Dahye was awake several minutes before her 5AM alarm, as was usually the case, even when she was away from home, having slept in one of the tiny little bedrooms at the GLYPH HQ building. The first thing she did upon awakening was reach for her phone to check for the update on how Dohee was doing that she’d requested from Darla.
She was immediately greeted by an adorable photo of Dohee playing with Dinah, the dalmatian that Darla and Damien had recently adopted, along with a recap confirming that Dohee was doing well and a list of activities she’d been up to.
Darla and her husband Damien were the first and only friends Dahye had when she’d suddenly decided to leave Korea and move to the States a mere two years prior. Dahye loved playing Dungeons & Dragons and other games of that ilk, and she’d befriended the couple from one of her many online groups. They welcomed her to stay at their home while she found work and an apartment, and were always willing to babysit Dohee whenever Dahye had to leave town for a few days.
She was forever indebted to them, and felt she’d never be able to repay them for all of their help and generosity. All she could really do was continue with her GLYPH work, protecting the world in the process. That didn’t feel good enough to her, but it was all she had at the moment.
She sent a thank-you text to Darla, then put the phone down, knowing that the longer she looked at the photo of her daughter, the more tempted she would be to bail on her GLYPH missions early and fly home, and she knew that was unacceptable. To get her mind off of Dohee and to get herself in the right mindset to continue working, she left to take a shower and freshen up.
On the way to the showers, she made sure to greet everyone she passed by. There weren’t many employees at the HQ up and at it that early on a weekday morning, but she wanted to make sure they all felt valued. There was a bit of a natural tendency to glorify the field agents and forget about everyone else, and Dahye tried to battle that dichotomy as best she could.
“Good morning, James,” she said with a smile as she passed by the head of the janitorial staff. He was a big guy – too big to simply blend into the background, even with the dull gray cap and jumpsuit uniform he wore deliberately designed to do just that. He never showed any emotion on his face, even when being greeted, but he did tip his cap ever so slightly at her in response. Everyone else tended to call him “Jimmy”, and Dahye had even been teased by a few of her coworkers for not using that name instead, but she preferred “James”. Jimmy hadn’t mentioned any particular preference to anyone, but Dahye was the only one who ever got a cap tip, so perhaps there was something to that?
Before she arrived at the showers, the door to the women’s restroom opened up, and out stepped the tiny little Dr. Ingram, yawning wide and stretching her arms. Dahye always found it cute how she insisted on wearing a labcoat with such ridiculously-large sleeves. “Good morning, Dr. Ingram.”
“Hm? Oh, hello, Dahye!” The doctor said, waving. With her hand only making it halfway down her sleeve, that left the other half to dangle down below like a pendulum.
“Late night of work?”
Dr. Ingram nodded, bringing her hands up to rub at her eyes. “Mmhm. Malena’s been bringing me lots of new monster material to look into, and the European branch has been struggling with developing serums for all of the new BUBBLES they’ve been finding, so I’ve had to help with that, too.”
Dahye gave her a sympathetic smile. Dr. Ingram was an incredibly intelligent woman who, from what Dahye could tell, seemed to never not be in the GLYPH HQ working on something. The few times they’d spoken in the past about their personal lives, Dr. Ingram didn’t really have anything to talk about other than some TV shows she’d watched on breaks, as she never really had time to go outside and actually do anything. It was sad, but she was such a vital part of GLYPH and couldn’t be replaced so easily. “I hope you’re not being overworked, Doctor…”
Dr. Ingram shook her head with a grin. There were bags under her eyes, just like always, but somehow she always seemed to speak with energy. “Ah, it’s okay, it’s nothing I can’t handle!” She poked her tongue out. “Besides, Ace stopped by last night and gave me a nice INJECTION, so I’m feeling pretty refreshed if you know what I mean, heehee~!”
That got a sigh from Dahye. She still hadn’t quite gotten used to how openly many of the GLYPH staff talked of their sex lives. “Um…I-I’m happy for you…?”
“Have you still not slept with him yet?” Dr. Ingram asked. “You’re missing oooouuuut~! He can disguise himself as all kinds of different people, you know~”
“Yes, I’m, uh, I’m sure that’s very fun.”
A mischievous smile etched itself onto her face, and she brought her voice to a whisper. “But don’t ask who I had him turn into, because I’m~ not~ te-lliiiing~! Heehee!”
To Dahye’s relief, the doctor didn’t seem intent on sticking to that topic for any longer, and pivoted to something more palatable. “Oh, hey! How’s little baby Dohee doing, by the way?”
“She’s doing great,” Dahye replied. “She’s started getting really into drawing recently.”
“Ooh, how fun!” Dr. Ingram said, waving her oversized sleeves around like propellers. “You should bring her here sometime! I’m sure everyone here would love to meet her!”
Dahye had been asked that before, and she’d never been all that enthusiastic about the idea. Maybe it was the inherent danger of GLYPH’s work, maybe it was the…quirks of those who worked there, or maybe it was just Dahye wanting to keep that part of her life separate. “R-right, I’ll, um…I’ll definitely think about it?”
“Are you winning at your game?”
Gisela glanced over at her grandmother. The pair was sitting together on a bench at the front of the GLYPH HQ building at about 9 in the morning, waiting for the other agents to arrive so Gisela could head out on the day’s missions.
The response of: “It’s an RPG and I’m just grinding for materials right now, there’s not really any ‘winning’ involved” entered Gisela’s mind, but she waved the thought away. Her grandmother knew jack-fucking-shit about video games, but she was obviously just trying to be nice and make some small talk. “Yes, grandma.”
“Ah, I knew you would be,” Gabriele replied with a smile. “You always do so well at anything you set your mind to, don’t you?”
“Guess so.”
“How have you been enjoying working for GLYPH? Do you think it’s something you want to keep doing, or no?”
Gisela shrugged. “It’s fun, I guess.”
Her grandmother set a hand on her head. “You know, if you’ve changed your mind, that’s okay. You don’t have to do this if you’re really not interested. It’s a very big commitment, and you certainly don’t owe it to anyone to force yourself.”
That irritated her, at least a little. She knew her grandma was just trying to be supportive and understanding, and for good reason – up until recently, Gisela had spent most of her life rejecting every line of work in her family lineage – whether it was becoming a pro wrestler like Gabriele had been when she was younger, working at GLYPH like she currently was, or the Graf family’s primary field – ghost hunting – like her parents had done. Gisela had been very outspoken about just wanting to get a job at a video game development studio, and living quietly in a tiny apartment with some friends.
And thus, it came as a shock to Gabriele when Gisela had suddenly declared her interest in working for GLYPH out of the blue. She’d asked her granddaughter what prompted the sudden change, but Gisela denied answering. Gabriele had definitely been proud and excited to see her granddaughter breaking out of her comfort zone and taking up work as important as GLYPH, but she still harbored doubts that it was something the young woman truly wanted.
But thus far, the girl had denied all of the opportunities she’d been given to renege, so even if Gabriele wasn’t fully convinced, she just had to let her be, she supposed.
“I’m staying.”
Gabriele leaned over and planted a kiss on the side of her granddaughter’s head and chuckled. “Alright, dear, I’ll stop pestering you about it from now on.”
The Graf duo fell into silence, with Gisela going right back to playing her game, and Gabriele gazing up at the sky. The latter then looked back down to her granddaughter. Though she certainly styled herself uniquely with her makeup, hair, and clothes, she really was growing up to look just like her mother, a fact that stung Gabriele’s heart. It had been nearly twelve years since Gloria and Gavin Graf had died, and it hadn’t gotten easier to swallow that fact.
Not long after, Dahye exited the building and greeted the two. “Good morning, Gabriele. Gisela.”
“Good morning, Dahye!” Gabriele replied, standing up and stretching her well-muscled arms and back. She’d never been a big fan of sitting around for long periods of time; the polar opposite of Gisela. “Ready for another hard day’s work, dear?”
“Of course. Were you planning on joining us today?”
“Oh, as much as I’d love to, I’m afraid I can’t. I’m flying out to help with the European branch.” She looked down at her granddaughter and patted her head again. “But I’ll be able to leave a little less anxious knowing Gisela will be in good hands with you here.”
Dahye smiled. “Yes, I promise she’ll be safe under my watch. And she’s a very capable girl, so I doubt she needs much babysitting from me anyway.” She then raised a brow. “Hm, so you and Dr. Ingram are both helping the European branch right now, it seems. Are they struggling?”
“It sounds like it, yes,” Gabriele said, resting her hands on her hips with a sigh. “With the Round Table continuing to grow and interfering with our own expansion, they’ve been having a hard time keeping pace with infiltrating BUBBLES especially.”
GLYPH had a presence on all of the major continents, but its European branch had always been one of its smallest and weakest, due largely in part to another, much larger and more powerful organization known as the Round Table, whose members held positions and had contacts with powerful people in just about every country on the continent. Round Table had not been shy about throwing its weight around to pull for new legislation that targeted GLYPH’s ability to function and grow, on top of physically interfering with their agents on missions.
“Well, with your help, I’m sure they’ll be right back on track in no time.”
Gabriele giggled. “Oh, thank you, dear, but I’m well past my prime at this point. I’m afraid you might be overestimating my influence, but I’ll certainly give it my all.”
A few minutes later, Ace and Annabelle stepped out from HQ, and it was time for the current batch of field agents to head out. Gabriele gave her granddaughter one last little smooch on the head before leaving for the airport.
“Alright everyone, first things first,” Dahye began. “I know it was a bit unprofessional of me, but I took the liberty of taking care of two of our missions myself early this morning.”
“Ooh, somebody’s antsy,” Ace said.
She turned to Annabelle, and then to Gisela. “I apologize for taking away some opportunities for the two of you to get more field experience, but-”
“Don’t care. Sounds good,” Gisela said flatly, cutting her off.
On the other end, Annabelle saluted and kicked her foot out. “Apologies accepted, auntie!”
“Alright, then,” Dahye continued, clearing her throat and opening up the folder of missions they’d been assigned. “That leaves just two more, and they’re both pretty intense, but I believe we should be able to handle them both by the end of the day.”
“I don’t suppose either of those two you scratched off by yourself were the Diabolus missions…?” Ace asked.
“No. Those are in fact the last two remaining.”
“Yaaaay…”
“Are you familiar with them?”
Ace nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Unfortunately. They’re drug dealers, mostly, but they also run a PMC. Heard they’ve been growing like crazy, too, so they’re probably an even bigger pain in the ass than they were the last time I had a run-in with them.”
Dahye closed the folder and set a hand on her hip. “You had a ‘run-in’ with them?”
“Yeah, last year, during my…day job,” he chuckled. “I wasn’t even involved in whatever it was they were getting up to, we just happened to cross paths for a little bit, and I still got roped into a helluva firefight. If we’re stepping into their territory, then just be ready to spill some blood, is all I’ll say.”
Dahye winced. She was no stranger to fighting, especially not when working for GLYPH, but it always upset her whenever she had to cross blades with other humans. GLYPH’s work was for the sake of the world and all of its people as a whole; having those very same people as direct obstacles was always a shame to see. “Well, I’d definitely prefer to avoid that as much as possible, but I doubt we’ll be that fortunate…”
With a sigh, she turned and began leading the group on their way.
While Diabolus had expanded to all of North America, and were primed for moving even further beyond that, New Jersey was where they’d originated as a small-time gang nearly a decade in the past, and it was where most of their facilities were located.
One such facility was an old warehouse by the coast. From the outside, it looked like a run-down piece of shit. The paint had long-since worn out, it was covered in rust, every wall had cracks and shitty graffiti tags, and even the roaches and rats only nestled within its cracks and crevices after their first, second, third… fifteenth choices of shithole buildings were a no-go.
On the inside…it wasn’t much better. At least not the main bulk of the building, which sported just as much wear-and-tear as the exterior (although the graffiti on the interior walls was much higher quality, admittedly), but the office in the back was quite nice, having been transformed into a snazzy little lounge – big, comfy couches, TVs, fancy lighting, a bar, a jukebox, the works.
The reason for that was that this facility was owned by Luke – a young member of Diabolus who had been quickly rising through the ranks in recent times. While he had no connection to the organization’s drug operations, he was the shining star of the PMC they ran, as Luke was a bloodthirsty beast on the battlefield, tearing whatever enemy they were hired to combat to shreds, often single handedly.
He’d been rewarded handsomely by the higher-ups, and there were talks of promoting him to a position of power within Diabolus, and he was only nineteen years old. He’d requested a building all to himself as a personal base camp, and was given the run-down warehouse that had long ago lost its profitability to the business. He’d obviously spent his money and efforts on the lounge, which he often used for relaxation, throwing parties for his friends, and for fucking, which he was currently doing.
His partner of choice for the day was Lili, the older sister of an enemy PMC officer he had personally torn to shreds a few months ago. One would think that personally witnessing a sibling’s brutal murder would make one not especially fond of their killer, but for reasons no one, not even Lili herself could explain, she’d found it… arousing, and had given herself over to Luke as a prize, and the young man couldn’t turn that offer down.
The twenty-five-year-old woman had quickly become a favorite fucktoy of Luke’s. He liked her tits, he liked her ass, he liked the way she cussed when he fucked her, and he especially liked finding out that she was a local news anchor with a big fanbase who loved to write hundreds of online comments about what a sweet, inspirational angel she was, and how she brightened their day every time she was on camera.
He had her bent over the arm of one of the lounge couches, and was driving his cock into her asshole as roughly as he could, earning one hoarse moan with each thrust.
“Yes! God! Fucking tear my ass up, baby!” she growled, fingers digging so harshly into a pillow she was on the verge of puncturing holes into the thing.
Luke grinned and reached out to grab two big fistfuls of her feathery red hair, tugging her back with enough force to nearly break her spine.
With her back now up against him, he leaned forward and spat, “Don’t fucking tell me what to do!” before clamping one of his hands around her throat.
She nodded, eyes rolling into the back of her head as he continued pounding her, spitting out a sloppy response. “Kkghlk..! Mmsorrydaddy…! I’mso-aaahhgh! Sorr…rryyy…!”
As tears welled up in her eyes, Luke’s smile grew wider, and he started drilling into her even faster, letting the sound of their bodies smacking each other echo around the lounge, overpowering even the metal music blaring from the jukebox. “You want this fuckin’ demon dick, don’t you?!”
Lili tried to nod, though it was hard with his strong hands controlling her head. “Nghayes..! Yesyesyes! Kkgh…Iwantthat…bigdemondick daddy, p-please…!”
Howling, Luke’s eyeballs went pitch-black, and the green irises transformed into a stark yellow. His voice became deeper and distorted mid-laugh, echoing as though multiple beings were cackling in unison all around the lounge.
A soot-black splotch appeared under the skin of his chest, and quickly expanded, until his body became a shadowy-black, and expanded in size in all aspects – his muscles grew larger, he gained a good foot in height, leathery wings and a tail sprouted from his back, and, of particular interest to Lili, his cock expanded by several inches in length and girth, and the surface of the shaft became ribbed.
Lili came the second she felt Luke’s demon-form-dick awaken. She passed out in the process and went limp, but that was of no concern to Luke, who simply held her body up and continued fucking it, laughing maniacally and spraying spittle all across the couch.
When he came, his body released a blast of force that shook her back into consciousness, though she didn’t have any energy to do anything other than remain suspended in mid-air, taking his monster cock in her rear end.
After finishing, he tossed her aside like a rag doll. While she did land on the couch, it was only halfway, and she nearly smacked her head on the concrete floor as she dangled lifelessly over the edge of the chair.
Luke ended his demon transformation, returning to normal. Chuckling, he walked past the couch, though not before reaching over and spanking Lili’s already-red ass cheek.
He made his way to one of the fridges, grabbing a bottle of his favorite brand of root beer. As he began chugging the entire thing down in one swig, he heard a knock on the lounge door, and turned to it with narrowed eyes.
He didn’t even bother throwing on some clothes before swinging the door open, greeting two of his men with his fat, cum-coated cock dangling freely. “What’d I tell you about bugging me when I’m fucking?”
“S-sorry, boss,” the one on the right said as both men averted their eyes. “But Seth is here, and he says he urgently needs to speak with you.”
Luke scowled, and finished guzzling down his soda. Seth was the one person in this world Luke might potentially consider calling a “friend” (if he was forced against his will to give that label to someone), and he was also the reason Luke had joined Diabolus in the first place. No narrator (not even an incredibly handsome, humble, intelgent, and omniscient one) could confidently commit to saying he “liked” him, but that was the best they could probably do in describing his feelings towards him. “Did he say what for?”
“All he said was that it was about ‘an important contract’. I’m not sure what that mea-”
Luke shoved the two men aside and stepped forward towards the exit, a wicked smile growing on his face. “Finally ready to be a proper demon, eh Seth?!”
