Greed God chapter 32

January 9th 2016 Gotham City 10:00 AM EDT

I  had a LOT of sex with Whisper for the rest of that night. Enough that  even I was slightly tired after. Her body was G rank now and seemed to  be able to keep pace with mine. My mutagen was on the edge of F rank  sure, but it was just a mutagen, Whisper was an actual G rank being. She  was fast as shit, incredibly flexible and her scales were generally  pretty absorbent despite only visually seeming like a tracery. Now that I  had a guard though, I decided I was going to take a look around as  Mammon to try to figure out who was taking these kids.

I'd  been practicing the katas Barbie taught me, and they really did help an  insane amount in teaching my body how to move. I wasn't exactly a  perfect warrior yet, because translating forms to actual combat was more  complicated than you would think, but I was pretty tough and with my  mask and Kingly Raiment and my new beautiful servant I should be more  than up to a look around.

Speaking  of Whisper I had become...much more attached to her. I wasn't sure if  it was the merge making her more completely mine or if being more  treasure like made me want her more, but I could barely keep my hands  off her. Her mouth, her ass, her cunt, I was obsessed with being in and  on her. Which was why I stopped. I didn't do obsession. I'd ass fuck  that fat jiggly chunk of heaven later as a celebration when we found  something, but I was the only thing that controlled me. Not the system  and not my cock.

Luckily  Whisper was obedient as hell, so even though she wanted more fucking  (Whisper seemed to pretty much ALWAYS want me inside her, not that I was  complaining) she got up and got dressed to go investigate like a good  girl. She smiled happily at me after I got ready. "You look so handsome  in your costume my lord. So regal and overbearing." She ran her hands  over my lapels.

I  caught her wrists with a chuckle. "Down girl, we have work to do. I can  make you some armor later if you want, but I'm a little low on power  right now." I was at a few thousand points at present, so I couldn't  really do much for her in terms of gear without depleting all my  reserves, which I absolutely did not want to do. Luckily she didn't seem  to mind and she had her natural defenses now. We headed down to the  garage and grabbed a car, a towncar as usual, and I took the plates off  before we pulled out.

We  were headed for Gotham, where, fun fact, traffic cops absolutely will  not pull you over if you're wearing anything that looks like a superhero  costume. As we drove I turned to Whisper. "So. I'm looking for a group  of traffickers grabbing homeless teens. I may or may not have blamed  them for some stuff, and if I catch them and kill or capture them before  anyone else gets there it means no one can disprove my story. I figure  your old cult probably ran afoul of them since you seem to run in  similar circles, so any ideas?"

She  pursed her lips in thought. "Maybe. We have had reports of a few of our  prospects vanishing around the East End. If you're looking for people  getting grabbed that's your best bet, though there's a pretty good  chance if we do see something like that it might be a completely  different group. That isn't a great part of town." I turned east. I  wasn't sure what I was hoping to find but with my extremely boosted  brain power I was sure I could come across something useful. Not to  mention I had a new secret weapon.

I'd  noticed when I was checking out Whisper that I could use appraise on  people. It gave me important details about their value and even some  insight into them as a person. Whisper was basically obsessed with me so  my name showed up in her appraisal, but it did use my name, so clearly  there was some serious info to be gleaned. I imagined there would be  some people who I couldn't use it on somewhere, but until I met them I  was going to milk the ability for all it was worth.

My  other huge advantage was the Plutonic Veil. The mask could find secrets  and treasures, and I was betting I could use that to find people who  would be of value to the kidnappers for whatever reason. Finally we  pulled up outside an old abandoned theater and climbed out of the car.  We drew some looks, but nothing crazy, mask or not I was hardly the most  unusual thing most of these people had seen here. I activated the Veil,  and the world shifted into a spectrum of colors. The colors were the  same as before, rainbow hues down the spectrum of rank.

I  pushed past that though, focusing on the word treasure, mentally  shifting into a different gear so I could view the factors that made  someone valuable to these people. It sucked, and I felt the mask heat  up, it wasn't really meant for this kind of thing, but it was within its  purview even if it was pushing things. The colors changed, though not  much. Most of these people hadn't had a glow and they didn't anymore  either. There were still a few reds interspersed throughout the crowd  but oddly some of the people I remembered being reds before weren't  anymore and some of the people with no glow were now.

This  was...useless to me. I couldn't just assume that these people would get  grabbed, if they were more valuable, maybe some greens or something, I  might follow them and catch the kidnappers in the act, but these were  targets of opportunity, and the chances of running into the kidnappers  here was pretty slim. So I decided to go the other way. I had seen some  reds that became inert when I switched the parameters on the mask, which  meant those were valuable people the kidnappers DIDN'T want. Maybe by  finding out why I could guess their actual purpose. I started appraising  them all, mostly people with martial arts training or military  backgrounds, a cop or two, and all older, but I found one person who  was...interesting.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected.  Jade Nguyen -I rank. An elite operative trained since young by the  League of Shadows, Jade is a skilled mistress of espionage,  assassination, and seduction. Using the field name Cheshire, Jade was  one of the organization's top field operatives until the birth of her  child forced her into retirement. Currently searching for information.]

I  blinked at that. First of all, holy shit appraisal was invasive. Like,  seriously, some of that was super personal. Not that I was complaining.  Still, I was officially intrigued. Was she looking for the same people  we were? It said searching for information so apparently the ability had  limits. I decided to follow her, see where she went and what she was  looking for. Worst case I got to spend an hour or two staring at her  tight little ass, which looked pretty good for a recent mother. I nodded  to Whisper and we started casually strolling after her.

Jade  was...impressive. Normal people wouldn't have been able to pick up on  it, but as someone with absolutely bonkers senses the complete lack of  sound she made when she walked and the way she all but eliminated her  presence was a hell of a trick. She was clearly incredibly well trained,  I'd never heard of the League of Shadows but they must be pretty  skilled to pump out someone at her level. Even I almost lost track of  her a few times. I let the mask slip back into it's normal treasure  detection mode and that made keeping up easier. The number of reds were  pretty low overall and she was bright.

We  trailed her for about ten minutes. She stopped and talked to a few  people. Used a payphone to make a call where she said very little of  actual substance and then turned down an alley at the end of the street  we were on. We moved as quietly as possible, turning into the ally  ourselves to find...nothing. I exhaled in annoyance. "Whisper, block the  exit." Whisper's wings unfurled, and she darted down the alley to land  gracefully in front of the mouth of it. I glanced around with the mask,  spotting the red outline crouched behind a dumpster. "I can see you over  there, you might as well come out."

The  form stood, stepping out of the shadows. Jade was dressed in a green  canvas jacket and tight black pants. She had her rather voluminous hair  shoved through the back of a baseball cap in a ponytail. She was pretty.  Aristocratic asian features, with nice plump lips and intense eyes. She  raised an eyebrow. "You really want to do this? I don't know you, but  I'm not someone to mess with. Whatever you were following me for, is it  really worth the possible damage I could do to you? If you were anyone  important I'd know you. Like I know her." She nodded to my redhead.

I  smiled under my mask. "Ah, I see. You think that because I'm new on the  scene I'm not a threat. I'm guessing you underestimate my Whisper just  like everyone else. Sadly for you, my little viper has come into her own  under my care." I decided to play up the stereotypical villain bit,  besides I'd just finished work on Whisper and I wanted to show her off a  bit. "Whisper, why don't you show the lovely Miss. Nguyen what kind of  things I can offer those under my employ."

Whisper  opened her mouth, turned her head, and spewed out a torrent of  crystalline, shimmering, prismatic fire. The glass like flames hit a  nearby trashcan and the thing went up like a bonfire. Holy shit, that  looked so fucking cool. I shifted my eyes to Cheshire to take in her  reaction and sure enough she'd frozen, here face impassive but her pulse  having picked up and her pupils dilating. She had a good poker face,  but I was a hell of a cold reader these days. She swallowed. "Well. I  suppose I have some time to talk. What did you want to ask about? Or is  this a fetish. I could almost feel your eyes glued to my ass as you  followed me."

I  chuckled. "Well it's quite an ass, and I wouldn't say no to a bit of  fun with a woman like you, but no. I have another purpose. I'm here  looking for information on a group of kidnappers. They've been taking  teens from all over the country, and they've begun to impact my  operations. I wish to know who my enemy is so I might teach them a  lesson." I actually had considered recruiting Jade, but this didn't seem  like the proper place. Whisper's change had planted a seed in the girl,  and I could tell she wanted to know more. I'd let her come to me. For  now I needed to focus on the mission.

Her  eyes actually widened this time. "Holy shit, you're after THEM?" She  burst into giggles. "Honey, you're a scary guy. The image is very  imposing, and your little dragon slut is definitely going to peak some  people's interest, but that's way out of your league." She shook her  head, clearly about to tell me to go fuck myself, but she stopped as she  seemed to get an idea.

"That  said...it's not impossible for me to help you. But it's going to have to  be a trade. You get me some information I need and I'll give you a  location for their next grab in town. I'm not giving you a name, you can  figure it out yourself, but I can give you a lead." I was intrigued so I  gestured for her to continue. She grinned. "I do love a man who knows  how to play ball. You're lucky I'm desperate at this point. If I wasn't  running out of options I'd have never made this offer. So, if you want  my help I want you to help me find someone. A man named Roy Harper."