*** 16 Retaking Paleburg ***
The tumult started at the bottom of the tower. With them on the roof, it was hard to hear specifics, but the rebellion was unmistakably happening.
There was phaser fire, although surprisingly little. The freed slaves had to have organized quickly. Fucker wondered how many of them were from the native Paleburg population.
"Yo," he said to the guards at the stairs. "Looks like you're about fucked, huh? Why not switch sides now, before you're eaten alive by the mob?"
A very nervous guard raised his phaser. Fucker gave him a good (telekinetic) shove and the man fell backward down the hole in the roof. He landed on stairs, so he'd be up again in seconds, but Savage was already jumping forward.
When the fallen guard made it back onto the roof he found his fellow chaos soldiers already dead. Before Fucker could even give any orders, Pyro had already melted the man's face off.
"Oh... Okay. That's him taken care of," the leader said. "Now I think it's time to have a word with Mister Rah one level down."
Savage wrecked the door and didn't even stop. He came to a halt in front of the empty throne. Rah was at the window again.
The city overlord whipped around with a gun in hand, but Fucker slammed the man's wrist into the hexa-glass with a load of freak power.
"Is there anything we want to question him on?" Fucker asked his punks.
"Not really," Pyro said. "As long as the chaos soldiers don't make it out alive, we can consider the whole issue buried."
"Fine with me. Who wants to do the honors?"
Splattered with blood, the ass raiders descended the tower and stepped out into a field of dead bodies. Most of them were chaos guys.
Dozens of men and boys in unbound slave collars celebrated.
The old/new mayor led an assault on the remaining chaos forces. Savage and Hardass went with them. Meanwhile Fucker watched Pyro charge up the mother of all fireballs.
It was a pity to see the tower go up in flames, melt and collapse. Part of him had wanted to make it his new home and paint the ass raider's middle finger fist over the ugly skull symbol.
On the other hand, plans like that never went well for anyone. Plus, he still had a prisoner's ID to get rid of, first and foremost.
Fucker spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Where had he met that guy? Right, it was the one who had blown Pyro on the train and been enslaved by the pirates with them. Then they had sold him with the others. Small world.
Hardass returned, with the scanner.
"Yo, Fucker. I could set it to unlock and return them to their old lives. We'll have to wait for the mayor and ask if any of them were slaves before the takeover so they can be re-bound to their owners."
"Actually...," Fucker said. "Do you think I'd be too much of a burden on the Paleburg people to elect a new mayor now?"
"Why?"
"Just saw someone I recognized and it gave me an idea. Can you set the scanner to gene-bind people to yourself?"
"Sure. Why would I do that? You want me to set myself as your owner again or... Oh. Oh! Fuck yeah. I like the way you think."
Twenty nine nude, collared guys (including a very confused, former mayor) walked behind Hardass, who led the group along the wall around the Dump Trench.
The still collared ass raiders served as bodyguards. Most of the rebound slaves were... unhappy, to put it mildly.
Originally, the gang had considered looting some places in Paleburg while the town was still struggling to establish stability, or to demand payment for helping in Rah's defeat.
But the money all those slaves would make was more than they needed.
Once in Bliss, the ass raiders headed straight for `blazing fuck', but the shining neon dildos had to wait until the city authorities were informed about what had happened in the industry settlement beyond the Dump Trench.
Eventually, the whole group stood outside the club and waited for Hardass to come back out. He brought someone along who had a scanner. The auction awaited.
"So those are all yours," the man asked the punk.
"Yes, indeed." Hardass nodded. "Paleburg is now under new management. Those aren't needed anymore. Their building project has... concluded."
"Kay, but selling off that many will take some time. If you stick around for a month you'll get your share of the selling prices. Or..."
"It's fine. I need cash so I'll take whatever you pay for randomly dropped off slaves. Actually, hold onto some of that money, because I'd like to order chastity cages and chained nipple rings for all of them."
Fucker rolled his eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Aw, come on," Hardass said. "Why not?"
"Why are you so obsessed with that?"
"I just really like nipple rings."
"Yours aren't even chained."
Hardass shrugged. "I like them even more on others."
"Fine. And the chastity?"
"That's normal in Echo."
"Huh?"
The slave trader chimed in. "He's right. Arcology 1 experiments with slave behavior and has been trying to make chastity standard procedure for slaves and prisoners. The only hurdle is production."
"So..." Fucker said. "Echo is close to arcology 1?"
"Yeah, I grew up in Echo," Hardass said. "Small place. You wouldn't have heard of it."
That pretty much settled the debate. But Fucker had a different question for the trader.
"Yo Mister, is there a way to find a specific slave. Or a certain prisoner?"
"Kind of. There's a central registry, but it can only be updated when the messengers come through. If it was less than a few weeks ago, you'll have to check back later."
"Sounds good. Can we have a look?"
"Nope. Free citizens only."
Hardass went back inside to be paid a fat sum and see if Pisspig or Licker were in the central registry. Meanwhile the original trio made off to the tattoo remover, to have him prepare for when Hardass came back with the bottle caps they needed.
It took three days of repeated application but eventually all that was left of the IDs was red skin that hurt in the wind. The scanner unlocked their collars and Fucker was free.
He felt better than ever before. He could go anywhere, do anything.
However, their first goal was clear. The fully restored freak gang took off toward a settlement a few days west of Rocket City, so they were in for another week of travel.
The place was known as Little Hell and the central registry had told them they'd find Licker there. (No trace of Pisspig.)
They weren't entirely sure what to do once they found him. They had handed over the hacked scanner when the Bliss trader had made it clear NewLaw would not overlook their illegal slave procurement if they kept doing it.
So even if they got to Licker they'd have to buy him out of Little Hell legally. This would probably empty their funds again, especially since the guys in Rocket City were still waiting for their payment, and the ass raiders had to go there to give the buggy back.
The gang decided to take a detour and pay off their debts, before going after Licker.
With uneventful travel to and from Rocket City, two months had eventually passed since their initial imprisonment. Licker was probably not expecting them to come to his rescue, so Fucker decided they could take their time.
With little messenger missions here and there, the punks' bottle cap count stayed about the same throughout.
They were camping out in the desert at night.
"You know what I regret?" Fucker said. "Not asking Sunbreaker for a permanent loan of their milking device. Imagine how easy it would be to get off. Constant orgasms, despite the chastity. It would be perfect."
"Why not ask now?" Savage said.
"We'd risk being found out. Did you forget we ooze pre-cum like crazy because we used that extremely illegal machine we had promised to destroy?"
"Oh, right. Fuck, I regret that now, too."
Hardass chuckled. "Hey, at least you got a lot of muscle out of it, big boy."
"That's easy for you to say. You're not caged. I had no idea I could be this horny."
"Right," Pyro said. "It's like my whole life is focused on nothing but cumming. I'd let anyone ram my asshole. And I'd do pretty much anything."
Fucker wanted to be mad at Hardass for putting them into this situation but the un-caged punk was the only one who could give them anal orgasms reliably when no villagers were around. And somehow... he liked it. The horniness had reached a stable level, ebbing and rising in a daily rhythm.
He'd still have to find a way to get Hardass back for it, though.
Tune in next time to see Licker again. It's almost time to conclude the saga.