Pandora watched as Mistress Carpenter’s eyes narrowed as she looked over Pandora until their eyes met, “Another youth filled with righteous indignation. You’ll need to check that attitude, it could get you into real trouble,” she said as she pointed at Pandora, “Boys, try not to harm her, subdue, and sedate her we need to be on our way.
“Wait just a…” Dr. Broyles started to say until Mistress Carpenter focused her gaze on her which caused Dr. Broyles to go silent.
Pandora stood still as both men approached her and grabbed her by her upper arms as one of them reached for a syringe in his back pocket. While the one bodyguard held her left arm with his right hand, he held out the syringe so his partner could hold her right arm with his left hand and remove the cap with his left hand. Pandora stood perfectly still as the cap was removed. She also planted herself so she couldn’t be moved. The bodyguard with the syringe tried to adjust her as he tried to reach the syringe towards her right thigh but she didn’t so much as twitch.
“What’s the holdup? Just put the sedative into her ass so we can go,” Miss Carpenter said.
The bodyguard holding the syringe let go of her left arm and moved behind Pandora so he could stab her in the left thigh, just below her ass. It didn’t go the way he expected. Not because Pandora did anything to stop him. She didn’t move. No, what surprised him was the fact that as soon as the needle of the syringe touched her thigh, the whole syringe and its contents disappeared as Pandora absorbed it.
“What the hell?” the bodyguard started to say as Pandora moved.
Unlike her father, Pandora was not trained in martial arts, had not been in countless battles and currently she didn’t know her own strength. Therefore, when she reached out to lightly tap the man on the top of the head to knock him out she had no idea that her blow crushed his skull and shattered his spin as his body crumpled to the ground. She’d assumed he’d be unconscious and hadn’t waited to see what happened as she brought her right arm back and flung the bodyguard that had been holding her at the wall beside Dr. Broyles.
Only then did she realize that she might have to tone down her physical responses as the bodyguard exploded through the wall into the next room, through that room, and into the wall on the far side as well. Dr. Broyles, Mistress Carpenter, and Pandora froze. Slowly Pandora looked to her left where the crumpled bodyguard was obviously dead as blood and brain matter oozed from his ears, nose, and mouth. Then her gaze looked at the hole in the wall and the blood that had exploded from the corpse before it had crashed through the second wall.
As Pandora was looking at what she’d done, Mistress Carpenter tried to move toward the door. As soon as she moved though, Pandora exploded into action and grabbed her by the top of her head which immobilized her. Pandora turned Mistress Carpenter so they were looking eye to eye and asked, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Mistress Carpenter responded by pulling a small caliber gun from her waistline, placing it against the center of Pandora’s chest, right between her breasts, and a little to the left of center which was directly over Pandora’s heart as she pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for Mistress Carpenter and unknown to Pandora because she couldn’t see her combat prompts at the moment, Pandora had a minimum Damage Threshold of 6 with her current attributes. That meant that any damage that didn’t do at least 7 points of damage wouldn’t even pierce her skin. The .22 caliber weapon Mistress Carpenter shot Pandora with did 2 - 4 points of damage. Not enough to pierce Pandora’s skin.
The gun exploded as the bullet bounced off Pandora’s skin and went back up the barrel that had just fired it. As the exploding gun shredded Mistress Carpenter’s hand, Dr. Broyles dove for cover. This didn’t matter to Mistress Carpenter or Pandora though. Pandora had activated Absorb Memories and while she couldn’t see her Status Screen or how much mana she had she could will herself to absorb as many memories as she could, which she did.
While Pandora didn’t know how much mana she spent, Caspa watched in the background as Pandora spent 60,984 of her 61,520 mana to absorb 77 days' worth of memories from Mistress Carpenter. While Pandora couldn’t see her Status or double-check her abilities, Caspa reviewed the ability she was using.
Absorb: Memories: For 33 Mana you may absorb the surface memories from the target. This will include everything the target has seen and witnessed within the last hours. How far you can copy memories from the target into the past can be extended at a rate of 33 mana for each additional hour so long as contact is maintained with the target. Also, memories can be reviewed at the time the ability is used or the ability can be used and the memories can be reviewed later. Memories reviewed are permanent and fade with time, as all memories do.
Pandora reviewed Mistress Carpenter's memories then and there. She lived through the decadence and debauchery of Mr. Carpenter and the things he did to the young women he acquired, used, and usually discarded. Only those that were considered breeding stock were kept. The others were…
Pandora’s anger flared and she unconsciously began squeezing her hand which made an audible cracking sound. The sound brought her back to herself and she stopped. She willed herself to heal Mistress Carpenter. Not because the woman wasn’t complicit in what was being done to the girls. No, she healed Mistress Carpenter because she only had 77 days of her memories and Pandora would probably need to get more information out of her later. Also, the gunshot was probably going to draw attention she didn’t want right now.
Pandora watched Dr. Broyles's eyes widen as she witnessed the damage to Mistress Carpenter’s hand and skull fix itself and as her eyes fluttered open. She was also watched as the door to the room swung open and two security started to step through.
Dr. Broyles declared, “Out!”
While Pandora still had her hand on the Mistress's arm she nodded and indicated that the guards should go as well. The guards looked at the room, looked at the three women, and then promptly turned and left. Once the two security guards were gone, Pandora casually reached down and absorbed each of the bodyguards in turn. She didn’t know how much energy she had arrived in this world with but she knew she might need some. The two dead bodies were evidence she didn’t want to leave behind so easy enough to clean up.
Another reason she didn’t just kill Mistress Carpenter was that while this might be a new world, she had just had all those courses on running empires. Keeping the woman who knew all about the empire she was going to take control of around was probably a good idea.
Pandora turned to Dr. Broyles and asked, “Dr Broyles, do you have any clothes I can put on? I can’t very well walk around this world naked.
“Ummm,” Dr. Broyles started to say
“We have clothes for you, just outside the room. Well, a robe and some undergarments anyway,” Mistress Carpenter said.
“Let me guess, my wrappings for Mr. Carpenter?” Pandora asked disdainfully.
“I don’t know what you did but I feel like my mind has been scrambled,” Mistress Carpenter said.
“I read your memories for the last couple of weeks. Are you to take me to ‘The Room’ from here?”
“Yes, we are to go to ‘The Room’ from here. He has been preparing it for you since you were brought here. He seemed quite excited.”
“I’ve seen what he’s done to those women and girls that were deemed not pretty enough to be ‘breeding stock’ from your memories. To say I am appalled would be an understatement,” Pandora said.
“To the Victor, the Spoils,” Mistress Carpenter quipped back. Which Pandora picked up from her memories was a saying of the empire that ruled this world. It was also something her mother had said to her father right after they met.
Pandora snorted disdainfully as she asked, “Are the clothes in my size?”
“Of course? We called over to the hospital earlier and requested your measurements for the items we brought.”
Pandora sighed, then an aspect of her mother’s persona showed through as she thought, As last sights go, letting him see me in whatever he prepared before I take everything away from him seems fair. Pandora took a breath to calm herself as she turned back to Dr. Broyles and said, “Please grab the clothes from outside the door.”
Dr. Broyles, a thousand questions spinning through her mind, nodded and then moved to the door, opened it, and reached out. When she brought her hand back into the room it held a clothes bag. Once the door was closed she hung the clothes bag on a hook on the back of the door and opened it revealing a robe, a set a white bra, and white panties.
“White, seriously?” Pandora asked.
“Mr. Carpenter prefers all of his virgins to wear white before he breaks them in. Once a woman he owns is no longer a virgin she may not wear white undergarments again unless she is the First Wife, such as myself,” Mistress Carpenter said.
“What an absolute Piece of Shit,” Pandora said as she walked over and grabbed the panties and bra. She put both on and had to admit they were both quite comfortable and fit her well. She hadn’t really thought about her body but realized that her hair was cut, her underarms had no hair and her pubic region looked trimmed. She hadn’t done any of that. Her body’s hair just grew that way. From Mistress Carpenter’s memories, she knew that the woman dedicated hours to maintaining her body to the standards Mr. Carpenter required. Pandora’s mother would have referred to him as a misogynist asshole. She knew this because the phrase kept popping into her mind as she put the bra and panties on. Though she was concerned that her body conformed to the pervert's tastes without her conscious thought, that was unsettling.
Next, Pandora slipped on the white robe which also had a thick cowl that would allow her to cover her face so no one would know who she was or what she had on under the robe.
Pandora left the cowl down for now as she turned to Dr. Broyles, “Dr. we’ll be in touch eventually. For your own safety, I would not speak of my visit other than to say you looked at the results and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Once I’m settled I’ll seek you out. I need more context for this world but I’m afraid I don’t have time to do that right now.”
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Mistress Carpenter waited until Pandora looked at her and then asked, “What happened to the guards?”
“The guards are gone. Gone forever,” Pandora said.
“What about the Security guards and what they saw?” Dr. Broyles asked.
“Inform them that Mistress Carpenter will be sending someone over to talk with and compensate them for their silence,” Pandora said
“And what happens to me now?” Mistress Carpenter asked.
“Now,” Pandora said. “Now, you take me to the location of ‘The Room’ and I go see Mr. Carpenter. I still need you, so I’ll tell you this. So long as you don’t try anything you get to live. If you do try anything, do I really need to spell it out?” Pandora asked.
“No, you don’t need to spell it out. If I’m taking you to ‘The Room’ then I need to be in charge as we leave here which means when you leave you need to do exactly what I say when I say it until we arrive at ‘The Room’”, Mistress Carpenter said.
“That almost sounds like you want to help me,” Pandora said speculatively.
“Yes, I have participated in some very deplorable behavior. Behavior I’m not very proud of. That is the role of women though. We do what we’re told, or we’re discarded like trash unless we’re lucky enough to find a man like Dr. Broyles’s father. Yes, Doctor I know exactly who your father is, all prominent women do, and we do respect him and the accomplishments he’s achieved.”
“Still, I will warn you Mistress Carpenter, if you try to cross me, this is your one and only chance,” Pandora said.
“Very well, please follow me, “Mistress Carpenter said as she waited for Pandora to release her. Pandora let go and she stood, brushed herself off. Went over to the mirror above the small sink that all exam rooms had and checked her makeup before she walked over to the door, took a deep breath, and let it out. Mistress Carpenter opened the door and started to exit the room as she turned her head over her shoulder as if talking to someone and said, “Boys, fill out the paperwork and make sure Dr. Broyles has everything she needs. We’ll see you back at the Estate. Pandora, please be a dear and stay right behind me, cowl up and eyes down.”
Pandora pulled up the Cowl and thought about portraying a demure persona while she followed Mistress Carpenter. As they made their way through the hospital no one stopped them, no one interrupted them, and no one asked either of them any questions. When they made their way outside a long car, her mother’s memories described it as a limousine, was waiting which they both climbed into the back of. As they were walking up to the car Mistress Carpenter whispered, “Mr. Carpenter can see and hear everything inside the car.”
They both climbed in. Mistress Carpenter sat facing the front while Pandora sat on a seat with her back to the driver. They didn’t talk as the driver pulled out into traffic and made his way toward the location of ‘The Room.’ While the car drove through the city, Pandora ignored her surroundings. Now that she had some time to herself, she allowed her mind to settle as she willed her focus into her Mindspace. She felt as if she were traveling backward down a very long dark tunnel away from the sounds, lights, and smells of the real world until she found herself standing on an empty plane with a shadow dragon in front of her. She looked closer and realized it was Caspa. Caspa had taken on the persona of her Shadow Dragon form.
“There you are! I was worried,” Pandora said
“Nothing to worry about, I am always with you. It just looks like our normal forms of communication do not work here,” Caspa said.
“How is that possible, You are part of me?” Pandora asked.
“If I had to guess, it sounds a lot like what your father described to your mother in one of her memories. A place where magic doesn’t work right. Where his Personal Interface or Status Screen and notification wouldn’t work. Does that sound familiar?” Caspa asked.
“That does sound familiar. That was also when he was telling the story about the Adamantium Ring he had.”
“Yep, that’s the memory,” Caspa agreed.
“Can you pull up my status here?” Pandora asked.
“Yes, here in your mindscape we can pull up your personal information and even view some of your notifications, but others are suppressed. For instance, while I know the two guards you killed were level 10, that’s all I know. I can’t see the combat logs. All I could see was the congratulations notification that you had defeated them.”
“That doesn’t sound very helpful?” Pandora said.
“Review your memories, I think I remember seeing something about the fact that everyone in your father’s world when there was no active magic was very low level.”
“That sounds right.”
“Well, all of your attributes here are over 6,000 right now. If this world follows the rules like your father's world did the average attribute will be 10. You’re way above that.
“That would explain why I accidentally killed those two guards. Wait, if there’s no magic, how am I using my abilities and mana?” Pandora asked.
“If I had to guess, it’s because you are permanently linked to chaos through me?” Caspa said. “Chaos can take on any form or function so you can use those abilities you had with the chaos in your system. You can use it to fuel your abilities. That’s just a guess though.”
“It might be a guess but it sounds like a good one and makes sense,” Pandora agreed.
“So, the question becomes, what are you going to do here in this world?” Caspa asked.
“I’m not my father so coming up with some cool technology that will get me out of this is off the table. The first thing I’m going to do though is end this Mr. Carpenter guy. He is evil with a capital E. I mean Caspa, when you get a chance go through my recent memories and take a look at what he does to his new female acquisitions. Just disgusting. Then if they’re too feisty or not good enough he sells them off to whore houses in destitute areas where they live out the rest of their very short lives as sex slaves or slave labor. He also pays an extra fee to make sure they have very short lives, no matter how beautiful they are. It’s just disgusting.
“Sounds like you have a plan?” Caspa said.
“I do. If there’s no magic in this world and I’m the apex predator here, that’ll just make it a lot easier.”
“So what are you going to do first?” Caspa asked.
Pandora took time to check her physical surroundings outside her Mindspace and saw that they were driving into the parking garage of the apartment complex where Mr. Carpenter had his playroom. She brought her focus back to the Caspa as she said, “First I’m going to give him a show. Let him see what he thinks he has and then I’m going to utterly destroy him in such a way that I’ll be able to acquire all of his holdings and such.”
“You’re going to use Amalgamation?”
“Yes, I’m going to try to. If I can do that, I’ll get all of his memories. With his memories and our other ability to take on his material properties. I should be able to step into his life as needed and then I can use his empire to make the changes I need to.”
“I don’t think that’s what that upgrade to absorb was for,” Caspa said.
“Well see, won't we? Looks like we’re there, I’ve gotta get going. Hopefully, we won’t be in this place without magic for too long. I miss you,” Pandora said.
“I miss you too, now be safe and don’t have too much fun bringing the pain to the asshole.”
“No promises!” Pandora called out as her focus rushed back to her body. She looked around and noticed that they had pulled into a parking spot that was sealed off from the street. A rolling door came down and the limo was completely cut off from the rest of the world. Pandora watched as Mistress Carpenter stripped.
Pandora was about to ask a question when Mistress Carpenter said. From this point on the only people in the room with clothes on will be you and Mr. Carpenter. Everyone else, including myself, will be nude.”
Pandora was going to respond but just then her door opened, and another nude woman reached in and took her hand to draw her out of the car. Once she stepped out four women flanked and guided her down a hallway, through a door, and into a giant room that looked like something out of one of her father’s hentai bondage videos. How did she know what a hentai bondage video was? As she thought that another memory from her mother surfaced where her father was explaining what they were as he showed her mother pictures. Mom had been interested in the depravity of the humans of Earth in a clinical fashion, but their fiction and ideas hadn’t really interested her. It seemed that Mr. Carpenter had similar Fetishes.
Pandora was led up onto a stage where her robe was removed and she was left standing there in her white bra and panties. “Nice, very nice. I knew you would be perfect,” Michael Carpenter said as he stepped up in front of her.”
Mr. Carpenter had been far too excited to notice that Pandora’s stance and aura did not convey shyness or fear. In fact, Pandora had her feet planted and her hands moved to her hips in a natural power pose her mother had used more than once when dealing with men of one race or another. Pandora looked over at Michael Carpenter and saw a perverted psycho with nothing that interested her further. It was a shame really. he had been so nice when they first met. Tired of playing games, Pandora absorbed the panties and the bra, leaving her fully nude for all to see.
“What, where did your clothes go?” Michael started to ask.
Pandora cut him off, “What? I came into this world butt-ass naked. You’ve already seen me like this. Isn’t this how you want me?” Pandora asked.
Michael recovered immediately as he said, “Ladies restrain and prepare her.”
The four women each tried to grab Pandora, however, she was done playing this sex predators game. Also, she wanted to see if one of her Shadow Dragon abilities still worked. With the four women all next to her and trying to grab her, it was a simple matter to twist so two of them came up against each other between her and one of the floodlights which created a nice region of shadow where the other two women intersected. With a thought, she stepped into their shadow and found herself in the Shadow Plane of this Universe adjacent to what her father had referred to as, the material plane.
Pandora looked around and noted all the shadows that she could step through to re-enter the material plane. She also noticed that something was different. Whenever she’d moved through the Shadow Plane before there had always been a feeling that something was in the shadows. This Shadow Plane felt dead. That the feeling was so pervasive didn’t feel right. It also made it so she didn’t want to remain in the realm for very long.
Pandora moved over behind Michael Carpenter, stepped out of his shadow, and reached for him as she willed herself to use her absorb ability, Amalgamate. She thought back to what the ability had said;
In times of stress, you may try to completely absorb another creature. Doing so costs 99% of your remaining mana. During the Amalgamation, a contest of Wills begins. Your chance of success is equal to your Willpower multiplied by 1000% due to your ability "Creature of Chaos". Should you win the contest of wills the mentality of the creature is absorbed while the spark of will the memories contain is snuffed out. Should you lose the same may happen to you.
She might not have her father's Perfect Memory but she did have a really high Intelligence score. Her hand touched Michael and her body exploded in color. She felt the chaos within her flow out of herself and over Michael Carpenter as he started to scream until his mouth was muffled and he was drawn into her. It wasn’t a slow process either. The Chaos within Pandora reached out, developed, and then absorbed him in less than a second. One second he was there, the next he was gone. The contest of wills started, and she felt a slight pressure against her psychic but just as quickly it disappeared and she felt normal again. There were no prompts, but there wouldn’t be would there?
With a thought, she willed herself to take on the Material Properties of Michael Carpenter. Instantly her form flowed and changed and she transformed until she looked exactly like Michael Carpenter. She wouldn’t know this until she visited her Mindspace again, but in this form, she even had his DNA. Also, the form came fully clothed in the suit he’d been wearing when she absorbed him. From Michael’s memories, she knew that the suit was his favorite suit for breaking in new bitches before he decided….Pandora stopped herself and dropped her focus into her Mindspace. As she materialized she saw Caspa sitting there in her Shadow Dragon form looking at an avatar of Michael Carpenter
“I am so confused, Where am I? No, who am I?” The Avatar of Michale asked.
“Honestly it doesn’t matter,” Pandora said as she willed a soundproof room into existence in her Mindspace with a single door and no windows. She reached out, grabbed Michael by the back of the neck, and threw his avatar through the door which promptly closed behind him.
“That seems to have worked,” Caspa pointed out.
“Yeah, but that echo of his mind might become a problem if it doesn’t fade, I felt it contaminating my thoughts. I will have to figure out how to deal with it before I try that again. I don’t need a whole bunch of remnants floating around inside my head,” Pandora said.
“True. The question is, do you need that remnant to access his memories?” Caspa asked.
“Actually, no. I have full access to everything he knew. His life and all of his financial information. Damn, this world is a lot more corrupt than I thought.” Pandora said.
Will you be able to free all these women or will it be too much work for not enough gain?” Caspa asked.
“Well, as far as I know, I’m stuck here so I think I have to try,” Pandora said.
“Fair enough, what’s first?” Caspa asked
“What’s first is that I have to deal with the women in this room and I have to come up with a way to overthrow a world-spanning government that treats women like possessions that are no better than cattle.
