Greed God chapter 166

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 10:00 PM EDT

"So  you're absolutely sure this is the right place?" I asked goon 7.  "Because you assholes swore that Mad Hatter was holed up in that  abandoned boarding house, and it turned out to be a hat rack. I get that  there's some leeway because of the dirty windows, but that's still a  big fuckup. You can absolutely swear to me that a group of metas is in  there? Because if we go in there and it's just a bunch of folding chairs  with coats on them, it's YOUR ass. You get that right?"

Goon  7 nodded solemnly, which would have been a lot more convincing before  the hat rack incident. Still, I had to admit I wasn't entirely neutral  about the whole thing. It had been hours and this had been much less  productive than expected. I was an inherently lazy person, and doing  this much work for no real material benefit was agitating me. I was more  than willing to follow up on bullshit in order to get this over with.

So  I slipped up to the side of the abandoned shaving cream company, and  climbed nimbly up the wall to peek in through the window. When I got up  to the top, I glanced in through the window, and had to choke back a  cheer as I saw...assholes. A handful of random metahumans that looked  like they would be a serious threat to most people. A really big ugly  guy with a red mullet, a little short kid with a bald head in a stupid  green jumpsuit, a sexy little thing with pink hair in an admittedly  weird updo that kind of worked for her, a dude with pale skin and a  stupid purple cape, and a guy in all red.

A quick  appraisal revealed they were all metas. Byron, aka Mammoth, the big guy,  had superhuman strength, but only at G rank. Cape dude, aka Kyd Wykkyd  (yes that was his real name) was a G ranked magic user who did portal  shit. The bald kid went by Gizmo, and he was an H ranked supergenius who  made tech shit, and the red suited asshole was an H ranker named Billy  Numerous, no prizes for guessing his power.

The biggest  point of interest to me though, was obviously the girl. Jennifer Murphy  aka Jinx. Probability manipulation at F rank. I didn't have anyone on my  crew that could fuck with luck, and that could be a neat ability to  mess with. I was pretty sure she was incapable of hurting me with her  luck bullshit, since it was only F rank, and anything she could cause to  happen would literally just bounce off me. But still, I didn't want to  spook her.

Rather than charge in and stomp them all, I  decided to go in with so swagger and flash a little bling. If one of  them tried some shit, which I assumed would happen, I'd slap them around  to prove my abilities, and then recruit them. No reason to waste  talent. I could always use more metas, even if most of them were pretty  useless. Being back on Earth, I had to play things a bit more subtle so I  didn't piss off the League. Having a few notable thugs to run errands  in my supervillain identity would pull focus from my actual activities.

I  had the others back off as I approached the entrance to the building,  made sure my mask was secure, and then knocked three times on the door,  in a calm, steady rhythm. There was a brief wait after the knock before  someone finally said "...what?" They sounded confused, which I got.  Knocking implied I knew someone was in there, and if I knew who was  inside it seemed stupid to approach.

Thinking about it,  waiting would set a bad precedent, so I reached down and gripped the  handle of the door and twisted it until it snapped. Before pushing it  open I flooded a wave of air under the door and up with my Vital  Tempest, shoving the bar I suspect was there off so I didn't get stuck  like an idiot, before pushing the door wide open and stepping inside.  "Wha-hey! You can't just come in here!" Shouted an outraged female  voice. Jinx I assumed.

I just walked inside and looked  around. "Bad move snot sniffer! Bellowed a high pitched annoying  screech. There was a series of clicks and bangs and a bunch of robots  came scurrying out of the shadows to launch a dozen clouds of green  sludge at me. I considered dodging, but honestly it seemed like too much  trouble, so I just called the tempest and waved a hand, fry it all with  lightning midair.

The sludge had been fired by H ranked  robots and wasn't particularly potent or durable, so I didn't need to  put much effort into the act of destroying it. Still, the response time  was decent, so I nodded. "Acceptable reactions. Well done. If you do it  again I'm going to melt your toys into slag. I'm here to talk, and  you're all going to listen." I reached into my pouch and pulled out a  fist sized emerald from my bandit treasury stash. "If you do, there's  more where this came from."

Jinx caught the emerald with  wide eyes, staring down at it hungrily, and I had to fight the urge to  laugh. Teenage supervillains. Was there any group of people more  enamored with shiny things? After seeing me vaporize a wave of sludge,  it didn't look like they were anxious to try me, which was fine, it just  meant I wouldn't need to waste healing on Mammoth after I curb stomped  him.

The pink haired girl, having processed the big ass  rock, cleared her throat. "Um. Ok, I guess. This is enough to cover the  door and a bit of our time. We can hear you out." Her voice was a bit  shaky, which I got, because magically that wave of green lightning had  been pretty terrifying. E rank destruction magic pretty much, and as a  magic user, Jinx would have been able to feel that.

I  decided to let them keep their ego by pretending I didn't force them  into this, walking over to plop down in a chair nearby. "So...you may  have noticed the city going through some...changes. Gotham and  Metropolis are gone, this is Brightedge, and we're all sharing the same  territory, which is going to be at a premium. I've partnered up with the  Penguin, and my crew and I are...expanding."

Gesturing to  all of them, I chuckled. "You're all in my new territory, but honestly,  I see potential in your group. So rather than just crushing you all  into meat paste, I'd like to make you all an offer." I pointed at the  emerald. "Work for me. I have plenty more stones like that, and I'm not  shy about handing out bonuses. I pay pretty damn well. All you need to  do is what you've been doing, just with a bit more backup. I'll have you  shadow some of my people to get the lay of the land and a better  understanding of how things work in my organization."

Once  again I went with carrot over stick. Offering to pay them off was just  more convenient for me, plus I already scared them a bit with the show  of force, and seeing my people work would definitely make an even bigger  impression. To prove my point, I pulled out a fist sized G rank opal  and tossed it to Jinx, who caught it in her other hard. Her pink eyes  snapped to the rock as she realized it was imbued with magic as well as  being big and extremely valuable. She swallowed hard.

After  a second to process this one, she got her head in the game, and started  doing what any self respecting villain would do. Negotiating. "These  are nice, for sure, but you haven't mentioned any specifics. Generous  with bonuses is pretty vague. What are we getting paid? What are we  going to be doing? Who the hell are you? We need to know answers before  we can commit to working for you, though I can't say you're not making a  tempting offer so far."

I appreciated good business  acumen. "Fair enough I suppose. I'll commit to a stone for each of you  per week. They're worth over ten thousand a piece. You'll be dealing  with problems as they crop up, though as I said you'll do it with  support. My name is Mammon, and I doubt you've heard of me. I've been  away for a while, though I was making quite the commotion before I left.  But I can see that you aren't convinced." I stood up, brushing off my  pants. I turned to look at Mammoth, who was their obvious heavy. "Tell  you what, you can have a free shot. Just one, as hard as you can."

Between  my draconic physique and the Mantle of Raiden there was no chance a G  ranked strong man was going to manage to hurt me. I doubted I'd even  feel the blow. Dragons were the best at this kind of thing. Our physical  bodies were monstrous. Mammoth, for his part, looked unsure, but he  also seemed determined. I just waved him on. The big bastard wasn't  going to be able to do much to me, so the faster he took his shot the  faster I'd demonstrate that their heaviest physical hitter couldn't do  shit.

Mammoth stepped up, braced  himself, and then hauled back and belted me right in the chest. He  fucking dug it out too. Stepped into it and threw all the weight he had  behind the blow. My Mantle of Raiden blunted the impact somewhat, and my  draconic body tanked the rest of it easy, but I'd gone up on my toes to  ground myself, and the punch actually pushed my feet slightly into the  ground. Mammoth was like Waylon had been. G rank but entirely muscle  focused. He had some juice for someone so low ranking.

I  was about to tell him so when a pink sphere of energy smashed into my  body. As soon as he got out of the way the burst of magic hit me dead  on, this one quite a bit stronger than the punch. The Mantle grounded  the burst, but it actually took a second to discharge, and I felt the  bleedthrough as a physical blow. I actually took a step back from the  impact. I turned my head slowly to look at Jinx, who grinned. She just  giggled guiltily. "You didn't say which you? It looked like fun I wanted  to take my shot too."

Rolling  my eyes, I waved it off. "Fine, I wasn't specific so I'll let it slide.  It's not like it did much anyway. If one of you attacks me again  though, I'm going to consider it a challenge and fight you. Trust me,  you don't want that." I hadn't even needed to shift for any of this. I  was just in my baseline human form, and I'd still crushed their wills  easily. "Now, I know who you all are, but if you're working with me, I  should at least know that name of your crew. I assume a bunch of metas  grouping up like this has a name."

Jinx  smirked and puffed out her chest, which was modest but not bad. "Well  since you seem to know our names I'll skip those, though I'd like to  know how you heard them later. As a group though, we call ourselves the  HIVE Five. We were trained at the HIVE Academy for supervillains, and  we're some of the most promising graduates that place has ever  produced."

"Alright."  I said. "Well I don't have a name for my team, so you can keep yours  while you work for me. I'll have you working with my people, and they'll  show you the ropes. For now though, get ready to move out. I'll leave  some of Penguin's goons here, but I'm heading back to the Iceberg Lounge  and you're coming with me." I grinned at them behind my mask. "I can't  wait to introduce you to my team."