Greed God chapter 38

January 10th 2016 Gotham City 1:00 AM EDT

Killer  Croc, as almost everyone knew, liked to hang out in the sewer. Sadly,  in a city like Gotham, which was half metaphorical and half literal  sewer, it didn't narrow things down. Luckily my little viper still had  her contacts with the Religion and they had more than a few people down  there. It took her no time at all to find Croc, though unfortunately,  knowing where he was didn't exactly guarantee the same for me.

Even  with things narrowed down, sewers were a pain in the ass to navigate.  Especially since I'd stopped on the way to pick some things up from the  store. I was pretty sure I had some combination that could suppress  snake features. Scar remover, snake bite treatment, clear skin cream,  and some descaler for a keurig, all J rank. I had also snagged some I  rank concealer from a department store for about four hundred dollars.  Combining all the J rank items together with that and then the result  with the Kobra Venom got me what I needed.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. The Serpent Beneath- H rank. The  serpent is a stealthy creature. Suppresses physical manifestations of  serpentine traits, allowing the user to shift from an apparently human  form to a serpentine hybrid for an explosive growth in strength. Grants  limited physical enhancement in the human shape, but greatly enhances  serpentine might. Best used on serpentine or draconic races.]

Either  I was getting better at this whole artifact creation gig, or my merges  followed some kind of underlying directive to drift towards what I was  aiming at. I was guessing it was a bit of both, but either way this was  fucking perfect. It also solved a problem for me. I'd considered merging  Croc with a human or something to fix him, but it would have stripped  his power, which I absolutely didn't want. Plus no telling if he would  accept the Brand on my word alone.

By  doing it this way I could make the Brand conditional on receiving the  formula, and I could use serpents to enhance his bestial side without  compromising the humanity I promised him to start with because of the  shapeshifting. It was a win win for me, because it meant I could do more  drastic alterations to his serpentine appearance without worrying about  him being unable to pass as human.

I  pocketed the H rank serum, the creation of which would have left me  with twenty five hundred points. I'd burned most of my windfall from  Whispers stash on making the training weapons and this cure for Croc. Of  course, that was ignoring the biggest score I'd ever had in terms of  points from Dinah. Having powers, being H rank, and being an official  higher up member of the Justice League meant no modifiers detracting  from her point value when I got paid for her, and I sure as shit got  PAID.

[  Congratulations host! H rank member of A rank Superhero team the  Justice League stolen. Averaging point value, averaging difficulty.  Theft value E rank! One hundred thousand points awarded!]

A  hundred thousand. I had a hundred THOUSAND GP right now. It  was...mindblowing. I could make an E rank artifact. Or ten F ranks. It  was...intoxicating. It made me want to steal more of the League's women.  I wanted to fuck all of them. Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, Zatanna, Rocket,  and the sexy little teens on their little team too. Barbie had told me  some interesting things under that first hypnotic questioning. I  couldn't imagine the kind of points I'd get for taking all of them.

Not  just the League either. I was betting as skilled as pretty little  Cheshire was her organization was pretty impressive too. I wonder what  kind of women I could steal from them. I was salivating at the thought  of the things I could make with all that GP, hard thinking of bouncing  all those women on my cock. Milfs and teens, blondes, brunettes, and  redheads. Despite the excitement though I forced myself to calm down. I  needed to think. Going on a lust fueled rampage to slave bang the entire  female cape population was not the way to stay hidden. I needed to keep  this slow. Methodical.

It  was a testament to how freaked out I was that I might become a dad and  running into my own father that I hadn't checked this notification  before. Hell, I hasn't even known I could suppress them, but apparently  enough panic would put them off until later. I climbed out of the  towncar in full costume and headed into the storm drain nearest where  Whisper had said I could find Croc, with the formula in my pocket.

I  had my treasure sight active, since I was sure Croc was at least I  rank, probably H. I was surprised to spot more than a few things lying  in the mud that were red, and I even stopped to pick up an orange watch,  an H ranked Rolex that netted me a hundred points bringing me up to one  hundred and two thousand six hundred. Apparently some interesting stuff  ended up in the Gotham sewers. There weren't many glimmers of light  relative to the size of the place, but there were enough that I was  probably going to come through here with minions at some point to clean  it out.

Sadly  aside from the watch I didn't see any other oranges close enough to the  surface to bother with, and I didn't have to go muck diving anyway,  even if the raiment's shield kept the filth off me. However it did serve  it's purpose. In the distance I could see glowing shapes at ground  level. Human shapes. One of which WAS orange, and also fucking huge,  which I was pretty positive was the man I was searching for. I turned to  follow the path in his direction and gloated internally about my broken  ass artifacts.

Sadly  that particular internal gloating turned out to be a bit hasty. Turns  out sewers are confusing, and being able to see where your target is in a  straight line isn't actually that helpful in navigating winding ass  tunnels. I hit like five dead ends on the way to the chamber Croc was  in, and I actually fell through the floor of one of them. Thank the gods  for the raiment, because the thought of being covered in sewer muck was  nauseating. The full body force field was doing it's work well.

Finally  I came to the chamber I'd seen from a distance. It was...creepy. The  room was dark, obviously, though with my senses even the small amount of  moonlight flooding in through the grate in the ceiling was plenty of  light. In the center was an island of cement, surrounded by sewer water,  with a single concrete path leading off it to the only exit. There was a  huge fan set into a metal recession in the wall of the chamber across  from the path out, and it acted as a backdrop to Croc's mammoth form.

I  was tall. Six foot three was big by American standards, since the  average was five nine. I also had broad shoulders and I was fucking  shredded especially after taking the Blood. However, compared to Croc I  might as well have been four feet tall. He was absolutely gigantic.  Eight and a half feet if he was an inch and probably almost as wide at  the shoulders as I was tall, he was taller than me even sitting down as  he was on the crate in the center of the island. He had a towel over his  head for some reason, his face angled down as he seemed to do his best  to block out the world.

Despite  that he easily heard me approach, and when I came close enough his  booming voice echoed through the chamber. "I don't know who you are, but  coming down here won't get you whatever you're after." He raised his  head, yellow eyes fixed one me as he bared razor sharp teeth in a snarl.  "A cape. You're new. Since it's your first time meeting me I'll do you  the favor of pretending you wandered in her by accident, so why don't  you buzz off before I rip your limbs off and shove them back in their  sockets in the wrong order."

That...was  actually kind of intimidating given his size. My shield was fucking  powerful, put it wasn't infinite. Enough wailing on it could bring it  down for a bit I was pretty sure, and I was also pretty positive Croc  could manage it. Still, I played it cool. I just shrugged. "Well, I was  going to give you the ability to take human form at will, but sure, if  you don't want to be bothered I can go." I smirked under my mask,  turning to leave.

Croc  came to his feet so fast I literally felt a burst of wind from the  displaced air. "Wait!" I paused. His voice was still gruff and angry.  "You say you can fix me. People have said it before. They have me do  what they want and then stab me in the back. Why should I believe you're  on the up and up when no one else has been? How do I know you aren't  stringing me along?" His voice was suspicious, but there were  undercurrents there. Undercurrents of hope. Of desperation. Perfect.

I  turned back to him and held up the vial. "Because unlike them, I'm  willing to pay up front. That's the bait. The hook is this. Taking the  cure is contingent upon you swearing your loyalty. If you take this and  it works, you'll officially enter my service. That's a one way trip.  You'll be one of mine, and I have ways to make you obey at that point if  I want you to do something. You'd essentially be signing yourself up as  a permanent minion. If it works. If it doesn't, then you owe me  nothing, but then, whose to say this vial is what I say it is. The  question is, do you think it's worth the risk?"

This  was a new tactic I'd decided to employ. Link the oath of loyalty to an  action. Doing this thing means you agree to serve me. I could see him  hesitate, signing away your future was a big ask. I saw him consider  dashing at me to take the vial, but even he wasn't fast enough to cross  the whole room in time to be sure I wouldn't bust it or throw it into  the muck. Then I saw him contemplate his life. I could see pain on his  reptilian features, see anger and shame, and then resignation.

He'd  weighed the options, and realized he had nothing to lose. Better to  serve in heaven than reign in hell. He gave a single, sharp nod. I  grinned and tossed him the vial underhand. He reached out and snatched  it from the air in a single fluid motion. "I just down it?" I nodded and  he sighed. "If this works, I'll work for you. I'll owe you that much.  If it doesn't..." His eyes narrowed and I nodded again. He popped the  latch holding the cork down and the vial popped open, then in one long  pull he swallowed it down.

He  stood there for a second, unchanged, before he started to twitch, then  jerk, then spasm. I had forgotten to mention the pain, but it was fine.  He wouldn't have cared. He hunched over and his body started to change.  The scales got thicker, spikes tore out from his spine and head, his  claws lengthened. As expected his serpentine form became even stronger,  shooting up to ten feet tall under the augmentation of the formula. He  looked down at himself in horror then up at me in rage. I rolled my  eyes. "I told you you could switch back and forth idiot. Concentrate on  returning to human form."

He  growled at me but nodded as he closed his eyes and focused. Even as it  had grown his body began to shrink. He got shorter and less bulky, but  it didn't stop at his original form. He kept going, the scales and claws  fading as his skin  smoothed out. Before my eyes he shifted down into a  large man. Seven feet tall, no hair, and dark skin. Croc opened his  eyes and looked down at himself in awe and happiness. He grinned up at  me, and I grinned back as I saw the orange snake symbol searing itself  into his right pec. Minion accomplished.