Date: Thu, 4 May 2023 23:02:11 -0500 From: Fang Saito Subject: Welcome to Avernus - Chapter 4 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real people or places is purely coincidental. This story is the property of the author and is protected under copyright laws. The author retains all rights. No reproduction is allowed without the author's consent. Conversations and feedback are appreciated to Greyson B. via email at hokkaidohotel86it@gmail.com. I love hearing from readers. If you enjoy this story, please support the Nifty archives today with a thoughtful donation by visiting https://donate.nifty.org/. This story will contain graphic depictions of sex between males of teen and adult ages (M/m, m/m). If this is an issue for you or the laws where you live, you are obviously in the wrong place. Welcome to Avernus Chapter 4 I woke the next morning hornier than I ever remember being. Before I could even think of getting out of bed to relieve my bladder, I already had Jason Junior in hand and almost immediately painted my chest. I barely had time to think of anything sexy. It was like some second, unremembered dream had already primed me, and I woke moments before it would have become a wet dream. The only issue was, even after unloading, I never lost full mast status. I casually stroked myself while working out what to think about, or at least what had me so hard, but it only took about a dozen strokes before my stomach tensed up and I I shot another load. With no idea what was going on with all that, I realized just how much of a mess I was, and went to go hop in the shower. The water felt great cascading down my body. In fact, it felt a little too good, and I wasn't able to get myself soaped up without getting hard again. I mean, I know I'm fifteen and all that, but this is a bit excessive. After I pumped out a third load down the drain, I finally felt like little JJ was going to stay down, and I was able to get cleaned up and out of the shower. I walked out of the steamy bathroom into the main hotel room, running the towel through my hair, my attention finally off my now softened... libido. I had actually gone to sleep crazily early, so it didn't surprise me at all when I picked up my phone off the nightstand and, yes, it was barely 7:30, even without an alarm. I also saw a missed call from my mother, and a text stating that I had better be up, and if I wasn't downstairs by eight, she was going to "tan my hide". I wanted to laugh because I knew she would never try to give me swats. But I wouldn't put it past her to get Daddy to go after me, and he already hated my existence as it was. No need to give him extra ammunition. I wasn't exactly thrilled to have to go see my parents again this early, but still, I was hungry, so I went ahead and got dressed, and headed downstairs. It turned out to be eerily similar to the day before. Mom was sitting at one table, alone with no Dad, and the old guy in the tweed suit was sitting off in a corner by himself, sipping his coffee and reading a newspaper. "Another power breakfast for Dad?" I asked as I sat down opposite Mom. "I suppose," she sighed. "I didn't ask. But he left the car again, so there is that." "It's almost like we got two cars," I laughed. "Yours, and whatever it is he is doing." "Oh shush, you," Mom said playfully, slapping me on the arm. "Besides, I'm mad at you," she exclaimed, completely at odds with the mood she was displaying. "What did I do?" I exclaimed, returning her smile. I really hoped she was teasing, but both my parents were nuts sometimes. "Why didn't you tell me and your daddy that you got invited to join this youth club? Why did I have to hear it from one of their adult chaperons when he came to ask permission?" "Huh?" I asked, really confused. "The nice man said it was some kind of community service youth club?" She looked at me like she was stunned I didn't know what the fuck she was talking about. "He said they were the Ravens, I think?" My stomach felt icy. That was the name Taki and the crew said were the guys I needed to avoid. Said they were dangerous, and implied they were the kids of all the Mafia guys. Did I tell my mom all this, or shut up and keep it to myself. It was probably better that I keep quiet for now. Find out what the hell was going on. Then I found out, all right. Found out the bad way. "Anyway," she continued on, not even noticing my reaction. "Yes, you can go." "Can... go?" I asked confusedly. "Go where?" "To the meeting tonight, silly," she said, laying her hand on my arm. "He said it was at 8, right? And that they would be feeding y'all?" Fuck, so that was his way of getting permission. Just lie to my parents for me. "Silly name though. Right out of Arkansas," Mom said, lost in her own little entertaining world. "Mister Sou-ee," she said with a loud laugh. "Haha, yeah," I muttered. My head was swimming. I was positive I was going to avoid that dinner invitation. Hell, I still probably would. But now it came with the trouble of my parents, or at least my mom, not only knowing about it, but excited for it and convinced it was a good thing. Or at least Mom knew. For I knew, not going could cause problems for Dad's new job, since Mr. Tsui said he was the one responsible for hiring Dad. Wouldn't that be just my luck, to fuck everything up by ignoring this creep's dinner invite. I'd talk to the guys and I'd fight to come up with an excuse, but for the moment it looked like I had dinner plans. "Momma, I need a favor," I said midway through my plate of waffles and bacon. "I think I need a coat sooner, rather than later. My hoodie's just not enough once the sun goes down in this place." "I see," she said. "Are you going out today? Maybe meeting up with those skateboarding friends again?" she asked with a bit of a smirk. I could tell she was daring me to deny it. "Maybe," I hedged. "Well if I recall," she drawled thoughtfully, "there's a Mom `n Pop style diner on the square?" I nodded vaguely, not quite sure if I remembered something like that or not. "Why don'cha meet me there around noon for lunch and we'll walk over to the sporting goods store to get something for you." "I can do that, sure." "And if you want to make it real easy on your Momma, you can go on in there on your own before lunch, and see what they might have that you like." "Yes, ma'am, I can do that, sure." "Only one thing that's gonna get in your way, Son," she said, looking off into the distance to hide her grin. I looked up at her. "If you do get to hang out with a single one of those boys before I meet you for lunch, that's the last you're gonna see of any of `em!" "Why, Momma? You've never had a problem with me skating." "It's `cause those boys had best be in school!" she said with a laugh. "Oh, yeah," I said sheepishly. "I didn't think about that." I did head pretty much straight to the square anyway, figuring that if I couldn't hang out with my new friends, maybe I could at least get in some skating. I wasted most of the morning skating and watching the minimal traffic around the place, both car and foot traffic. I met my mom for lunch, and yes, I had gone into the sports store and checked out a few coats. I even talked to the lady working there, to get some idea of what was going to be practical and durable, rather than cheap or flashy. I had a good lunch with Mom, and even though afterward she dragged me around a few the other stores like I feared, we did end up getting me a good heavy coat, as well as a lighter coat that was about the heaviest I would have needed back home, but would just be a more mild job here. By around two o'clock we were ready to go our separate ways, and that was when she totally floored me. "Baby, I think you need to go and be able to enjoy a bit of this good luck we've havin'," she said, putting her hand in mine. I started to say, "huh", when I realized there were some soft paper edges in between our hands. She pulled her hand back, and I saw a bunch of curled up twenties in my hand. "Whoa," I breathed. "Momma, you sure? Daddy's not going to come looking for this, is he?" Mom laughed and said, "No, baby. That's yours. Just don't go crazy with it. Don't expect this all the time." Flipping through the bills, I was able to count them out. "There's like $200 here! Are you sure?" "Yes," she laughed louder. "I'm sure!" "Thanks, Mom," I said, hugging her. As I pulled back, I looked her in the eyes, really looked at her. In a more serious tone, I said, "This is really a thing, isn't it. We finally made it to something good, didn't we?" "Your Daddy's done good with this," she answered with a softer smile. "We wouldn't have moved to the `Great White North' if we weren't sure." Once we split ways, I hung out for a bit, but having looked up the GPS route earlier on my phone, started heading in the direction of the school, assuming the high school would let out around three. Some adult wanted to harass me for not being in class, but once I explained I had just moved and hadn't started attending yet, he grudgingly left me alone. At 2:50 the middle school let out, and then at 3:10 the high school joined them. I was surprised there weren't more kids being picked up by car, but even in the middle school, it seemed most of the kids were walking home in pretty much every direction. I was keeping a good lookout, so I spotted Wheeler when he came out the front of the high school. His towering height and dark skin made him easy to stand out. I waved him over, and found out Scott was already with him. We all bumped fists as we said `hey'. "So how does this usually work?" I asked. "Are you guys not allowed to bring your boards to school or something?" "No way," laughed Wheeler. "That's the best way to get suspended. The principal here is a demon when it comes to skateboards. Taki's house is like two minutes from here, so we all ditch them there." "Are you guys meeting up to skate today?" "Hell yeah," exclaimed Scott. Texts were exchanged, and we all met up in another area that they enjoyed skating. After about an hour, I called a halt to the fun and told them I needed more info. "I need to know more about these `Ravens'," I said. "Fuck, don't tell me you're looking for them," said Taki. "More like the other way around," I said. "I got invited to meet this guy named Tsui tonight, and he told my parents that the Ravens were some kind of community service youth group." "Oh, you're fucked!" exclaimed Taki. "So help me out," I pleaded. "Who are they, for real." "More like, what are they," said Taki. "They're not an official organization, that's for sure. Like we said, they are more like a gang, or a club." They looked around themselves, seeing that I was still confused, as if trying to decide who was going to fill me in. Like yesterday, Boots was the one who finally spoke up. "They are like a club," he said. "But not one you can walk up and join. More like," he paused, searching for the right words, "More like a secret society, like something you would see at a fancy private school or a university. They're elitist, and like we said yesterday, mostly the kids of the people who own this town." "So if they are wanting to meet me-" "Then either you have something they want, they think you are worth hanging out with, or they want to fuck with you." "Well, I'm a poor fuck from Alabama, so that rules out the first two," I said glumly. "Like I said," interjected Taki. "You're fucked." "Guy's, where's Liam?" asked Scott suddenly. We all looked around, but he seemed to have taken the opportunity of the conversation to bail. The conversation seemed to have busted everyone's mood, so Wheeler said he was going to go ahead and head home early to see his sister. Scott said he was going to do the same. We only had a couple of hours of daylight left by that point, so I mentioned I wanted to head to the square and check out the comic shop. Taki and Boots decided to come with me. When we got to the store, there was only one of those table games being played. But seeing how this was a weekday, it seemed to be a popular game around here. I asked the others, and they admitted that neither of them played, but they knew Liam did. One of the players overheard our conversation and invited me over. Both of the guys were older, but more like 20 and 40. In fact, they turned out to be father and son. They told me a bunch of stuff about the story line and intricacy of this game, called Hammers and Hordes. Before I realized what was going on, my skate buddies had abandoned me to hang out and watch the game. They were really cool about my interest, backtracking and explaining what they were doing in their particular game. Eventually I told them I wanted to let them get back to their game, and I went over to the merchandise section to look through the various model kits for sale. From what Mr. Harper, the dad, had said, this was a science fiction game set way in the future. There were Humans, but most of them were the bad guys, living under a dictatorship and trying to conquer the galaxy, killing anyone standing in their way. There were also two other Human factions that acted as rebellions against the Empire, plus a dozen or so alien races. I was fascinated by both the hobby and the game. Something like this had never been an option for someone like me. Financially there was no way I could have ever played something like this, and I had never known any friends who would have had any interest, even if I could have found the money. But now I had some money, and Eugene said that I would never have any problems finding people to play around here. Apparently this game had been being played here for more than a dozen years. Mr. Harper had said he had been playing an earlier version back when he wasn't much older than his son, and that they did painting nights together as father and son. No way did I ever expect that to ever happen with my old man, but it was exciting to know I wouldn't be wasting my effort if I turned out to like the game. I was musing back and forth between unit boxes from two different alien armies, one that was a lizard like race called the Starhost, and another looked like a cross between Mad Max and Anubis jackals, called of course, The Jackals, when I head a door open in the back of the store a bit away from me. I watched a group of ten or so teenagers enter the main store. Most were older, but there were a couple that looked a little younger than me. You know when you are watching a movie or show and the really hot, popular clique walks into the room? They always go to a slow motion shot, with lots of perfect outfits, wind out of nowhere that waves their hair gently while a popular rock song plays like a WWE intro? Yeah, I had never seen that in real life until now. No, new music didn't start playing, and the world didn't stop rotating, but man, these guys walked in like it had. The way they moved, it was graceful, feline, casually slinky. I had never seen anyone move like that. And here was a whole group walking in like they had choreographed the whole thing. Out of nowhere, I recognized one of them. It was the guy with the sandy brown perfect hair from the hotel restaurant the night before. The one that had been with... her. There she was, the girl with the long, white hair. I had only seen her sitting down, and with her impossibly thin limbs she had seemed tall. Seeing her now, I saw she was a very average height, only a few inches taller than my five and a half feet. The group entered the store as if they were a flock of birds, moving in coordination with one another. They barely seemed to look around. But as they entered the store proper, they moved in different directions. Four of them headed out the front door, a few headed into the gaming area, and a few approached the checkout counter. The girl in white approached the section where I stood, transfixed. She wasn't actually wearing white today. Instead she was wearing something like a track suit made of some soft, slightly fuzzy material in a pale sky blue. Her pristine, straight hair poured behind her shoulders and down her back like a fine curtain. It looked more cloth than hair. I couldn't pull my eyes away from her. Sure, I was gay, or at least mostly gay. Much as what had occurred with Mina at the hotel, there were certain tomboyish, androgynous girls that absolutely hit my buttons. "So you're him?" she said casually, seeming to address me. It took a moment for me to clear my head enough to register what she said, and that it was said to me. "I'm -a- him, I suppose," I quipped. "Good to see you again." She looked over at me when I said that. "Again? Oh, of course." "Dinner last night?" "Right," she deadpanned. Then picking up a box of the Empire's soldiers, she tapped them in my direction. "So, you play?" Don't blow this, asshole. Her voice was silky, dusky, almost deep for a woman. There was a slightly inflected accent, but it was subtle and I had no way of identifying it. It suited her perfectly. But now I was desperate to hide my southern drawl. "I just got introduced to it. I'm interested though." She pointed at the boxes in my hand. "Are those the two you are debating between playing?" "Maybe," I answered in the most cringe-worthy drawl. "Any advice?" "Well," she said, delicately setting her box back on the rack and taking the Jackals from my hand. The skin of her fingers just barely brushed mine, and I felt how cold they were. I guess because of how skinny she was, she had some circulation issues. Or maybe she had been outside in the last few minutes. "If you are going for `rule of cool' then that's all on you," she said. "Pick the shiniest plastic. The Starhost are religious fanatics and the Jackals have no high tech, so they steal and scavenge everything. However, if you want a good introductory army, both of these suck." I was kind of surprised. Hearing her say even such a mild cuss word just seemed, I don't know, beneath her. "The Starhost have some fairly complex rules compared to some of the others, and the Jackals are positively bottom tier, competitively." "Thanks," I said, gingerly placing the Starhost box back. Then gesturing in the direction of the display wall, I asked, "So give me some options that are more, as you say, beginner friendly." "Since you instinctively went for these two, it seems you are looking for weird?" she teased, "Or is it more about liking something wild and dangerous?" "Cool, dangerous, and unusual," I challenged. "Ah, so you need something fairly straightforward, deadly, and likely to be the only one playing them." "Sounds perfect," I laughed. She looked sideways at me with something of a smirk. "Are you okay playing the bad guys?" "As long as they have, what did you call it? The rule of cool?" She knelt and grabbed a pair of boxes from the bottom shelf, then stood back up and handed them to me. One was a team of five soldiers that looked cool as hell, seeming to be some kind of cyborgs carrying rifles and wearing cloaks. They were painted a collection of blacks and greys. The other box were a pair of exo-skeleton walkers with these near naked guys strapped into their middles, stretched out like they were being tortured. Both boxes claimed to be part of the Archeo Legion. "So these guys are kind of the Spanish Inquisition of the Cosmos Emptor," she said. I recognized that as the name of the Human fascist empire. "They are fairly straightforward to play, mainly dealing with snipers, hunt squads," she pointed to the first box, "and big, tough war engines like these," she gestured to the second box." "Alright, that's one option," I said. "Just curious, why don't people play them?" "It's kind of a niche section of the story line. They are a decent army, but they don't get as much model support as some of the other armies. The Jackals have the same problem, but at least the Archeos have decent rules." "Anything else you might recommend?" "There are other armies I could recommend, sure. But this is the best option if you want both rarely played and easy to learn." "What if I just wanted easy to play?" "Then that's easy, go with Cosmos Emptor or the Scion Rebellion." "Both Humans," I said. I think she heard the subtle disappointment in my voice. "Are you buying today, or just looking?" she asked. "I mean, I can buy, if I decide on which one I really want to start." A voice called out over the store. "Erin, we need to go." She looked up at the call. It was the boy she had been sitting with at dinner. "He your boyfriend?" I asked. She scoffed, making it obvious that was, to her mind, a dumb thing for me to say. "Sorry," I muttered. "Not my business." "No, Garrett is decidedly not my boyfriend, or even barely a friend." Confusing, but alright. They had seemed chummy enough last night, and had arrived here together. "Do you want my advice, for real?" she looked over at Garrett, just as he was calling for her again. When I nodded, she said, "Do more research. This isn't the most expensive game, but why spend $25 on a box of models that you end up regretting when you see something better two days later?" "Fair," I answered. Sure, I definitely wanted the `new shiny stuff', as Mom would say, but Erin was right. Plus, maybe buying these now wasn't the best idea. They would probably get lost or trashed somewhere in the unpacking and getting my new bedroom set up. "Well, I really must be going, Jason. Perhaps I'll see you soon." And before I could get in a reply or even ask how the hell she knew my name, she was gone, along with several of the others she had entered with, through that back door into the back of the shop. I went over to that side of the store, and saw there was a sign on the door, labeled "Employees Only – No Exceptions". What the fuck ever. By this point, it was just one more stupid weirdness for me to experience. I saw it was around 7, so I decided I should head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner, whether I wanted to go or not. Involving Dad's new job pretty much gave me no choice. Mom had taken my new jackets back with her, so it was a chilly ride home, but not terrible. Mina was at the desk when I came back in, and she greeted me when I entered the lobby. "Welcome back, Jason," she said with a flirtatious smile. "Have you been out terrorizing the town?" "Only the town's concrete," I answered, gesturing to the skateboard under my arm. "Well, I probably should have warned you, but your room was one that housekeeping went in and cleaned today." She said this as if it was the most common thing in the world. I was, of course, pretty mortified to remember the state of my sheets this morning. I just nodded and muttered a thank you, while averting my eyes. Part of me was tempted to peek into the dining area and see if my parents were in there, but why did I really want to see them anyway? In the elevator ride up, it occurred to me that I had never checked like I said I would, so I paid attention to the elevator buttons, noticing that in fact, there were no buttons for a third floor. One more mystery to ignore for now. Sure enough, my room was spotless. The bed made, new towels hanging in the bathroom, and the trash emptied. Good thing I wasn't keeping anything of value in the room. After all, the only things I had of value were my board and my phone. I was just stripping off my shirt and hoodie, planning on rinsing off in the shower real quick, when I jumped as the room phone rang. I cursed as I fought to get the damn thing off and answered the handset. "Jason, it's Mina." I said hi, curious why she was calling when I had literally just seen her. "I just received a message, to please meet your host in the lobby at five til eight? He said there was not a need to dress for going outside, as you would be dining here in the hotel." "Oh, okay." Weird, but at least that question was answered. "Well, I guess I'll see you in just a bit when I come down." "Sounds good, cutie." And with that, the line went dead as she hung up. A quick opportunity to hop in the shower found little Jason Junior waking up for attention, thinking about Erin. There was no hiding her boyish lack of curves in that outfit she had been wearing. But alas, there was no time to take care of that at the moment, so I finished up and got out. There was something that I loved about the freedom of being able to get out of the shower and walk back into the room without having to put on underwear over skin that was still damp. I was registering how much I was going to miss that as I walked naked back into my room. At a quarter til, I headed downstairs in the nicest clothes I had. Fortunately Mom had made me pack a nice shirt in case it was needed for some school reason before the movers got here at the end of the week. I would have to mention it to her tomorrow. She would love the brownie points. Once I got off the elevator, I waved to Mina and took a seat in one of the chairs off to the side. Deciding to kill some time and some curiosity at the same time, I pulled out my phone and Googled a list of all the different Hammers and Hordes armies available. There were several I had not noticed before, when looking up at the store. I was starting to realize just how vast the game's model collection really was. I started glancing through the catalog, realizing how expensive the game could be, as some of the bigger units and vehicles were upwards of $30 to $40. "Sir, if you would please accompany us?" The voice made me jump. I looked up to see two of those bodyguard FBI looking guys standing over me. Both were white guys around 30 or so, built like they obviously worked out on the regular, and both wearing carbon copy dark blue suits with white dress shirts and dark ties. I half expected sunglasses, but as I slipped my phone in my pocket and stood, I saw one of the guys adjust his suit jacket, and was rewarded with a flash of a gun in a shoulder holster. I wanted to ask where we were going, but knew there was really no point. Once I stood, one of the men started walking back toward the elevator, while the other gestured for me to follow, then fell into step behind me in turn. We passed by the elevator, however, and rounded the corner down the hallway of ground floor rooms. Almost immediately around the corner was another elevator. Why it wasn't faced next to the main one I didn't know, but I did realize that the shafts had to be adjacent to one another. The man I was following had to swipe an employee badge to call the elevator, whose doors opened immediately. I figured they had been the last to use it when they came down to get me. I took a sidelong glance at the buttons, and instead of floor numbers, saw markings labeled B, G, and L. My escort had to enter a key and turn it, before pressing the third option. A voice came out of a speaker, saying something in a language I didn't understand. The guy next to me replied something back that sounded like "sing-co", and the elevator began to move. I was seriously apprehensive about what was waiting for me, considering how difficult it seemed to be getting to what I assumed was that section of the third floor I had seen from outside. After only a few moments, the elevator door opened.