The Vespidian

Arc 3 All These Squares

Chapter 4

Dreams, such odd things. At times comforting, at others madness incarnate or simply incoherent non sense. This though wasn’t exactly a dream per say, it was the the mental landscape that I was growing familiar with. I couldn’t find Sub at the moment, so perhaps this was some sort of a dream.

This place was… happy?

Unsettling I know. It was a bit creepy how cartoony and gleeful things were here. Not only that even the clouds up above were making happy little shapes like rabbits or cats. I could hear a snapping sound, the road lined with sunflowers shifted in the wind, except there was no wind. It was right about that moment I realized that the sunflowers had cat ears and faces.

They smiled watching me. All at once they broke out in song. A pink bubble of liquid seethed from the ground. It undulated as it began to swirl like some sort of magical girl transformation complete with a fast beat theme song. Wait a minute that is exactly what this was. I… I know that song. That was the theme song for Neko-chan from the Moon Sailors. Sure enough that bubblgum pink liquid ooze catgirl with a massive over sized mascot head, thin but busty body and over sized cat glove paws for hands and feet. She was a ‘villain’ before getting absolutely railed with the power love and turning into an ally of justice. From her color scheme it was clearly post pounding.

“La la la Nya nyan nya~

I believe in a thing called love.

It just rains down from up above.

So take my hand and let’s make merry!”

Her kitty titties bounced as she hopped and frolicked a bit. Every movement drawing the eye in a sensual sway. She leaned over tilting so that her boobs hung below her as her large head tilted back and forth happily like a metronome keeping a consistent beat. I squinted at that sexy bitch.

“This is a fever dream isn’t it?” I asked aloud.

“Dream?” she replied placing one of the large puffy fingers to her lips those large swirling spiral eyes tilted up in thought but her smile never left.

“Sub you are just fucking with me again aren’t you?” I pointed at the liquid catgirl as she jiggled joyfully.

“Sub? Nyyooo, I am Neko-chan! Ally of Justice, Love, and Peace.” She extended a pawed hand doing a V for victory sign.

I looked at it, shifting a little away from it, giving her some side eye. “What do you want?”

She slithered, slunk, somehow appearing behind me, pressing those slick melons against my back. Her voice licked down my spine. “What do you want? What do you desire. Nyahaha~”

I retreated from her touch, it burned… in a weirdly arousing way. Despite what I am I don’t swing that way. I put my hand between us keeping the bubbly cat girl at bay. Her eyes were wide, spirals of colors that swirled, pulling in the gaze.

She grabbed my hand swinging it as she skipped happily around me. Neko-chan bubbled and swirled gleefully bobbing. Making cute cat gestures and innocently provocative poses… It was just like a Moon Sailors episode. Was this really just a figment of my imagination? This is a fucking fever dream isn’t it?

“La la la nya nyan nya

So take my hand and you will see.

A colorful land of imagination

Filled to the brim with elation.

Nya nya this was meant to be.

Open up your heart and let me in.

Close your eyes and let the fun begin.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Asked Sub crawling out of the darkness.

I glanced at her away from the catgirl. “This bitch isn’t your doing?”

A shake of the head made it clear that Sub was just as perplexed by this entity as I was. Both of us observed the manic kitty girl as she swung and frolicked about, spouting lines from the Moon Sailors show. Everywhere that she touched the darkness receded creating a happy little bubble of sorts. There was something off about this… something wrong.

I mean as crazy as my weirdo fantasy stuff gets this, well is just a bit out of my wheel house. The vibe was off. Was there a vibe in here to begin with? I suppose it was dark and moody, maybe even a dash of depression. At least this outer layer. Inside was a lot more accommodating.

The question still remained, what the hell is Neko-chan? Is she a fragment of my conscious splitting off like Sub did? Or is it something else?

While I pondered this she slunk onto my back, getting me in a bear hug.

“I wouldn’t let that thing touch you.” Said Sub eyeing Neko-chan venomously.

“Why is that?” I asked as the cat paws groped at me, feeling about, kneading at my rock hard carapace.

Sub squinted, “Something is familiar about this thing, and not in a good way.”

“What are you anyway?” I asked managing to peel the cat off of me.

She bubbled about wagging her hand so that the paw brought a single finger up making it go back and forth. My eyes followed it. “Me? I am just your friendly neighborhood magical catgirl.”

“So if that is not you Sub, and it certainly not me. What do you think we should do with it?” I asked Sub.

My attention turned to Sub as she contemplated. Both of us kept the glowing pink figure in our peripheral, it kept edging towards me and we kept stepping away from it to keep distance. Finally it seemed that Neko-chan got impatient, she lunged at Sub who floated up out of reach causing the busty catgirl to bounce up and down as she jumped trying to catch Sub.

“Whatever the hell this thing is I think we need to get rid of it.” Said Sub.

“You think?” I asked, not too sure. As far as I could tell it wasn’t trying to hurt us.

At my words the large cat head spun around like an owl staring holes into me as the rest of its body shifted, its front switching sides with the back. A shiver jolted down my spine from that sickeningly fluid movement. That ain’t normal. Maybe… maybe it does need to be killed with fire?

I blinked and it was gone. Confusion then panic set in as I felt that warm sticky sensation of the goopey catgirl on my back. I tried to jolt away from her, but she coiled latching onto my back. Her arms locking around my neck as her hands gripped my head. The moment she touched me, pain shot through my mind mixed with some of sort of twisted elation. Her legs liquidly gripped me, gyrating as they spiraled around my hips.

I sputtered wrestling to get her off as her paws grew sharp claws digging into my head. “I… I… get away from me!”

“Nyoo~ let me in.” She whispered, hot musky breath on my neck.

My talons tore through her and ripped her off as she screamed. I hurled the cat girl away, watching as she splattered on the wall, drooping down into a puddle that almost instantly bounced back, pouncing at me. Just before she touched me a massive hand slammed down squishing her. Pink oozed out below that black and blue carapace.

My attention rose up following the gleaming arm of chitin. I stared for a long moment seeing not who I was expecting. Well I had been expecting Sub, but that… that was clearly the Mother Imperatrix. Her marred face squinting at the liquid cat girl that reformed scurrying about. She began punching down killing it, squishing it, yet it kept popping up slithering away from every blow.

“Be gone you wretched little Nightmare.” Her booming titanic voice echoed with a wave of wind sending Neko-chan spiraling away.

The distorted and broken feline stood up once more, face dripping, below it I saw that familiar melted opera mask. “Yes show me more. Open your mind more. That is it, let it all out.”

That was no Neko-chan! That was Dreamer.

“Why are you here, Dreamer?”

She dropped the facade. The pink oozing off of her and reforming many of the cat girls to her sides. Opposite her, on my side a legion of wasp women were forming from the darkness. A hive of bristling angry carapace.

She motioned dramatically, “For your mental health check up of course. My oh my you have some interesting demons in here. I have seen worse though. It seems you have been keeping secrets, naughty, naughty, Vesper.”

“How did you… wait that means you are touching my head right now. I said no you fucking bitch.” I growled.

Images appeared, forming like some sort of movie, memories dragged out. Flits of Molotov’s voice. Her little schemes being wrestled up from the bubbling depths. Nothing too compromising showing up just yet. A brief flash of my encounter with my parents, my mom throwing things at me as I cried.

“You could have just asked. I hate Molotov.” I pointed at her.

“Yes but would I get the full truth?” Asked Dreamer, her eyes scanning through the images.

“What would I have to hide? I haven’t done anything illegal that you guys don’t know about. This is harassment if anything.” I snarled at her. “Get out of my head right now or I am going to be making a lot of complaints.”

She contemplated it for a moment. Then a shiver went down my spine as she replied. “Since I am here I might as well be thorough. Just let me dig around a bit or I will force my way in. Trust me, you don’t want that, but if you insist on resisting then I will ensure that future sessions are much more streamlined.”

“Would you let somebody that could fuck up your mind in?”

“No.”

I nodded, “See so you do realize what you are wanting is messed up.”

“Why are you so resistant if you have nothing to hide? If I give you the all clear you get out of this little cage. Don’t you want revenge on Molotov after all that she did to you? I am just seeing bits and pieces here and it is dreadful what has happened to you. Let us, let me help you. I just need the information, that you have. Using it we can bring Molotov and many of the other villains in the city to Justice.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Why not? You can thank me for helping you against Captain Metal. It was my testimony that even let you stay here.”

I paused for a long moment. “Wait you testified against him?”

She nodded taking on a rather neutral stance, deescalating. “Of course I did, he was abusing his authority and assaulted you… actually more than that, it was attempted murder. We can’t have that in the Hero League. We must discipline the rotten apples or else it will make all of us look bad.”

I pointed at her, “Wait, wait so you are actually helping me?”

She nodded puzzled, “Very much so? Why wouldn’t I? It is part of my job, though more part of my duty as the local Mind Diver. All of the major Hero League divisions have check ups, fighting villains is a grueling and disturbing task at the best of times. Much the same as everyone gets a check up by Neon Nurse for physical, they get a check up from me for mental health. For instance Captain Metal will be getting some help from me to suppress some of his prejudices after what happened.”

I squinted at her. She was making some good points, but my wasp senses were bristling, something about her scared me. Before us my mind dragged up distorted memories that were not my own. The world of the mental landscape pulsed, images of violence and brutality beyond normal understanding appeared. It was familiar partly, that hellscape that I had seen when my mind was linked to Mother Imperatrix.

Oh fuck that ain’t gonna look good. I tried to shift it away but Dreamer had it rather locked in. A stabbing pain filling my head as she kept digging and digging, dragging what had been suppressed out. It seemed she was searching for my deepest, darkest secret, whatever the fuck that might be. Now I was getting a little scared, I don’t even know what the fuck is in there.

The ground littered with bodies expanding by the moment as it consumed our surroundings. Everything was moving very slowly. Undulating like ripples, the environment distorting in time with a loud heart beat. No it wasn’t just one heart it was countless pounding as one. Above the Spore writhed and twisted lashing down with catastrophic force. Everywhere it touched, vanished beneath a mountain of flesh and a scalding wave of heat and dust from it slamming down through the atmosphere, all mixed into walls of water from the displaced seas.

Above all the cacophony of screams, weapons firing, powers clashing, death untold, indiscriminate, above it all we gazed down upon the surging waves of carapace. An endless swarming tide so thick it blotted out the skies with orange wings and deep dark blue carapace. It was apocalyptic to say the least. This was visions of the end of a world.

This was different than I recalled, the pain was muted, it wasn’t consuming like last time. Perhaps not being directly linked to the source was dampening the sensation.

A sound rose, a voice, familiar it was her, that one that sang to me and soothed my fears during the transformation. Sure enough the image of that massive wasp woman shrouded in a jellyfish of sorts that contorted around her creating living and wriggling robes.

Her voice was, not happy, not soothing. It was sad. A litany. A dirge of despair. Though we could not see her eyes she was crying, wailing but, she never stopped singing. As to what she was saying, I couldn’t tell it was in a different language. But I could feel the pain, the rage, the sorrow. Her tone cracking and distorting monstrously and as it did the other wasps grew stronger, shrugging off blows that had previously destroyed them. Even marred, mangled they crawled and flew and rushed forward, no sense of self preservation. Relentless. Bodies regrowing rapidly as they glowed all under the chorus of that wasp and her brood that formed a choir.

Dreamer observed the twisted scene a long time until something seemed to click before saying, “Huh Latin, odd place be seeing a dead language. Though I suppose the elves do use it as well. I didn’t know you were a linguist.”

I denied it vehemently, “I don’t know a word of what she is saying. Elves?”

That gave Dreamer pause, “Indeed, the elves, you know the ones that crossed over in dimension breaches a while back. Interesting, this is your mind, it is very out of place that a language not known would be popping up.”

“So you know what she is saying?” I asked.

“Somewhat, last time I even studied Latin was in college. That was a long while ago. But should be good enough. Lets see.” She paused listening to the haunting voice.

The voice sang, “Per caelos, cum vi volamus,

Alae aurantiacae, lucem stellarum obfundentes.

Timor humanus, dulce gaudium nostrum,

Heroes eorum tremunt, in conspectu nostro.”

“It seems to be a war ballot of sorts. I think it is something like, Through the skies, we soar with might, Wings of orange, drowning starlight. Human's fear, our sweet delight, Their heroes tremble, in our sight… hmm rather poetic.”

Dreamer fell behind a bit having to translate and several verses went by.

“O Imperatrix Mater, Mater,

Eos solvere cogam,

Pro qualibet gutta sanguinis Vespidiani,

In bello, gradum nostrum invenimus,

Resistentia opprimendi, iuxta se.

Heros an sceleratus omnes praeda nostra sunt,

Omnem nostrum dolorem reddemus.

Audi murmur, crescentem tempestatem,

Finis hominis, nova nostra norma.

Ex cineribus eorum, thronum nostrum aedificabimus,

Regnum ubi imperium Matris seminatur.”

That took Dreamer a bit longer as she worded it out, for all the hate I had been giving her it was kind of useful having somebody who knew stuff. Though something tells me that Neon Nurse could probably do it faster and better. At least that was the thought until the words came out. Some things are probably better not known.

“Oh Mother, Empress Mother. We will force them to pay. For every drop of Vespidian blood, In the war, we find our stride, Crushing resistance, side by side. Hero or Villain are all our prey, All our suffering we will repay. Hear the buzz, a growing storm, Human's end, our new norm. From their ashes, we'll build our throne, A kingdom where Mother's rule is sown.”

She tilted her head in my directing giving me a long hard stare, couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or what, but it was clear that her opinion of me was tanking very quickly. “Do I need to tell you how bad this is starting to look?”

I threw my hands up in exasperation, “I got no skin in this game. I don’t even what that bitch is saying. All this shit is news to me too.”

She pointed between me and the singer damning me, “You are a fucking wasp monster, same as that thing. This is all coming out of your head, which means it is your thoughts. Only real question being, are these things real, is it actual memory or is all this just your mind being delusional? I am leaning more towards delusions of grandeur seeing as how the world is not burning and overrun by wasp monsters.”

“Lets be reasonable here, look at how big she is compared to me, clearly this is nothing that I am doing.”

“True, you are rather weak, unlike whatever the hell is going on here.” She gave me some side eye before resuming listening.

“Ultionis causa pro occisis, navem conscendere solemus,

Sorores, vestigium vestrum relinquite!

Hic mundus bellum nostrum infinitum cognoscet,

Amor matris, in aeternum!

O Mater, tibi canimus!

Finem huic facinori da.

Ira et dolor tuus hunc mundum purgent!

Vide dum heroes eorum effringunt et fugiunt!

In Bello Vespae, supervivemus,

Una, vincemus et florebimus!”

The song came to an end, hymns and buzzing sung by a choir or smaller wasps covered up the sounds of destruction below it. Not sure why but I was getting serious cult and religious vibes from those wasps. Dreamer was mulling it over.

“For revenge of the fallen, we embark, Sisters, leave your mark. This world will know our endless war, Mother's love, forevermore. Oh, Mother, we sing to thee. End this travesty. Let your rage and sorrow wash this world clean. Watch as their heroes break and flee. In the War of the Wasp, we'll survive, Together, we'll conquer and thrive.”

Dreamer pieced it together, mostly, though I kinda wish she had not. It sounded a lot nicer when I couldn’t understand the words. She was about to say something when the memories or whatever this was changed… and I thought it couldn’t get worse. Oh how wrong I was. What the fuck have you been doing Imperatrix?

It shifted from the war torn tundra to a bristling, undulating hive. From the perspective, it looked like somewhere not on earth, after all earth was visible through the glowing gelatinous walls.

Limbs, twisted and broken, piled. Humans being eaten, ripped apart by well, the swarm of Vespidian. The walls were lined with people, encased bodies half hanging out of hive cells. Shrieks and wails and screams were the ambient chorus. The largest of the wasp women were shifting about the walls, plunging their abdomens into the hapless. A gurgling, wet noise of eggs flowing. All the while the massive wasp abdomen that lay upon the floor between the legs of whatever, whoever, or rather the Mother Empress’s view, split and tore regrowing as more wasp women pulled themselves free. Though it was muted, I could feel what she was in that moment. Radiating little shocks of pain and a depraved sense of fulfillment.

It was in a word, horrifying. Twisted. The back of my head tingling with heat, almost arousal. That bitch was getting off on the pain.

I baulked, “Uhh I don’t know what any of that is. I certainly haven't done that. Hell look how big that thing is, clearly it is not me. Might be a fucked up nightmare or something? I am gonna be real with you, all the wasp stuff has been keeping me up at night and freaking me out.”

Dreamer stared at it for a long while, contemplating. “I think this might be a manifestation of your fears, of what you are now and what you might do. It almost seems like you are afraid of yourself. It is disturbing to say the least.”

“Well I mean I certainly have been through a lot. Looks like this is some trauma given form mixed with fears of being a wasp thing.” I said, not entirely lying, the wasp stuff was going into some dark territory.

Dreamer took a moment longer before the image faded. She nodded. “Not what I was looking for, but it appears we have stumbled upon one of your many traumas. Normally if you were my patient we would be digging into it a little more and I would be asking you, And how did that make your feel? This will do for now. We will need to do more work to fix this sort of thing. As odd, unsettling as it might be, this isn’t even close to the worst I have seen in some villains and even heroes heads. I helped bust a child trafficking ring a while back. There are some truly disgusting and vile individuals out there. From my estimation you are a more passive and reactive entity. As such you will need some more observation.”

“That isn’t that bad? What is the worst thing you have seen?”

She waved her hand dismissively, “You don’t want to know. I have seen some things that would drive lesser people insane. Worst here in city would be Diablo De Chellar druggies, their minds are always fucked up in many ways.”

“Oh the Cartel members?”

“Yeah they are brutal and cruel. Lots of rape, torture, murder, and the like. One of them that recently got brought in skinned somebody alive. I suppose I am a bit desensitized after all the shit I have seen. Dark things indeed. Scum, lowest of the low. Comparatively you are not so bad, kinda… some of that was pretty fucking damning I will be honest. Half that shit would get you sent to a psyche ward without a second thought. Well, clearly you didn’t do any of that shit so for now I will be giving you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps all that is just a congealed mass of trauma and phobia, it will take some digging to see. But make no mistake your leash will be short very, very short.”

I nodded, “See, I am not so bad. I mostly just want to be left alone.”

“Be that as it may, I will need to observe you more.”

“Observe me?”

“Yes I will need you to cooperate. From what I see, it would be dangerous to release you into service as you are now. You are unstable. Wouldn’t want you killing someone, by accident or otherwise.”

I scoffed at her, “I wouldn’t kill anybody.”

“True you are not a hardened criminal, you did get cold feet when assailing Captain Metal. From what I saw you could have killed him pretty easily. Normally that would be enough, but with how dark your thoughts are and well, what you are being a bit of an enigma it gives me pause.”

I crossed my arms, “I kind of doubt that I could have killed him that easily.”

She laughed a little, “He was helpless, let his guard down and got overly confident. After you stung him, it would have been easy to crush his head. I am glad that you did not. You showed restraint even through the frenzied rage. And that right there is why I am even considering your approval.”

With that she vanished, fading out of existence. I breathed a sigh of relief, we avoided a mind fucking and kept the morally dubious stuff hidden… sort of, damn you Imperatrix why did you have leave all that fucked up shit in my head? But that still left the giant wasp woman in the room. She, she was still here gazing down at me, broken a bit, distorted, fragmented, but still here.

“That is you, right, Sub?”

“Damn you got me,” the much larger counterpart replied fading in and out.

After a moment it faded completely, a wisp, a phantasm just leaving Sub. She rubbed her hands evilly, “Had you going, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you did you cunt. Why didn’t you keep that creepy shit under wraps?”

“I tried, but that bitch is strong she just dug right into my secret stash of memories. Good thing she didn’t go a little to the side and hit the tentacle stuff or the breeding memories. Spicy stuff in there.”

“Secret stash of memories?”

“Yeah, you know keeping them safe.”

“What the fuck is in there?”

Sub got dodgy. “Eh I don’t think your mind can handle all of the stuff in there. No worries though I am keeping our brain nice and squeaky clean. Not a wrinkle in sight. So you don’t have to worry about anything, but what is going on out there.”

“What is going on out there?”

“Some sketchy shit. You need to wake up.”

***

I awoke, not to cake or a celebration, but an array of green suited scientists observing me. Half asleep I slapped away some sort of scanning device. The hand holding it snapped from the force as the man reeled back. Crying out in shock from the sudden hit. The rest retreating back out of my enclosure.

“Take him to medical quickly, she attacked.”

I shook my head getting the fog of sleep out as I shot awake. My eyes narrowed as I looked about the sealed observation room. Just about all of my stuff had been rifled through and placed haphazardly around my room. Mr. Bubbles was not pleased, he was flared up with the lil wigglers shifting about as his head stuck out of the castle in his tank. Beyond the safety of the glass were the perpetrators of this. The green suited bastards. Each having a distinctive hero league badge on their chest.

“Who the fuck are you people invading my space like this?” I asked tapping at the thick glass. “I mean Swolix you didn’t even knock.”

“You sleep rather heavily,” said Dreamer, gazing from the safety of the other side, “Now, now, no need for violence. That is only hurting your case. There has been a change of plans so to speak, after I brought my concerns up to Ring Master, your quarantine has been extended. You will be under strict observation.”

“What about Neon Nurse and Dr. Arbor they were supposed to be in charge of my care.”

“They still are, regrettably… thanks to their interference I wasn’t able to ship you off to the Institute, but the compromise was until I deem you are ready, you don’t leave this room.”

“What is with all these weirdos?” I asked looking over the green suited people.

“Well after what I saw in your head, we thought it prudent to analyze you, study you. Compiling and joining our findings with what has been taken from Dr. Arbor and Neon Nurse. At the very least we will learn your weaknesses in case you attempt to turn on us. You were having genocidal thoughts of destroying humanity after all. That is rather large red flag and a hallmark of villainy.”

You know… I think it would have been better if she had seen that Molotov was trying make me into her mole or even whatever the hell was in that tentacle section, rather than all that evil wasp stuff. Damn you Imperatrix, always fucking up my life.

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