strung up. Let’s go see if the big guy can help something with that.”

“No no no-!”

Despite his vehement refusal, John literally dragged him across the hall. John, who was never the toughest or the strongest guy when they were in middle school, high school, and college, dragged him, Brockton City College Wrestling Champion, around.

That was fucking unnatural.

“Ah, John. How are you today? Come to feast with your sisters and brothers?” the masked man asked.

‘Definitely a cape!’ Edward screamed internally.

“I brought my friend today, sir! But well, he’s starting to feel a little squeamish and skittish.”

The masked man turned his gaze towards Edward.

And Edward realized two things instantly.

First, why couldn’t he picture what the man looked like. It’s like the details slipped away in his head. Stranger.

Second, no one in this hall looked like they were obese or anorexic. Tinker or Shaker.

“You seem like a lively one. You’ll do well once you join us.”

He was fucked.

-VB-

“What exactly do you intend to do?” Taylor asked them, her husband(s?).

Her Adyland Twins hummed as they did something to the knee-high pile of undifferentiated flesh. They always told her that they were powerful in shaping biology, but it was the first time they were directly showing it off to her.

Well, showing off something more than the little bits he’d shown her so far.

She knew he could do some ridiculous things. Portals, shapeshifting, cloning, and the list goes on - never mind what happened with Lung - and he certainly wasn’t keen on hiding himself.

But biomancy (as he liked to call it) was not something he used liberally.

“I intend to make a blissful gift.”

She glanced at the biomass. “I don’t see anything blissful about that.”

He chuckled. “While you might not be able to see, it’s already changing.”

She continued staring at it, and just like he said, she saw no change. “You’re not messing with me?”

“Nope.”

Taylor moved a few of the bugs nearby towards it.

And then when a fruit fly got too close, it burned.

That pile of flesh was hot!

“Why is it so hot…?”

“Because it’s acting as a reaction chamber; it’s a flesh reactor, if you want to name it literally. It’s making a compound that would be otherwise impossible to acquire in nature.”

She waited for him to tell her what he meant.

Suddenly, the flesh reactor broke apart, and at the heart of it, there was a … was that a bug?

“It’s a gift for you.”
“It’s stronger than most things out there.”
“It can shoot acid-”
“See in infrared-”
“Digs quickly-”
“And is a herbivore.”
““Do you like your new gift?””

Her lips opened and closed as her power connected to it.

And through it, she could sense how strong it was and, by extension, how strong her Adylan Twins were.

She shivered. “U-Uh, yeah,” she answered quickly. She instructed it to come to her, and it did, flying up and circling around her head. It was about as big as her head with wings equally as big, and looked like a cross between a wasp and a beetle.

She did like it.

“Now, we have to go-”
“And make some things-”
“For our adorable-”
“Followers.”

She paused.

Followers? Since when he did have followers?

“It’s a lesson plan!”
“On how to use-”
“The cosmic forces-”
“And their natural gifts-”
“To shape flesh-”
“And ascend above their peers.”

She leaned back a little. “You’re starting to sound like weirdos.”

They laughed.

“Welcome to the club-”
“Tay-Tay.”

“Hey, don’t talk like I’m a weirdo, too! I’m saying you’re weird!”

“Well, you’re our wife-”
“Which makes you -”
“Weird by -”
“Association.”

“That’s not how weird works,” she glared at them.

They raised their eyebrows simultaneously.

“Taylor-”
“You’re a cape-”
“Which makes you a weirdo-”
“By definition.”

“That’s discrimination!”

They just laughed at her.

But she really liked their gift. The bug landed on her shoulder and cuddled next to her neck and chin.

“So what exactly are you doing for your ‘followers’?” she asked as she sat down on the bench at the edge of the room.

As for where she was, she knew that she was deep underground. There were other rooms with people who were partying, and that room - big ass room - was connected to a series of rooms that this room was also connected to.

“There’s a new initiate.”
“We’ll be bestowing him-”
“With a body befitting his station -”
“As a member of my group.”

Taylor’s eyes widened in alarm. “Hey, I thought you were only supposed to work for me!” she objected indignantly. She also did not like the idea of someone like the Adyland Twins having a what could only be called a villainous group and teaching them to do anything even remotely close to what she just saw.

“They will.”
“But we can’t be-”
“Everywhere.”
“So we need-”
“Helpers-”
“And followers.”

“... You better not be using them to do villainous activities,” she warned them. “I’ll… I’ll hold back sex then!”

They gasped.

She almost giggled despite how serious she was being.

“No way!”
“That’s cruel!”
“Villains are cruel!”
“Are you a villain, Taylor?”
“Villains need to be punished-”
“You know?”

Suddenly, she found herself freezing up under their gazes.

“H-Hey! We’re not at home!” she hissed even as she blushed underneath her mask as they approached her.

“Don’t worry, honey.”
“One of us will be here.”
“And one of us will be punishing you-”
“Back at home.”

“You perverted idiots!” she squawked indignantly as one of the twins scoped her up, opened a portal, and then jumped through as the door leading out of the room opened. She didn’t get to see who it was before the portal closed and her costume were flying off of her.

-VB-

Edward hyperventilated as they brought him into a dark room.

He smelled blood everywhere.

“Welcome, Edward. It’s so good to have another brother join us,” a man spoke as John and the other cultists held him down. “Don’t worry,” he said as his arm morphed into a tentacle with a barbed point. “It’ll only take five minutes for a full transformation.”