The Vespidian

Arc 11 Blood Moon

Chapter 7

I took a deep breath and looked around the room. What met my eyes, was well… a massacre. Glitter Kitten and Den Mother had been doing work while I was busy with the snake. They had wholesale slaughtered the Scalies. It seemed that Slither really had been the only thing keeping the Scalies from getting overwhelmed by the Mad Dogs. Croc Roc’s head had been separated from his mince meated body, and the other crocodile people had been ripped apart as well. The poor little froggies were not spared the viciousness either. Den Mother had cornered one of the few surviving ones and was beating it into a pulp with a thick vine that she used as a club.

“Hey! What are you doing?” I berated Den Mother.

“Killing the Scalies,” she replied bewildered over my complaints.

Ah, I never did tell them to spare anything did I? I let out an even more profound sigh. Not their fault, besides they didn’t have the luxury of mercy. Only those much stronger than their opponent can do that without facing any real threats and repercussions. The frogs were poisonous, so they were dangerous even if they were subdued. Now that I think about it, depending on what it was, killing was a lot easier than capturing it alive.

“I was going to capture them, but, oh well. Just don’t kill my prey.”

“Your prey?” asked Den Mother looking over at me.

“Yeah, I caught Slither, so I am taking her home with me.”

“What are you going to do with her?” asked Den Mother

“Either use her as an organic incubation unit if Xava will allow it or hand her over to Molotov to be beaten into shape.” I replied, pulling the end of my abdomen out of Slither’s mouth.

The Scalies or rather Cold Bloods were no more now. I felt bad about the frogs, nothing particularly strong though. As for the others, not even remotely bad they definitely had been eating people. Stretching my stiff limbs, I walked around checking to see if any of the little amphibians had survived. Just as my hopes started to fade, I saw a massive bubble drifting away, floating up. I flicked a rock, and it popped. Out fell the familiar pink frog. She quickly tried to swim away, but I had already been moving to catch her before the bubble had even burst.

She got about two feet before my hand seized her little body and I held her up to my face. She fearfully looked between the downed snake and me. I pet her on the head, and a look of utter confusion filled her face.

“What do you want? You are not going to kill me?” she asked diverting her eyes from the bodies of the other frogs.

My finger pressed on her head as I smiled, “No. I won’t kill you. You are useful to me.”

“I, I am?” She gulped and ribbitted.

“Yes. I like your flavor.”

Her pupils got huge as she shivered, “No. Don’t eat me! I am poisonous!”

“Well sure,” I replied my tongue slapping her across the face and slowly scraping the slime from her squishy flesh, “You do have a bit of kick to you. A spicy little thing. I am going to enjoy you.”

She shook her head, her large eyes blinking as her grippy pads pushed at my face trying to keep it away from her, “No, no, please! Don’t eat me!”

My stinger got just the tip into her ass cheek, and she thrashed before my venom took hold. Her body went limp, and I said, licking her, “Oh don’t worry it would be a waste to eat you at least in that sense.”

Having incapacitated my prey, I looked about the room. I had been distracted, but a limp little kitty needed my help. I loomed over Glitter Kitten. She sure was helpless like this.

Put it in.

Put what in?

Sub just winked at me.

No, you.

But, but look at that booty. She is so defenseless~

Sub we already got enough to deal with.

Oh right, we do have a new chew toy. Hey, hey do you think Xava would want to spit roast the snake together?

Ah, I hadn’t even thought about that. She might? We will have to ask.

My tentacles coiled around Glitter Kitten, lifting her up, “How are you holding up?”

Although most of her was stiff as a board, her head and neck could move a little, “Not so well, somebody is going to have to carry me back.”

I booped her on the nose, “Thanks for distracting her for me.”

“Thank you for helping us. I eh, I know you didn’t have to.”

“Well, what are friends for?” I let my fleshy limbs rub her all over.

She smiled a little before looking at the shuddering snake, “What are we doing with her?”

I sat next to the quivering snake, plopping a hand on her head, “Taking her home. Going to ask Xava if I can keep her as a host for my eggs.”

Glitter Kitten nodded slightly, “Not like I could forcefully take her. You did beat her, so I suppose she is yours to do with as you please.”

“Why what were you going to do with her?” I asked.

“Eh, I was going to let all the girls beat up on her and torture her for a while before killing her as revenge for all the friends and family she has eaten. Though I think you will put her to better use, besides I could always gloat at her.”

I rubbed my chin, “Well if Xava says no then I could give her to you or give her to Molotov to beat into shape.”

“You would?”

“Yeah, not like I could keep her if my mate says no.”

“Your mate?”

“Mmmhm~ Xava and I have been together for a while now. Well, it hasn’t been all that long.”

Glitter kitten looked a little disappointed, “Oh I see, Nyaahaha well that is good.”

My tentacles pet her a bit, “Speaking of which, we should go get you checked up.”

“Checked up? Nothing wrong with me.” She retorted.

“You are paralyzed,” I said staring at her blankly.

“Ah oh true. You think Neon Nurse will be able to do something about it?”

“Between her and Dr. Arbor I am sure they could make an anti-venom.”

She seemed to relax a bit, “Nyaa~ well that is good.”

I grabbed Slither around the stomach, and half carried, half dragged her as I looked around. Usually, I might leave her laying around, but there was no telling if she might have a resistance to my venom or not. Unlike her, I wasn’t taking any chances.

The inside of her lair was moist and mossy. Light filtered in through the canopy of vines revealing the sheltered expanse. Various objects had been gathered and placed about the room. A mass of soft fibers rest in the middle of the room. It appeared to be her bed. On a small table was the only semblance of human civilization, a severely damaged picture in a broken frame.

I squinted at it seeing the blurs before concentrating to make out what was there — lab coats. The people in the frame looked to be scientists and even a couple of engineers. Behind them was a large logo that I recognized; BAI. I picked it up and noticed how Slither twitched in my grasp.

“Oh? Is this important to you?” I asked placing the image before her face.

She was quiet for a little before her hissing voice rose, “Yessss.”

“Did you work here, before the Melt Down?”

“Yesss, I wasss.”

Her tongue poked one of the faded figures. I could see the body and part of the head, but the face had been destroyed due to water damage long ago.

“I see,” I said vaguely, “What did you do?”

She blinked at me before replying, “I sssstopped the Melt Down.”

I poked her, “So you are a smart snake huh?”

“I wouldn’t ssay that. I have forgotten much from that time.”

“So turning into a snake reduced your intelligence?” I asked.

She replied, “Perhapsss, though it hasss changed my thoughtss more than anything.”

Lightly I put a hand on her head, “Oh? How so?”

“My emotions became cold. Indifferent. Thingsss that would repulse me before I found to be enjoyable.”

“Like eating people?”

“Yesssss.”

“I see… what is it like? Eating people that is?” I asked after a moment of hesitation.

Slither looked at me and then a flash of understanding crossed her face forming into a wide smirk, “I sssssee. You feel the cravings too? The hunger for flesh as well. Hearing them scream and crying, struggling inside of me as they slowly melt away is the best thing in the world. It sends shivers through me.”

Sub, don’t you be getting any ideas.

I didn’t say nothing!

Yeah, but I know you.

So what if it sounds appealing? It is not like I- alright, alright fine. I wanna eat people. I mean they are just smart animals, and even then a lot of them are dumb.

That is not the point Sub.

It is not like we are a hero or something. We can indulge, can’t we?

Just cause we can don’t mean we should.

I mean we already did technically.

Yeah, and it tasted terrible, so I don’t get why you are obsessed with it.

Anything would taste bad if it were burnt to that degree. I want to eat it raw and fresh alive and kicking, preferably screaming.

I rubbed my face, Sub you are seriously fucked up.

I can’t help what I crave. I even know the perfect person to start.

Who?

Nightmare. I would start with the hands that she cares so much about. Bite them inch by inch, crunching the bone until her shoulders. Then we could eat her legs.

Then what?

Well, we could either eat the rest of her starting from the bottom to keep her alive longer or we could have Xava fix her to the point that she doesn’t die. Let her live as nothing more than a torso, unable to do anything but lay there.

When you say it like that, you make good points.

Slither looked at me anxiously seeing as how I had zoned out while staring her down. “What do you plan on doing with me?”

I blinked and came back to reality, “Nothing you should be worried about. You will likely end up enjoying it.”

She tilted her head questioningly. But didn’t ask more.

There didn’t appear to be anything of real value here. It was all useless rusted junk or shiny baubles that were picked up due to their gleam. Slither seemed to act like a crow, collecting shiny things. There wasn’t much else to do here.

Returning out to the gathering area, Den Mother appeared to be ready to leave. I hoisted Glitter Kitten atop my head and let the coils of tentacles hold her in place. Bubbles shivered a little as I lifted her and placed her into my mouth, slurping her to the back of my maw. My tongue kept her from being swallowed as I closed my lips trapping her inside. Hefting up my prize I looked at Den Mother.

“Not sure if I can carry you and Slither,” I said rolling my tongue all over the quivering frog.

Den Mother nodded, “I will find my way back.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Yeah, now that Slither is out of the way I am not scared of any of the Scalies.” She answered climbing up the vine tree.

I nodded. She did have a point. “Very well I will see you around.”

She nodded and waved as my wings flapped several times generating lift. The snake was more massive than Den Mother by several times. Which wasn’t a surprise, Slither was longer than I was tall by about three times. My orange membranes pushed, and we ascended out of the structure.

The sun had moved a fair amount on the horizon making long shadows. Below I saw Den Mother bulldozing her way through the swamp, smashing trees as went with no regard to damaging the area. Seeing this I had no doubts that she would be fine. I turned my sights to the city at large and flew in that direction.

Below on the city streets, people moved about like ants. Little specks minding their own business. Insignificant. Vaguely I could hear the sound of gunshots from somewhere below, but that didn’t particularly stir anything in me. Could be a robbery or a gang fight, maybe even a drive by. Still, it didn’t matter what it was. I wasn’t a hero anymore, that wasn’t my concern; it wasn’t my business.

I had my own problems, and as such, I didn’t have time for random acts of heroism unless it directly benefited me. I had better things to do with my time. Besides, I highly doubted that some random person would help me out of the kindness of their heart. I likely wouldn’t even be thanked if I did do something.

I banked down towards one of the semi-secret entrances to Xava’s lair. It was a parking garage. On the lowest level, there was the cargo elevator that opened after I let my eye get scanned. Dragging the long body of the snake in I realized how cramped it was. I had seen a full-blown tank in this thing before, but with Slither and I crammed in here there wasn’t too much room to spare.

I pressed the button, and I had returned home. The elevator shifted and descended into the depths of the earth. After a minute or so the doors opened again, and Xava was waiting for me. I stepped out, dragging my quarry with me.

Xava quietly watched for a moment looking between the snake and me, she asked, “Is this some sort of courtship behavior?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She tilted her head, “Some species of wasp hunt prey and bring it back to the female in an attempt to earn her attention.”

“Oh, I see. Well, not quite,” I said feeling the frog squirming in my mouth.

Xava seemed to understand and led the way into a large storage room that was currently empty. There appeared to be a lot of extra places in this installation now that I thought about it. I deposited Slither on the floor and opened my mouth wide letting bubbles slide off of my tongue and subsequently flop motionless onto the cold metal floor.

Xava bent down observing the snake and frog, “Seems you made short work of trouble makers,” her eyes focused in on the top of my head, “I take it Glitter Kitten has accepted being your pet?”

I shook my head, “Ah, I haven’t asked yet. She got paralyzed by Slither so I was wondering if we could make an anti-venom?”

Xava pried open the snake woman’s mouth. She looked it over before reaching in and prodding at the top of the mouth until venom poured out of the fangs. She filled several containers with it letting Slither close her mouth again. She swished the yellow liquid about watching it for a moment.

“I will begin processing it. Was there anything else that you needed of me?” she asked.

“Not going to ask about the snake and frog?”

Another Neon Nurse appeared taking away the glass vials. She turned and replied rather uninterested, “Do I need to ask? It is rather obvious, you are going to copulate with them aren’t you?”

“Only if you are ok with it. Xava, you don’t need to be jealous if you don’t like it I won’t do it.”

She squinted a little, “Why would I be jealous?”

“See you are upset about this.”

“I am not jealous,” Xava said looking away from me for a moment with crossed arms, “I am upset that you are bringing strangers into our home. So enlighten me, what do you plan on doing with these… organics?”

“Well,” I replied pointing at the snake and frog respectively, “I was going to use them as incubators for my eggs if you were ok with it. If not though I will hand them over to Molotov.”

Her expression loosened a little though now she was squinting at the cold-blooded pair laying on the floor. “I see you have thought this over to some degree.”

I would have replied, but she seemed a bit prickly at the moment. Silently she prodded my prey with her foot. She seemed to be mulling it over. After a few minutes of her slowly circling them and glancing at me she asked, “Tell me, how do you feel about these creatures? Emotionally.”

I gulped, “Ehh I hadn’t really thought about it like that. I like the taste of the frog? I am not really attached to them.”

“I see,” Xava replied her robotic eyes staring at me unblinking, “How did you think of it then? Was this one an impulse? An instinct perhaps?”

“Well, I thought that since you were worried about egg storage, they could be used to help with that. I remembered Dr. Arbor taIking about something similar. Felt that it would be a waste to kill them.” I replied looking down.

Xava let out a sigh, “Very well. I can see your thought process. Dr. Arbor did warn me that you would be actively seeking hosts for your brood, I didn’t think it would be this bad though. I am more upset over my own limitations. I don’t like it, but I understand that it is in your nature.”

“I will give them to Molotov.” I replied.

“No, it is fine. I would rather not punish you for doing a good job. Think of them as your reward I suppose.” She said turning to leave.

“Thank you. Oh, could you defang Slither for me?” I asked.

“Defang her?” Xava raised an eyebrow.

“Well yeah, you saw how big those things were. I don’t want her biting me.”

“I will deal with it. Though I will leave the venom sacks in as I will be milking her from time to time.”

“Of course. Her venom is pretty strong; it got me for a while.”

Xava tilted her head staring at the snake assessingly, “Oh did it now? Perhaps she will be useful after all. Speaking of which, let me milk you as well we haven’t studied your new venom yet.”

I nodded bringing my abdomen to bear, and the stinger slid out as Xava approached. Her gloved hand wrapped around it as she measured it and started coaxing. It didn’t take much for my venom to be spilling out into the vial she held at the tip. She gave my abdomen a loving kiss, satisfied for the moment she handed over the full bottle to another Xava that carried it off for study.

“Nyaaas much as I don’t mind being the third wheel, eh could I lay down somewhere until this stuff wears off?” said Glitter Kitten.

Ah, I had forgotten that she was there. I looked at Xava, and she nodded, “Go on, I will get this snake ready for your return.”

I leaned down giving her a big wet kiss, “Love you.”

“Love you too, now go on. I am sure that you and the cat have something to talk about.”

I nodded and left though as I did, I couldn’t help but see the fear in Slither’s eyes as a grinning Xava approached her with a pair of plier looking tools and a syringe. I closed my back eye paying it no mind. If Xava needed to vent, well even I was afraid of her when she was angry. My condolences poor little snake.

Things more or less sorted on that front. I carried Glitter Kitten into my room. There were several Xavas in here as well, though it was clear they were on autopilot as they did menial labor such as cooking and cleaning. One was happily fluffing my pillows and straightening the cleaned bedding.

I lowered myself and unraveled the kitteh so that she lay next to me. My hands slowly began petting through her fur when her voice rose, “So what was that about me being your pet?”

“Well, I have been thinking about it for a while now. I want you to be my pet. I will love on you and feed you, and you will live here with me.”

“That is a bit sudden don’t you think?” she asked.

“I don’t mind if you think about it,” I replied stroking her back.

“What about my kittens though?”

“They can come too.”

“Hmmm, I will think it over. Oh, by the way, we have our monthly orgy tomorrow so you should come down for some fun. Me and the rest of the Mad Dogs will be more than happy to show you our appreciation for helping us with getting rid of Slither and her lot for good.”

Well, that was news to me, “Monthly orgy?”

“Yeah, it is the full moon tomorrow so we will be locking ourselves in the breeding pens and fucking everything that moves all night.” She replied matter of factly.

That didn’t line up with what I knew about the Mad Dogs, “Eh? I thought you guys go crazy on the full moon and attack people.”

Glitter Kitten nodded, “Well, we do, but that has more to do with the heat. Most people that die during that are normies that got mixed up. We get really into it, like really rough and wild. It is impossible to hold back our strength since we are running on full instincts.

“Honestly I don’t usually remember any of what happens on those nights. Usually wake up covered in blood or cum, a lot of the times both. I remember one time I woke up with a dick in me, just the dick. I still don’t know how it got there or even whose it was. Not going to lie we get fucking rowdy, which is why we lock ourselves up. Can’t be rampaging through the streets.”

“Sounds like a hell of a night,” I said thinking it over, I could vaguely remember bits and pieces from when I had been drunk last time I had stayed over though it was rather fragmented, “I think I will have to take a pass on that.”

She gaped at me in surprise, “You don’t want in? Why?”

“Well, as fun as it sounds, Xava is my mate, so I don’t really need to run around looking for strange these days.” I smiled petting the robo nurse sitting beside me, and she hugged me.

“Please, please come!” she begged me.

I stared at her, “Look, I like you, but I said no.”

“Please! You have to come. I, I will do anything for you, but you have to come. If you come I, I will be your pet, your sex slave if that is what you want.” She squirmed about even though her body still couldn’t move properly.

“What has gotten into you?” I stared at her.

She started crying, “Please, please. Anything I will do anything!”

I looked over at Xava who I could tell had shifted her consciousness into the body next to me, “What do you think?”

“She seems rather desperate don’t you think?” Xava tilted her head.

“Should I go?” I asked her.

After a minute or two of listening to Glitter Kitten blubbering incoherently Xava nodded, “Fine, but only that night. I would ask you to try and not knock anybody up, but I know better than to ask the impossible. I will be coming to pick you and anybody you end up impregnating in the morning.”

“I will come ok, so stop crying?” I said petting Glitter Kitten. This was really unlike her; I wonder what happened?

“You mean it?” she asked sniffling.

“Yeah so calm down.”

“Thank you.” Said Glitter Kitten visibly relaxing to the point she might as well be butter.

It sounds like tomorrow night is going to be eventful. As for tonight, well I had a snake to wrestle and a frog to gargle.