The Protagonist System

216 Setting Things Up

It was easy to change my fingernails into appropriately shaped claws to dig into Paige's crown feathers and groomed her after she had sated herself. She cooed happily as I dug out the irritating down feathers that bothered her and she was almost boneless as she let me take care of her while she laid on top of me on the couch.

It took a lot of trust on Paige's behalf to let me be this close to her, especially with quite sharp transfigured claws scraping against her skull. However, her loving gaze never wavered as the pile of irritating down grew until I finished the task.

“You can't legally marry me until you're sixteen, even with your mother's permission.” Paige stated and kissed me tenderly.

I changed my hand back to be normal. “That's almost the worst proposal I've ever heard.”

Paige laughed and nuzzled into my neck before she lightly nipped at the skin there. “I don't want to know.” She said and softly kissed my neck several times before she sighed. “I don't want to get up.”

“You don't have to.” I told her, giving her the option to stay right where she was.

“Unfortunately, I do.” Paige said and sat up, her modest chest only swaying a little. “I have a huge delivery of equipment coming soon and I need to sign for everything and direct them where to put everything.”

I perked up at that. “You're creating a recording studio here on the bottom floor?”

Paige looked surprised for a second and then smiled. “I should have known you would figure that out right away.”

“Hey, I'm not just a pretty face.” I said with a snooty voice and she giggled. “I'm not!”

Paige laughed and kissed me. “I know you're not, Greg. I just didn't think you knew that much about me.”

“Not personally.” I said and she raised her eyebrows. “I do know a lot about production values and public perception, though.”

Paige nodded and stood up from the couch. “I need to clean up before the workers show up to finish soundproofing the studio downstairs.” She said and gave me a stern look. “Is it safe to invite you to shower with me?”

“Absolutely not.” I denied and she chuckled. “But, I can be both discreet and fast.”

“I guess that's good enough.” Paige said with a warm smile and took my hand to bring me into her bathroom. I took off the were-bunny suit to leave myself naked and we had a nice quick romp in the shower. We were dried off and Paige dressed while I pretended to not have anything to change into to make her laugh and she offered me some of her clothes.

I waved her offer off and went up the stairs to the roof as I pretended to retrieve an overnight bag of clothes and stored the bunny suit. Paige gave me a very possessive look that was full of approval when I returned with the large bag. I dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that had 'I am starting to think I'll never be old enough to NO any better' printed on it, and she laughed.

As a joke, I pulled out another t-shirt to hold out to her. Paige laughed and took off her blouse to put it on. It had 'All of my Sarcasms are real and never faked!' on the front and she looked a little proud to wear it. She took my hand and led me down the stairs to the bottom floor and I saw it was stripped down to the bare walls and there was a partially built section in the rear corner.

“Can you install the equipment with it this unfinished?” I asked her.

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“I don't have a choice.” Paige said with a sigh. “I had planned to stay at a hotel for the week while this place was being renovated, then Narwhal showed up at the hotel.”

I pulled on her hand and she turned around to lean against me. “She didn't do anything to you, did she? Do I need to go have a talk with her?”

Paige looked surprised at my question and then she almost melted against me and kissed me soundly. “You actually care enough about me to face Narwhal, even though she's a PRT director?”

“You haven't done anything wrong while here, so she shouldn't hound you without cause.” I said.

“How do you know that?” Paige asked me.

“I haven't heard of anyone acting strangely or out of character, so you haven't been using your suggestion powers to influence people.” I answered.

“Oh? You don't think I've been influencing you ever since you showed up here?” Paige asked.

“Worshipping my balls is a valid tactic to influence me and your mouth was full most of the time, so no. You haven't been using your powers on me.” I said with a smile and she laughed.

“Do you want me to try?” Paige asked.

“If you want to.” I said and her eyebrows rose. “It won't affect me unless I want it to.”

Paige looked shocked for a moment, then she pulled me back in to kiss me soundly again. “I knew you were perfect.”

I shook my head. “I'm not. At all.”

Paige let me go and stepped back. “Would you accept it if I changed it to perfect for me?”

“That I might not object to.” I responded.

Paige motioned for me to follow her into the sectioned-off area. “Then give me a hand moving some of the supplies around to make room for the banks of sound editing equipment that should be here soon.”

I stepped into the fairly large area and saw how it was divided into a large control booth without anything between it and the recording section. Only part of the sound dampening material was up and the rest of the bare concrete wasn't going to be any good for containing the sound or minimizing the vibrations loud music was going to cause.

“Who did you hire to do this?” I asked and looked over the shoddy application of the materials already put up. It would only be half as effective because the specialty foam design didn't have a solid base to adhere to.

“The dockworkers union.” Paige said and picked up a bundle of insulation to toss out of the area. “I was trying to not cause too much of a fuss or I would have brought in a proper work crew from out of town.”

“You should have done that.” I said and pulled on the foam part already up and there was a small tearing sound as half of the thing came right off of the wall. “It wasn't secured properly.”

Paige looked at part of the walls already done and sighed. “That's going to set me back even more than showing up early did.”

“No, it won't.” I said and gave her a pointed look. “Please keep this quiet.”

Paige nodded agreement and then gasped as everything on the walls was pulled off without me touching anything else. “What... what power is...”

“Telekinesis.” I said and lifted everything else up in the area and moved it all out into the main part of the room. I then started taking out the wood and supplies needed to make actual walls to secure to the bare concrete. Since I had a fuse ability to stick things together, I didn't need nails or anything, and transfiguration let me make the wood into any size and shape I needed.

Paige watched, her breathing heavy, as I put up the wall studs that should have been there and built the outer wall to divide it off completely from the rest of the warehouse, except for a single doorway. I also built out the ceiling and the floor, to give her a solid base for everything.

I wired the new room for electricity and computer access, as well as lights, plugs, switches, cables for television monitors, microphones, speakers, earphones, and the intercom. I then used the insulation bundles she had there and filled up the spaces between the studs with pieces of insulation and expanded them to fill up the spaces and formed a solid layer. I also cast impervious spells on everything to never have to worry about anything wearing down or breaking.

I covered it all in plastic and fused it together, leaving sealed holes for the receptacles. The large stack of sheetrock panels, otherwise known as drywall or gyprock, were lifted into place and I covered everything with them, leaving appropriate holes for all the various plugs and things.

Since I was forming it all in place and fusing it together, there was no need for filling the cracks or screw holes, because no screws were used. The solid white walls looked like a professional had spent a long time finishing them, because everything was clean and straight.

With that done, I used the boxes of fixtures and covers for the switches and lights to put them into place, then added the florescent lights as well. I fixed the soundproofing material and removed the incorrectly applied glue from the back of it, then I covered the walls and the ceiling with it and fused it all together into a solid piece, again leaving the appropriate holes for plugs and things.

The floor I covered with a thick hardwood flooring to make it sturdier and added a nice carpet for comfort and extra sound dampening. I also discreetly cast sound muffling spells on everything to make it all perfectly soundproof. The only thing it didn't have was a door, which was going to be in the control booth anyway.

I quickly built a wall to cut off the control booth, leaving a doorway into the recording part, and added in the thick and expensive soundproof glass Paige bought to look through. It gave the recording space a finished look that had Paige gasping for breath. I walked over to her and she stared at me like I was the messiah of her religion, probably because it had only been about twenty minutes for me to do it all.

A loud ringing knocked Paige out of her shock and she put a hand on my chest, gave me a look that promised a lot of dirty fun later, and she walked across the warehouse to answer the doorbell by the normal door. She opened the door and met with a delivery guy and signed his clipboard, then she opened the large sliding delivery door beside the normal door.

“Just drop it all off right here.” Paige ordered and motioned to just inside the warehouse.

“Sure thing, lady.” The gruff guy said, looking relieved that he didn't have to bring each piece in to set them in place like he thought he had to. After he and two other guys read her t-shirt and laughed, they used a dolly and spread the large boxes and crates out just enough to empty the back of the truck. The delivery guy saluted her in thanks for such an easy job and drove away.

Paige shut both doors and locked them before turning to me. “Greg? Darling? Honey bun?”

I chuckled and didn't bother walking over to her and lifted everything up from across the warehouse and floated them over to where I was and put them down beside the recording area, since I didn't know where she needed each thing inside the room.

“I'm almost afraid to ask you what else you can do.” Paige said and kissed me. “Help me unpack everything and I can worry about setting it up later.”

I helped her with it all, making a bit of a mess with the packing material, and I piled all the discards off to the side and out of the way.

Paige looked at the very large sound board that was eight feet long, just over three feet wide, and four feet tall. “Dammit. I forgot this thing needed to be put into place before building the wall.”

I motioned at the doorway and it widened out to five feet wide.

“Of course you can alter what you built.” Paige said with a huff and I didn't correct her assumption. “I'll guide it in if you can hold it steady.”

I picked it up with telekinesis and she touched the far edge and led it into the control booth. We set it right under the observation window and it fit perfectly. Paige gave me a questioning look and I shrugged. Sometimes things just worked out on their own.

We moved the large recording equipment in next and Paige started to smile as we assembled the room the way she liked it. By the time we were done setting everything inside and in their proper places, her smile was almost permanently etched onto her face.

“The reinforced door isn't supposed to be delivered until Thursday.” Paige said and nodded towards the doorway to the recording studio. “A normal door is coming for there.” She said and nodded to the doorway out to the rest of the warehouse.

“What about furniture?” I asked and made a normal door for the control booth. I had no idea what went into a reinforced studio door and didn't bother trying to fake it.

“A delivery every couple of days for both the lounge down here and for the apartment upstairs.” Paige said and waved for me to follow her up the stairs. “I'm just glad the stairs to the studio apartment are straight and not curved like the last place I lived.”

“Let me guess. You had a huge couch and it wouldn't fit up the stairs?” I asked.

“They had to take out the upstairs window and made it into patio doors to get the thing in!” Paige said with a laugh and I laughed, too.

We reached the upstairs and Paige motioned to the couch.

“I can make it into a bed if you want.” I said, instead of offering to bring out one of the ones I had stored.

“Why? We're not going to be sleeping.” Paige said and stripped off, laying the t-shirt I gave her on top of one of her suitcases like it was made of gold.

I stripped off as well and she had me lay down on the couch, then she spent a considerable amount of time giving me a very good time.

*

Narwhal sighed when she sent a text and there was no answer. She had flown over to the address Atlas lived and only saw a woman there working through her mail, so she didn't want to disturb her. She had no idea where he could be and didn't feel like flying all over the place looking for him.

“Maybe I'll have a look around for Bad Canary, just to see what she's up to.” Narwhal said to herself as she floated high above Brockton Bay and sent off a text to Dragon. Her cell beeped a moment later and it had a long list of the properties Paige Macabee owned down near the waterfront. “Somebody sure let money go to their head.”

Narwhal checked the addresses and didn't really know where they were in relation to where she was, so she had to fly down to the PRT Headquarters to look at the full city map in the situation room. She cross referenced the list to where they were on the map and saw the monopoly of properties Bad Canary had bought out.

“I think if she tried, she could probably buy out the last few properties and own the whole thing.” Narwhal said, marking down in her cell how to get to each address. “I'll fly over the houses first before I check the shut down businesses. Those are the most likely places she's living and making her recording studio.”

Narwhal left the PRT building and flew up into the air. Hopefully, after she wasted some time tracking down where the new local villain cape was, Atlas would answer her texts and agree to meet up. She really had a need to get her rocks off with something other than a reinforced sex toy.

There was just something so much better about having a warm body under you that a piece of vibrating plastic just couldn't match.

Narwhal flew to the first address and sighed at the boarded up house that had seen better days. She flew on to the next spot and shook her head. There were no signs of life anywhere around the place and she moved on. She checked the businesses next and none of them had anyone around them, not even homeless bums.

With nothing else to do, and Atlas hadn't responded to her texts yet, Narwhal decided to check the last few properties that were only abandoned warehouses. She didn't have much hope of finding Bad Canary there, since a warehouse was a terrible place to live, unless you were homeless or needed somewhere to hide.

That thought made Narwhal gasp and she flew to the first warehouse on the list. It was boarded up, so she flew on to the next one. All the windows were beat out, no doors were present, and there was nothing inside except garbage. With one last property to check across the harbour, Narwhal hesitatingly flew across the water in the hopes that she would find what she was looking for.

Narwhal paused in mid-air at what she saw. Right there through the windows of the practically empty loft, she found both of the people she had been looking for all morning. Cuddled together on an old couch, naked as they day they were born, were Atlas and Bad Canary.

“Goddammit.” Narwhal said, her hands forming into fists and her eyes squinted. “If I had taken her down yesterday instead of checking with Piggot first, that could have been me getting some.”