SSV 4 Chapter 24 (Patreon)

I woke up early and the three ladies were still fast asleep, curled up in bed with me.

Well, two of them were curled up. Stella was stuck to me like glue.

Gently using my power, I pried her off. It wasn’t easy; I had to work my power under her fingers and move her over so that she could latch onto Melody.

My succubus peeked her eyes open at me for a moment before cuddling back in on Melody.

That girl was trouble.

It was still the early hours of the morning. The sun was just showing itself on the horizon and New Haven was quiet.

Without electricity, light was a premium. I’d found that people pretty much lived by the sun rise and the sun set.

But the exception seemed to be for animated skeletons.

I floated over to Skel’s lab where I found the woman working by the light of a small fire that was doing double duty as it heated a flask on a metal rack.

The woman didn’t sleep. That was for those of us that still relied on physical bodies.

“I thought you’d be back last night.” She tilted her skull.

I scratched the back of my head as I chuckled. “I hit a little snag.”

“If I could smell, I’d bet you smell like sex.” She deadpanned, and it was incredibly effective given she didn’t show any expressions.

“You might be right.” I looked closer at what she was working on. “What’s this?”

“Let’s call it ant extermination.” She stared at the fumes coming off the dark liquid and condensing in another tube. “The problem with most poisons is that they kill everything. But it sounds like you want to spread this through a large section of the forest?”

I nodded.

“Then the second problem is quantity.” Skel turned down the burner and started to set up another little station with a filter on top of a flask. “So, what I’ve made will kill the queen and princess ants. Their diet is different, therefore I’ve made this to mimic the scent of something the drones would relegate to the queen, princesses and related larva. That way, we need minimal quantities to make it into the hives.”

I nodded along. “The targeted nature sounds like minimal impact to the rest of the forest?”

“Bingo.” Skel took the distillate and poured it into the filter covered flask. “This’ll dry into a crystal.” She poured the flask out over a pan. There were three other pans that were in various states of drying nearby. “We’ll scrape those and then grind them up to a powder. But it’ll be up to you to spread it out over the forest.”

“Will I ruin it if I apply heat?”

“Nope. It’s a stable compound.” Skel watched as I scraped the pans and mixed the contents before steaming off the rest of the water. Then I spun it all in the air, grinding it up into a fine powder. “Well, I wish I could do things like that.” Skel watched with interest. “There was some interesting information from Wells yesterday. You found a new use of your power that changed things?”

“Ah. Yes, an accident. Though I should really do a little more testing before I say it’s conclusive. But it’s a good shot.” I replied.

Skel’s spare hands tapped away at her old laptop. “Then, I think our timetable for trialing monster fruit with you has sped up significantly.”

“How much?”

“I’d say the trial is ready when you are. But, if you can control the power formation for your second power, what would you pick?” Skel asked.

I smirked, happy that the wait had decreased. “Everyone wants to know that, but I think a surprise is in order for that one.” I didn’t want any reactions changing my mind. I knew what power I needed most. Though, I think its user didn't even realize what it was.

I’d go with my gut and let that be it. With what I chose, the Fenris Wolf or even more troublesome opponents would be much less risk.

“If you say so.” Skel shrugged. “I can send a message to Doctor Wells? Also, would it be okay if I went with you to observe the procedure?” There was some hope in Skel’s voice.

“Sure. Let me deal with this ant problem and then I’ll meet you at the temple. We’ll go once the rest of my girls are awake. They’ll want to join me for the trip back to Point City.” I kept the powdered ant poison in a small ball of kinetic energy in the air near me.

“Perfect.” Skel’s spare hands were busy typing away. “Sending a note to Wells now and putting my other projects on hold.”

“Question, Skel, what is it like having a mad scientist power?” I paused.

She tilted her head, seeming to consider how to answer. “When it first kicked in, I likened it to being on adderall and cocaine at the same time. But I’ve never really done either of them. That and perfect recall. My mind is just sharper; everything comes with a lot more clarity. I know it differs though.”

I nodded. I’d heard Wells describe her power as creating multiple trains of thought, like computers having multiple processing streams to increase their processing power.

The brain could be enhanced in many ways, but Skel’s sounded fairly mild. Then again, it seemed to do a little more than just enhance her mind.

“Thanks. I’ll be back.” I shot off as Skel watched me carefully.

I looked down at the small ball of powder and then out at the forest beyond Pollen’s place. I tried to imagine a wedge cut out of the forest that bordered her home, and then I made the same shape with the powder.

Flying into the center of that wedge, I let the powder expand until it became the thinnest sheet. Then I kept expanding it further, becoming a couple grains every few feet, invisible to the naked eye.

My head hurt holding all the individual particles, so instead I imagined just two invisible plates holding them all up and then had to move them in sections.

It was simpler and less straining. My power did have limitations, based on how much control was required.

Once I finished expanding the powder in the most even coating I could manage, I let the two invisible plates push down onto the top of the forest and then broke it off in sections, dropping grains through the treetops and making sure they reached the ground.

It took time for me to break off each section into small enough pieces that I could manage to place the poison without flattening trees.

By the time I’d finished, the sun had risen into the sky and the city was bustling down below. As soon as the sun was up, New Haven came alive. There were only so many hours of light to do everything that was needed.

It had taken me until about an hour past dawn to place the poison, but I felt confident they would protect the farms and the rest of New Haven from the powered ants.

The ants may have spread further into the wilds, but for the moment, it would keep the city safe.

Turning from my project, I saw Pollen’s ransacked home again. I knew what to expect, but seeing it again brought back all my feelings of anger.

The guards should have already investigated the space, but I floated down to the closest farm, which was the chicken farm and landed at their doorstep, before opening the door and floating in.

“Oh, an early customer? Ken is still busy…” The woman saw me and grinned. “Or were you looking for some company?” She moved quickly around the counter and got in my way.

I frowned. “Do you know anything about what happened at Pollen’s place?”

She stopped short. “Oh. Yeah, the guards came by and asked similar questions. But you picked up Pollen, so of course you’d come down.” The woman’s face became sour with jealousy. “Look, I told the guards that we heard some things, but we ask others to respect our privacy, so we didn’t bother her.”

“That couldn’t have been subtle or quiet, not even a concerned glance?” I asked.

“It really wasn’t that loud. I just heard a few snapping sounds like breaking boards. She made more noise when she built the place.” The woman was getting offended and crossed her arms.

But something about her defensiveness felt off to me. “Where’s your husband?”

She coughed. “With a client.”

Something about the way she moved quickly to block me when I came in was bothering me.

I let my power loose to sense a grayscale world of the rest of her home.

Her husband was rutting away in the bedroom, the woman underneath him was either the worst partner ever or something was wrong with her. My power expanded to look for more, but I saw they had a large tunnel underneath their home.

I let my sense fade and froze the woman with my power before walking past her and shoving open the door to their bedroom.

The woman in the bed was strongly built, but she was slack with a distant look in her eyes as the snakeman continued to thrust inside of her.

“What the fuck is this. Is she drugged?” I froze both of them.

“It’s consensual, I promise!” He tried to struggle against my power, but he couldn’t do anything but move his mouth.

Staring at her distant look, I was reminded of the drug that was used on Vaash. “What did you do to her?” I freed his head enough that he could speak.

“My venom.” The man had a pair of fangs flip out from the top of his mouth. “Carol milks me, and we use it on some of our clients. They like the lack of control.”

“You put it in their eyes?” I asked.

He gave a slight nod before hitting the edge of the restriction I’d put on him.

“Who else do you sell this to?” The thugs we’d killed in the market were getting it from Roach’s organization via dead drops. They’d only met with someone they believed to be Roach once.

Fuck, it was like an infestation of bugs in the city.

“Uh.” He hesitated and looked at his wife, but she was still frozen. He’d have to answer for himself.

“I asked you, not her.” My tone was as sharp as a whip crack.

“One of the guards buys it.” His voice cracked and tears welled up in his eyes. “I heard about yesterday. A-am I going to die?”

“Probably.” I was honest. “What’s the tunnel under your home?”

He just started to sob rather than answer.

The woman under him was so out of it that she wasn’t even showing signs of recognizing what was going on. I wrapped her in a blanket from the bed and set her out in the main room before closing the door.

“You are going to start answering, or I’m going to start slicing off your tail inch by inch.” I pinned him down on the bed, pulling his tail up so I could measure an inch.

“D-dont. I-I’ll t-talk.” He struggled to speak around his sobs.

He definitely wasn’t a hardened criminal. “Speak.”

“The guard’s guys dug the tunnel. That’s all I know. We don’t use the tunnel except to put some jars of my venom in it. They give us chits in return. If we go down there, they say they’ll kill us.” He warbled in fear.

“Have you ever met a man with a cockroach mutation?” I asked.

He shook his head rapidly. “Just the guard and then a guy with a hood that met my wife once. They thought her power to calm the chickens was telepathic and were really disappointed after they figured out it wasn’t.”

My blood ran cold.

He was setting up a network and actively looking for people that he could control. Which led me to my next question. “Have you sold them any information on people?”

The serpent man’s eyes flicked to the closed door, and I already knew the answer.

He was her man and she kept him busy in the bedroom and milked his poison. I knew which of the two ran their household.

“Understood.” I ripped his woman through the door, sending a shower of splinters over the floor, but I floated myself a few inches off the ground as she came in. “You ran this operation. He’s already told me most of what I need to know, but I’d love some more details from you.” I froze everything about the man except his eyes. The fear in them might help her talk.

“We’ve done nothing wrong. There are no laws here.” The woman’s defiance faded as she met my cold gaze.

“Laws aren’t the only thing that can decide what’s right or wrong. You should know that these people you worked with are doing horrible things with your man’s venom. It is what was used in the market incident yesterday.”

She swallowed loudly. “We just sold it. It isn’t our fault what they used it for. They could have been using it for medicine for all I knew.” After a moment of thought, she shouted out. “Pain relief.” Clearly she hadn’t actually thought it was used for that purpose.

“Yes, that’s why they needed to exchange it in secret.” I scoffed. “But you gave them information too, didn’t you?” I realized a place like her shop probably could give interesting information about only one thing, people. “Whose information did you sell?”

She licked her lips nervously, and I could feel her power pushing itself to the max, trying to calm me down.

She was using pheromones, so I created a strong breeze in her home to push them away. “That won’t work. Answer me.”

“They wanted information on bug mutas that came in and… uh… they wanted us to keep an eye on Pollen.” She licked her lips again. “We gave him information about your repeat visits yesterday and that she was gone for a day.”

“Yes, I’m sure nothing in their interest was suspicious to you.” I said sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. “Describe the guard that you dealt with.”

“Grasshopper.” She said quickly. “Kind of an ugly bitch, but my man put up with her the few times she wanted some.”

“She was a client of his?” I thought that was odd given what we’d heard of Roach using his powers to get women.

“Yeah. Chirped loud enough that I bought wax from Pollen to stuff my ears with.” The woman made an ugly face.

“Powers?” I asked.

“Super speed and telepath.” She was watching my eyes as if trying to determine if she was going to get out of this alive. “She came by a couple times a month. She didn’t use the drug. Just got plowed by my husband. We didn’t charge her at all; she gave us enough chits that I could buy Daeva’s temple if it wasn’t for the need to keep that stupid tunnel secret.” She was starting to ramble. “We’ll give those all to you of course after you’ve finished with your questions, God King.” She gave me a big smile and batted her lashes as if that would get her out of this.

I had a feeling that they were out of information once she started to bribe me with money.

Both of them blew apart into fine red mist. I shielded myself from it and stayed floating.

I didn’t want to even dirty my feet with their home.

I’d gotten good information, but I also had a new headache. A guard was involved.

And they’d confirmed that Roach was targeting Pollen.

I cast my power into the tunnel, hoping to find something to quench my anger, but the tunnel was empty, leading out into the woods.

Frustrated, I shot back into the city.