Log inGallows Humors, Gallows Duties Ch 3
Ch 3, hope you guys like it.
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I awoke in a bed I hadn’t gone to sleep in, on my own to boot. The aftertaste of a mood that can best be described as ‘fucking finally’ running through me. Well, that was one way to push past the morality of absorbing a possibly sapient mind.
I looked around the room slowly, it was clean, there was one chair covered in clothes too dirty to put away with the clean clothes, but too clean to bother washing. There was a desk with a desktop PC and four monitors, a book case with paperback sci-fi novels, and a display case with tabletop miniatures sporting a simple but aesthetically pleasing paint scheme, memories from my current sleeve piped up and informed me that Battletech didn’t run into the same legal issues in this reality, leading to a healthier state for the game license…still fucked up the storyline though, some things are just omniversal.
Not a bad place to be at all.
I drew the curtain over the window next to the bedside, letting more of the dreaded sunlight through. Then stood up and stretched to get used to the new sleeve.
Going over my mental scape the way I was taught in Basic showed me that my new powers were at my fingertips. I could feel the rage of Hellfire burning within me, eager to find the guilty, to use their sins as kindling to burn their souls to ash.
But more importantly, I also had the stockpiled knowledge of the Master of Mankind, which would be very important for the whole ‘explode Apokolips’ thing on the docket.
It would be fun to mess with hellfire blasts and warp lightning later, there was also the fun stuff that would happen when my new Linker Core finished charging, magical energy, psychic powers and hellfire seemed to be from different ‘pools’ so unfortunately I couldn’t flex one to fill the other, not unless I made something that could convert one energy type to another. I’d have to get that done sometime in the future.
I dressed and left the room. Looking around, I appeared to be in a house.
“Alex? Yo—” In an instant I had turned around and was holding the slim neck of a woman with blonde hair and dark blue eyes, which widened in surprise. Her attempt to force my arm away from her throat seemingly held all the strength of a toddler. I could feel the immense power in my forearms, the merest flick of my wrist would not so much break her neck as decapitate her.
Her punch to my liver achieved little more than tickling me.
Then her face finally registered. And I realized I was about to hurt one of my women, the first of my two ‘MILFs’ even if she was merely at an age where she could fit the stereotype, Robbert had thankfully not been overly harsh on the enforcement of that ‘requirement.’
Damn middle managers.
“Apologies.” I said, letting go of her, she sprung back, gently rubbing at her throat. “I just came off the back of something rather harrowing, wasn’t able to take the time to properly decompress, as it were. I’m your Agent, I go by Alex.”
She blinked, taken aback by my matter-of-fact tone, then even though her face remained impassive, her mind radiated grief. “Ah, so it finally happened. Alex did always joke that it would happen when he’d find it most inconvenient.” She shifted her weight awkwardly, her thoughts aware that, with the disparity in physical power she’d just witnessed, there’d be nothing she could realistically do without a lot more time to prepare a nasty surprise.
And even then, success would end poorly for her.
“Angela Ziegler, at your service. Literally, in this case.” She said, her voice mellifluous and slightly accented, she held her hand out for a shake.
I took it, giving it a gentle squeeze, very thankful that instincts in the Templates came with the ability to precisely modulate my strength. “Lost my actual name, literally, I believe something or other ate it. I go by Alex now.”
She nodded. “Well, rocky introduction aside, glad to have you here.” She hesitated but chose not to ask.
“He did not suffer.” I answered her question anyway then tapped at my head. “In fact, he’s still here. The personality transfer is seamless. With next to no loss of information.”
“Oh.” She said, feeling both a little creeped out and grateful. “Good.”
“Come on, let’s eat breakfast, I’ll explain to everyone there.”
“Yes sir!” She said, then blinked in surprise at how readily she’d deferred to me. Then again, with the Templates I’d chosen, that was not unusual.
I was now, unironically, the Master of Mankind.
Or, at least, I had the roadmap to become that Juggernaut.
The moment I stepped into the kitchen, I was struck by an armful of comely blond young missile and a shouted. “You’re back! What took you so long!?”
I patted Iris’ back and spoke into her hair. “Processing. How long has it been for you?”
“It’s been a few months.” Answered a third voice, deep for a woman. Turning to look, I saw a beautiful black haired woman of Asian descent. She had the musculature of a mixed martial artist in contrast to Angela’s athletic physique and Iris’ soft but trim body. “I take it to mean our Agent finally arrived?” She kept a tighter leash on her own grief, but it was still there. Good to know my personality matrix did not mistreat them.
I untangled myself from Iris, she positively glowed with health, her cheeks flushed as she looked at me with a beaming smile on her face. She was also. Physically younger than I expected. With a flick of Will, I brought up Iris’ processing records.
She’d asked to be younger so she could experience High School. The madwoman.
“Yes,” I answered Nana, and took a seat at the table, “but your lives won’t change much, if at all. I’ve got my mission, and unfortunately, it’s not one you’ll be able to aid me directly in. Though I’d appreciate your aid training, prepping, and off the field support.”
Nana furrowed her brow. “We are not weak.”
Iris looked stricken before she schooled her expression.
“You are not.” I said, nodding. “But my ultimate goal is to tackle a planet cracking threat. One that has sterilized hundreds of worlds and driven stellar civilizations to extinction. I have an idea of how to grow to tackle that threat and survive long enough to achieve my strategic objective.” I looked into Nana’s defiant eyes. “But to throw any of you at that threat would be to sign your death warrants. There are local threats for which your aid will be invaluable. But I refuse to have any of you die needlessly.”
Nana’s cheeks gained a dusting of red, but she nodded.
Breakfast was quiet after that. Iris was happy that talk had moved away from fighting and conflict. Nana felt happy to know that I wouldn’t irrationally keep her from fighting, a light reading of her surface thoughts showed that she had kept herself from fighting while she had cared for past me, and now that I had arrived she was itching to jump into the hero game.
Angela was the least perturbed of all, already planning her day out at Gotham Memorial Hospital.
Nana eventually broke out of her daydream of punching nebulous ‘villains’ in the face and began to go over her curriculum for class today. She was a teacher at Gotham Heights High School, she taught biology of all things; I would have honestly expected her to be the coach for the women’s softball team or something.
She liked to act unaware of the fact that she served as inspiration for the fantasies of the vast majority of the male student body, and a not insignificant chunk of the female students. And most of the faculty.
She’d had to bail my personality matrix out a number of times due to prior me knowing his days were numbered, therefore not giving a single fuck and throwing hands with any bully that managed to piss him off.
It was then that it hit me. I was currently not legally an adult. In fact, rummaging through the memories of my personality matrix, Nana was currently my legal guardian, just as Angela was Iris.’ The current consensus was that Angela and Nana were a lesbian couple who took in troubled orphans.
Or, at least, one troubled orphan. ‘My’ parents having died in a gang shooting when ‘I’ was a child.
I was going to have to suffer the indignity of High School.
This would not stand.
“Nana,” I said, causing her to stop going over her plans for the day and turn to look at me, “I’m dropping out of High School, please prepare the paperwork I’ll need for a GED an—”
“No you’re not.”
I blinked. Caught off guard by the stern rebuttal, utterly nonplussed. “Buh?”
“A proper education is very important.” She continued. “Most Colleges with a program worth a damn will refuse to even look at the application of someone with a GED.”
“But…but I’m an Agent?” I asked, thoroughly wrong-footed. “In fact, I have the collective knowledge of a Space Faring civilization in my head? I could build a fusion reactor in the backyard out of scrap metal and some rare earths. High School and college are rather superfluous.”
Her stern disapproval redoubled, making me quail slightly. “Not only is a High School diploma necessary, but interacting with your peers is supremely important for proper development.”
“Nana, these people are absolutely not my peers.” I said, still confused. “I will achieve nothing other than going through a colossal waste of time, time I won’t be getting back. And money won’t be an issue, I could literally find a sunken Spanish Galleon and come up with historical artifacts and treasure in an afternoon. Hell, I’m an Agent of the Company, every month I’ll just have like, ten thousand dollars. My time would be much better spen—”
Nana reached out and took hold of my hand. “Please Alex, maybe you’re right but…you’re only a couple years out before you graduate. If only for my peace of mind, stay in school.”
Of all the stupid. Asinine. Idiotic. Fuck-off moronic. Goddamn. Absurd. Ludicrous. Inane. Imbecilic. Nonsensical. Half-baked tomfoolery!
“Okay.” I said with a defeated sigh. Her brilliant, relieved, beaming smile made me feel better about caving in to the utterly senseless demand.
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I should have put my foot down, said no to the pleading look in Nana’s eyes and simply dropped out. I could mind-whammy any Truancy Officer I ran across easily enough.
Not like any actually cared because in Gotham they were overworked, underpaid, and often in mortal peril.
Yeah, when I got home today, I was going to put my foot down. I would look into Nana’s big, dark brown, beautiful eyes, and—
“Woah, what crawled up your ass and died?”
“Fuck off, Todd.” I shot back reflexively.
Jason Todd sat across from me at the cafeteria, pulling food out of his lunchbox. “No, seriously, you look worse than usual. Which considering it’s you we’re talking about, might mean someone’s about to die.”
He was a tall, muscular youth with black hair, fair skin, and brown eyes, with a jawline so sharp most girls in school would love to cut their lips on it.
Memories came forward, we hadn’t gotten along when he transferred into the school. Butting heads as often as we saw each other. Until one day we went somewhere private and beat each other black and blue. After that I took him out for ice cream, and we’d been friends ever since.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Iris. I felt guilt and yearning coming from her. She had not been able to get over the uncanny valley where my personality matrix had been concerned, and as such had not become as close to prior me as Angela and Nana.
From her perspective, she wanted to make up for lost time, and ‘stake her claim’ in case any of the girls in school got it in their head to try and go out with me.
I wasn’t exactly popular, but casting a wide but shallow net, I could feel some interest floating around.
Still, fat chance, I didn’t have the time for dumbass teenage romance drama.
I implanted the thought that she should catch up with me after school in her head, and she happily went to her group of friends.
A number of boys looking at her (admittedly pert and very cute) ass spontaneously developed sudden migraines.
“If you must know.” I said, taking a bite out of my sandwich and speaking carefully with my mouth partially filled, I didn’t mind being a bit gross, but there was no point spraying my food everywhere. “I’m considering dropping out of school. If only to escape looking at your ugly ass mug.”
Jason snorted. “Yeah? And what are you going to do after that?”
I shrugged. “Eh, this is Gotham. Drugs, taking a job with the mob…there’s an illegal fighting ring I know of, that’d be a pretty good way to make money.”
“Don’t fucking joke about that shit, asshole.” Jason growled.
“Geebuz, don’t jump down a guy’s throat. The only one I actually considered was the fight club.” I said placating. “But hey, the biggest drug gang in the world is big pharma. Maybe I could pull a Batman, find dirt on enough assholes that I can black mail and live perfectly comfortably for the rest of my days.”
Jason snorted. “And what will you do when they hire a hitman to pop your dumbass?”
“Make use of my insane psychic might to drain his brain out of the fucker’s asshole, then charge the guy that hired him triple every time he tries.”
The best thing about that entire line of bullshit? I wasn’t even joking.
Jason snorted again. “You probably shouldn’t do the fight club either.”
“Bitch I live with a doctor.”
“Didn’t she say that the next time you showed up with a broken nose she’d let it heal crooked?”
“That’s just her using her tsundereness to mask her deep appreciation for my precocious independence.”
“I don’t speak Japanese cartoons.”
“It’s called anime, you philistine!”
We shot the shit until the lunch bell rang and went our separate ways to class. Where I proceeded to stew in my desire to leave already.
Maybe I could clone myself and have the clone go to school while I dealt with the more important things?
My Template of the Emperor pinged me with a few memories where He’d tried that exact thing and it backfired rather badly.
Well, guess that’s out then.
Fuckin’ school.
Thank whatever god cared that I’d arrived on a Friday.
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I sprawled on the copilot seat of Nana’s car as Iris climbed in the back.
“That bad, huh?” Nana said with amusement.
“Hate this planet.” I said with all the gravitas I could summon. “Hate it so much.”
Iris giggled in the back of the car, she actually liked High School. An amazing contrast with the time she spent on the SCP Foundation’s clutches. This time she was being far more careful with her powers, afraid of a similar thing happening.
Only the fact that she and Nana would be sad if I exposited exactly how much I despised the experience, kept me from explaining in exacting detail how much attending High School was a waste of time, effort, and good fucking sense.
“Will Angela be free later today?” I asked.
Nana shook her head. “Something came up, some important surgery or another. Or uhh, surgery on someone important? Either way, she’ll be held up.”
I sighed. “Well, I’ll put together some gear, then you and I will fly out to somewhere quiet where we can train. We’ll be concentrating on combat and aerial combat. I’m good enough in a fistfight or firefight, but being able to smack people about in the air will be very important in my near future.
“Once I feel somewhat confident of my abilities, we can try going on patrol, but I’d prefer if we didn’t patrol Gotham. The Batman is usually fairly territorial.”
“Too bad,” Nana grunted, “the rougher areas of the city are…bad. They could do with more heroes.”
I shook my head. “While you’re objectively correct, that would be a plain bad idea. While the Batman is just a man, he is unironically a peer to demigods. Our best bet is to make use of the covering granted by my Defenses. But I wouldn’t trust even a full Immunity to keep him from finding us. Especially since the fucker is an accomplished detective. My Defenses would be an impediment, but they provide little to no protection to mundane methods of information gathering.”
That was how Prime Me had ended up drawing the attention of the Company. The application of the good old Mark One eyeball, a stubborn streak a mile long, and suicidal determination. Say what one will about augur spells and Power Level Scanners, an eyeball and a determined mind will get you far.
And between the two of us? I would not consider myself more determined than the Batman.
We arrived home in good time, I made dinner and we set a portion aside for Angela when she got home.
I listened to Iris gossip about her friends at school, and kept secret my seething rage at the injustice that was having to attend High School.
I would nurture this grudge, and when they least expected it, I would strike!
“Okay you two, make sure to finish your homework before you goof off the rest of the day.”
I felt my left eye twitch with incredulity.
“But Nana!” Iris whined good naturedly.
“No buts.” Nana returned with mock sternness.
If I explode the school…will I still have homework? If the school is destroyed and there’s no one there to see me do it, is it still my fault? Those are the truly important questions that weighed down my enhanced mind.
Late in the evening, with dinner consumed, homework done, and having helped Iris with her own homework…it was far too late to head out for training.
Fuckin.’
Well, the least I could do would be to find a good place to train, save me the travel time tomorrow. As I got ready to leave, there was a soft knock at my door.
“Excuse me, Mister Alex?” Iris asked peeking into my room, her mind radiating embarrassment and excitement, her cheeks aflame. My nose twitched, the scent of her arousal causing my cock to react.
I considered drawing things out, making her an embarrassed puddle as I forced her to spell out what she wanted. But there was a pretty female nearby, ready and willing for some fun.
I pulled her inside, put my tongue in her mouth, and shut the door behind me.
Finding a training spot could wait until tomorrow.
