Greed God chapter 12

January 5th 2016 The House 10:00 PM EDT

Whisper  and Ugly didn't try to keep me around too long after the fight. The guy  in the gold helmet "Guardian", did an admirable job against Atomic  Skull for a normal guy. But in the end, he was just that, a normal guy.  He was here to put butts in seats because of brand recognition, not to  take down the champ. Most cage matches had "prestige" fights like these  once in a while. Someone with a jumped up rep or a bit of a name for  themselves to get their shit kicked in and make their star fighter look  badass.

I slipped away from the  two buyers after the match, receiving the three hundred thousand and  officially jumping up to thirty three thousand points. A tidy little  nest egg that would let me crank all my people to G rank with  enhancement drugs if I so chose, but I didn't, because I only had twenty  seven vials of the stuff left. Instead I decided to hold onto the  points for now and focus on testing out this balanced version from  before. I followed Guardian out around the back of the pit, to the lower  areas of the arena, and watched him take his helmet off and hurl it  across the room.

He  had tears in his eyes. Not like streaming tears of heartbreak, but  angry tears of frustration with his situation. He punched the wall with a  grunt, then kicked it a few times, pouring out all the pent up  aggression he hadn't managed to get close enough to use on Atomic Skull.  He was angry, hurt, and lost. In short, he was perfect. I grinned to  myself in the shadows, before wiping the smile off my face and stepping  out into the dim light of the service area we were in. "Hey man, are you  alright?"

He  jumped, whirling around to glare at me, but I just put my hands up and  tried to look harmless. Being the child of a career supervillain you  learn lots of things. Some useful, some not, but all of them tend to  stick with you. One of the most memorable to me was my fathers lessons  on picking minions. Some people pick for brawn, some people pick for  brains, some people pick for loyalty. My father was of the school of  thought that one should pick ones minions based on one quality.  Desperation.

Paying  someone to do something is never as effective as motivating them with  their own desires, and even loyalty can be bought or broken. But if you  find someone who needs something bad enough, and make yourself the only  person who can give it to them, you'll have a minion who will never turn  on you. The second I saw Guardian in that ring I knew I was going to  recruit him. He was young, strong, fairly skilled, and lost. But more  than that, he was desperate for something, and I was going to give it to  him.

His  expression wasn't hostile exactly, but i wasn't friendly as he took in  my appearance. "Who are you?"I could see his suspicion plain as day. My  new enhanced senses and mental processing power made me extremely  sensitive to body language, and I'd always been good at pushing buttons.  Guardian was frustrated by his loss. He hadn't been expected to win,  hadn't really even had a chance. Doing as well as he did was already  fantastic, but he wanted more. He was greedy. I could work with that.

I  smiled harmlessly. "I'm Nick. I just wanted to come by and say I really  admired your fight out there. I mean, you're a regular guy and you made  Atomic Skull work for that win. I've never been that badass." I offered  him a bit of honest praise in the form of salt in his wound. it wasn't  what he wanted or needed, but it made me seem friendly while reminding  him of how angry he was. "But like I said man, are you ok? You kicked  ass out there but you seem a bit down."

He  flushed, looking at the ground in shame. "I...I really needed the money  from this win. My girl has been kind of pulling away. Work has been  busy and I just...I feel like she's leaving me behind. I've been  thinking about it and I want to show her that I can be in this with her  for the long haul, so I wanted to get her a really nice ring and then  propose." He sighed. "But I guess that's not going to happen. Honestly I  shouldn't have taken this gig at all, she wouldn't be happy if she  found out, but I just didn't know what else to do."

I  grinned internally. Guardian wasn't upset about not getting the money  for a ring. He was insecure. He didn't feel good enough, he felt like a  failure. I stepped forward, my face an earnest mask, and I put my hand  on his shoulder. "I get you man." He looked up, surprised. "I know how  it feels to want to show someone what you can do. To know you have more  in you but not be able to make a person you care about see it. I used to  be like that. I always knew I had greatness deep down inside, but I  couldn't let it out."

I  lied shamelessly to his face with the most sincere expression I could  put on. This next part was delicate. This had to be his idea. He would  go on guard if I tried to sell him a miracle. He had to beg for it. His  eyes were locked on mine, intense and unwavering. I could see from his  posture that he was hooked. "How did you...how did you show them? How  did you make people see you as more than just...just some guy." His  voice was raw, exposed, and I knew that Guardian was exactly the kind of  person I wanted. Someone who wanted to be special more than anything in  the world.

I  put on a troubled expression. "I...shit. I'm not supposed to talk about  it really. A friend helped me out but he doesn't want it getting  around." I looked around, ostensibly to make sure we were alone. "Look, I  might get in trouble with him for this, but you seem like a solid guy. I  never would have had the guts to bang it out with Atomic Skull before I  got the help he gave me. I think you could be pretty amazing. My buddy  is a chemist. He used to get bullied a lot when he was younger by kids  in his neighborhood. He decided he wanted the power to stand up for  himself."

I  had to phrase this very carefully. If he decided I was peddling super  drugs he might lock up. I needed to him hooked in first. I had an idea  of how to do that but I couldn't bring out the method tonight, which  meant I needed Guardian to be willing to meet with my "friend" and hear  him out. The friend in this case obviously being me. "He's just testing  it out right now. He doesn't even have the formula perfected, but it's  safe enough he used it on himself and me, and if you want I could ask  him to talk to you about it."

He  looked uncertain. Conflicted about doing something kind of dubious. But  of course, I hadn't asked him to break any laws or commit a crime, just  have a talk with a friend of mine. He thought long and hard. I lit up  like I had an idea. "Hey, I know, how about we say I'm hiring you to do  some official testing for his stuff. You don't have to take anything  until he explains it to you, but I can pay a signing bonus so you can  buy your girl her ring. Just think of it as a gift from a new friend you  inspired."

I  gave him my most heartfelt and sincere smile and he chewed his lip a  bit before nodding. "Ok. I'll go talk to him. Just to hear him out  though, I'm not promising anything yet. But I can listen to a pitch for  some drug trials. I really could use the money." He held out his hand.  "I'm Mal by the way, Mal Duncan." I took his hand and noticed he had a  firm grip, but nothing really crazy. My current grip strength was enough  to shatter his whole hand with a single squeeze. I didn't of course,  just shook his hand in a friendly greeting.

I  shot him a wide smile. "Nick Lord." His eyes widened a bit and I  laughed ruefully. "Yeah, those Lords. I know my family isn't the  cleanest bunch, try not to judge me too harshly though." I faked an  angry expression, clenching my teeth. "I'm not my dad, no matter what  anyone says." Which was true, but the vicious resentment I let leak into  my tone gave that statement much different context than it might  otherwise have had. I held up my phone. "If you want to back out I get  it, but if give me your number I can wire over the money now. It's not  much to me, but helping out a new friend would mean a lot."

It  was suspicious, shady, and potentially stupid, but in the end he  accepted and we traded info. i sent over a few thousand bucks, literal  pocket change to me now, and Mal's face lit up as he started gushing  about his girlfriend and how surprised she would be. He even showed me a  picture. She was a cute little thing, not that it mattered. I had very  few lines, but I didn't fuck with women who belonged to people I  associated with. Mixing revenge and business was a recipe for disaster  every time.

Granted  that only applied to people I knew directly, and pretty much only if I  met them before I started fucking said bimbo. Friends of friends or  people who met me after I started sadly had to resign themselves to  being cucked. Well, they actually didn't because they usually never  knew, but I'd still ball their sweeties anyway. Just no one I actually  liked. Man's got to have a code.

Once  Mal and I said out goodbyes he took of for home while I slipped off to  my car. I checked my texts and saw a goodnight from Dinah. She sent me a  pic of her smiling and giving me a little one handed wave. I could see  one shoulder bare from her oversized shirt and her hair was mussed. She  was obviously at home in bed. I sent her a goodnight in response and  then climbed into the car and headed home.

Once  I got back to my house where it was safe I took out one of the vials  and the bottle of painkillers from the drugstore. They were twelve hour  time release capsules and they were J rank. I walked over to my bedside  table and opened it up to root through and find a small baggy of coke,  also J rank. I merged the painkillers and coke, then I merged the  resulting pills with the vial, creating an H ranked serum like the  balanced one but just a bit different.

[Appraisal   function activated. Treasure detected. Kobra Pills- H rank. Twelve  hour release capsules of temporary mutagen, granting a diluted but  impressive strength temporarily. Creates a low level but pervasive sense  of euphoria during time of effect. Highly addictive. May cause  withdrawal. One hundred pills. Warning: do not ingest more than one at a  time.]

I  grinned. Perfect. This was exactly what I needed. I could give a  capsule to my perspective employees to let them play with their new  powers, promising it was just a temporary trial and they never had to do  it again. Once they tried it the euphoria mixed with the natural high  of their powers would have them begging for another hit.I would make  them jump through a few hoops to make sure they couldn't back out and  then give them the permanent upgrade, thus flushing the withdrawal  symptoms from their upgraded body and killing two birds with one stone.

I put the pills in the pocket of my Kingly Raiment and started my  workout for the day. I didn't need the tablet anymore, my new upgraded  body could do my old workout for eternity basically and never get tired.  Still, I wanted to keep my muscles limber and make sure I was warmed up  for the big show when I had my meeting with Mal tomorrow. I had to be  in shape for my first night as Mammon.