Becoming Monsters: in the Mirror

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

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Chapter 13: Jackpot

By the time we made it back home, Nibbles was making it quite plain that he preferred his own four paws to flying. The pinpricks I'd received on a couple of the landings would heal. He squeaked at me a bit when we got home, and decided to trot off to explore the block a bit more. I'd make sure to let him back in, later.

Entering our apartment, I had to pause. Not just because there were several of Sarah's projects laid out again, though that was certainly part of it. The first thing to hit me was the

smell

. It was earthy, it was spicy, it smelled utterly unlike anything that had ever been in that apartment before. And utterly delicious. I realized very quickly that I had forgotten to actually eat lunch. Must have been distracted.

The second thing I noticed was Lucy laid out on the floor, face-up and unclothed, with Sarah working on her leg. Whitney was watching closely, mirroring the Enchanter on the other side. Lucy was looking like she had died and proceeded directly to Heaven. Couldn't blame her, really. She must have heard me come in, since she raised a thumbs-up in my direction.

Third? Lucy's ritual staff was on Sarah's work bench, with the mithril sitting next to it. Gloria was nowhere to be seen. I heard movement coming from the kitchen. When I got there, Gloria was to be seen, putting the finishing touches on a pot of something bright yellow. It was the source of the smell. There was joy in my heart about this.

About five minutes later, we were all sitting or standing around the kitchen, munching on what turned out to be curry on rice. "I know people expect certain things out of me when I cook, but I always had a soft spot for curry. Taquitos and paella aren't everything."

If she cooked like this for us? It would be worth ten times the food she'd need, even counting the fact that she'd served herself an actual mixing bowl of it. "No complaints here, Gloria. How was the shopping trip?"

Whitney swallowed. "Didn't realize Lucy could sprint that fast."

"When your husband has wings, you learn how. Anyway, we had to move fast for that."

"What happened?"

Lucy didn't hesitate. "Another bank got hit, and we were next to it when it went down. Same deal, a squad of skeletons with firearms in ice armor attacked the place. This time, we came up behind them. Heavier squad, about eight of them? We knew what to do this time, though. Gloria and I dropped fire on them, Sarah targeted the faster ones with that wand of hers, and Whitney cleaned up. It was over in two minutes, overwhelming force. Between the Shield Charms as my own spell, none of us even took a hit."

The ice, apparently, made its way from the squad to my blood. The last time we had dealt with that, I had gotten abducted and interrogated, including a threat to my family. I wasn't involved this time, but I had to hope they didn't connect the dots. Still... "we need to be careful, love. Those were mob-connected last time, they might not like that we were there to stop two in a row." I shook my head. "The minions are too similar and specific to be different groups. Any clue what they were after?"

All four of the girls shook their heads. Great, another mystery to research. "Which bank was this?"

"North Pacific."

"That one has a vault of safe deposit boxes, right? Does a lot with shippers? Could be freaking anything."

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, that's the one."

I took a moment to breathe. And to enjoy the curry, not gonna lie. Just meant that the plans to get out of the apartment would have to accelerate a bit. Also... "Sarah, this puts a bit more weight onto you right now. What's the plan with the ritual staff?"

"It's already heavily attuned to your wife. I'm going to give it a narrow core and rings of the mithril once I thread it, that will lock things in and give Lucy the combat channel. Hard part is energizing it initially, but Lucy will have to do that herself."

"Think that'll be done today?" I was trying to juggle a few things in my head.

"Yeah, at least my part. Lucy might be able to energize it if she's willing to go low on her pool and today's fireworks didn't deplete too much."

"Excellent. Next up is going to be the shield if you have any ideas."

"I have... one. Not sure if you'll go for it, though. I don't have the know-how to make an expanding physical shield, but I can install your Gold Battery into a gauntlet with a shield projector. Same thing, just energy-based."

I considered it. Energy shields were weightless and much harder than metal. Problem, of course, was that they took a power source and only lasted as long as it did. Plus, of course, the physics of a weightless solid transferring momentum could be a pain.

"Is the battery usable the normal way if it's installed like that?"

"Yes, it's just not removable short of Disenchanting it. Battery will last about an hour of use from full, less if it's taking a lot of hits or a few really big ones. Could do it with a Silver, but that will only last 15 minutes."

"If all we were worried about was standard hunts, I might take you up on that, but no. We need the Gold potential here. No offense, I'll probably be using my physical one whenever I can, but I need the ability to bring it with me and the shield doesn't always go. Try to be non-ferrous on the gauntlet, I would like it to be hard enough to defend with but it matters more that I can bring it into a bank or office. Second Gold Battery is afterwards, I want one with you all."

She nodded. "I'd better get to work, then. Whitney, Lucy, I will need both of your help on this part. Whitney, I need you to dump your mana pool into Jay's battery before we start. No offense, but contamination risk is not cool when we are spending Mithril."

The three of them left to get to work. I looked at the last one remaining. "Gloria. You've had a morning with the Guild, now, and it sounds like you handled yourself. I wish I could say it was atypical, but these days it really isn't. Surface attacks are on the rise, and we run towards the fight."

She looked down into the wreckage of her enormous bowl of curry. "I expected no less. I do not know your faith, if you even have one, but mine? Mine calls me to act. To heal the sick, feed the hungry, and defend the innocent. People would have died if we had not been there. Yet, we were. Because of that, whoever was doing that didn't harm anyone permanently. If this is what it means to join you, I want to join. The others are stronger than I am, but I don't need to be strong. I am a Trap Master. Nets of lightning, pools of flame, and blocks of ice are how I learned to survive."

"That is what I wanted to hear. We could use your presence, support casting and crowd control are roles that I filled myself before my current Jack-Of-All-Trades tanking position. Having you dedicated to it will help. We need to ask the others if they want you to join, of course. Both Guild bylaws and a desire for harmony demand it."

I heard a chorus of "do it," coming from the living room. Sometimes, it was hard to remember that the walls here were thin and my voice carried.

"They have already told me what the initiation here involves. Just... stay there." Without another word, she crawled under the table and unzipped my pants, fishing my dick out with a surprised exclamation. "They were not joking about your size, were they?"

"They do not know the half of it, yet. How much is the most you can take?"

"I am a demoness of Gluttony. I have not found a size limit." With that, she immediately took me into her mouth and practically

inhaled

me, taking me all the way to the base, balls and all. Then, she started to suck me down. This was not like the efforts of a Human (or Kitsune), nor the dexterous throat of a Succubus. It was like her entire core was pulling me into the depths of her being, limitless and without end. It felt like I could have grown to beyond maximum without a difference.

It was, of course, at this moment that my wife walked in. It thankfully went better than last time. "Hey, love, wanted to show you what we were up to!"

"Can you please not deliver any surprises? Gloria has a large number of fangs positioned such that I become no longer anatomically correct if she gets startled."

"Oh, she got started already? Explains the expression, she claims nobody has managed to resist her for more than two minutes. I bet her that you could."

I could very distinctly feel why she was able to make that claim. It felt like her tongue was reaching directly into my balls to pull out my cum. Resisting it was less of a normal clench and more of an active tug-of-war. "What... what could that bet possibly entail?"

"Winner gets a round with you tonight." My shock must have shown. "Come on, we both know that I'm your wife, but the way your everything works? Everyone here is going to have to share the wealth. It was a big topic of conversation today, too." She leaned in close to my ear. "Just think how excited all four of us were. You know how a good fight gets me going, you think the others were any different? Whitney practically soaked through her panties at the thought, she has barely even gotten to experience you at all."

The dirty talk was not helping me hold out. Considering what the stakes were for this, she either had a LOT of faith in me or wanted to lose. The latter, I knew, was completely impossible. Then again, I'd have thought this entire situation was impossible two weeks ago. Gloria was certainly giving it her all, accelerating her effort, determined to win. It felt like she was beyond mere blowjobs, and attempting to connect with my soul through my dick.

Time seemed to freeze in an endless moment, and in the distance I heard a tiny beeping sound. My balls churned, and I unleashed what felt like gallons of my essence directly down her throat. She, perhaps unsurprisingly, swallowed it all without effort.

***

Subject: Gloria Santos-Cruces

Class: Hunter

Class Attributes: END, AGI, PER

Primary Ability: Elemental Traps

Do you wish to acquire?

Y/N

***

As she stood, I accepted. Even before the transformation took her, I could see a rapturous smile on her face. The hard edges of her face caused by hunger softened, her eyes becoming larger and brighter. Her hair lengthened, her arms filled out slightly but noticeably. As she moved, I saw her dress catch on the beginnings of a modest bust. Her legs smoothed as they gained mass and definition.

In all, she looked

healthier

than she had been. It was then that her eyes snapped open. "

Dios mio

, I feel full! I haven't felt full in years! What I drank from you... is not going to fuel my Hunger!"

It was an easy mental leap to make. "I am an Incubus. You cannot feed your Hunger from me, nobody can."

Gloria nodded, then stared, wide-eyed, at Lucy. "Oh, you poor thing! All this time, and you couldn't? Not with him? Now it all makes sense!" She hugged the Succubus, tightly. "I will do

everything

I possibly can to keep this family together. You have my word!"

Lucy was caught off-guard by the hug, barely getting her own around the smaller Hispanic woman, a tear in her eye. It was touching, and I prayed to whichever Power decided to listen that I would be able to do so. I didn't want her to hurt any more. Thinking about it, though, I had not had any feeding from anyone who did not end up in the family since this strange journey began. It was like I was attracting the people who belonged. The two released the hug, the moment shared.

*PING*

A tone in my head announced to me that I had achieved Level Nine. Oddly, that was itself a data point for me. "Lucy, I need you to go get the notebook, when you can."

She looked at me, surprised. "Already? You just hit eight a few days ago!"

"Besides the multitude of attacks? I think more is at play, but we can write hypotheses down later." The general rule of thumb was that you gain levels from using class abilities and doing what your class was meant to do. I had been doing a lot of exactly two things: fighting monsters and having sex, which lent itself to the idea that I could screw my way to power. No complaints, but that would take some discussion with Lucy.

Discussion? Well, that's certainly one word for it.

Whitney and Sarah joined us, curious to see what was coming. Though this was normally a private thing, I needed them in on how we did it. "Alright, Jay, level nine. Says here you get one extra ability slot, and another Pick One Of Four choice. Last one for a while."

Gloria, Sarah, and Whitney had very obviously never conceived of the notebooks we were using. I had no ability score boosts, so I pulled up my options. "I actually got two slots! Was at five, maxed it out with Gloria, but now I have two open. Alright, for those new to this, these binders contain all research we have put into our Classes and Races. Forewarned is forearmed. I expect all of you to create one like it, and both maintain and expand it as you do more research and advance yourself. On the first page should be a recreation of your Status page, to let you know if something changed without you being aware of it. Now, the fun part. Lucy, ready?"

"Yep, open to your potential abilities. You have one we haven't seen before, so anything we don't have information on probably has it as a prerequisite."

I nodded, unable to see. "Popular one came up, Sapphire Radiance."

"Gives you an aura that lets you share beneficial abilities with allies, usually used to efficiently cast buffs."

"I have exactly zero idea how that will interact with Shapechange and Regeneration. Not saying No, but I'll only pick it if nothing else has potential. Next is called Man In The Middle?"

A pause. "No information in the notebook. Whitney, do a search of it while we check the rest?"

"On it."

"Okay, third is called Recovery. I like the sound of it."

"Makes your health, mana, and stamina recharge about 15% faster, also reduces how much sleep you need."

"Not great in combat, but sounds ludicrous for day-to-day needs. Boring, but very practical for us. A good possibility. Fourth is called 'Inconceivable!' with an exclamation point after it, that's unusual."

"Notes say a bunch of people picked it for the name, it's a passive resistance to scan and identification actions and abilities. Stacks with Mirror Shield if you have an applicable thing, there."

"Not too excited for the niche defense."

"Taking niche options is how you got Cursebreaker, I don't see you complaining about the outcomes there."

"Touché. Okay, Whitney, anything on the other ability?"

"Nothing that has anything to do with your Mirror Class"

I could hear Lucy chuckle. "Means it probably has Concubal as a prerequisite unless you need to go out and buy every lotto ticket in sight. With a name like that, it'll probably result in us trying to gang-bang you or something."

"Tempting, tempting." I said it with a grin, and the ladies laughed. "Okay, in all seriousness, I'm not ready to do more pioneering today. Need to be boring until I have a better handle on this all. Any objections to Recovery?" Silence. "Alright, choosing and confirming."

It wasn't like last time. There was no sudden transformation or reaction. The window just closed. I will confess some disappointment, but sometimes the boring, practical option is best. A percentage increase to my rapid MP recovery rate would be invaluable for things like the shield, charms, and batteries... and for holding onto Shapechange forms.

"Alright, everyone in this room not named Jeremiah or Lucy." They perked up. "We got binders and paper. Pick a color you like and start writing. If you aren't doing anything specific, that's your task. Sarah, I know you have projects to do, but dedicate at least 30 minutes to this a day, okay?" They all nodded. Good. All four scattered to do what they needed to. I breathed a bit. No matter how I had held out, I was still recovering from the encounter with Gloria.

Speaking of, I also had notes to take... and training to schedule. As an inconvenient side effect of my new abilities replacing my old ones, all of my powers had been reduced to unpracticed ranks. I needed, badly, to grind out levels on them and figure out the tricks of the trade to utilize them properly.

The rest of the day passed like that. Lucy's staff was fully charged by the time we went to bed, primed for use. Sarah told us the core was barely a millimeter thick, the rings at the top and bottom were so thin that they could only be seen by reflecting light if you didn't know they were there. Whitney was complaining about hand cramps, Gloria made some kind of ground beef she called

picadillo

for dinner, which was easily the equal or superior to the curry. I spent my limited mana on disenchants where necessary, and practiced Shapeshifting when I could.

In all? It was a peaceful kind of industry. One I would be more than happy to have as a bastion for the rest of our days. Even Emily fluttered in around the same time we went and got Nibbles (who massively enjoyed being fawned over by five ladies in his new harness). The news she brought was one I definitely liked, the sample she had submitted for rushed testing had come back clean. I could shoot blanks at will, and my practice let me know that I could hold that for so long that it was effectively indefinitely. Just had to let it go in order to recharge... and resist the temptation to size up enough to be a porn star among Ogres.

When we did get to bed, Lucy declared that she both wanted to give it a test run, and that it would be her prize for the bet. I obligingly ensured that certain bits of me were firing blanks, and Lucy dove onto me face-first "to make sure the active ones are sucked out first." Not that I was complaining. For the record, I lasted

way less

than two minutes under her assault, but then again she was eager to get to round two and knew me inside and out. She demonstrated that she, too, could take me all the way to the base, and kept me there until I was back up and ready... about fifteen seconds, to be clear. One hand pushed me back onto the bed, I toppled like I had been punched. She mounted me, sinking me into her, and ground herself into me until she was clenching on me, cumming as hard as she ever had. I wasn't far behind, even with my multiple and very satisfying orgasms that day I blasted into her with enough force that she was nearly pushed off.

Just like that, she laid down on me, still joined together, and I pulled our blanket over us. It was a comfortable kind of joining, one I'd love to stay in for the rest of my days.

I should have known, life would not be that simple.

My eyes opened around two in the morning. At first, I thought it was my new ability, and maybe it partially was. Then, I heard it. The soft sound of movement when there should not have been. That must have been what woke me before. I heard a click, like a talon tapping the linoleum of the kitchen. A talon, or a claw.

I shook my wife awake, easy enough as she still rested on my chest. Near silently, we grabbed what we had with us in the room. Her staff was in the corner, one of my batons was in my drawer. We were nude, but there was not time to fix that. I reached down and shook awake the fox in the corner. Emily stayed in the tiny form for now, the size and stealth would serve us well. I cracked open the door, she went to wake and warn the others.

I saw the intruder, a blob of black in the darkness, standing over the form of Whitney. The person leaned down, seeming to observe something. Without warning, Whitney's fist drove up from the ground, catching the intruder in the chest and launching them into the kitchen with a crash.