The Flower From, but not of the Mob

I returned home through the front door, and met up with Emily.

"Now," I said, "We can travel anywhere in the world nigh-instantly, Assuming I have sufficient room to park the ship."

"So what's the actual plan?" Asked Emily. She was sitting on the bed, seemingly elated at the prospect of completing the quest.

I cleared my throat and sat at my desk, "First, we choose a heroine. Then the three of us board the Camelback along with the mind control bed and fly to the closest safe location to said heroine. We abduct her, **** her into the bed, et voila." There was light applause from the women. I fought the urge to bow.

Samira spoke up, "As for said heroine, I've chosen one for you, husband. Gotta carry my weight during this plan somehow."
I scoffed, "I think being the wish granter is you sufficiently picking up your end of the couch." And ignored her choosing my heroine. I looked at her profile of the woman listed.

Natalya Harridan, The Flower From, but not of the Mob

RACE: Human

LOCATION: Manhattan, New York. Click for exact location.

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good

STATUS: Indifferent (She does not know the Conqueror), Married (Jerry Harridan).

DESCRIPTION: Age 23 (legally 29). Wife to Jerry Harridan (44), CEO of Harridan Financial Group. Trophy wife delivered to Jerry as token of gratitude for insider training among other uses the mob has for a Finance Firm.

POWERS AND SKILLS:

• Sex Appeal (True): Natalya is a natural beauty, and was blessed with an excellent figure; trained since youth for beauty and seduction. She partakes in extensive skincare and is active physically. In addition, she is quite effective at stimulating her viewers’ libidos without any nudity. Bonus to Charisma (Sex) checks.
• Sex Appeal (Fake): Natalya has had some plastic surgery done. Bonus to Charisma (Sex) checks unless the other party knows and disapproves, then it’s a Charisma (Net) penalty.
• Natural Hypnotist (RANK DOWN): Natalya is a psychic, a naturally occurring supernatural presence. She has a natural ability to hypnotize people, resulting in manipulating emotions and sensations of those around her. Ranked down due to not knowing about this power. Ranked down for not knowing how to wield this power consciously.

ACTIVE QUESTS:

• 1.) Mindlessness Part 1 (Multi-Stage Quest)
• QUEST: Assist Natalya in her Psychic Training
• REWARD: Rank Up of Natural Hypnotist
• REWARD: Next stage of Mindlessness becomes available.

FETISHES:

• Vanilla: After years of living as a comfort girl in the Russian mob, Natalya has developed a disdain for anything kinky. Considering that her sexual skills are immense, her husband doesn’t particularly mind.

Huh. A girl raised in the underbelly of the mob and pawned off to their connection in finance. I hope she has a sexy Russian accent. Still, it seems like she has a relatively decent marriage. A functional one, at least. “Why her?” I asked Samira.

She shrugged, “Money. Go make this woman your bitch and turn her husband into your infinite money glitch.” Her eyes literally developed dollar signs. Her normal illusion hijinx at play.

“Still,” I added, “Psychic, huh? That’s 2 heroines now who have superpowers and not know it. Is that common?”

Samira nodded, “Common enough. Supernatural powers are tricky unless you have a teacher. And the PCA will stop you if you start abusing them.”

I blinked at my wife, who seemed unaware of the irony of what she just said, “Then why are you trying to make me so actively **** my powers?” I nearly yelled.

“Relax, husband,” she said, handwaving the issue, “nobody will deduce the powers you have access to. Besides, they’re my issues anyway.” She said with a smug side-eye.

“Are you two done?” asked Emily. I looked to where she was at, and she was wheeling the Mind Control Bed, “We should get a move on. Do everything right and we’ll get this done and still be able to do Audrey tonight.”

I had nearly forgotten about that. I shook my head, “Right, let’s do this.” I decided not to argue and accept the heroine they picked out for me. I opened the front door to my apartment and looked around. Furthermore, Samira flew through the other apartments to make sure nobody was watching us.

Emily wheeled the bed into the hallway. It suddenly occurred to me, “Emily, turn off your phone.” She seemed confused so I continued, “We’re about to be in New York. If our cell phones ping a cell tower they possibly couldn’t, it would be bad.” She nodded, turning off her phone’s cellular and location services. Interestingly enough, the Concubine’s Companion continued to function without issue. I followed suit.

I opened the door to the Camelback, and Emily wheeled the bed inside. “Woah, Whistler,” she said, “You didn’t tell me what this place was like.” I shrugged and smiled at her, she’d have time to look around while I was… **** Natalya? I guess I hadn’t thought of the logistics of that part yet.

“Welcome home, Master,” came Kailah, who silently entered the room, “You brought a guest?” she said, sizing Emily up.

“Ah, right,” I said, wondering if this was an awkward encounter, “Kailah, meet Emily. You might say she’s like you. Don’t worry, she’s trustworthy."

Kailah nodded, “Understood, Master. How can I assist you?”

I explained as much of the situation to Kailah as she needed to know. There was a woman in New York we need to abduct and place on this device against her will. “Understood, Master,” she replied in stride, “Where exactly in this ‘Manhattan’ is our mark?” she asked.

I recalled that her profile displayed an option to view her precise location. Upon tapping it, I was greeted to a 3D Globe of Earth that proceeded to zoom in. tighter and tighter the map went until we were looking at the penthouse of a NYC Skyscraper. “Bougie.” said Emily, looking at the same thing on her phone.

Kailah, looking at my phone over my shoulder (her hair smells nice) nodded, “Understood, Master,” she said, “This should be a fairly simple ****.”

I hated that phrasing, but ignored it, “How do you figure?” I asked her.

“This ‘penthouse’ seems to have its own roof access,” she explained, “We’ll fly to Manhattan while cloaked, You will use the basement exit to walk right onto the roof of her building, subdue her into a door that will connect back here, and I will **** her onto this device for you.”

She said that awfully simply, “You’re good at this, aren’t you?”

She shrugged, “Clandestine operations were surprisingly common in the holy knights. This is actually quite nostalgic for me, I wish I could help you with work outside the ship.”

“In due time,” I said to her, eliciting a confused expression. I began heading to Navigation without expanding on my statement. My girls followed suit.

When we reached the Celestial Array, Emily was struck in awe by the sight of Earth in front of her, “I’m actually in Space. This is crazy.” Samira went over to chat with her.

Kailah stayed with me, and I ran through an improvised checklist with her, “Is our cloak engaged? Are we safe to just roll up to Manhattan?” she nodded to both. Steeling myself, I focused onto the Celestial Array, and imagined the 3D model of Natalya’s home. I pictured flying directly above the building so as to avoid bumping into anything, and suddenly we were moving. At a noticeably reduced speed compared to inter-galactic travel, mind you. We were already in orbit over Earth, after all. We circled around the planet until we were looking down over North America, and then proceeded to descend. It was odd. The planet grew enormous in our view, and yet we felt no motion, we experienced naught the pull of new gravity. And as the sky turned from black to blue, we found ourselves over the cityscape of New York City.

Surrounded by shining buildings, living up to the name skyscrapers, we found ourselves hovering over our target, supposedly undetected. I turned to Kailah, “Are we low enough?”

She nodded, “The ship automatically corrected for placing the basement perfectly. Worry not, Master.” I felt comforted by her words. The first step of the plan, getting to our mark in time, was complete. “Please follow me to the basement, everyone.”

We followed in tow, until we were in a medium-sized open room, which Kailah stopped in, “Please step in the elevator,” and we understood. The door (which I didn’t notice) closed behind us and after a moment of… nothing happening, reopened into a cluttered, dank room.

The thing is, this place was clearly not meant to be a basement, it was a grand entrance hall. Columns, rugs, curtains, tables lined this place. I could have a banquet here if I wanted to. But there were boxes and chests and trinkets piled waist-high all over the place. Someone had converted this place into their attic storage. No wonder Kailah called it ‘the basement’.

I reflexively sneered, “I apologize, Master,” she said at my disapproval, “I will endeavor to clean up this place. Master Camellian was insistent that this was the ‘Basement Storage’, not the bottom entrance as it seems to have been designed as.”

I nodded my head in agreement, “Yeah, I’d appreciate that, Kailah. I might be using this place pretty often and I’d appreciate what amounts to the front door being a little tidier.” She bowed her head.

We waded through the clutter of the basement, before reaching large French Doors. “I’ll go ahead, husband,” Samira said for the first time in a while, “I’ll make sure there aren’t any surprises waiting for us,” and left through the front door with a twirl and a wink.

I looked to Emily, “Are you staying or coming?”

She said “Coming,” instantly, “You might need another pair of hands; Kailah has everything covered in here.”

Kailah agreed, “Master, I recommend you bring her in through the Parlor, not this door. I recommend you turn another door inside the penthouse into your entrance using the Key.”

“Okay,” I said, swallowing my saliva, “Let’s go.”

Emily and I opened the doors, revealing once more the New York Skyline. I stepped onto the building and it became very real. I could turn back now, but the operation was in full effect. Emily lightly jogged toward the roof access door, and I followed.

The door was locked, as expected, but I had a Skeleton Key. The Key of Camellian allowed me to open the door as normally as long as I willed it to, and we promptly entered as though we belonged. In my paranoia, I wrapped my hand in my sleeve before opening the door. We entered the building and were greeted by seemingly infinite stairs, “Should we wait for Samira, or assume that the top floor’s door is the right one?” asked Emily. I was going to ask her that, so I decided to prop myself against the door and wait for my wife. Examining the door, I decided ‘bulkhead’ was more appropriate. It was thick and locked manually multiple times. I wonder what the purpose was? Probably as secure as possible, but was some kind of city ordinance demanding its existence.

Samira reappeared through the door after a moment, “What are you waiting for?”

“You,” I replied dryly, “What’s on the other side of this door?”

“A laundry room,” she replied, “Looks like they have extensive maid service, but right now only the lady of the house is home. Exit the laundry room and you’ll be in the kitchen. I’ll instruct you from there.”

“Are there any doors I can use this on?” I asked, wiggling my key around.

“Yep, now get a move-on.” And she flew through the door. I looked at Emily briefly and used the key to enter the laundry room. The smell of dryer sheets and hum of electricity made me realize my senses were heightened. The thought occurred to me, “I hope there aren’t security cameras or anything in here.”

“Only one I’ve seen is by the front door,” Samira replied, “And I am perfect, you know. We’ll be fine,” and she flew ahead. She called out various commands, like, ‘through here’ and whatnot. It was kind of jarring. Here we were trying to be covert and shit, but this woman was barking commands to the open air at us, carried only by the fact only Emily and I could hear her. It did a good job cutting the stress a bit. I wasn’t some grizzled criminal after all. My hands were shaking a bit.

The penthouse was immaculate. It was two floors tall and was shaped in a U around a naturally-illuminated living room. I think I had seen an anime with a rich-people house that looked like this before. Samira beckoned us up the stairs dividing the floor of the living room with the bedrooms on the 2nd floor. At the end of a small balcony overlooking the living room was the last barrier between myself and Natalya. Music could be heard on the other side of the door, somewhat ajar.

Notably, the door had a keyhole.

I looked at Samira, the sound of blood moving through my neck deafening and I was swallowing saliva constantly, “She’s in there doing squats. Go in, grab her, bring her out, and turn the door into your new portal. She looks tough, though.”

Emily touched my shoulder and walked in front of me. ‘Leave it to me’ she mouthed, ‘Back me up, but mainly worry about the door.’

I nodded and told her, ‘At your re-’ and the door opened, revealing Natalya. And as much as I could say I was dumbstruck by her beauty, I was mainly kicked into 5th gear by panic.

She screamed, loudly, “WHO THE FU-” And Emily pounced on her, dragging her into the hallway and the two wrestled on the floor of the balcony. God, this was all kinds of fucked up. Not just **** this woman, but the plan itself was going wrong, if you could even call it a ‘plan’

“THE DOOR” she called out, and I followed through, putting the key into her bedroom door and turning it into a door to the entrance parlor. The door swung open, revealing the Camelback and Kailah on the other side.

“SHE’S GETTING AWAY!” Samira called out, causing me to turn around, Natalya had gotten loose from Emily and was making for the stairs quickly,

“Move aside, Master,” and before I could say anything, Kailah produced a glowing… something. She reared back and threw… a whip. A lasso that grabbed Natalya through the door, and with relative ease pulled the woman into the Camelback, screaming the entire time. She hoisted the woman over her shoulder, kicking and screaming, “I have her, Master. Please collect Emily and join me inside the Ship.”

And the door closed.

I looked down at Emily and helped her up. She had a scratch on her neck and a bloody nose, but she otherwise looked fine, “Are you okay?” I asked regardless.

“I’ve been through worse, but Audrey usually handles the grunt work,” and she sniffed.

I was about to reply when I heard a voice from below us, “Honey, are you here?”

Emily and I looked at each other and then I wordlessly opened the door to the Camelback before our presence could be discovered. Emily and I entered without a single comment further.

I closed the door behind us and saw Samira looking over the Mind Control Bed. The silenced screams of Natalya Harridan could be heard, her struggling within restraints observable.

“I have followed your instruction, Master,” said Kailah, standing over Natalya. God knows how she put her in that position, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Thank you, Kailah; well done. You carried this mission.” I said, out of breath.

“I am happy to have been of service and proud you are pleased,” she said with a curtsy, “Is there anything else?”

“There might be later, but that’s all for now,” I replied, dismissing her, “Actually, can you take care of Emily? She was hurt a little bit.” The girls then left the parlor, wandering somewhere into the ship.

Wordlessly, I began the mind control machine. The bed whirred and syringes emerged, eliciting louder screams from Natalya, which promptly died down.

“42 minutes to completion,” I said, reading off the monitor, “We did it.”

Samira nodded with a big smile on her face, “Another heroine tamed, Husband. Well done.”

“Yeah,” I replied, sitting down, “It only took a few years off my life.”

She laughed, “I’m certain you can come up with a way to vent your stress out on Mrs. Harridan in… about 40 minutes?”