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Marvel: King of The Swarm Chapter 15: Indulgence and Responsibility
🕑 Added 2025-05-31 15:36:03 +0000 UTCBetty woke up with a groan as she opened her eyes and found herself lying on her side, naked and covered with the softest sheets she had ever felt with what felt like a solid cloud beneath her. For a moment Betty couldn't place where she was, and then everything came rushing back to her and she sat up with a sudden shock.
'Hm, I was wondering when you were going to wake up,' Harry's voice echoed in Betty's mind as if it had always belonged, 'So, tell me how does it feel...waking up with a completely new perspective?'
'It's strange,' Betty replied telepathically and found it easier than talking with words as she got out of bed letting the black silken sheets slide off her naked body, 'I can remember everything from before, but things that once brought me joy, sadness, anger, they barely registered to me. I know now that such things are all superfluous.'
'But you can still feel emotion, I made sure that the Seed only slightly modified the paleomammalian cortex,' Harry clarified as Betty started to walk downstairs her steps possessing an inhuman grace like she was gliding across the floor.
'I can, but you shifted my entire perspective at a conscious and subconscious level. For instance, I no longer feel any emotional connection or attachment to my parents or any human for that matter. Their lives and well-being are of no significance, they are beneath me,' Betty answered in a steady tone as she reached the ground floor and turned to look at Harry who stood in front of the stove attending to a pan with a board of freshly cut ingredients on the counter next to him.
Moving up behind him Betty pressed her naked body against his back as her hands slid around his chest, 'Why are you cooking? We don't need food to sustain ourselves.'
"That's why I'm doing it," Harry replied this time vocally as he tilted the pan covering the hot skillet with a fluffy golden layer, "It's not a necessity, nothing truly is when you're the perfect lifeform with potentially infinite power. Instead of slowly corrupting your morality and seducing you, I could have subjugated your mind and turned you into a thoughtless puppet. But I didn't, instead, I chose to indulge, to enjoy the carnal pleasure summoned by the most rudimentary part of my infinitely sophisticated mind."
Betty watched and listened in silence as Harry grabbed the cutting board and dumped the contents into the pan that hissed and sizzled sending steam and vapor into the air that wafted across Betty's nose, "That is what gives my purpose, meaning. Allowing myself to take a less efficient path to satisfy irrational and illogical wants and desires. Remember our time is infinite and our goal of expansion and evolution is endless, there is no need to optimize every second or even every billion years."
With a simple flip of the pan, Harry folded the cooked eggs over the mix of sauteed vegetables, feta cheese, browned sausage, and crispy bacon bits. With a final application of heat, Harry seared the omelet close and plated the dish before adding salt and pepper from a grinder.
Betty took a step back as Harry grabbed a fork and a knife, using them to cut off a piece of the omelet that he speared before turning around to present the food to Betty. Starring at the fluffy eggs and stuffing Betty could smell the carefully prepared food, but it didn't elicit any reaction, her mouth didn't water and her stomach didn't growl even though Betty hadn't eaten in hours. Still, Betty opened her mouth allowing Harry to feed her.
However, the moment the piece of omelet touched her tongue, Betty's eyes widened as she started to eagerly chew as the flavors spread through her mouth. Watching her reaction Harry took another bite for himself and grinned, "Whether it be virtue or sin that motivates you, indulge in it, indulge fully. When you have absolute control over yourself every action and every decision, even your next breath, should be made to bring you the most pleasure and enjoyment."
Betty swallowed before looking up at Harry as a gleam lit up in her eyes, "Thank you for showing me...the true meaning of my new existence."
Wrapping her arms around Harry's neck Betty pulled herself up and kissed him hard. Responding in kind Harry grabbed Betty's ass before lifting her off the ground and sitting her on the counter top letting Betty wrap her legs around Harry's waist as his hands trailed over her curves and the slight barely noticeable swell of her stomach.
---
"Hey Gwen, you got a moment to talk?"
"Uuhhh, not really kinda in the middle of something!" Gwen exclaimed as she jumped into the air flipping over a hail of bullets before returning fire with her webbing that slammed the offending gang member against the wall behind him before wrapping him up in thick silken strands.
"Then why did you pick up?"
"Because you said it was an emergency, Liz!" Gwen shouted as she landed and immediately ducked under a wild punch before rolling across the ground to avoid a sweeping kick.
"It is an emergency, Betty isn't in school and she's still not answering her phone! I'm really worried about her Gwen and you should too!" Liz shouted back chastising her, "This all happened after her date with Harry, what if he did something to her!"
Gwen's jaw clenched, unable to verbally refute Liz's claim. She knew something was wrong with Harry, her suspicion had been raised since she learned about him being the son of Norman Osborn, and even more so when he managed to somehow completely bypass her enhanced senses.
"Look I need to call you later, we can talk about it then," Gwen muttered repressing a sigh as she sprang to her feet and into a backhand spring just as a high caliber round from the sniper perched above in the catwalks of the warehouse slammed into the concrete where she had just been standing.
"You mean when you're practically half asleep and being a moody bitch?" Liz asked sarcastically, "Seriously I'm getting so sick of you ducking us all the time Gwen, I know Peter dying was a huge blow to you, but we can't help if you won't let us!"
Gwen's stomach tightened into a knot but she pushed through with an audible grow as pointed her wrists up sending two strands of webbing flying through the air that latched onto the catwalk to either side of the sniper. With a sharp tug, the metal walkway squealed as Gwen tore it from the roof and the sniper screamed as he fell through the air. But a quick web shot wrapped the man in a cacoon ensuring he survived the fall.
"Hello? Gwen you still there?"
"I gotta go Liz," Gwen replied in her voice barely above a whisper before she pressed the cowl of her suit ending the call. Turning to face the last gang members standing in the warehouse as the ruined catwalk came crashing down around her Gwen watched as they turned around and ran panic etched onto their faces.
Instead of running after them, Gwen waited until they were out of view before sagging dropping into a crouch as she let out a long tired sigh, "Can this day get any fucking worse?"
Even after intercepting the Kingpin's shipment of guns, Gwen hadn't managed to stop or even delay his hostile takeover of the city. Instead, Fisk has his men indiscriminately target the stash holds of other gangs in New York City quickly snowballing into an all-out war as every crimelord used the opportunity to grab any scrap of power with territory lines being redrawn every minute.
The worst part was that Gwen didn't know why, Fisk usually operated with surgical precision very rarely using the overwhelming strength he possessed both physically and within his criminal organization unless absolutely necessary. So to see him come storming out right from the beginning was setting off alarm bells in Gwen's head, 'He has something big planned, and I have no idea what it is or how to even find out.'
Hanging her head in her hands Gwen groaned, 'I can't keep going from warehouse to construction to drug lab, thinking it's going to make a difference. I need to look at this strategically.'
Before Gwen could complete her thought, another call came through this one for the secure contact that she only gave to people who knew her as Spider Woman. Checking the ID Gwen quickly answered the call, "What's up Yuriko?"
"Oh besides the city tearing itself apart in a full-blown gang war, nothing much," The NYPD detective replied snarkily a shield from the deep weariness that was no doubt weighing down on her, "I'm calling to make sure that you haven't been to the abandoned apartments on Belmont Drive in the Bronx."
"No I'm in Brooklyn right now, why what's wrong?" Gwen asked as she stood up sensing the underlying urgency in Yuriko's voice.
"Just get here as soon as you can...it's bad Spider, real bad."
