“Wait, what? How did he get captured??” I incredulously looked at Kara, who shrugged as a response.
“Seems like they used some kind of gas to knock him out.”
“Does your cousin not know how to hold his breath?” I wanted to facepalm, but I was already running my fingers through her hair, pushing the strands that were sticking to her forehead behind her ear.
“Don’t ask me…” She said as she closed her eyes and nuzzled into my chest. The blanket was only covering half her body with her leg sticking out over my waist and her back bare. I traced her back muscles with my finger.
I had the perfect view with my head supported by the pillow against the headboard of the bed. After all this time, I still couldn’t help myself but marvel at her body. She was lean and had some muscles on her. Her body was firm but still soft to touch and the curves, especially her thighs, and ass...goddamn...
Her breathing was smooth, and I almost thought that she had fallen asleep if she hadn’t spoken up in the next moment. “Do you want to go on patrol tonight?”
The sun was just about to set. She had come over just after school, so we had enough nighttime to go out if we wanted to. “Nah, that family downtown is taking care of most criminals nowadays. They are close to the spots with the highest crime incidents in the city, so there wouldn’t be much to do, anyway.”
She frowned and pushed her upper body up to look at me at eye level. It was a wonderful sight, especially since her breasts were perfectly on display, showing off their enticing full shape.
“Don’t tell me you are working with that Gambino crime family.”
“I am not working with them.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as if I would have anything to do with the mafia…, at least not on the turf I was a hero on.
She looked at me for a moment before her eyes widened in realization, “Oh- OHHHhh” She almost screamed out before she continued whispering, “my god. They are working for you!”
“Pffft. Really?” It wasn’t anything like that, though I had a deal with the mafia, well, with the entire underworld of Portland. I probably only managed to enforce some of my plans because Portland’s criminals weren’t that hardcore like Gotham’s, but with time, I would make sure they would be even more formidable.
Well, by then they wouldn’t really be considered criminals, but that would be only in the eyes of the other criminals in other states... whatever.
“And what would you do if they did? Maybe I did pull a few strings and now the entire underworld is working for me while I pretended to bring them in for the citizens. With that knowledge, would you want to bring me in?”
I said as seriously as I could. I had nothing to worry about here in Portland, as I didn’t connect to the Westmob in Francisco since I started living here, well, except for the occasional phone call.
My thumb brushed over her glistening lower lip before I looked up at her blue eyes that seemed to pierce into me. She narrowed them as we locked eyes. “No.” She finally said, but it didn’t break the tension that her stare maintained.
I wanted to joke around a bit, but it seemed like she took it more seriously than I thought she would. However, I couldn’t bring myself to turn this conversation into ridicule and playfully let the conversation end. It was the perfect moment to gauge her reaction, though I could already imagine what she would do.
She crawled up until we were face to face. Her nose was just touching mine as she looked at me. I could see how her eyes shifted between my eyes as she remained silent. With one hand, she was caressing the sides of my face before she gave me a chaste kiss.
She then trailed my jawline with kisses before she buried her face into the side of my neck as she started hugging me tightly.
Very early in our relationship, I had noticed that her love language, the way she conveyed her love for me, was with physical touch. Hugs, cuddling, kisses, sex, or something as lewd as hand-holding.
Maybe it was her natural love language, or it was influenced by me since it was My love language. Either way, I enjoyed how easy it was for us to connect and communicate. It had always been a major headache with my exes, especially since I knew nothing about love language and thought everyone conveyed it the same.
In the past, after a fight my then-girlfriend always did some chores, made me a meal, or bought me something in a way to convey that she still loved me, which I didn’t really pick up on, while she thought that I only wanted to have sex when I tried to cuddle with her.
So, being able to convey it, in the same way, prevented major misunderstandings.
I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent as we just half laid, half sat there. In the end, she broke the silence with a whisper into my ear, “I know you are a good person. I trust you. So, tell me everything when you are ready…”
With closed eyes, she then pressed her forehead against mine. She seemed to have said her piece, but I couldn’t help but follow up with a question, “… How?”
I could feel her smile at the question. She only needed to whisper, “Superhearing” and I knew she must have known for a while now.
I wasn’t too versed in Krypton physiology, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she could hear my voice through the ground and the roaring of the gravity chamber. Hell, I knew I could pick up on it if I concentrated on it.
If I was being honest with myself, I probably did it on purpose. To have these calls when I knew she would be coming over soon was only waiting for her to pick up on something. Maybe I subconsciously wanted her to know, and now she revealed that she didn’t mind.
Though she couldn’t have picked up much with me speaking in codes, it would be easy for her to deduce that I was dealing with something shadier than I had already revealed to her. I had already told her I was dealing with stolen and forbidden materials to build my gravity chamber, so she ought to know that it would be something beyond that.
Maybe if I revealed everything at once, she would have a different reaction, especially with the mind rape I put some mobs through. With the killing, she would probably be fine. She wasn’t like her cousin in that regard, which had been an eye-opening conversation.
“Would you leave everything on this planet behind for me?”
“Yes.” She said without hesitation. “Now fuck me.” She pleaded as she crawled backward to present her entire body to me. Sometimes I wished she would ride me or suffocate me between her legs, but she was too embarrassed and didn’t like to take control.
Someday I will convince her to do so, but even if I couldn’t I would never tire of this.
My eyes wandered down to the glistening green crystal that reflected the light from her butt. She didn’t want to spill my liquids on the bed, which was why she used a butt plug.
Just as I lined up, Kara suddenly frowned before sighing out in annoyance. She drank in the sight of me above her and bit her lip before she tapped my chest and then pointed downwards. “Your phone is ringing.”
“They can wait.”
“That’s their third call in the last 5 minutes. Seems important.”
“... This won’t take long. Wait for me!” I hesitated but, in the end, I gave her a kiss before I left the bed, got dressed, and made my way down to my chamber.
I picked up the phone and almost growled inside. “What?”
“Iiieek- ... S-sir. W-we need your help.”
…
Great, now I have to fly all over there without attracting attention to deal with some hero that thought it was a good idea to put the rather benevolent crime lords behind bars. I didn’t think that I would have to step into Francisco as Hakai this often, but I couldn’t let them destroy everything.
Although I had visited San Francisco before to keep Intergang out of the city, I didn’t think I would have to beat away the vigilante newcomers.
This was the second visit I had to make because of some meddling vigilante, but it wasn’t that surprising either. After every major appearance of heroes, there would be some who were inspired by them and wanted to do the same.
Since it was DC, most of them were tougher than the average joe, however, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t end dead in a ditch. San Francisco was rather safe now that the kingpins had been established, but there were always people that were dissatisfied with something.
So, although I didn’t expect a lot of heroes to pop up in this city, I wasn’t surprised either. They could be counted lucky since I and the gangs I controlled had the policy to only break their bones. If it was any other city besides Portland, more would have ended up dead.
Considering the fact that San Francisco could be regarded as safe, every upcoming hero was, how should I put this?… They were soft. So, usually, after they had been beaten up, they would let go of their idea of being a hero. Few were tough enough to endure the pain of being thrashed.
Now that I was called upon meant that the gang couldn’t handle them. The gangs here, Westmob in particular, had some powerful people in their ranks, ranging from specialists to high-end martial artists. They would be enough to deal with most people, even meta-humans, to some degree.
That being said, I wasn’t too worried this newcomer would be hard to deal with. The gang consists almost entirely out of normal humans, skillful humans, but human nonetheless. Additionally, the things he had conveyed over the phone meant it would be a brief trip for me.
Besides, it was time that I asked for the details about the circuits for my androids that went missing in Jump city.
Hopefully, they ended up with the police, then it wouldn’t be difficult to get them. If the heroes in Jump City kept them, I might have to give up on them and reorder them in the future.
Might cost me a buck but would be better than dealing with some hero team that I would have to spot first to figure out where they held my items. Honestly, that would be too much trouble for something that I could just throw money at.
Currently, I wasn’t too concerned over the Anti-Gravity-Androids since I had several training partners to choose from, which was also why I hadn’t been going after my stolen goods for the last few months. Not to mention that I still hadn’t all the parts to complete the androids, anyway.
On another note, in the future, I would need a meta-human in my gangs to keep the fort. Can’t come over because of some low-tier meta-human running amok. I could just ignore their calls as well. If it was only to the degree it was now, they could keep the vigilantes at bay almost indefinitely with only financial loss.
However, in the off event, they managed to best the gangs in this city, it would only throw the underworld in disarray. Although I controlled the major gangs, there were always small ambitious gangs that only waited for their opportunity to come, not to mention bigger gangs from different cities like Intergang.
The resulting tumult a fall of a giant would cause meant that many would have to suffer for it. So, it wasn’t only I that would experience some loss from their interference, but the entire city. It could be said that I had to save the city from these heroes.
I landed in some deserted warehouse, which, honestly, there were just too many all over the country.
My mind was already wrapped around a layer of protection that would make anything that I had put up during the invasion last week to shame. After all, I had practiced image training during most of the time with the Preserver, which was a type of telepathic training.
It would have been more effective with a training partner, but I had done without one just fine. When someone tried to enter my mind, they would be able to, but only if they defeated me in mental combat. Defeating me in image training was almost equal to defeating me in the physical world.
It was obviously better than the wall I had built up around my mind that would just take all the damage from an attacker head-on.
I shifted my mask to make sure it was in position before I jumped through the open window on the second floor. There were several high-ranking members of Westmob, and I recognized 4 out of the 6 that were gathered here.
Members come and go, especially in this kind of business, but with the 4 gangs dividing San Francisco among each other, the underworld here was fairly stable. Of course, only I knew the gangs were working together, since my control over them was still there.
One of the new ones stood up and approached me with a disdainful look on his face. “What? This freak is supposed to help us? He doesn’t look like much.”
He emphasized the Freak because, of course, he would. At least, he was well-spoken compared to his predecessor, though it seemed his thinking capacity wasn’t that great either.
“What story are we on?” I asked him with the voice modeler distorting my voice. It took him a second before he went to the window and looked outside. I wonder if he really thought there was a ladder outside. As he leaned out of the window, I pressed my hand on his shoulder and pushed him, so he was dangling outside the window. His eyes widened, frantically looking at me as he pleaded to not get dropped.
I looked at him for a second before I pulled him back inside. His pulse was high. I could hear how the adrenaline was rushing through his body. He closed the window with trembling hands and quietly went back o his seat. The others didn’t as much as glance at him.
I went to the side of the head of the Westmob gang and looked at the flimsy pictures that someone had taken in a hurry. Five pictures that revealed almost nothing from different angles.
They were all pictures of an individual who had been wrecking some of Westmob’s hideouts. He looked like he was encapsulated in what looked like sand armor.
I looked at the details they had gathered on him while the others were animatedly talking about their next move. I was looking through it and it looked like he was informed a tad bit too well. His methods were also a bit too brutal.
Either he was extremely good at information gathering and ruthless or he wasn’t a would-be hero. It felt like he was more of a hired mercenary, a member of a rival gang, or someone who was establishing his own gang by taking out another.
“So, any idea who this ‘Titan’ guy is?” I asked the group, causing them to fall silent.
“We know little. There had been no discernible pattern to his attacks, only that it didn’t matter how well the hideouts were hidden. I assume it might be an insider.”
That certainly was a possibility as well. I looked at the guy who had spoken up. Messy hair, glasses, and sickly pale skin. It was the other guy who was new. He didn’t look the type, but I knew better than to judge criminals based on their appearance. Some of the more gruesome criminals didn’t look the part.
“How well informed?”
“It has to be someone in the middle ranks or at least has a connection to someone in the middle ranks.”
Middle-ranks were responsible for several blocks in the city and managed several other people. It was a big city, so there were a lot of those around.
“I will be off then. I will take care of him.” It wasn’t hard to find him, since I already knew where he was.
{Prepare copied information about all of our missing wares for the past half-year.} I telepathically told the head of Westmob.
I could look at the losses that the gang, and in extension I, had suffered because of ‘Titan’ as well as get information about the states of the parts of my androids.
I then went to the second hideout that was being hit by the guy. I had already locked onto the unique life force around the first hideout that had been hit this night after I entered the city, so I wasn’t worried about losing him.
I arrived to some gunshots of normal pistols but also some rifles. There would be grenades and RPGs flying around if it wouldn’t attract the attention of some secret service. Meta-humans weren’t that present yet, so these weapons were a rarity and a point of concern that would attract some unpleasant people of the nation.
I suspect they would be desensitized and distracted by more powerful humans popping up in the future, but since it wasn’t now, Westmob wasn’t carrying around heavy weaponry.
A tall guy in sandy armor picked up a guy and threw him sliding across the street. He might have ended up with several broken bones if he hit the opposite house. If he landed unluckily, he might have died if I didn’t use my telekinesis to stop his momentum and safely put him on the ground.
Needless to say, he bolted, or rather limped, away the moment I let go of him, not having any will to fight against someone he could do nothing against. What a shocker.
Titan ripped open the safe of the hideout and took out the money and the documents inside. I walked up to him with my arms crossed. He didn’t seem to hear me, so I spoke up, “I believe that isn’t yours.”
He didn’t say anything, his head just snapped towards me. I couldn’t see his facial expression, but I would bet that he had a shocked one behind that sand helmet. In the end, I just couldn’t resist kicking him in the face. He practically offered himself up for it!
He crashed through the nearest wall before he was stopped by the outer brick wall of the neighboring house. I saw him dizzily shake his head before he looked at me, stepping out of the hole he had created. Unexpectedly, he didn’t try to fight me and just ran away with the bag of stolen goods in hand.
I ran after him and quickly caught up to him in no time. I dodged the right he threw out as he turned around and returned the favor with a liver shot.
The armor dampened the effects of my hits, but it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise. I weaved through his punches and countered with some shots to the body. I didn’t want to accidentally knock him out this early into our fight.
Titan had some obvious boxing experience, but that hardly mattered against me. I was a lot better than he was. I smoothly weaved beneath his punches and sidestepped his front kicks. I could hear how his breathing got labored just a few minutes into the fight and by then I already knew that he didn’t have much to offer anymore.
I redirected his punch to the side before I strongly pushed him. He flew a few meters before impacting into a trashcan, denting it in the process.
I quickly pulled him out and slammed him into the ground before I jabbed him in the face like I was the Hulkbuster pounding Hulk’s face into the ground. His head bounced against the ground before impacting against my fist again. He swung at me in a desperate attempt to make me pull away.
I caught his fist with my free hand and continued to bash his face with my fist. His armor had already cracked open at the place my fist was impacting his helmet, not to mention the ground that was crumbling away.
It had taken me a while to get through the armor, but the force I had used was already enough to knock him out if I had hit him right.
The once hard sandy armor crumbled to sand after he was unconscious. I looked at the black man, but I couldn’t tell what he looked like. All the blood made it difficult to tell his features.
Hopefully, it wasn’t a druggy with a power armor again. The sand at least seemed to be controlled by his mind, so either high-tech or meta-human. If he was a meta, it would be a fortunate find for me. After all, I had been thinking about getting someone to keep the fort for me.
...
I walked up to my driveway with a bunch of documents in hand and couldn’t help but raise my eyebrow at the life force I felt accompanying Kara.
After I stepped inside the door, I found Clark, or rather Superman, since he was wearing his suit. Kara was sitting down with a pillow on her lap.
“Oh, you are finally here. Did you already see her new outfit?? You are her boyfriend. Don't you agree she can’t go on patrol like that?!"
“... I agree. You shouldn’t go on patrol with that.” Kara wore a rather skimpy version of her Supergirl outfit. Crop top, short skirt, and knee-high boots, just how I liked it. She obviously didn’t want to wear it to patrol, but we didn’t have to talk about our sex life with him, now did we?
“So, why are you here and while we are at it, why do you know where I live?” As I asked this, I turned to Kara, who was shaking her head, indicating that she hadn’t revealed my house to him.
I looked at Superman, who at least looked embarrassed that he had been investigating me. “I wanted to invite you to a meetup with the others.”
“The others? You mean the ones that helped bust you out after being captured?” This time it was Superman’s turn to look at Kara, who just stuck her tongue out at him. Clearly, the favorable treatment could be seen by all. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Yes. I wanted to pick you up since the location is rather secret.”
“... I see. Let me put away these documents and get my armor before we head off.”
“Sure thing!” He said with a smile on his face.
“Hey, favorite cousin! Can I come with you?” Kara said as I put the documents into my safe and got my armor.
I was barely away for a minute before I returned. Kara was pouting. Superman had already gone outside and waited for me. Kara normally would have stood up by now and kissed me goodbye, but she just awkwardly waved me goodbye.
I scratched my head before I went to her and gave her a kiss. She seemed to appreciate it if her smile was anything to go by.
“See you later?” She nodded and with that, I made my way outside.
Superman flew up, and I followed him closely.
“Can you survive in space?” He asked after reaching a considerable height. I wonder what he would do if I said no.
“Opposed to some other people, I can hold my breath for a while.” My little indirect jab at how he was defeated by gas earned me a wry smile from the superhero.
Of course, there was more to breathing when it came to exiting the atmosphere, but those were comparatively trivial. At least, trivial to people like us.
I just held my breath before we exited the atmosphere. We flew for a short distance and quickly arrived at the Watchtower, the space station orbiting the earth.
I remembered it would serve as the headquarters of the Justice League, which in turn made me realize I was invited to be a member of the league and a founding member at that.
When I first saw the other members of the Justice League in the flesh just a week ago, I had already been quite excited, but this wasn’t something I had previously imagined. After all, there were many other heroes who had helped during the invasion, not as prevalent as the rest of us, but their contribution couldn’t be ignored.
Otherwise, the death rate would have been higher. Kara had been out and about as well, though she didn’t take out a factory on her own. She mostly helped get the civilians out of the danger zone while destroying the tripodal walkers and foot soldiers.
She might have tried to take a factory out herself if we hadn’t beaten her to it. The total invasion hadn’t lasted for longer than a few hours after all. Honestly, she might have done better than her cousin, who was knocked out by some gas... I didn’t know why, but that fact still pissed me off.
They probably invited me because they met me personally, as opposed to the other faceless and nameless heroes. Superman handed me a small, round black metal thingy. Maybe a remote, or transmitter of sorts?
The gate on the side of the space station opened up and revealed the hangar when we approached. We landed and walked through the hallway before Superman excused himself and went to Batman, who was typing on a console on an elevated platform.
I guess I will look around and see what this space station had to offer.
“Wait, what? How did he get captured??” I incredulously looked at Kara, who shrugged as a response.
“Seems like they used some kind of gas to knock him out.”
“Does your cousin not know how to hold his breath?” I wanted to facepalm, but I was already running my fingers through her hair, pushing the strands that were sticking to her forehead behind her ear.
“Don’t ask me…” She said as she closed her eyes and nuzzled into my chest. The blanket was only covering half her body with her leg sticking out over my waist and her back bare. I traced her back muscles with my finger.
I had the perfect view with my head supported by the pillow against the headboard of the bed. After all this time, I still couldn’t help myself but marvel at her body. She was lean and had some muscles on her. Her body was firm but still soft to touch and the curves, especially her thighs, and ass...goddamn...
Her breathing was smooth, and I almost thought that she had fallen asleep if she hadn’t spoken up in the next moment. “Do you want to go on patrol tonight?”
The sun was just about to set. She had come over just after school, so we had enough nighttime to go out if we wanted to. “Nah, that family downtown is taking care of most criminals nowadays. They are close to the spots with the highest crime incidents in the city, so there wouldn’t be much to do, anyway.”
She frowned and pushed her upper body up to look at me at eye level. It was a wonderful sight, especially since her breasts were perfectly on display, showing off their enticing full shape.
“Don’t tell me you are working with that Gambino crime family.”
“I am not working with them.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as if I would have anything to do with the mafia…, at least not on the turf I was a hero on.
She looked at me for a moment before her eyes widened in realization, “Oh- OHHHhh” She almost screamed out before she continued whispering, “my god. They are working for you!”
“Pffft. Really?” It wasn’t anything like that, though I had a deal with the mafia, well, with the entire underworld of Portland. I probably only managed to enforce some of my plans because Portland’s criminals weren’t that hardcore like Gotham’s, but with time, I would make sure they would be even more formidable.
Well, by then they wouldn’t really be considered criminals, but that would be only in the eyes of the other criminals in other states... whatever.
“And what would you do if they did? Maybe I did pull a few strings and now the entire underworld is working for me while I pretended to bring them in for the citizens. With that knowledge, would you want to bring me in?”
I said as seriously as I could. I had nothing to worry about here in Portland, as I didn’t connect to the Westmob in Francisco since I started living here, well, except for the occasional phone call.
My thumb brushed over her glistening lower lip before I looked up at her blue eyes that seemed to pierce into me. She narrowed them as we locked eyes. “No.” She finally said, but it didn’t break the tension that her stare maintained.
I wanted to joke around a bit, but it seemed like she took it more seriously than I thought she would. However, I couldn’t bring myself to turn this conversation into ridicule and playfully let the conversation end. It was the perfect moment to gauge her reaction, though I could already imagine what she would do.
She crawled up until we were face to face. Her nose was just touching mine as she looked at me. I could see how her eyes shifted between my eyes as she remained silent. With one hand, she was caressing the sides of my face before she gave me a chaste kiss.
She then trailed my jawline with kisses before she buried her face into the side of my neck as she started hugging me tightly.
Very early in our relationship, I had noticed that her love language, the way she conveyed her love for me, was with physical touch. Hugs, cuddling, kisses, sex, or something as lewd as hand-holding.
Maybe it was her natural love language, or it was influenced by me since it was My love language. Either way, I enjoyed how easy it was for us to connect and communicate. It had always been a major headache with my exes, especially since I knew nothing about love language and thought everyone conveyed it the same.
In the past, after a fight my then-girlfriend always did some chores, made me a meal, or bought me something in a way to convey that she still loved me, which I didn’t really pick up on, while she thought that I only wanted to have sex when I tried to cuddle with her.
So, being able to convey it, in the same way, prevented major misunderstandings.
I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent as we just half laid, half sat there. In the end, she broke the silence with a whisper into my ear, “I know you are a good person. I trust you. So, tell me everything when you are ready…”
With closed eyes, she then pressed her forehead against mine. She seemed to have said her piece, but I couldn’t help but follow up with a question, “… How?”
I could feel her smile at the question. She only needed to whisper, “Superhearing” and I knew she must have known for a while now.
I wasn’t too versed in Krypton physiology, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she could hear my voice through the ground and the roaring of the gravity chamber. Hell, I knew I could pick up on it if I concentrated on it.
If I was being honest with myself, I probably did it on purpose. To have these calls when I knew she would be coming over soon was only waiting for her to pick up on something. Maybe I subconsciously wanted her to know, and now she revealed that she didn’t mind.
Though she couldn’t have picked up much with me speaking in codes, it would be easy for her to deduce that I was dealing with something shadier than I had already revealed to her. I had already told her I was dealing with stolen and forbidden materials to build my gravity chamber, so she ought to know that it would be something beyond that.
Maybe if I revealed everything at once, she would have a different reaction, especially with the mind rape I put some mobs through. With the killing, she would probably be fine. She wasn’t like her cousin in that regard, which had been an eye-opening conversation.
“Would you leave everything on this planet behind for me?”
“Yes.” She said without hesitation. “Now fuck me.” She pleaded as she crawled backward to present her entire body to me. Sometimes I wished she would ride me or suffocate me between her legs, but she was too embarrassed and didn’t like to take control.
Someday I will convince her to do so, but even if I couldn’t I would never tire of this.
My eyes wandered down to the glistening green crystal that reflected the light from her butt. She didn’t want to spill my liquids on the bed, which was why she used a butt plug.
Just as I lined up, Kara suddenly frowned before sighing out in annoyance. She drank in the sight of me above her and bit her lip before she tapped my chest and then pointed downwards. “Your phone is ringing.”
“They can wait.”
“That’s their third call in the last 5 minutes. Seems important.”
“... This won’t take long. Wait for me!” I hesitated but, in the end, I gave her a kiss before I left the bed, got dressed, and made my way down to my chamber.
I picked up the phone and almost growled inside. “What?”
“Iiieek- ... S-sir. W-we need your help.”
…
Great, now I have to fly all over there without attracting attention to deal with some hero that thought it was a good idea to put the rather benevolent crime lords behind bars. I didn’t think that I would have to step into Francisco as Hakai this often, but I couldn’t let them destroy everything.
Although I had visited San Francisco before to keep Intergang out of the city, I didn’t think I would have to beat away the vigilante newcomers.
This was the second visit I had to make because of some meddling vigilante, but it wasn’t that surprising either. After every major appearance of heroes, there would be some who were inspired by them and wanted to do the same.
Since it was DC, most of them were tougher than the average joe, however, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t end dead in a ditch. San Francisco was rather safe now that the kingpins had been established, but there were always people that were dissatisfied with something.
So, although I didn’t expect a lot of heroes to pop up in this city, I wasn’t surprised either. They could be counted lucky since I and the gangs I controlled had the policy to only break their bones. If it was any other city besides Portland, more would have ended up dead.
Considering the fact that San Francisco could be regarded as safe, every upcoming hero was, how should I put this?… They were soft. So, usually, after they had been beaten up, they would let go of their idea of being a hero. Few were tough enough to endure the pain of being thrashed.
Now that I was called upon meant that the gang couldn’t handle them. The gangs here, Westmob in particular, had some powerful people in their ranks, ranging from specialists to high-end martial artists. They would be enough to deal with most people, even meta-humans, to some degree.
That being said, I wasn’t too worried this newcomer would be hard to deal with. The gang consists almost entirely out of normal humans, skillful humans, but human nonetheless. Additionally, the things he had conveyed over the phone meant it would be a brief trip for me.
Besides, it was time that I asked for the details about the circuits for my androids that went missing in Jump city.
Hopefully, they ended up with the police, then it wouldn’t be difficult to get them. If the heroes in Jump City kept them, I might have to give up on them and reorder them in the future.
Might cost me a buck but would be better than dealing with some hero team that I would have to spot first to figure out where they held my items. Honestly, that would be too much trouble for something that I could just throw money at.
Currently, I wasn’t too concerned over the Anti-Gravity-Androids since I had several training partners to choose from, which was also why I hadn’t been going after my stolen goods for the last few months. Not to mention that I still hadn’t all the parts to complete the androids, anyway.
On another note, in the future, I would need a meta-human in my gangs to keep the fort. Can’t come over because of some low-tier meta-human running amok. I could just ignore their calls as well. If it was only to the degree it was now, they could keep the vigilantes at bay almost indefinitely with only financial loss.
However, in the off event, they managed to best the gangs in this city, it would only throw the underworld in disarray. Although I controlled the major gangs, there were always small ambitious gangs that only waited for their opportunity to come, not to mention bigger gangs from different cities like Intergang.
The resulting tumult a fall of a giant would cause meant that many would have to suffer for it. So, it wasn’t only I that would experience some loss from their interference, but the entire city. It could be said that I had to save the city from these heroes.
I landed in some deserted warehouse, which, honestly, there were just too many all over the country.
My mind was already wrapped around a layer of protection that would make anything that I had put up during the invasion last week to shame. After all, I had practiced image training during most of the time with the Preserver, which was a type of telepathic training.
It would have been more effective with a training partner, but I had done without one just fine. When someone tried to enter my mind, they would be able to, but only if they defeated me in mental combat. Defeating me in image training was almost equal to defeating me in the physical world.
It was obviously better than the wall I had built up around my mind that would just take all the damage from an attacker head-on.
I shifted my mask to make sure it was in position before I jumped through the open window on the second floor. There were several high-ranking members of Westmob, and I recognized 4 out of the 6 that were gathered here.
Members come and go, especially in this kind of business, but with the 4 gangs dividing San Francisco among each other, the underworld here was fairly stable. Of course, only I knew the gangs were working together, since my control over them was still there.
One of the new ones stood up and approached me with a disdainful look on his face. “What? This freak is supposed to help us? He doesn’t look like much.”
He emphasized the Freak because, of course, he would. At least, he was well-spoken compared to his predecessor, though it seemed his thinking capacity wasn’t that great either.
“What story are we on?” I asked him with the voice modeler distorting my voice. It took him a second before he went to the window and looked outside. I wonder if he really thought there was a ladder outside. As he leaned out of the window, I pressed my hand on his shoulder and pushed him, so he was dangling outside the window. His eyes widened, frantically looking at me as he pleaded to not get dropped.
I looked at him for a second before I pulled him back inside. His pulse was high. I could hear how the adrenaline was rushing through his body. He closed the window with trembling hands and quietly went back o his seat. The others didn’t as much as glance at him.
I went to the side of the head of the Westmob gang and looked at the flimsy pictures that someone had taken in a hurry. Five pictures that revealed almost nothing from different angles.
They were all pictures of an individual who had been wrecking some of Westmob’s hideouts. He looked like he was encapsulated in what looked like sand armor.
I looked at the details they had gathered on him while the others were animatedly talking about their next move. I was looking through it and it looked like he was informed a tad bit too well. His methods were also a bit too brutal.
Either he was extremely good at information gathering and ruthless or he wasn’t a would-be hero. It felt like he was more of a hired mercenary, a member of a rival gang, or someone who was establishing his own gang by taking out another.
“So, any idea who this ‘Titan’ guy is?” I asked the group, causing them to fall silent.
“We know little. There had been no discernible pattern to his attacks, only that it didn’t matter how well the hideouts were hidden. I assume it might be an insider.”
That certainly was a possibility as well. I looked at the guy who had spoken up. Messy hair, glasses, and sickly pale skin. It was the other guy who was new. He didn’t look the type, but I knew better than to judge criminals based on their appearance. Some of the more gruesome criminals didn’t look the part.
“How well informed?”
“It has to be someone in the middle ranks or at least has a connection to someone in the middle ranks.”
Middle-ranks were responsible for several blocks in the city and managed several other people. It was a big city, so there were a lot of those around.
“I will be off then. I will take care of him.” It wasn’t hard to find him, since I already knew where he was.
{Prepare copied information about all of our missing wares for the past half-year.} I telepathically told the head of Westmob.
I could look at the losses that the gang, and in extension I, had suffered because of ‘Titan’ as well as get information about the states of the parts of my androids.
I then went to the second hideout that was being hit by the guy. I had already locked onto the unique life force around the first hideout that had been hit this night after I entered the city, so I wasn’t worried about losing him.
I arrived to some gunshots of normal pistols but also some rifles. There would be grenades and RPGs flying around if it wouldn’t attract the attention of some secret service. Meta-humans weren’t that present yet, so these weapons were a rarity and a point of concern that would attract some unpleasant people of the nation.
I suspect they would be desensitized and distracted by more powerful humans popping up in the future, but since it wasn’t now, Westmob wasn’t carrying around heavy weaponry.
A tall guy in sandy armor picked up a guy and threw him sliding across the street. He might have ended up with several broken bones if he hit the opposite house. If he landed unluckily, he might have died if I didn’t use my telekinesis to stop his momentum and safely put him on the ground.
Needless to say, he bolted, or rather limped, away the moment I let go of him, not having any will to fight against someone he could do nothing against. What a shocker.
Titan ripped open the safe of the hideout and took out the money and the documents inside. I walked up to him with my arms crossed. He didn’t seem to hear me, so I spoke up, “I believe that isn’t yours.”
He didn’t say anything, his head just snapped towards me. I couldn’t see his facial expression, but I would bet that he had a shocked one behind that sand helmet. In the end, I just couldn’t resist kicking him in the face. He practically offered himself up for it!
He crashed through the nearest wall before he was stopped by the outer brick wall of the neighboring house. I saw him dizzily shake his head before he looked at me, stepping out of the hole he had created. Unexpectedly, he didn’t try to fight me and just ran away with the bag of stolen goods in hand.
I ran after him and quickly caught up to him in no time. I dodged the right he threw out as he turned around and returned the favor with a liver shot.
The armor dampened the effects of my hits, but it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise. I weaved through his punches and countered with some shots to the body. I didn’t want to accidentally knock him out this early into our fight.
Titan had some obvious boxing experience, but that hardly mattered against me. I was a lot better than he was. I smoothly weaved beneath his punches and sidestepped his front kicks. I could hear how his breathing got labored just a few minutes into the fight and by then I already knew that he didn’t have much to offer anymore.
I redirected his punch to the side before I strongly pushed him. He flew a few meters before impacting into a trashcan, denting it in the process.
I quickly pulled him out and slammed him into the ground before I jabbed him in the face like I was the Hulkbuster pounding Hulk’s face into the ground. His head bounced against the ground before impacting against my fist again. He swung at me in a desperate attempt to make me pull away.
I caught his fist with my free hand and continued to bash his face with my fist. His armor had already cracked open at the place my fist was impacting his helmet, not to mention the ground that was crumbling away.
It had taken me a while to get through the armor, but the force I had used was already enough to knock him out if I had hit him right.
The once hard sandy armor crumbled to sand after he was unconscious. I looked at the black man, but I couldn’t tell what he looked like. All the blood made it difficult to tell his features.
Hopefully, it wasn’t a druggy with a power armor again. The sand at least seemed to be controlled by his mind, so either high-tech or meta-human. If he was a meta, it would be a fortunate find for me. After all, I had been thinking about getting someone to keep the fort for me.
...
I walked up to my driveway with a bunch of documents in hand and couldn’t help but raise my eyebrow at the life force I felt accompanying Kara.
After I stepped inside the door, I found Clark, or rather Superman, since he was wearing his suit. Kara was sitting down with a pillow on her lap.
“Oh, you are finally here. Did you already see her new outfit?? You are her boyfriend. Don't you agree she can’t go on patrol like that?!"
“... I agree. You shouldn’t go on patrol with that.” Kara wore a rather skimpy version of her Supergirl outfit. Crop top, short skirt, and knee-high boots, just how I liked it. She obviously didn’t want to wear it to patrol, but we didn’t have to talk about our sex life with him, now did we?
“So, why are you here and while we are at it, why do you know where I live?” As I asked this, I turned to Kara, who was shaking her head, indicating that she hadn’t revealed my house to him.
I looked at Superman, who at least looked embarrassed that he had been investigating me. “I wanted to invite you to a meetup with the others.”
“The others? You mean the ones that helped bust you out after being captured?” This time it was Superman’s turn to look at Kara, who just stuck her tongue out at him. Clearly, the favorable treatment could be seen by all. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Yes. I wanted to pick you up since the location is rather secret.”
“... I see. Let me put away these documents and get my armor before we head off.”
“Sure thing!” He said with a smile on his face.
“Hey, favorite cousin! Can I come with you?” Kara said as I put the documents into my safe and got my armor.
I was barely away for a minute before I returned. Kara was pouting. Superman had already gone outside and waited for me. Kara normally would have stood up by now and kissed me goodbye, but she just awkwardly waved me goodbye.
I scratched my head before I went to her and gave her a kiss. She seemed to appreciate it if her smile was anything to go by.
“See you later?” She nodded and with that, I made my way outside.
Superman flew up, and I followed him closely.
“Can you survive in space?” He asked after reaching a considerable height. I wonder what he would do if I said no.
“Opposed to some other people, I can hold my breath for a while.” My little indirect jab at how he was defeated by gas earned me a wry smile from the superhero.
Of course, there was more to breathing when it came to exiting the atmosphere, but those were comparatively trivial. At least, trivial to people like us.
I just held my breath before we exited the atmosphere. We flew for a short distance and quickly arrived at the Watchtower, the space station orbiting the earth.
I remembered it would serve as the headquarters of the Justice League, which in turn made me realize I was invited to be a member of the league and a founding member at that.
When I first saw the other members of the Justice League in the flesh just a week ago, I had already been quite excited, but this wasn’t something I had previously imagined. After all, there were many other heroes who had helped during the invasion, not as prevalent as the rest of us, but their contribution couldn’t be ignored.
Otherwise, the death rate would have been higher. Kara had been out and about as well, though she didn’t take out a factory on her own. She mostly helped get the civilians out of the danger zone while destroying the tripodal walkers and foot soldiers.
She might have tried to take a factory out herself if we hadn’t beaten her to it. The total invasion hadn’t lasted for longer than a few hours after all. Honestly, she might have done better than her cousin, who was knocked out by some gas... I didn’t know why, but that fact still pissed me off.
They probably invited me because they met me personally, as opposed to the other faceless and nameless heroes. Superman handed me a small, round black metal thingy. Maybe a remote, or transmitter of sorts?
The gate on the side of the space station opened up and revealed the hangar when we approached. We landed and walked through the hallway before Superman excused himself and went to Batman, who was typing on a console on an elevated platform.
I guess I will look around and see what this space station had to offer.
