Greed God chapter 190 (Patreon)

April 5th 2016 Brightedge City, Hall of Nevers, 1:00 PM EDT

With  everything sorted out with Donna and Cassie, the League dealt with for  the moment and Silver handling things with the Court, I was left with a  fairly unpleasant task to deal with. I had to call my fucking dad. I  hadn't heard from the old man in ages, and while he tended to leave me  to my own devices, I knew he'd be expecting some kind of check in now  that I was back. The city merge would be a valid excuse for a while, but  that time was running out.

Besides, I'd completed his  little mission a while ago, and while I wasn't entirely interested in  joining Checkmate, having them involved in this upcoming summit would be  useful for the clout. I could just play go-between with my masked  identity and my current self again. I mentally congratulated past me on  making that mask, it had proven to be pretty much indispensable up to  this point.

Flooding my phone with a bit of electricity, I  toyed with the settings a bit, finding an ACTUAL call option on there  that I hadn't even realized existed. I hit the button to start the call,  and waited as it rang through a few times. The phone picked up.  "Hello." The blank female voice on the other end was definitely not my  dad, but I knew who it was anyway.

I fought to keep the  eye roll out of my voice as I said. "Hello Sasha. Put the old man on. I  have a report to make." I expected her to argue or snark, she didn't  like me much, but to my surprise there was a rustle as she passed the  phone over to my old man without any sort of retort.

"Nicky."  My father said cooly when he picked up. Despite his feigned casual air,  I detected a hint of actual relief in his tone. Well that was nice of  him. I was surprised he'd been worried. "I trust you're calling with a  report on the madness going on in what used to be Metropolis? I'd  vacated the city long before this...combination occurred, though I have  agents in the vicinity obviously." Left unasked was why I'd been out of  contact for so long.

I decided to throw him a bone.  "Yeah." I said as I slumped down in a chair in one of the studies that  I'd passed. "Sorry, I've been a bit pinned down with the whole magic  kingdom thing in Gotham. Wasn't able to reach out. I pissed off Doctor  Gotham something fierce by escaping and had to go to ground. Unless you  expected me to try to boldly fight for the fate of my city like some  kind of superhero?"

That got an actual laugh from the old  man. "Heavens forbid. No you did well flying under the radar. You were  perhaps just a bit more successful at it than I would have expected  possible. I'm impressed." I took that as the miracle it was. The old man  didn't throw around praise lightly. "My agents even seem to have lost  track of your home, which I admit is somewhat frustrating. I assume it  has something to do with the large breasted magician girl?"

"Hey."  I said sternly. "That kind of talk is uncalled for. Her breasts are  only slightly above average. Plenty of junk in the trunk though, as long  as you aren't comparing her to some of my other girls." Whisper's  frankly unfair wrecking ball booty made every girl look small in  comparison. I needed to spend some one on one time with that thing soon.  Dinah had distracted me from putting it to good use last time. "But  yeah. Jokes aside she was integral in that process."

He  gave a disgusted snort. "Magic. How...messy. But I suppose you aren't  the first young man to be led astray by a pretty face. I do hope you're  using protection. Italian women can be extremely fertile, and I don't  have any interest in sharing a grandchild with Giovanni Zatara."

That  brought me up short. It occurred to me that Dinah and Whisper had been  basically confined to the house (which prevented spying) for the last  few months. Dinah's ousting from the League probably wouldn't have been  on his debrief list either. Maybe that it happened, but I doubted he had  the sources to learn reasons. I...probably should have mentioned to my  dad that I'd impregnated some women. Also gotten married.

"About  that." I said hesitantly. "Would you prefer to share one with Dinah  Drake? Because...that's going to be a thing." It was actually gratifying  to hear the shocked silence on the other side of the phone. I really  should have told him sooner, given I'd known when I last saw him, but  this worked fine. Dinah had been locked in here for a few months, so I  had a ready made excuse for when I'd knocked her up. No one would have  been able to see that we weren't together.

I expected a  lot of things. Anger, disappointment, maybe even pride. I did not expect  whooping gales of laughter to erupt over the phone. "Lance? You  impregnated LANCE? That uppity fat breasted whore is carrying my  grandchild? That is...fantastic. Dear god, to have seen the look on  Queen's face when he found out. My boy, that is truly brilliant. Granted  she's a metahuman, but only barely."

"Well." I said  wryly. "I'm glad you approve because I also knocked up Whisper around  the same time. So I stole one from the Religion of Crime too. Plus I  might have gotten married. It's been a crazy couple months." I was  pretty sure he knew Dinah was Black Canary, which to be fair wasn't a  surprise, since she hadn't worn a mask and he ran a spy organization. I  figured I might as well ride the wave of amusement to drop all the bombs  at once.

His laughter abated. "A busty one and one with a  large backside. Certainly covering your bases. I do hope this marriage  wasn't to one of them? Because I believe I raised you better than to tie  yourself to a woman for an accident of biology. You don't buy the cow  when you're already getting the milk for free, son." I realized he had  assumed I'd married one of those two to 'take responsibility' or some  shit.

It was my turn to burst out laughing. "Dear gods no.  Amaya is the daughter of a powerful diplomat from...elsewhere. Our  marriage is an excellent political match. You'd have been proud. My wife  is..." I weighed my words. "Complicated. But entertaining. She sees the  world in a way that most people don't and is all the more interesting  for it."

He made an amused sound. "Your mother was like  that. Mentally just completely different from any woman I'd ever met.  Though being able to suck a bowling ball through a straw certainly  didn't hurt her appeal." His voice was fond, but my own heart beat had  picked up speed. My mother. He rarely talked about her, probably hearing  that I'd gotten married brought her up.

With an air of  forced casualness, I said. "Gross. But inappropriate or not, that's more  than you usually say about mom. Anything you want to tell me about my  mother that isn't either megalomaniacal or disturbingly sexual?"

That  drew a bark of laughter from him. "I think 'disturbingly sexual  megalomaniac' is probably the best description of Sarah I've ever heard.  She always was interesting. Managed to keep up with me better than  anyone else. Shame she died in childbirth. It happens I suppose. And it  seems like she gave me a decent enough heir so I can't be too upset."

"Love  you too dad." I said sarcastically. Or at least partially  sarcastically. If I loved anyone it was probably my dad. He was a huge  part of my life. He'd taught me so much, helped my learn, and grown, and  get where I was today. I decided that yes, I did love my dad, in my own  way. After all, the thought of having to kill him sounded kind of  unpleasant, and what was love if not that?

Unaware of my  mental scrambling, he continued. "Now, enough lollygagging. You wouldn't  still be on the line if you didn't need something. Are you finally  ready to accept your entrance into Checkmate? You accomplished that  mission quite a while ago, but admittedly Gotham has been...troubled.  Still, it's never a good idea to leave power on the table."

"Not  exactly." My voice was slow as I responded, like I was feeling things  out. "Rather, I'm hoping to involve checkmate in a venture. Or at least  an associate of mine is. As you know I work with the scientist named  Mammon on occasion. After the fusion of the cities, he's been making  moves to consolidate power. He's managed to arrange a joint meeting with  the Court of Owls, the Fae, and various criminal factions between the  two cities, to discuss portioning out territory before any unwanted  visitors show up to take a piece. I want Checkmate to take part."

That  got an interested hum. "Intriguing. I can't deny that we're interested  in expanding into this new territory. Government interference in Gotham  has always been limited, even for us. The Court will occasionally work  with us in a limited capacity, but actual expansion into the city or the  establishment of a dedicated presence has been impossible. I assume  Mammon has some sort of demands for extending the offer?"

I  did, of course. "He does, or course. He wants depleted promethium. A  ton of the stuff, in ten pound bars." I didn't actually have much of a  use for the stuff since I could make anything I wanted, but it was rare  and expensive, and a bar of it was bound to net me some decent GP. Even  if it was a G ranked metal (which considering what I'd seen from G  ranked materials was probable) that was still two hundred thousand  points when you broke it down into ten pound bars. I'd have gone smaller  but since it was depleted I was worried the smaller bars wouldn't make  G.

"Excessive." My father noted reluctantly. "But not  impossible. I'll get into it and get back to you with a counter offer. A  ton isn't a small amount of depleted promethium, or nearly anything. We  use that for quite a few things, so I'm unsure we even HAVE the  stockpile to provide so much unprocessed metal. We can potentially make  up for it with other materials if needed. I know a scientist is always  in need of materials for experiments."

I was glad I'd  considered the question beforehand. It was pretty much impossible that  Mammon would invite Checkmate through me without an ulterior motive, at  least if you didn't know he was me. I was mostly trying to borrow  Checkmate's authority to keep things civil, but Mammon wouldn't consider  them to be a reliable asset to use in that way. I'd known my old man  would be looking for the catch, so I decided to kill two birds with one  stone.

We talked over potential alternatives for a while  before I finally said goodbye and hung up. Rather than put my phone away  though, I considered what to do next. I had more than a few ideas for  how to proceed, but most of them were centered around knowing when the  actual meeting would take place.

I tapped out a number on  the phone, establishing a call. It rang a few times and a soft female  voice picked up. "Silver? Well if it isn't my favorite bimbo. A mutual  friend told me you'd be calling me, but I hadn't heard from you. If you  aren't careful you'll make me think you don't like me." I grinned at the  snarl I heard over the line. "I missed you too. Now, why don't the two  of us talk about this conclave. We have so much to plan out."