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Greedy Cataloger

Chapter 10

-VB-

“Everyone alright?!” I called out as I drew my Shroud back and glanced at the site of the explosion.

The very air had been turned to glass, but what I noticed immediately was the dent in the sphere where I had held up my Shroud.

It took a moment to realize what had happened; my Shroud negated the effects of Bakuda’s bombs.

I then looked around and grimaced.

The glass sphere wasn’t the only effect. Some sort of projectile glass fragments had been shot out at the start of the explosion.

“We’re alright!” Lady Photon called out as she got off of her children. She didn’t look shaken but they did.

Taylor shook underneath me as well.

“Don’t look,” I warned her as her head turned.

Too late.

Through the Shroud, I felt disgust rile up inside of her after she looked at the glass sphere and the shredded body of the suicide bomber held within it.

“Fuck!” Laserdream hissed as she looked away and around.

Kayden and Lisa were better off, probably because of their past experiences. They got up and let their Shrouds flare up in response to this attack, and my Shrouds crackled and hissed dangerously. It wouldn’t hurt anyone I or my girls didn’t want to hurt, but anyone else would be in for a burn.

“Help the bystanders. That bomb shot glass everywhere,” I commanded, and my girls quickly went off to help. I turned to the Pelhams. “Perhaps we will talk more next time.”

“Yes,” Manpower spoke up quickly as he realized as I did that we(my women and they) weren’t safe out here.

-VB-

Bakuda's rampage started on April 18th, 2011.

Her conscript soldiers and human bombs assaulted everywhere at once, and be abuse she didn't care about skin color or occupation, suicide bombers couldn't be identified easily.

Worse, she collected many of her conscripts from outside of the city as well in smaller towns that went under the radar.

On the first night of her bombing spree, I spent my time strategizing with my girls.

Was I scared for them? Yes. Though my Shroud protected me from the effects of Bakuda's glass bomb, my girls' shrouds were weaker than mine. I was not going to let them test their defenses needlessly. But I did promise them to let them be heroes, and I did not go back on my word.

Instead, we used our downtime free from potential ambush to improve our chances of finding Bakuda.

Taylor would be our main operator. With her coverage, she could easily scan large chunks of the city. Lisa and Milly would be our "console," updating us on the target acquisition and situation respectively. Kayden and I would be the heavy hitters.

What I didn't expect was Kayden's outburst.

We were alone in one of the rooms (all of which were soundproof for everyone's sake).

"Why don't we just kill all of the Asians?"

I stared at her in shock.

I knew that she had biases, and my Shroud muted those thoughts, but events like Bakuda's bombings had been shocking and terrible enough that she was going back to her Kaiser-planted roots.

"No, that doesn't solve anything and is horrible," I told her bluntly.

She whirled on me and gestured hastily towards where she felt like pointed to Brockton Bay. "Why not? They're literally burning the city!"

"And all Asians are involved?"

"No, but-"

"It's easy to group them up."

I wanted to make her say the truth only by enforcing it through the Shroud, but that wasn't something you did to your family.

"They are a blight on the city," she scowled. "More than half of them are involved in ABB's activity!"

"You mean just like half of the whites in the city who provide service to E88?"

She glared at me. As much as "happy wife(wives), happy life" was true, there were some things that I had to make clear, especially since I might even be getting an Asian or black woman in the harem.

"That's not how it works?"

"Then how does it work, Kayden? I thought you wanted to be a hero."

Her glare intensified. "And I am protecting the city and my new family by removing the threat."

"If you shoot to kill them all, then you only make more enemies. Should the PRT kill all whites in the city because they might be even tangentially involved with the E88 or the Merchants? Is selling sandwich or miso soup a crime for every day Joe and Jane?"

"They aren't bombing my city that I am trying to be a hero in!"

"You can be a hero elsewhere." At this point, I was prodding for information.

"Other cities aren't where I am a hero at!"

… ah, so that's what it was. It was personal. She felt responsible. She was guilty of her past and being a hero was her way of atonement, but if the city fell to ruin, then her chance at atonement fell through.

I had no stake, so I was content to patiently comb through the city to find Bakuda. Kayden had stakes. Her business was here. Her friends, even if many of them were Nazis, were here. Her history was here.

"Then be a hero and do it right." I didn't really care to be a hero. My current helping was merely a cover for my girl-hunting. "Otherwise, what was the point of leaving the Empire for Aster? Isn't it to show her the right way to live? To not be surrounded by the cesspit of hatred that comes from fear and uncertainty?"

She glared at me before angrily stomping out of the room.

It wasn't long after Kayden left that Taylor came in.

Nervously, she walked in and closed the door.

"Eavesdropping on us?" I asked her with a casual smile.

She looked away guilty. "Why… is Purity with you?"

"You mean aside from how hard I Mastered and then fucked her?" Unsaid was how I did the same thing to her.

"... yeah."

"While I am interested in Kayden as a woman, I also know that she is a person worth keeping around. If you haven't noticed, no one in my harem is a bad person."

She had looked up while I talked and curled an eyebrow at the end of it. "Even me?" she asked quietly.

I rolled my eyes.

Walking up to her, I kissed her on her forehead, which made her shiver, and looked down while she looked up shyly. "Even you. She made some … interestingly terrible decisions early in her cape career, just like how you thought infiltrating a villain team with a Thinker was a good idea."

She blushed in embarrassment. "I didn't have all of the information I needed at the time."

"I know, but no one ever has all of the information they seem to need at the time. Kayden didn't as well, but her decision brought her to a community of hateful people. They didn't care for her beyond making her one of them. Hateful and scared." I opened the door behind her. "Now, I should go and apologize to Kayden because that's what a man is supposed to do," I huffed and she giggled. "Now, go get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be long."