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Black Hat groaned as he got out of bed, resting his hand on the soft curve of his stomach. The demon closed his eye as he was faced with pain in his head and nausea in his stomach. He'd grown used to this by now, but it still was a very unpleasant experience. After all, Black Hat was pregnant, something which he had known about for the past three months.
The main reason Black Hat was in this predicament, asides from the obvious, was a little known fact about demons. That fact being that most follow a code of ethics, one that they must adhere to lest they be shunned away from demon society, a shunning which could last for at least a millennia. But perhaps the most important code, and the only one relevant for a mortal such as yourself to be privy to, is that demons are forbidden to bring any harm to demonic spawn, even if those yet to be born. The reason for this is that most demons are infertile, making it difficult to replenish the ever dwindling population. Black Hat didn't much care for demon society, or for pregnancy for that matter, but considering approximately thirty percent of his clientele were demons, he certainly did not want to break the code and lose out on all that precious money.
Another little known fact about demons, even to the demons themselves, is that they're aware of their pregnancy the moment that they become so. A fact that Black Hat had become intimately aware of. But soon, he would be able to put all this behind him, like a bad dream. Black Hat was actually nearing the end of his pregnancy. He expected that he'd lay about ten to twelve eggs, which he had read was the average amount for a demon.
The pregnant demon dredged his way over to his office. As it would turn out, creating life in your gut was a very exhausting affair, so as Black Hat progressed into his pregnancy, tapping into his dark powers became increasingly difficult. Unfortunately for him, shadow stepping, his personal favorite, had been the first to go. So he had little choice but to walk anywhere he needed to be. After all, he did still have places to be. He couldn't afford to laze around all day, even if he was pregnant.
Black Hat was taking it easier at least, now he was stuck to just signing off paperwork. As he wrote up some contracts, he suddenly felt a painful contraction in his stomach. Instinctually, Black Hat knew that it was time. Labor would be quick and over with fairly quickly, but as much as he would have loved to go back to his room where he had prepared a nest for the eggs, Black Hat had a meeting with Dr. Flug in less than ten minutes. For him to skip out on Dr. Flug's daily report would be highly suspect, and he really didn't want to attract any attention right now. Besides, their briefs were exactly that. He could wait.
So he waited, and soon enough, Dr. Flug entered his office. The meeting was going very smoothly, Dr. Flug was explaining to him how his latest invention worked and how he was actually ahead of schedule with it. Black Hat nodded every now and then, but he was having a hard time concentrating on what was being said. Wave after wave of contractions rolled through his body. The first one he had thought was bad enough, but each contraction just kept getting worse by the minute. Eventually, Black Hat was simply unable to keep his neutral expression, and he gasped at the sheer amount of pain he was in.
"J-jefecito, are you all r-right?" Something that did not get by Dr. Flug, as it seemed.
"Of course I'm all right you blathering idiot! Now, where were we?" Black Hat barked out, the pain making him a bit shorter than usual.
Still, they continued on with their meeting as if nothing happened. Turns out that Dr. Flug's latest invention was an electrified net launcher, which he explained could actually temporarily neutralize certain super powers as well as, obviously, cause paralysis. Dr. Flug was in fact just on his way out when Black Hat was hit by another contraction. This one just as painful as the last, but lasted longer, leaving Black Hat whimpering by the end of it.
"Jefe, you are not all right, and you cannot convince me otherwise. What's wrong." That last statement was not a question, but a command, which irritated Black Hat. Who did Dr. Flug think he was to give orders to a powerful demon such as himself?
"Nothing *huff* you imbecile. *Huff* Now go away. I have other *huff* business to conduct, you know."
"No, I will not go away, not until you tell me what's going on and how I can help you." Dr. Flug was really grating on his nerves, but Black Hat would spare him for now. He was running out of time.
"Fine, if you will not leave, then I will." With that, he got up from his chair, but had not even gotten half way across the room when another contraction hit, making him drop to the floor with one hand on his stomach. At this rate, even without Flug's intervention, he was not going to make it to his room. "Fine. If you really want to help, go to my room. In there you will find a large pile of blankets. Grab as many as you can, bring them back here quickly." Instead of doing what he was told, like an obedient little employee, Dr. Flug just stood there dumbfounded. "Well? What are you standing around for, you dim-witted house plant? Go do as I say. Now."
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Flug made a mad dash over to Black Hat's room. He was confused to say the least. Black Hat, a seemingly omnipotent being, for the first time in all his years of service, was in pain. And he thought that blankets would help him. So yeah, Flug was confused. But orders were orders, so he was going to grab all the blankets he could find if he had to.
He made it into Black Hat's room without any incident (Demencia, enough said), and sure enough, there was a huge, messy pile of blankets to the left of Black Hat's bed. And... hey wait a moment, was that Flug's old airplane baby blanket? And that was definitely 5.0.5.'s missing fuzzy blanket. What was Black Hat doing stealing all these blankets? No time for that, Black Hat was depending on him.
Grabbing enough blankets so that he could barely see what's in front of him, he made his way back to Black Hat's office. However, the sight he was greeted with was not the same as from when he left. The room was a mess, there was some kind of florescent green goo all over the floor and the papers from his report were scattered all across the room. Black Hat had no pants on and was laying on the floor next to some iridescent black orbs. Oh. OH. That certainly did help explain a few things.
"Dr. Flug, if you know what's good for you, you will leave the blankets and forget what you have seen here." Black Hat seemed exhausted, he spoke with a slur and just sounded weak. Flug however was no fool and did know what was good for him, so he followed orders and left.
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About a month had passed since then, but Black Hat had not left his office in that time. His eggs were too fragile to leave alone for any period of time and he didn't let anybody else near them either. That was something he had never accounted for, that his parental instincts would kick in and leave him too paranoid to properly function. He hadn't even been able to sleep properly due to his constant worry over the eggs.
He paced the room, not wanting to stay still, but not wanting to go out and do anything either. Wait, were his eggs too cold? As soon as the question popped in his head, he rushed towards the nest and gently rested his clawed hand on one of his eggs. Hmm, that one felt fine, but what about the others? He groaned at this, he too tired to check all seventeen of his eggs. He knew that they were fine, he checked them not even ten minutes ago, but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to relax until he made sure. Again.
According to his sources, the eggs are nearly complete with their gestation. If he was going to get rid of them, it would have to be soon, before they hatched and imprinted on him. He would have done it sooner, but his eggs were too delicate to be moved, plus he needed to ensure that they were incubated properly. He had checked his eggs recently enough, now was a good of a time as any to get this show on the road.
"Flug! Come to my office, now!", he growled into the microphone that was connected to Flug's lab. "And bring Cam-bot with you." Black Hat began pacing the room again, muttering lines of dialogue he might say for this recording. He hadn't done a recording, nor conducted any business involving his presence, in the time that he had been taking care of his eggs. He wouldn't even allow his employees anywhere near him out of sheer paranoia. Until now of course.
Flug was at the door, he must be preparing himself considering that he hadn't knocked yet. Black Hat bristled. When he said that he would let his employees near, what that really entailed was that he may have tried to bite their heads off everytime they happened to be nearby. Even now, Black Hat fought to suppress the urge to brutal maim the poor scientist at the door.
"Quit dawdling, we haven't got all day you know." Flug's trauma may be his fault, but hearing the anxiety riddled scientist go 'eep' still brought a menacing grin to his face. And watching said scientist stumble through the door that HE opened made Black Hat chuckle too. Cam-bot followed after its creator, and it seemed to take interest in the nest. "All right, you know the drill, start recording."
"Salutations, you loathsome leches. It's been a while, hasn't it? For those of you who have forgotten, my name's Black Hat. Today I have a very special offer. I present to you, genuine demon eggs! Fertilized of course. These babies are so rare, I can guarantee you that you will never see this offer again. 'How much for this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity' you ask? Only $6,000 each. That's right, only $6,000 for a demon slave of your very own. You know the number. 666-666-EVIL. But know, that if you do anything, and I mean anything at all to harm these children, I will know. I will hunt you down. I see all."
It didn't take long at all after uploading the video before the phone-bot started ringing, signalling him off his first caller. However, the caller in question was somebody he'd rather not deal with.
"Hello? Yes, I'd like to buy the lot if you would." Black Hat growled as he recognized the voice on the other end.
"No." And he promptly hung up. A few more customers called, and he was able to sell off three eggs by the time the first caller returned.
"Please? I'll pay triple."
"Still no. I would rather die than sell off my children to the likes of you. What would you even do with them? Raise them up to be goodie two-shoes like you? And more importantly, how'd you even get this number?"
"I just... kind of always wanted children, you know? And your number is on your site as well as in the video. How about I only buy one egg, but for four times as much. Ok?"
"My site?! How'd you even get on my site?"
"You're my brother, it's my job to keep tabs on you, see how you're doing. And that includes checking out your site every now and then. Especially since you've gone radio silent. So how about it? We got a deal then, brother?" White Hat wasn't going to lay off it, it seems.
"Ugg, fine. Since you're going to be annoying about it. Six times the original price though."
"Deal."
Including that ridiculous conversation with his brother, it only took a few minutes over an hour to sell off all his eggs. Despite the alarm bells blaring in his head, teleporting his eggs off to his clients went off without a hitch. He was actually a little worried about them. It didn't matter anymore, they weren't his problem anymore. Black Hat was hit with a wave of exhaustion, so bad that he couldn't even see straight. He hadn't slept since he laid the eggs. He shadow-stepped into his bedroom and promptly fell onto his bed. Before he drifted off to sleep, his last thought was of how he was not going to be sleeping with other demons again any time soon.