The Vespidian

Arc 12 Villainy 101

Chapter 1

“Vesper?” asked Xava, tilting her head. The glowing tubes set in her synthetic flesh gave off a gentle pink hue.

My attention focused in on her, away from the idle hands that pampered pussycats, Glitter Kitten lay belly up purring alongside her kittens. The rounded tummy gurgled with my seed. It was… satisfying.

“Yes, dear?” I replied.

“I have wonderful news.”

I looked at her as she left me hanging, “Well, go on, what is it?”

“Some of your eggs have begun to hatch.” My cybernetic lover smiled.

My face contoured from surprise into pure glee, “Already? But it has only been…”

“Nine days since our first copulation,” Xava supplied for me.

“Nine days? Has it been that long already?”

She nodded, “It has indeed.”

“Well I guess not going outside and just laying around all day tends to make one lose track of time.”

Her eyes fell on Glitter Kitten or rather her bulging belly, “I would say you have been rather productive. Speaking of which, would you like to see?”

“Of course I want to see,” I eagerly left the kitties on the bed and followed Xava.

It didn’t take long to arrive at the incubation room or as I had begun affectionately calling it, the hive. The familiar sight of Dr. Arbor’s forest green fully enclosed protective suit shifted about as she worked. The glass dome left her face mostly exposed, save the breathing apparatus that released green vapor, making the insides slightly fogged.

“My baby! It is good of you to come,” she looking rather excited.

“I am not your child,” I replied flatly with a stingy face.

“Manners sweety. I don’t remember raising you like this.”

I crossed my arms puffing up a little, “You never raised me, you are not my Mom.”

Despite my complaints, her chromatic eyes glistened, “Don’t be silly child I made you, I gave you life twice. Molding you from primordial soup into your wonderful form now.”

She had me there, but that didn’t mean I acknowledged it, “Busy I see,”

“Busy as a bee, one might say. Your offspring are beginning to hatch.”

“So I have heard, any progress with your research?” I asked, sitting down as my eyes directed themselves to the neatly arranged hexagons in which Xava left her surrogate bodies to gestate.

If you were far enough away, the pattern was distinct, it was a honeycomb-like structure. It was rather pleasing to me, that structure just seemed right. I tilted my head, scratching my chin with a tentacle, It might be because I am a wasp. This started up a strange thought process. Since I am a wasp, shouldn’t I be making my own nest? How would I make my hive? Well, if I was anything like an actual wasp, then I should be chewing on things and seeing if it creates a putty-like material to be molded into cells.

I wonder why I had not thought of this before? Shouldn’t the nest come before the egg laying? My eyes roamed the room for something suitable to try it out on. Soon they discovered the panels of metal on the floors and walls. My claws pried up one, and I bit into it. The mandibles set to work chewing and crushing it, after a short delay it had melted down into a sort of paste which I threw up onto the floor. The consistency was similar to warm wax, it was malleable, but it gave some resistance. Idly I played with it like clay, molding it into a cone shape. Something about this was calming.

Once I realized what I had been doing the looming figures of Xava, and Dr. Arbor had huddled over to watch, “Interesting, she is exhibiting nesting behaviors.”

“Intriguing, Vesper should I procure you nesting materials?”

“Sure, I guess… wait a minute. You two are doing that thing where you observe me like an animal again!” I retorted.

“I am analyzing your behavior patterns to better provide for you,” replied Xava tilting her head, “is that unsatisfactory?”

“No, it is just… a little dehumanizing is all.”

“You are better than human, so why should we treat you like a mere human? You have needs beyond a simple human’s, after all,” said Dr. Arbor laying her hand on my arm.

I thought about it, she was right. I certainly did have needs and urges that a human didn’t. I nodded in agreement and directed my attention to the reason I had come here in the first place, Xava’s egg bloated bodies.

All of them hung limply, dolls, merely bodies, containers, vessels that carried my eggs. Each had a well-rounded belly bulging out below them. A hose attached to where the belly button should be with a constant pumping flow of liquids circulating into the incubator. Movement could be seen in some, faint ripples pressing against her fake flesh. There was undoubtedly life within those robotic shells.

“You may see from here,” Xava motioned to a screen on the side.

I looked it over and soon saw the feed from one of the more active incubators. The synthetic womb was monitored from within. Soon shapes began to take form, even if they were blobs. White, soft flesh moved about, writhing over others. They were larva. There were a good ten or so nestled in there, rolling and fighting for space. It was rather apparent that they were running out of room.

“Are they safe to survive outside of their host?” I looked down to the waiting nurses.

“We are unsure. However, they do not appear to be attached with umbilical cords.”

“Very well, remove the oldest clutch from one host.”

“Are you sure? They might die,” she had a worried look.

“Just remove one then, and we will see from there.”

Behind the glass mechanical arms moved, shifting until they aligned with the targeted body. It vaguely reminded me of a vending machine. After a moment, it probed in and slowly retracted, dragging a squalling and screaming creature out. My antennae flicked up, hearing the distress of my child. It was lowered into a Neon Nurse’s waiting arms. She cleaned it and patted the pestered thing dry before carrying it to me.

It was tiny. The grumpy worm like creature was placed into my hand. Slowly my antennae brushed over it, smelling and getting accustomed to it. A sweetened scent exuded from the now calming grub. It just lay there making a low squeaking sound. From how it inflated and deflated, it could breathe. Except, I don’t think that it took in oxygen from the mouth, but rather the six holes on its sides that opened and closed rhythmically.

After a few minutes of gently stroking it, the grub had fallen asleep gurgling from time to time. “It appears to be safe, bring me more of them.”

Xava complied emptying out one of the robotic breeders, and soon a good dozen of the squirming spawn was presented before me. A tingling sensation spread through me as I observed them. I was not at all accustomed to this feeling. Seeing them had awoken something inside of me. It was warm and fuzzy, but for some reason, I was excited and could hardly hold my self back. They were too cute, and I couldn’t handle it.

My god. They, they are adorable! My babies are the cutest, look at those itty bitty wigglies. I stroked the grubs watching those tiny little things shaking. Oh, they are so soft and squishy! I leaned in, laying on the floor so that I was at eye leve… well as close to eye level as I could get, my head is rather large, and they are smol after all. Actually, they were tiny… although, maybe I am just massive? I looked between them and Xava’s hands, each was a little bigger than her finger. Roughly about the size of a breakfast sausage, the mini ones. Nice and plump their segmented bodies undulated as they wormed about on the floor of the room.

They didn’t have eyes to speak of. However, they did have mouths. Observing them, I inspected the closest one, watching the strange orifice extend and retract. I was actually rather thankful that they did not have mandibles or teeth, which meant that they would not eat their mothers. At least that was the hope. They had a sort of sucking appendage… it was a proboscis. I let the tip of my tentacle press to it, and it suctioned on to the point that it was stuck like glue. It dangled swaying back and forth when lifted off of the ground, a pulsing, throbbing sensation spread from where it was attached. I realized that it was trying to feed, in this case, nurse.

Well, that is certainly a relief, and here I thought they might be chest bursting, meat devouring spawns of Satan. I squished it, watching the little rolls of flesh jiggle lightly as I nuzzled the pallid membrane. Who could hate these soft and innocent little things? They were so defenseless and cute. I had to protect them. Seeing, smelling them, hearing their squeaks made my hearts beat faster, and my head felt a bit warm. I might be a little biased here, but they were honestly cuter than baby bunnies to me.

My antennae poked at it, smelling my child and the long, slender tendrils that it had wrapped around my own. It was smelling me. My abdomen cracked open as I fanned my scent onto the squalling little caterpillar like creatures. Once the smell washed over it and the others that were wiggling about the floor, they slowed to a stop. Their waving antennae pointed in my direction, and the grubs scurried over towards me, chirping and squealing.

“Xava!”

“Yes, dear?” she tilted her head.

I fawned all over the small horde of grubs, “Our babies are incredible. Look how smart they are, they came right to me. They are the cutest, most lovable things I have ever seen! They are just so huggable.”

“Is that so?” she asked, lifting up one and stared into the eyeless face.

“YES!” I smiled.

I lay on my side petting them gingerly and relishing in their smells. I had heard that it was good to talk to babies and so I did, “Daww who is the bestest cutest little grubbies in the whole wide world? Yes, you are, yes you are,”

Several of them began to emit a high pitched whining noise. Naturally, I couldn’t understand them, but I knew something was wrong. I think this sound was similar to a baby’s crying. Worried I looked each of them over, ensuring that they were not hurt, no wounds or scrapes.

Perplexed, I looked over to Xava, “What is wrong with them?”

She observed them for a brief moment before unbuttoning her nurse outfit and exposing her ample breasts, “I believe they are hungry.”

“Oh, is that so?” I replied watching as she lifted one to each of her boobs and they immediately vacuumed on.

A slurping noise began to rise, and the squealing cries had faded into content chirping. It seems they are hungry then, I shouldn’t leave everything to Xava. I looked down scratching at my boob carapace until it opened up, letting my soft flesh expand out. I knew that I did produce something, granted it is not milk thanks to Glitter Kitten milking me during the Blood Moon orgy.

I raised the grubs nudging them against the bluish teat, and the mouth fully encompassed my nipple. Both latched on like lampreys, and their whole body began to undulate, pulsing as they suckled. It hurt from the sheer power of their voracious feeders, but after a moment, they calmed down and set to work in a surprisingly pleasant rhythm of nursing.

It was relaxing once they got used to it. Their membranes steadily began to inflate as they drew more and more of my jelly, gulping it down. Only once they had grown pleasantly plump did they release the death grip that they had on me. I lowered them and picked up the next pair, repeating the process.

After feeding the clutch, I discovered that they had doubled in size from the amount that they had fed. Daaww they seemed to be tired out now and huddled together near me making soft squeaks. I wiggled my feelers about playing with them, engrossing myself in pampering those squishy little bodies with all of my love and affection. This must be my maternal instincts at work. The smells they produced were calming to me, perhaps it is by design of my species. I cuddled my babies for a long while watching as they drifted off into sleep when their feelers drooped onto the floor.

Xava returned them shortly after to the safety of their incubator, and I sat watching them.

“It is excellent that they do not need the host after hatching,” said Dr. Arbor, “We should begin testing growth acceleration.”

“Growth acceleration?” I asked.

“Yes, I will begin experimenting to see how quickly they can mature.”

“Why would we want them to grow up so fast?”

“Vesper, the gestation and development period could be years before they mature into their juvenile state if left unaltered.”

“But they are just babies, they don’t need to grow up that quickly.”

“Strange, I thought that you wanted others of your kind.”

“I do, but it just feels wrong to make them grow up so quickly.”

“Like this, they are not particularly aware of their surroundings and not cognitive.”

“That doesn’t matter. I don’t want you messing with them.”

“Is that so? I thought you would like to see them in their nymph stage.”

“Their what?”

“Child stage. More or less equivalent to five or six-year-old humans.”

I sat scowling at her, “Why are you so eager to poke them like this?”

“I see at as more of a preservation tactic, the faster that they grow up, the faster they can defend themselves from those who would harm them.”

“Thats-” I stopped myself. “Who would try to hurt my cute little grubs?”

“The Hero League for one. If they find out about your children, killing them for the sake of humanity will be on their top priority.”

“What makes you say that? My babies are not hurting anyone.”

“Yes, for now, they are not, but who can say once they are fully grown? Humans will not take the chance and just let a species that could potentially wipe them out mature. They would attack to exterminate you and your kind.”

I frowned, “Why?”

“Fear of the unknown, they have done it before you know. Humans do not trust things that are different, alien, foreign to them. They will perceive threats and begin efforts to neutralize the source of that threat. If they are unable to kill you, they will kill every child, they can get their hands on.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

Dr. Arbor held her hands behind her back, “Simple, I have seen it happen before.”

“You have?”

“Oh yes, several times in fact. The Subhumans in the slums here are a prime example.”

“What are you talking about? They were not being scourged like you are talking about.”

“During the initial meltdown and the years that immediately followed, they were. Their numbers now are drastically lower than they were back then. You do realize that during the meltdown over a hundred thousand people turned into subhumans, right?”

“That many?!”

“Well yes, more than half of Bronson City was lost when the Nuclear Power Plant went.”

“What does that have to do with me, though?”

“Vesper, the subhumans could not lay hundreds of eggs in a day from a single individual, at best they could have a litter of up to ten every nine weeks. If you kept up your rate of propagation for twenty or so years, the genuine possibility of outbreeding the human race would become a reality. The moment your children began to reproduce, then there would be no question that humanity was done for. The threat that you pose is apocalyptic. If the leaders of the normies are not complete fools, they will use everything at their disposal to snuff you and your kind out before they can become a threat.”

I gulped, “They, they wouldn’t go that far, right?”

“They will. Humans are already starting to go extinct.”

“Wait, what?”

She explained rather flatly, “Supers are not human, they have extraterrestrial DNA in them, even if it is a marginal amount and since the super birthrates are exploding exponentially, normies, untainted humans will die out within the next fifty or so years. In other words, they are running scared.”

I tilted my head from side to side, “Why is that?”

Dr. Arbor said a single word, “Eve.”

I was even more confused now, “Who the fuck is that?”

“The Spore. Its mere presence has altered the earth’s ecosystem and as such mutations are growing more and more rampant.”

Something wasn’t adding up here. “So if mutations are becoming more common, why would they single me out?”

“Because you are a threat to Supers as well.”

“But there are other bugs, right? I mean Arachnaon is way stronger than me, and she isn’t being targeted.”

“Yes, but she isn’t a walking army factory like you are. In the end, once she dies off of old age or gets killed by something, then that is it, but with you even if you did die, your children will still be running around. The faster they get rid of you, the less of your children they would have to deal with in the future.”

“But if we don’t intend them any harm-”

“Doesn’t matter. Humans are tribal, it is the us vs them mentality. There are very few things that unite the population like fighting a common enemy, which is part of why humans have been so successful in surviving and becoming the apex species on the planet. Humans are inherently an aggressive species and thrive off of competition and the advancements that they make to defeat their adversaries. It is a good trait; however, it has its flaws as well. Once they run out of enemies, they will make new ones, because they need an enemy to stay united. Humans will wage war over slight differences in culture, appearance, or even simple greed, countless cultures have been consumed throughout history, wiped clean from the earth as though they never existed. And they do that to their fellow man. What do you think they will do when a new apex predator emerges?”

I nodded very slowly as I took all of that in. “You have a point. I assume you still have some eggs from the ones I allowed you to have?”

“I do,” she replied.

“Very well, I did say that you could experiment on them. How sure are you that their growth rate can be accelerated?”

“I can guarantee that I can force their development… the issue is to what extent, it requires more testing.”

I closed my eyes for a long moment, “Xava, how many eggs have I laid so far?”

Xava replied, “1356 eggs have been successfully laid into incubators, counting the recent Mad Dogs acquisitions.”

I had so many… my mindset to work thinking everything over. It was quite the revelation that someone would try to harm my children. Even though they are so cute and innocent. My protective instincts bristled. I suppose that I should have expected this. Memories began to surface of when I first changed, the horror on people’s faces when they saw me, the booze bottle being broke on my face and glass and burning alcohol blinding me.

My face frowned. It wasn’t just me now. I had my children to look out for as well. It would be best to prepare for the worst case scenario. It is better to be over prepared than under prepared. I sighed, sorry little ones I hope I am wrong, but just in case I am not.

“You can have a hundred. Take them from various hosts after they have hatched, prioritize the strongest of hosts to harvest from to test if the genetic adaption is true or not. As much as I dislike doing something like this, you made your point. If you show good results, more will be allowed to undergo your treatment.”

“A hundred! Thank I will set to work immediately.” Dr. Arbor said excited, turning away from me to sort through her experiment logs. Despite her happy mood, she turns and asked hesitantly, “If the results are bad?”

I lay my large hand on her helmet, “If you fail, you will personally be used to replace every last child you have squandered.”

She nodded, “I understand. I will begin at once.”

Now I suppose it was just a matter of waiting to see if Dr. Arbor’s work would bear fruit or eggs.