Chapter 371: Resolve
"Nice to meet you asshole..." Mix said, her smile still there.
Laz just shook his head and turned away. He wasn’t doing this to be popular, he was doing this to help them whether they liked it or not.
"Hey hey. No need to be like that. I’m just saying that your actions are over the top," Nix said, spinning around to stand next to Laz so that she was in his vision.
Laz eyed the woman briefly before returning to scrubbing his hair. It had gotten longer than he was used to and he hadn’t been taking care of it that much. On a different note, Laz had to admit that this woman Nix was rather beautiful. While she was athletic like Joan and Gia, she wasn’t the body building type and therefore had a slim yet muscular figure. Her breasts were about a handful’s worth and ended in pretty cherry red nipples while it was also clear that while she wasn’t completely lacking in hair in her private area, she had sculpted it into an actual heart shape, something Laz had never seen before.
"Not going to say anything?" Nix asked as everyone else looked on, their showers completely forgotten about. Whether they were checking out Laz or seeing what Nix was about though was up in the air.
"What do you want me to say?" Laz sighed before rinsing out his hair.
"I don’t know. Something like ’I’m sorry’ or ’your right’ would be a great start," Nix answered, showing a pout that Laz wasn’t sure was intentional or not.
Laz finishing rinsing his hair and turned to look at this girl who was almost a head shorter than him.
"I’m not sorry and your not right," Laz said with a sigh before continuing.
"How long have you been in here? And before that, did you live in town close by or a bigger city?" Laz questioned, this time looking straight into her eyes.
"I uh... I don’t see how that matters..." Mix stuttered, not expecting Laz to be confrontational. Nix wasn’t some fresh young girl, having gone to college and graduated before coming back home and deciding what she wanted to do. While she had been at home for the last four years, wasting away what he life could have been, she had awoken and silently made her way here after following some advice from another friend who she had known in college who had also awakened. Nix didn’t think like other people who had judged the infected as monsters and her friends were of the same nature. When she had gone through the energy coma that had almost killed her, she knew what she had to do and quickly made her way here where she was welcomed.
Due to all this, while she had lots of experience with people including guys, she had no idea what the real world was like for other infected, leading to her current state of mind. Since having gone through the training and seeing Laz’s feelingless methods, she had this gut instinct that he was just playing a part, maybe as something the elder and mistress cooked up. While they had constantly berated the girls about being more strict and taking things more seriously, their lack of enforcement along with the girls willful nature had made that next to impossible.
So when Nix had decided on the fly to corner Laz in the bathroom in an attempt to expose the ’real’ him, this wasn’t how she was expecting the conversation to go. In fact, she had openly gotten close to him in an attempt to tempt him to make a move on her since she had a lot of confidence in this department. Having not known what Celes, Joan and Gia went through, she had no idea that she was doomed to fail and instead would poke a beast that Laz had currently been wrestling with; the beast of his past failures.
"Of course you don’t. You’ve been nice and safe in here, relying on the strength of the group and the plans of your leaders to keep you safe." While speaking, Laz slowly moved towards Nix who in turn started backing away.
"But guess what? This whole house of card is going to crumble one day. And when it all comes crashing down, then what? I’ve seen what happens to pretty little things like you." Laz reached up as Nix bumped into the wall behind her and lifted her chin so that her eyes would look directly into his.
"A woman trapped in a cage, her legs and arms bound while being dressed up like a pig. Her only use was to service a young piece of shit that had no problem raping her in public if he felt like it. In fact, even when he traveled, he kept her close. Her body was practically broken but she held on to what was left of her will..." Laz remembered back to when he had spread his sense over the city of New Orleans during his fight with the bronze god. He had seen that horrible circumstance first hand which had just enraged him more. He had hoped in that aftermath when Tommy, the chosen and the army were fleeing that somehow, someway, that woman would be able to be freed. After all, he knew it had once been his teacher way back when. He didn’t know how it ended.
"I have no idea why she did it. Did she want to live? Probably. But considering the circumstances, dying would have been a better alternative. Maybe there was a reason she couldn’t let herself die? All I know is, if that woman were able to be here right now, she would slap you and tell you how stupid you and everyone else is. You have a chance to prevent something like that from happening but instead you all resent me for trying to give you that chance. Maybe that’s what you want to happen to you huh? Want to be a man’s or even a woman’s plaything for the rest of your life? From a few very incredible girls I know that have survived something like that, women can be far more cruel than men in that regard."
Laz reached down and grabbed Nix’s nipple, pinching it hard between his fingers.
"She would probably cut these off."
Laz then reached down and patted Nix’s ’heart.’
"Or she might just take a hot fire poker and make it so that you could never use that again?"
Nix was shivering in fear as Laz brought both his hands up and pressed them against the wall so that she was trapped between his strong, rock like arms.
"Or maybe she will offer you as a treat to her favorite large canines... nothing more that a bitch for them to relieve themselves with. Is that the kind of future you want?" Laz’s eyes turned gold as his hair became a bloody shade of red. The strength he was releasing now was far stronger than what he had shown the groups prior. While the other girls backed away in horror, Nix was trapped there, his eyes causing her body to freeze up like a statue.
no...
"What was that? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!" Laz said, his face right in front of hers, his nose almost touching hers.
"No... NO... NOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed back at him, her willpower breaking through all at once as she finally fought against the force of his oppression. It wasn’t enough to force it back, but it was enough for her to finally breath.
"Good. This is your only chance. I will hold your hand and drag you through hell, but that’s a fuck ton better than being thrown into it," Laz smiled as he finally saw some actual fight in Nix, the kind of fight that he wanted. Not anger or hate, those things would wear away with time and were unreliable. What he wanted was a stone cold resolve, one that couldn’t be shaken.
Nix had finally shown that to him. Now if only he could feel it from the others.
Laz reached out his hand as he backed away since while Nix was still on her feet, she was leaning heavily against the wall and could fall at any moment. As the strength of his bloodline receded, his hair again became black while his eyes turned blue into their normal icy blue. Still panting, Nix reached out and grabbed his hand allowing him to pull her up, back to her feet.
"Don’t disappoint me." Laz turned and walked to the next fallen woman, reaching out his hand to help her up. After that previous display along with the sight of Laz reaching out a hand to the shaken and yet somehow sturdier Nix, they all understood that Laz really meant what he said.
’He is my only chance.’
As he helped each woman back to their feet, each one felt like they had awoken from some dream, from a nice fluffy place full of rainbows and sugar where nothing bad ever happened. In that place, they were blind, but now this young man allowed each of them to open their eyes for the first time. His power might have been hidden again, but to them, Laz now carried a certain radiance that couldn’t be hidden.
Although he didn’t speak again, the words he said to Nix were the words that each of them heard when grabbing his hand, ’Don’t disappoint me.’
Laz then turned back to the shower to begin washing his body. Just as he was about to start rubbing himself down with some soap, he felt a pair of small yet strong hands on his back. Tilting his head to the side, he noticed Nix was standing there with a bar of soap already.
"Please... Let me?" Nix asked, her voice firm.
"Do as you wish," Was Laz’s only response, letting his hand drop to the side and closing his eyes.
’Perhaps this was her punishment to herself?’ Laz thought.
’I suppose I do need to cool my head a little, it’s not really their fault that they are like this. And who am I to lecture anyone...’ Laz’s thoughts were cut off as he felt another pair of hands.
And another.
And one more that grabbed the soap out of his hands and began cleaning him.
Soon, one dozen pair of hands proceeded to wash the entire length of his body, including areas he had never thought about letting anyone else clean.
Standing there, his breathing calmed as his heart settled. Strangely, there was nothing sexual about the entire experience, instead it was like a ritual the girls seemed to want to perform on their own.
Even while rinsing him off, their hands never left his body, making sure there wasn’t even a hint of a bubble left on him.
Just as the girls finished and were about to remove their hands, two people entered the shower while talking to one another.
"So that’s all you know?" Celes said, holding up the towel wrapped around her small frame. Next to her, a tall, red headed woman with huge breasts and tattoos covering her from her neck down to her feet that wasn’t wearing a towel answered back.
"This isn’t exactly my area of study. Sure, I’m a doctor... and at least I am a medical doctor, but my education focused on virology, not pre-natal care. Whatever that guy told you is the truth as far as I can see. I know it’s not helpful, but... Well fuck... would you look at that...." The tattooed woman then stopped while observing the sight of a dozen girls with their hands on one man who stood in the middle of them like an idol of worship.
Whether it be from the sight of Laz’s naked body and his rather erect member or the sight of a dozen girls touching him at once, Celes’ brain malfunctioned and she couldn’t even speak.
"I would say that this isn’t what it looks like... but I’m pretty sure you won’t believe that so I won’t bother. I’m Laz. I didn’t see you in the training," Laz said, speaking to the tattooed doctor.
"Yeah. Been busy in my lab with research. Although I seem to have been missing out. My name’s Nora and I have to say, you’re much better looking than this girl described," the doctor said while pointing at Celes.
"Pleasure. I would love to hear about your research sometime, is it about the infected and all that?" Laz asked, still standing there without a care in the world.
"Of course... are you into science? Or have you studied?" Nora shot back, curious.
"Nope. But my growing interest over the years just seems to heighten as I get stronger so anything I can learn would be great."
"Alright. At least it seems like I’ve found someone who can appreciate my work. Still though, the moment she unfreezes..."
"YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!" Celes’ screamed, having found her voice again. Had she not only been wrapped in a towel and standing in a slippery shower room, she might have charged Laz right away. Plus, the only things she could throw were her shower accessories but she was afraid of hitting the girls.
"Well. That’s enough of that. Thank you everyone for showing me the correct way to wash myself. I appreciate it." Laz’s lie didn’t fool anyone but it gave the girls an excuse to leave, which each of them did. As Nix was the last person to leave, she looked back at Laz and bowed once.
"Thank you for the teachings... master..." And with those words, she left.
Laz winced as his sight turned from Nix finely shaped ass to the glaring Celes who seemed to be literally bending space around her with each angry breath she took.
Laz looked at Nora who was smiling.
"Uh... I don’t think she believes me," he said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"That’s cause she’s not an idiot," Nora responded back with a laugh.
’What an interesting fellow they brought in... I wonder if he’ll let me take some blood,’ Nora though, looking at the seemingly shy Laz.
