SSV4 Chapter 20 (Patreon)

“That’s it, my fated.” Mona had me in a karaoke booth, grinding on me.

I was still trying to get her to sing for me. She wouldn’t even do it in my dreams, which was where we currently sat.

But I also knew better than to push her or try to force it. Singing had been part of what had tainted relationships with those she trusted as a child. I could wait until she was fully ready and healed those parts of herself.

Mona flinched and the dream shattered.

“Master!” Stella jumped on me, startling me awake with urgency in her voice.

“Stella.” Melody groaned, but I was wide awake, lifting myself and Stella out of the bed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her. Stella typically would only wake me up in more pleasurable ways.

“Bad girls. They took Fluffy and are putting drugs in her eyes.” Stella’s words came out in a quick ramble.

“Fluff— Ah Vaash.” I was almost embarrassed at how quickly I was able to decipher Stella’s naming. Vaash was definitely the most likely one to be Fluffy. “Slow down. Tell me what’s happening again.”

“Vaash is the hottie bent in front of your shrine yesterday?” I nodded and Stella bounced on the balls of her feet, clearly distraught. “Okay, well I was wandering the market and spotted three thugs drag her away. I followed to see what was happening, and they put drops in her eyes and she went all.” Stella just stared up at the corner like a doll with its strings cut.

Melody threw herself out of the bed with her gravity power. “What!? They drugged her?”

Stella nodded rapidly. “I didn’t want to just smash the place open. The God King here would send a much stronger message, and I didn’t want to ruin the evidence.” Stella stuck out her tongue. “We know I’m not very good at preserving things.”

“Good job, Stella.” Melody patted her shoulder. “Let’s go. Show us the building.” Melody slipped on a purple and gold toga in just seconds.

I was slower getting my white and gold toga on as we followed Stella out.

“Get Daeva. There’s been a serious crime in the city.” I barked at the nearest temple maiden. “Tell her she needs to be in the market. I doubt she’ll miss it.”

Not waiting for Daeva, I lifted the rest of us into the sky, flying over to the market.

The thing about underground operations like what Stella was describing was that they moved often. It helped keep them from being noticed or having too many questions raised.

“Okay, which building?” I stopped us above the market.

Stella looked down and pointed at one.

I moved us to the roof in an instant. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I made these holes.” She pointed to a few haphazard holes in the roof. They had Stella written all over them.

I noticed a big foot-sized hole in another building and raised my brow. Stella glanced away, feigning innocence.

Using my power, I locked down the entire building.

There was one person leaning against a building next to it watching it. “Melody, pick up that lookout. I’ve got the rest.” My power sank down around the foundation of the building and found a basement.

I scooped the whole thing up and lifted the building into the sky, shifting it over the market.

Stella would never lie. And while she may embellish, if she thought her Fluffy was in danger, I trusted what she saw.

I was going to make an example of these people. I was starting to really like New Haven, and I wasn’t going to let it be tarnished by a few lowlifes.

The market stilled as they watched the entire building floating in the sky, but they weren’t quite screaming yet from the display of power.

Sinking my power into the building, I froze everyone inside, sneering at what I found. They were in for a reckoning.

My voice boomed over the market. “Hello, New Haven. I’m Miles, or the God King of Fertility if you wish.”

Daeva shot over the market, looking at the house with curious eyes. “I can confirm this is our new resident God. What’s happening?” I amplified her voice, and the whole market was staring up, waiting to see what would happen.

“We discovered an operation in the city that was drugging fellow citizens and forcing them to work. Moreover, they were making counterfeit chits.” Which, to be fair, wasn’t super hard to make. It was almost too easy.

Daeva’s face became hard. “Open it.”

I cracked open the building, cutting it in half and showing Daeva along with the whole market what was inside.

And what we saw was worse than Stella had described.

Vaash sat stoned, her body limp in one room with two larger women in the room. In another room there were four women in similar states to Vaash, but functional enough to work. And in that room a third thug oversaw them with a mean look plastered on her face.

It was like Stella had described. But the basement was worse. Two men were chained up and naked with the same glazed look in their eyes.

The market place went so quiet that the squeak of Frankie’s mill was the only sound in the air.

Then it became loud, like a pot about to boil.

“Get your rotten fruits!” I heard some inspired businesswoman shout.

People began throwing insults followed by a few objects, but I didn’t let any of them hit the people inside. I let them get their anger out, but I made sure to hold the justice for Melody.

“Melody, speak now, or hold your peace. These people aren’t living.” I was ready to make an example of them, and seeing the men in the basement had sent my blood pressure through the roof.

She had a hard face as she stared at the building I had cracked open. “They are pretty obviously guilty, but I want the leader for some questioning. How the hell did they even get this drug?”

“That one.” Stella pointed at one of the thugs. “She was the one giving orders.”

The thug couldn’t move, but her eyes shook with fear as I plucked her out and handed her off to Melody, trading her for the lookout Melody had picked up. Melody nodded to confirm they too were in this.

“New Haven, I do not want to interfere with this city too much besides to help it flourish. But at times that means getting rid of the rotten fruit. There are times that call for investigation and determination of guilt, but this one is plain before me. We must all stamp out any acts like these once and for all.” I floated the three that weren’t the leader up into the air and snapped my fingers.

The concussive blast was so powerful that the windows in the street rattled. The people in the market had to hold onto their hats and togas to keep them from flying off in the resulting wind.

People shielded their eyes until the blast settled down and even before they covered their eyes, the three thugs were gone, vaporized by the sheer force of the kinetic energy I pushed into them.

“Let that be a lesson in performing an operation that takes away someone’s free will.” My voice boomed.

Daeva floated over to me and kissed me mid air. “Wonderfully done.”

I sighed, but her kiss did calm me down a little. I knew I’d gone a little over the top, but I wasn’t going to lose New Haven.

Scooping the victims out of the building, I carried them with me back to the temple.

Daeva flew next to me. “This is highly uncommon in the city.”

I blew out a breath. “You don’t have to reassure me. I just want to fix it. Someone is giving them these drugs. Your guards are good, but these guys were managing to get around them.”

Her eyes flashed with anger.

“Don’t take it out on the guards.” I warned her. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. You’ll continue to have issues as the city grows. The best thing you can do is instill a sense of community.”

Three temple maidens were waiting there for us as I landed back at the temple. “God King, how can we help?”

“Tend for these people.” I floated the five girls and two men over. “They have been held against their will and might react poorly when they come out of that stupor.”

“We’ll do our best. The temple should be a good place to wake up for any citizen. Please lay them out before the statues. We’ll get some sheets for them to rest on.” The maidens hurried off to grab what they needed while I set the people down.

Melody landed shortly after with her prisoner. “Would you like to join me?” There was a little glee in her eyes.

I could tell that her stint as a villain hadn’t completely left her. The mix of punishment for the sake of justice clearly had her excited.

But I shook my head. I wasn’t interested in pushing that woman into talking. The anger had left me and I really just wanted to check on everyone. “I’m surprised you are okay with all of this.”

Melody pursed her lips. “What are laws but codifications of morals? Morally, it’s always wrong to take another citizen’s free will away.” She held the woman by the scruff of her neck. “This woman violated that, but maybe Daeva should think about actually writing down laws. That would be… kind of helpful.”

I grunted in agreement. Formalizing basic rules for a civilization was typical.

“Go, get it over with.” Melody turned away and flew into the temple to deal with her prisoner and I was met with Stella watching her.

“Think she’s okay?” Stella asked.

“We’ll keep an eye on her. If needed I’ll step in. So far, I think she’s just trying to find purpose and her own set of morals now that she’s had a taste of the villain life.” I replied.

Stella bobbed her head. “Makes sense, makes sense. Are you going to take care of Fluffy?”

“She’s not some dog we are adopting.” I rolled my eyes, but Stella looked up at me with a pleading gaze of her own. “Fine. We’ll take Vaash back to the bedroom and you can watch over her.”

Stella didn’t wait, running into the temple and picking Vaash up. “It’s okay, Fluffy. I’ll take good care of you. You are safe now. The God King is watching over you.”

I shook my head. Stella really had no doubt in me whatsoever.

But even in her dazed state, Vaash seemed to relax as Stella continued to repeat her words. The dark skinned woman settled into Stella and was asleep as Stella put her down on our bed.

The bed sank as I sat down next to Vaash and ran my fingers through her messy hair. “It’s okay. You are safe now. I’m watching over you.” I told Vaash, standing by my words and watching her sleep.

The drug they were using must have made it hard to focus, because she was having trouble controlling her temperature. I inserted my powers around her, stopping her from turning the room into a furnace or cooking the bed.

A power like hers had to be hard. When she woke up, I decided that I would help her control it.

“You’re so handsome when you help people, Master.” Stella was leaning her elbows on the bed, her head in her hands as she watched me. “You have a really nice, soft smile right now.”

“Well, thank you. Vaash has a troublesome power. I guess I related a little with that.”

Stella nodded eagerly. “Yep.”

Vaash sleepily grabbed my hand and then rolled, curling it around her and pulling me down on top of her.

“Aww.” Stella laid down on Vaash’s other side. “She’s so cute. Fluffy will be a great addition.”

“Stella.” I warned as I struggled to get my arm back and failed.

But Stella only smiled at me broadly over the sleeping muta’s head. I grumbled, cuddling into Vaash with a sigh. “She’s so warm.”

I tried to recover my arm from Vaash, but the woman had a super strength death grip on it. Unless I wanted to lose my other arm, I wasn’t getting out of our current position.

And with her warmth, a nap didn’t sound so bad.

***

A tail wagging against my legs woke me.

Cracking my eyes open, I saw Stella and Vaash awake whispering while Vaash’s back was pressed to me.

“Really?” Vaash whispered.

“Oh. He’s awake.” Stella said, outing me.

“Someone’s tail woke me.” I grinned.

Vaash gasped. “Oh! I’m so sorry. It just does its own thing.”

I snatched her tail before she could pull away, and the fluffy appendage wiggled excitedly in my hand. “That’s okay. It’s kind of cute.”

Her skin was the color of soot, but she still managed to blush, pulling the tail out of my hand and cradling it to her chest. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Thank Stella. She’s the one that spotted you being abducted and came to get me.” I gestured at the succubus who was watching us both with a smile.

Standing up, I straightened out my toga.

Vaash straightened her bikini and slid off the bed. “Uh. Thanks for helping me sleep after that. Maybe I should get going?”

“No. Please say.” Stella grabbed her hand with both of hers. “You’ll have nightmares if you don’t have somewhere safe to stay. Master, you wouldn’t want her to have nightmares would you?” Stella’s pleading eyes melted my heart.

“She can stay in the temple, but not our bed.” I clarified.

“Thanks, Master, you are the best.” Stella bounded off the bed and tackled me with a hug and rubbed her face against me. “You are always so nice to those of us that need it. I promise Vaash will return your kindness a thousand and fifty nine fold.”

Vaash frowned at the random number, but her confusion wasn’t long lived as Stella switched her target of affection and spun, taking Vaash down in a tackle that landed both of them on the bed.

“Behave Stella. I’m going to see what Melody is up to.” I left her and Vaash alone, knowing that Stella was going to be Stella, but Vaash would be fine.

The two of them would be fun to spend time with, but they were also a distraction.

I needed to see what Melody had gotten out of the leader of the operation.

“Excuse me.” I caught one of the temple maidens. “Where is Melody?”

“She and Daeva are in the basement.” The maiden bowed at me.

“We have a basement?” I asked, surprised.

She nodded. “This way.” The woman turned and led me down the marble halls to a door.

I pushed it open.

On the other side of the door were concrete stairs with a worn metal railing.

It hit me that Daeva had built her temple on top of something that already existed. The stairs weren’t consistent with the construction of New Haven.

I walked down them, hearing voices.

“That’s enough.” Melody’s voice was clear. “We are done here.”

As I stepped onto the bottom step, Melody used her right hand and sucked up the woman into the black hole in her right hand before I could get a good look at her.

“My love.” Daeva lifted her gaze from where Melody had just finished up. “We’ve found—“

“Quiet, don’t steal my thunder.” Melody warned Daeva.

The woman snapped her mouth closed and raised an eyebrow at Melody.

“Don’t fight. But if Melody was the one to get the information, maybe let her be the one to share it?” I tried to play peacekeeper.

Daeva could be a little pushy at times.

“Thank you.” Melody nodded. “I have bad news. There was a super that Daeva is familiar with behind the drug and this operation. Problem is, we don’t know where he is. Before Daeva started having such a heavy hand on her justice system, they were evicting people into the wilds, but it seems this guy has survived.”

Now it was Daeva’s turn to explain. I looked at her. “Tell me about this super.”

She sighed. “He was a homeless man that I brought here early on.” She tapped her temple. “Not quite right in the head, but he could hold himself together enough to fool a person for a while. When his crazy started coming out, we realized he was using his power on select mutas and… well… he was raping them.”

I frowned. “Why the fuck would a guy do that? It isn’t too hard—“

Melody crossed her arms. “He looks like a fucking roach. Has mandibles on his mouth and giant bug eyes.”

My nose wrinkled, and I understood a bit better. “Eww. Okay, he’s an unlucky son of a bitch. What’s his power?” I focused on Daeva.

If this guy was operating around the city, we needed to take care of him.

She waffled her head. “He could speak to bugs before he took monster fruit. After it, we found not only could he do that, but he was able to mentally dominate any humans with bug mutations. And also those with telepathy if he got his antennae on them.”

I froze. “So you just kicked him out?”

Daeva shrugged. “It was in the very early days of New Haven. More than anything, once his power and his use of it was discovered, he was driven out of the city. We haven’t heard from him since then.”

“Of course not. So this cockroach man is then still operating in the city again and has produced a drug.” I felt a headache coming on.

“It’s coming from him. They didn’t know what it was, but it seems to make the mind sort of numb so that supers had trouble using their powers.” Melody pursed her lips. “It’s some sort of mild suppressant of the nervous system.”

“Daeva, how do we identify who he’s mentally dominated?” I asked, suddenly worried about Pollen and then the rest of her guards. “Fuck. You have a lot of bug muta supers here.”

“They are more likely to get rejected by the society in the city.” Daeva shrugged. “Selection bias. But the good news is I don’t think your Pollen has been affected. The ones before where… a little too single minded. I’ll get someone to investigate all of the guards.”

“That would be great.” Melody smiled. “And once we clear them, we’ll need their help to check the rest of the populace.”

I thought about the ants in the woods, and didn’t like that such a power was in the hands of someone who would use it as he had.

“We need to deal with this.” I glared at both of them, a little of my concern turning to anger, but not at them.

“On it.” Daeva hurried out.

Melody gave me a smile. “Don’t worry about Pollen. I’ll stick with her if she leaves the temple.”

I grunted, not willing to demand that of Melody but liking the idea. “This is also a problem for New Haven and something that Daeva should have caught on her own.”

“If she was just brutally killing problems before, there was a decent chance she smashed more than one of this guys’ operations. Morally, she’s good. She just doesn’t have any of the experience that we do with villains.” Melody stepped closer and kissed my cheek. “How hard is Stella pushing Vaash on you?”

“Hard.” I sighed. “She’s dragged her into our bed and is claiming that she’s going to have nightmares if we don’t support her.”

Melody rubbed at my temples. “That’s a sore spot for you. How are your nightmares now that Mona is invading your dreams?”

“Gone. She wouldn’t let something like that stop her from having her time at night. She’s been extra obsessed.” I leaned into Melody’s massage.

“Did you expect anything else? You pushed her away. I’m surprised she only came back with double the force and not triple.” Melody smirked. “Get her to sing yet?”

“Nope. She knows what it would mean to me though. Maybe she’s saving it, or maybe she’s just not quite ready.” I knew that was a huge barrier for her.

Given what her manager and mother did to her, singing for me was a big deal for Mona. Even me asking her to sing made her face some of her inner demons.

“Bet she’s doing extra sessions with Angelina. It’ll be good for both of them.” Melody replied.

“Speaking of, What’s with Angelina?” I asked, wondering if Melody would spill more.

But Melody just smirked and mimed zipping her lips. “I best get going. I need to help Daeva and make sure she doesn’t just start killing if she finds a problem among the guards.”

I rolled my eyes at her blatant attempt at avoiding the conversation, but I trusted them all. They’d tell me if there was a real issue. There were enough problems to deal with rather than chase after one that wasn’t causing any issues.