Greed God chapter 67

January 23rd 2016 Pythia Solutions 2:00 PM EDT

Kara  looked shocked that we knew each other. She and Barbie were apparently  friends, and judging by the age gap I was kind of figuring they met  through the League. Which meant this girl was probably a Leaguer. Tiny,  blonde, and with a tight little ass, maybe Star Girl? She wasn't buff  enough to be Wonder Girl. I'd done some research on heroes after I got  Barbie to spill on some of the League, and I knew most of the big name  actives. With an internal shrug I used appraisal on her, finally just  giving up.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure  detected. Kara Kent- A rank Kryptonian. The teenage cousin of Superman,  Kara fights crime on a regular basis as the teen heroine Supergirl. An  outsider due to growing up on another planet and in another culture.  Kara does her best to fit in and assimilate with her new planet mates,  but still struggles with Earth social norms despite being a gregarious  and social girl at heart.]

I have never in my  life been as happy to have perfect bodily control as I was right this  instant. I immediately locked down my heart rate, pupil dilation, sweat  glands, and every other outward sign of the massive panic attack I was  in the middle of right now. Kryptonian. She was Kryptonian. An A ranker.  I hadn't ever seen an A ranked item before but I was guessing if any  being would be A rank it would a Kryptonian.

That was  besides the point though. This girl was DANGEROUS. She could listen in  on anything I said, focus on me from across the planet and learn all the  secrets I kept. Granted the mask would prevent any bleed over from  Mammon at least. But I made the immediate and completely rational  decision NOT TO FUCKING MESS WITH HER. As amazing as all those points  would be I didn't want this girl any more involved in my fucking life  than she had to be. I was sweating bullets at the thought of her  deciding I was interesting enough to listen in on regularly.

Barbie  smile and stepped forward to hug her. "Kara! Hey how are you? What are  you doing here? How do you know Nicky? It's a small world, to think my  boyfriend would know a close family friend of mine. Though I suppose I  interested him to Zee and Rocky and the rest of our group, so it only  makes sense to complete the set." Her voice was steady and casual, but I  appreciated her attempt to warn me that Kara was a Leaguer.

A  Leaguer who was currently looking me over skeptically. "He's your  boyfriend huh? Because he was definitely hitting on me when he first met  me. I'm not sure he's very trustworthy." She was frowning at me, which I  imagined was a lot like having an atomic bomb decide it had a problem  with you. She didn't mention Cherry calling me daddy, which I assumed  was because she didn't need to given she had first hand knowledge of my  'infidelity'.

Barbie looked embarrassed, cheeks flushing  as she gave me a bit of side eye. "Oh. I mean, yeah, that's not a huge  deal. We have kind of an open relationship. He's free to talk to other  girls, and I certainly can't blame him for noticing how pretty you are."  Once again an attempt to deescalate, but I noted the obvious tone  implying she DID in fact, blame me, and that it would be going on my  list of sins to work off to get back in her good books, beyond the  exorbitant charitable donation she made me give just to prove I would.

Kara's  eyes widened but she smiled happily. "Oh! That's ok then. I remember  that kind of thing was much more common back on...back home. I  definitely don't judge. I didn't really take you for the sharing type  Barbara, especially after the whole thing with Zee and Dick. I think  it's really nice you're learning to trust more and be more open with  intimacy." She bit her lip. "Though I suppose going from not being able  to share your boyfriend with a friend even platonically to sharing him  with EVERYBODY romantically might be a bit of an over correction." She  shrugged. "Well as long as you're happy."

I blinked in  awe. Kara was...a fucking verbal sledgehammer. That must have been what  the appraisal meant by 'has trouble with social norms' I mean I was  still going to avoid her like the plague, but the shade of purple  Barbie's face was turning as she tried to hide how much she didn't want  to have this conversation was fucking mindnumbingly hilarious. I  couldn't hold back a laugh. "I see your value now." Kara's big blue eyes  went wide with enthusiasm as she clapped her hands in excitement.

Her  voice was full of glee at being in on the joke. "Oh! I got that  reference! I love that show!" I had to admit she was sweet. Like a big  terrifying puppy. Sadly in this analogy she was a drug dog and I was a  meth dealer, so I could only give her a polite smile and a nod. I  stepped away from her, using body language to convey that I had noticed  Barbie's discomfort and was trying to get myself out of the doghouse.  Kara wilted a bit, but her chipper attitude came back full force as she  turned to Barbie. "Anyway I was just here to pick up my pay. Nick had me  doing word of mouth advertising for his store."

I went  and got the money and passed it to Kara with a smile. "Thanks for all  your hard work, but we've been working with Galaxy Media and the deal  has kind of just gone through. I think we're good for advertising, but  I'll give you a call if I need a hard worker ok?" I gave her a polite  smile and tried not to wince a little at the hurt in her eyes. Even I  didn't like kicking puppies. Still, I didn't stop her as she put on a  forced smile and said goodbye, giving me a sad but understanding nod.

Once  Kara left, Barbie looked at me for a minute before taking out her  phone. She tapped out a text and sent it. I smiled at that. It was  clever. No buttons on the phone so even if Kara heard it she would just  hear fingers on a phone screen. The message popped up on my screen  within seconds. "Kara can hear us, don't say anything you wouldn't want  her to know." I looked back out the door and then nodded, smiling at  her. She was looking out for me even though she was still pissed. That  was just like her.

I  texted her a response. "Got it, sorry we had to send her away, but  there are a lot of things I'd rather some random superheroine not know.  Once you told me she was from the League I decided better safe than  sorry." She frowned but nodded. We were still technically running a  secret independent investigation from the League, but I was also pretty  sure she had put together some pieces based on my behavior and  knew...something...was off with me. She didn't know about Mammon since  the mask sealed that secret, but she knew I wasn't exactly what I'd  claimed to be.

The  issue was that we were in a deadlock here. I had no clue how to tell  Barbie what was going on for real. She was a superhero, and despite  seemingly being willing to bend a bit for my sake she wasn't someone who  would support the way I did things. I didn't feel like being hamstrung  in how I did business by having a member of the Bat family looking over  my shoulder, even one I ostensibly controlled. She would influence me,  and that wasn't something I planned to allow. Not the way things were.

I  spent the next hour showing her the store, making sure to keep things  vague and normal when I talked about the products and how things worked,  just in case Kara was listening in. I bound Waylon and Cherry to  silence temporarily, texting them before releasing the order so they  could talk once they knew the score. Waylon got a bit twitchy when he  heard, clearly worried what a Kryptonian could do to him.

Once that was finished I told Barbie to send that info to the planet  for tomorrow and said goodbye. She left and I made some preparations  before the news hit. I bribed a few other employees in the department to  either support me or turn down a promotion and went out of my way to  make sure I would be the only viable choice for my head of my  department. Once I got kicked up to the next level I'd wait a bit and  focus on my work as Mammon while things died down before I hit my next  target.

One  at a time all the way up to the top until I had control of Galaxy. Once  my preparations were made I collected my people and headed home,  confident that my Palace's prison defenses would keep eavesdroppers from  picking anything up. I arranged for Cherry and Bonebreaker to take  Dinah shopping for baby supplies to get her out of the house and then  assembled my most trusted subordinates. Waylon and Whisper were the ones  I trusted most out of my whole crew, so they were the ones I consulted  about my most recent plan.

I  looked between the two of them. "With the introduction of Supergirl at  the shop, even if we probably chased her off for now, it's become clear  that the power levels of people we might meet are much too random for me  to stay at G rank. I need to push up to F, which means merging myself  with something, or a mutagen. So Whisper, I want your opinion on the  merging. I've already been exposed to a mutagen, but having your views  on how yours has effected you would be helpful too Waylon."

Whisper  brightened. "Of course my lord!" She bit her lip, thinking over her  experiences and trying to give me a fair assessment. "Well the extra  strength is wonderful of course, but I think my favorite aspect of the  merge was the abilities. I would suggest using something with impressive  skills you could integrate into your fighting style. I also suggest  being careful about the nature of whatever creature you utilize. I find  myself preening more, and generally more vain. The feathered serpent is  an arrogant creature, and some of that has come through in my nature."

I  nodded at that, she made sense. I hadn't considered that the instincts  of the creatures would have more of an effect than just cementing their  loyalty, but it was reasonable. I was just lucky I was already peak G  rank. Another G rank monster merged in should be enough to boost me to  F, rather than using something overpowered and averaging the ranks. It  still cost me ten thousand points of course, because I paid for the  final rank, not the ingredients, but at the very least I wouldn't have  to make something E ranked and burn a hundred thousand GP.

Waylon  gave me a brief summary of his experience as a mutate, and I mulled  that over as well. Between the two though, I'd already tried one, and  I'd seen enough merges with animals to be pretty sure I would be ok as  long as I was careful. I needed to get stronger ASAP, so I knew what I  wanted to do. I was going to merge myself with an animal.  I nodded  solemnly as I turned to Whisper, handing her my card. "Alright, I have a  few things I need. Buy them wherever you have to, but make sure to get  me everything. This is going to be important." I wrote her out a list  and she left. Meanwhile I began to prepare. I was about to reach the  next rank, and I already had a pretty decent plan for how.