Greed God chapter 165

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 8:00 PM EDT

Despite  my amazing and decisive show of force to Penguin to make sure he took  us all seriously, I found myself betrayed at the last minute by my own  women. My damned wife and her redheaded accomplice railroaded me into  taking a group of all male minions. Apparently they were concerned I'd  get distracted or show off if there was any fuckable girls around. Which  was complete bullshit. I was the picture of self control. I could  probably rush my patrol route to get back and fuck Jay before they got  back from theirs. That would show them.

Ignoring the irony  of that particular thought decisively, I turned to look over the crowd  of goons following behind me. I'd been given a squad of twenty. They  were basically glorified scouts. I'd send them out to recon and then if  one of them was about to get murdered I'd step in and stop it. Throw a  bunch of minions at the wall and see what stuck. It was a completely  valid strategy, and it made good use of my speed and power, but it was  also excruciatingly boring to deal with.

"Hey boss." Said  goon 1, who I was only able to distinguish from goons 2 through 20 by  virtue of my perfect recall. "Herbert and Jackson are heading down the  right fork to check in on some suspicious noises. You told us to let you  know where everyone was being sent before they separated from the  group."

I pinched the bridge of my nose with a sigh.  "We've been over this, goon 1. I'm not taking even the minimal effort  necessary to learn your names. You'd better get with the program or I'm  going to demote you to goon 2. Now, once more with designations I  understand, who is going where with whom?" Having seen me vaporize a  desk, none of them were willing to stand up to me, and the only  entertainment I really had on this annoying patrol was being as  demeaning to them as possible to see if one would snap. These weren't MY  goons, after all, they were Penguins. Besides, if I did get control of  them later I could just make it up to them with an upgrade.

Goon  1 sighed in a way that, had I been an actual tyrannical asshole instead  of just fucking with him, I'd probably have killed him for. "Sorry  boss. I meant to say that goon 7 and goon 9 are going to check out the  right fork to do some recon on a few noises we heard. Did you want us to  send anyone with them? We almost lost Jer- I mean goon 16, at that last  intersection. You were barely able to get there in time." I glanced at  him archly and his eyes widened in fear. "Not that it was your fault or  anything boss! It was our bad for not thinking to suggest sending more  support."

I bit back a snort of amusement. I didn't think  he got that I could have taken that as equally insulting, but I decided  to cut the guy a break. "Good word goon 1, send goon 13 with them this  time, just in case. Also, tell goon 11 if he takes another bump of coke  when he thinks my back is turned I'm going to cave his skull in with a  rusty pipe. He's pretty much at the edge of useful as it is, and I'm not  carting around a useless druggie."

His eyes went a bit  wide. He knew I could do it. I'd already stepped in to save the  aforementioned goon 16 and demonstrated that I could do more than just  murder desks. Seeing me tear apart a few assholes in clown makeup had  done wonders for the obedience of my group. Which was useful, because I  really didn't feel like having to pay Penguin weregild for one of his  goons because they got mouthy. As strong as I was, allies were still  important, which gave that asshat just enough leverage to extort me if I  got one of his meatshields ganked.

He headed out to let  them know, and I turned my attention back to the street. We hadn't  really run into much resistance yet, which just meant the actual power  players were elsewhere. As positive as that might sound in the abstract,  it was actually terrible. We could claim anywhere we wanted, but in  order to demonstrate our authority we had to make an example of someone.  Otherwise it was just empty words, and we were liable to get attacked  later on, potentially when me and the other E-rankers weren't around.

It  was a better call to find some thoroughly entrenched force that had  already cowed the locals pre merge and then crush them, establishing  ourself as the new bosses. We could theoretically just claim everything,  but that would be stupid with only the few E-rankers I had. I didn't  have enough competent help to cover everywhere near the lounge, and  overextending was just asking to get chipped away at by roving assholes.  Losing ground, even temporarily, was bound to erode our authority and  force us to murder a bunch of people to reestablish it, which Barbie and  Zee would probably bitch about.

So my orders to my people  had been clear. Stick close to the Lounge, look for enemy action, and  fucking crush it. Strega, Sally, and Sindy had all been given strict  warnings about wanton carnage. My Living Lich wasn't a former  supervillain, but she HAD been the daughter of a brutal gang leader, and  the last thing I needed was my vibrating fuck doll coming to the  attention of the Justice League, whichever of their members were still  on earth at least.

That at least, had been the one saving  grace of this mess. The fucking Justice League were still in space.  Apparently they were undergoing some kind of space trial for the mind  control bullshit a few years ago. Dinah still had a few friends among  the league who would talk to her, so I had a tiny bit of information  trickling in. They wouldn't tell her anything confidential since her  asshole ex was still a member in good standing and was kind of high up  in the organization, but at the very least we got the common knowledge  stuff.

Luckily Doctor Fate was kind of a douchebag. He  didn't much care what was happening if it didn't affect the balance, and  none of the other leaguers were on a level to deal with the current  mess that was Brightedge. Supergirl was obviously out given all the  magic, so they were basically stuck waiting on their mommies and daddies  to come home and fix everything. Especially with The Reach still  kidnapping metas all over the world. They had other shit to deal with. I  just had to make sure to have my claws in deep by the time they got  back.

Which begged the question where WERE all the fucking  supervillains? I needed teeth to stomp in. If I did this whole patrol  and only managed to save a few worthless townies I was going to lose my  shit. I'd saved a couple civilians along with goon 16, just to be able  to tell Barbie I'd 'helped' but it hadn't really been time well spent.  Just some old guy and his granddaughter. She was way too young to be  hot, though I guessed having a rep for being decent to kids and old  people would keep the heroes off my ass, so there was that.

My  thoughts were broken off by the sound of an inhuman roar from off in  the direction of the three goon squad I'd sent out. My head perked up,  that sounded mildly interesting. I let the transformation roll over me,  wings sprouting from my back, and with a single flap I was catapulted up  into the air so fast that I broke the fucking sound barrier. I hit the  apex of my ascent, reoriented with my wings a bit, and then used air  pressure to hurl myself down just as fast, smashing into the concrete in  between the roaring form and my three rental minions.

The  street cratered under my impact, chips of cement and blacktop spraying  up harmlessly (to me anyway) as I rose from my crouch landing to glare  over at the hulking orange...woman? I mean, it was probably a woman. I  could see tits, though they weren't big for her gargantuan size, and  while she had some thick thighs, there were far too toned for my taste.  Donna was pretty much right on the edge of too muscular for me, and this  chick was well past that. Plus she was taller than me, which I didn't  love, and she had stupid hair.

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Rampage- G rank metahuman. Doctor Kitty  Lou Falkner was a scientist at STAR labs who accidentally got caught in  an experiment gone wrong. After she awoke she realized she had been  transformed into an eight foot tall creature with superhuman physical  abilities. Rampage grows more powerful through a photosynthetic process  that resets when she resumes human form. Ambient sunlight reflected off  the moon CAN help her grow, but the process is much slower.]

Huh.  So she was like a giant oompa loompa supergirl? Weird. Not really  relevant though. She was G ranked right now, and the chances of her  managing to jump two full ranks on diluted sunlight reflected from the  moon weren't high. Of course, I wasn't letting this bitch live to see  the sunrise. The last thing I needed was a pissed off solar battery that  I was pretty sure from reports I'd heard of 'Rampage' could get up to  Superman levels of strong. I really needed to make the jump to D rank  soon, just to be safe.

For now though, I blurred across  the intervening space and backhanded the roid rage stripper in the  chainmail leotard with one draconic hand. I'd gone full hybrid, since my  mask hid my features anyway, and the strength flowing through me was,  in a word, monstrous. There was a satisfying snap as the bones in her  face shattered, and the angry roar cut off abruptly as she was sent  smashing into the street, skidding through the blacktop and leaving  behind a furrow in the ground.

I strolled casually toward  her, ready to finish things off, when she crawled to her feet slowly.  Her face was already healing, which was impressive, but her eyes shone  with terror at the overwhelming force I'd subjected her to. Rampage was a  heavy hitter, even without sunlight. She was probably used to  manhandling everyone who didn't have an S on their chest. I was a  complete unknown, and I had FUCKED her up. As I approached she threw  both hands up in surrender. "Wait! Please. I'm sorry. I... I didn't know  they were yours. I don't know whats going on at all. Things are  confusing. I didn't mean to interfere with your plans."

I  stopped. I...had kind of fucked up. I forgot supervillains weren't  nobles. Killing a random G ranker wouldn't be a big thing back in  Gemworld, but offing a supervillain might cause problems in Gotham. Then  again, a noble would have probably sworn vengeance on me or something,  they were arrogant pricks like that. Even they could be left alive in  certain situations though. I was pretty sure Rampage needed a literal  kryptonian to suck on to reach that level of power. Kryptonians were all  about sunshine. Chances were without one around she would be  manageable.

It would also establish me as willing to let  villains live, which could bring some to my side later. Figuring I could  at least run fast enough to lose her until she shifted back if it came  to a real problem I decided to back down. She couldn't recognize me in  this mask anyway. "Alright. Get lost." She stood and turned, scrambling  away and giving me a nice view of an admittedly pleasant giant orange  ass. Huh. At least she was decent eye candy from the back. Time to move  on. I had  to find my next target. Hopefully someone with some territory  to grab.