HK: Interlude: Meanwhile, In Brockton (Empire)

Maximillian Anders stared out at the City of Brockton Bay from the window of his Penthouse. His muscular form was naked save for a towel around his waist. Recently divorced, Max had taken to having a string of brief one-night stands to get over the anger burning in his chest from Kayden leaving him and taking his children with her. Indeed, there was a woman in his shower right now, one who was not as White as the Driven Snow as many of his followers might have believed. Instead, Amina was a Latina woman of Cuban Descent. It was one of many reasons that Max only let a select few of his lieutenants know the address of his penthouse.

You see, Maximilian Anders, CEO of the Medhall Biotech Corporation, and secretly the Supervillain Kaiser, head of the Neo-Nazi Gang called the Empire Eighty-Eight, did not actually believe in the rhetoric he spewed to the lower ranks. No, the racial purity diatribes and cultural superiority screeds were instead a means to an end, a way to satisfy his will to power and gather followers in order to seize control of Brockton Bay. This was, Max reflected, something that had been a lot harder than he had imagined when he had inherited the Empire off the corpse of his father.

Certainly, going to war against the Marche and the Teeth had been difficult, but the Empire had obtained allies who had been willing to help deal with the latter, while the Former had been busy being harried by the Brockton Bay Brigade, which had since transformed into the Independent Team called New Wave. Unfortunately, Beatz's Organization had proved a perennial thorn in the Empire's Side, especially once they had begun propping up what had at the time been a relatively minor gang of Drug Dealers and street-corner thugs called the Archer's Bridge Merchants. That partnership had borne fruit, however, and now the Merchant Night Markets were the envy of Black Markets across the entire Eastern Seaboard.

That had not been the only problem, either. Not by a long shot. No, then the Dragon of Kyushu had shown up in Brockton after vanishing for years after the sinking of Kyushu. Lung had proceeded to conquer and unify every Asian gang and organized crime Syndicate in Brockton Bay, bringing the Triads, Yakuza, and the smaller Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean Street Gangs together all under the same umbrella, that of the Asian Bad Boyz, spelled with a Z, apparently, for hipness' sake. It was bad enough when the Asian Gangs were unified, but having a Parahuman who could go toe-to-toe with Leviathan on his own at their head made the situation ten times worse.

No, in the War for Brockton Bay's Underworld, the Empire was solidly on the backfoot. Thanks to the resources brought in from the Merchant Night Markets, and the partnership with Beatz bringing immense Organization to it, it was the Merchants and Beatz that clearly had the lead. Then, the ABB were second, as even though they lacked as much Parahuman Muscle as the Empire had, Lung counted for several Parahumans all on his own. Meanwhile, the Empire had more parahumans than either, though they were not of the same quality as Beatz or Lung. Meanwhile, their Stormtroopers were organized, disciplined, trained, and equipped well, but not as well as Beatz's, nor were they as numerous as the number of soldiers that the ABB could bring to bear.

"The Empire, despite my attempts to turn it into a model organization, is solidly average. Average is not good enough." Muttered Kaiser to himself as he stared out over the City.

Looking north toward the Trainyard and the Old Industrial District, he could only sigh as he easily picked out Merchant Territory, backed by Beatz's Organization, though the Slippery Vibrational Villain's bases had unknown locations. Looking Southeast from there, he spied the Docks and Chinatown, ABB Territory. Oceanpoint Towers gleamed in the distance, lit up like a tree on Christmas, promising those in the know access to whores from far-off exotic places. Meanwhile, the Ruby Dreams Casino in Chinatown had recently been bought out by the Golden Dragon Casino nearby, the latter having been a front for the ABB for some time already. While the Merchants hid their operations through shell games and relocation, the ABB used the glitz and glamour that comes from the Patronage of many wealthy elites of the City to hide theirs in plain sight.

By contrast, the area of the Empire's Territory was largely residential. They had a strip of downtown, where a lot of commercial activity helped to legitimize their operations with front businesses, such as Medhall, but mostly, the Empire's core territory was in residential districts. They operated fighting pits out of restaurant basements, betting parlors out of bars, and used truck stops as trans-shipment points for smuggled weapons. Compared to the glitz of Chinatown's Casinos or the constant repositioning of the Merchant Night Markets and Drug Dealers, the Empire's Illicit Money-making Operations were surprisingly mundane. That was how he preferred it, but perhaps it wasn't the best for business.

"Are you coming back to bed, Papi?" Questioned his paramour for the evening

Maximillian turned to see that his most recent conquest was likewise in a towel, curvy body on display with only a scrap of fabric to cover her. Then, she dropped that scrap of fabric just enough to reveal her Double-D-sized tits topped with caramel-colored nipples. He felt himself go rigid for a brief moment before a distinctive knock sounded on his door. He let out a grunt at that, shaking his head. It seemed that round two would have to wait for the time being. Only a few select people both knew this address and knew that knock. It was time for Empire business, then he could get to the next part of pleasure.

"Go back into the bedroom. I will join you when I finish here." Intoned Max.

"You won't keep me waiting long?" Queried his current conquest.

"Not long enough, at any rate." Answered Maximillian.

She nodded before sauntering back to the bedroom with a shake of her hips. Maximilian Anders watched her go, growling before turning back to the door. He wanted to have this done with so he could return to his evening activities. Mentally flipping his switch, the Charming and Debonair CEO of Medhall gave himself fully over to his instincts and immersed himself in his Identity as Kaiser, the Ruthless Supervillain who would stop at nothing to see his will to power realized.

"Who is it?" Asked Kaiser.

"James." Came a voice with a slight accent.

The Leader of the Empire nodded at that, moving to open the door, but being ready to spawn blades using his powers if it seemed that there was an imposter in the hallway. Fortunately, this was not the case, and the forty-something strawberry blonde, high-cheekboned form of James Fleischer, also known as the Supervillain Krieg, stood in the hallway in his civilian clothes. Krieg was one of Kaiser's top lieutenants and the one he trusted above the others with some of the more sensitive information. After all, unlike Hookwolf, Krieg was not a near-unthinking brute fueled largely by rage and bloodlust.

"We need to talk." Intoned Krieg.

"Very well." Acknowledged Kaiser.

"We recently received a new recruit. A new Parahuman recruit, a Case Fifty-Three." Informed Krieg.

"And? Such things have happened before, despite our rhetoric. Alabaster, for instance." Frowned the Leader of the Empire.

"This one is different. He's powerful and a true believer. However, he also seems slightly unstable." Insisted Kaiser's Lieutenant.

"Unstable how?" Questioned the Empire's Leader.

"He calls himself Jotunblot, and rather than call himself a Parahuman, he seems to fully believe he is some sort of frost giant ripped straight out of Mythology and put on earth." Answered the Lieutenant.

"Again, not unheard of. Myrrdin is the same way, and the Protectorate put him in charge of a City the size of Chicago. Surely this Jotunblot is not so unstable that we cannot use him?" Queried the Leader of the Empire.

"He refuses to give up the delusion. I would honestly question his ability to make rational decisions and disqualify him from serving us, but for one thing. Jotunblot has power. A lot of power." Sighed Krieg.

"How much power does he have?" Asked the Empire's Leader.

"He is already likely to have a brute rating of around four, just based on his physical capabilities. However, he also likely has a Blaster, Trump, and Thinker rating as well, as he seems to have an intuitive grasp of Combat and can subtly alter probabilities and cast ice bolts at foes. Plus, he says he will only grow more powerful with time. I am unsure if I believe him about that yet, however." Explained the Lieutenant.

"And if you had to give him a rating by the current PRT Scale?" Demanded the Empire's Leader.

"Brute Four/Thinker Two/Trump Three/Blaster Four." Answered the Empire Lieutenant.

"That is quite the combination." Mused the Leader of the Empire.

"It is." Nodded Krieg.

"In that case, keep me informed of this Jotunblot's Progress. If he truly can grow stronger, I may just have found our ticket to battling the ABB's Dragon." Intoned Kaiser.

"Jawiohl." Affirmed Krieg.

Then, his Lieutenant spun on his heels and left his penthouse, allowing the Leader of the Empire to throttle back his more villainous persona and impulses and once again turn into the charming and suave Maximillian Anders. With a grin, Max turned about himself and headed for the bedroom, where his most recent conquest was waiting for him to begin round two of tonight's fling. Of course, she wouldn't be here in the morning. Max would have her leave in a cab out of the Apartment Complex's service entrance. With luck, she would never see him again. Then, once he had started his day, Maximilian Anders would check on the progress reports his Lieutenants sent him regarding this Jotunblot Parahuman. Hopefully, the seemingly delusional Case Fifty-Three would turn out to be everything that the Empire's Leader had hoped for. If not, he might still prove useful regardless.

For now, however, the Gang Leader receded into the back of his mind, and the charming socialite and businessman came to the forefront. Maximilian Anders plastered a rakish grin on his face as he headed back into the bedroom toward his current Paramour. He intended to enjoy the rest of the night, after all.

Work could wait until the morning. . .

XXXX

Donald Lokisson, born Donald Lauge, had been having an interesting past couple of weeks. First, he was visited by a Dark-haired Man who claimed to be his real father, along with claiming to be the Norse God of Mischief, Loki. Then, he had been fed some sort of story about how, as Loki's only half-human son, he would either inherit Loki's Asgardian Abilities, Loki's Jotun Abilities, or some combination of the two much more strongly than any other descendant that Loki had sired in the past several centuries.

Donald had been tempted to believe it all a dream until the next morning came and he found himself not just damn-near eight feet tall, but also blue-skinned. Donald's brown hair and beard had also darkened to be a closer shade to the jet black that the man claiming to be both his father and Loki had sported. Of course, that hadn't been the strangest part, no. That had come when Donald had been transported to another world, seemingly apropos of nothing. Now, Donald had been a frequent poster on Four Chan, and so was internet savvy enough to recognize Brockton Bay when he had been plopped down here. Of course, because of said internet activity, he had also been radicalized fairly recently and chosen to join the Empire, calling himself Jotunblot, as he had clearly gained Loki's Jotun heritage.

That had led to his current situation. He had been told by the higher-ups to lead a raid on an ABB Heroin Den in order to prove his worth to the Leadership. He had gladly agreed to do so, taking a few Empire Stormtroopers across the boundary separating Empire Territory from ABB Territory and striking out for the small Chink Takeaway Restaurant, which hid a Heroin Den in its basement. Donald had snarled as they attacked the restaurant, sending eating customers and Chink Staff running for the hills, screaming like chickens with their heads cut off. It wasn't bad enough the damned Chinks had to manufacture a massive pandemic on his Old World, but now they were infesting good American Cities with degenerate business like drugs and hookers in this one? No, Jotunblot would teach them better.

"Time to teach you a lesson!" Rumbled Jotunblot as he conjured a razor-sharp shard of ice and flung it at the Chef.

The Old Chink was brandishing a Kitchen Meat Cleaver, waving it in front of him like some idiot, as if that pitiful display was gonna scare him into leaving. It would have been funny if it weren't so pathetic. Jotunblot's conjured shard of razor-sharp ice punched straight through the Old Chink Chef's chest, cleaver or no cleaver, impaling him and pinning the Dumb Bastard to the Kitchen Wall. Jotunblot just sneered as the Chef gasped out his last breaths, turning to the Men he had brought with him.

"The Heroin Den's in the basement. No need to chase these Chink Rats into their holes. You all have incendiary grenades for a reason. This place will go up like a bonfire once you chuck those downstairs. Do it and follow me onto the street. I'll be outside waiting till it's done." Ordered Jotunblot.

Then he did a circuit of the restaurant, sneering at the corpses of the Chink Staff and Patrons he had massacred during the attack on the restaurant. Some of these corpses were Chinks themselves, some even dressed flashy like they were ABB Gangers. Those corpses, Jotunblot rifled through the pockets of, stealing cash, jewelry, and weaponry. He collected around ten grand from various corpses in cash, with another two grand in jewelry and ten grand in cash after using his super-strength to bust open the tempered steel safe in the Old Chink Chef's Office. He also collected three semi-automatic pistols, Six Knives, and five pairs of brass knuckles. Stuffing it all into a black duffel bag, Jotunblot headed outside.

Two minutes later, the Stormtroopers he had brought with him came running out of the building, just ahead of the smoke that was starting to issue forth. A Black and Red Gang Tag was spray-painted on a nearby wall, taking just over a minute to create. The group then withdrew back into Empire Territory. The whole raid took maybe ten minutes in total. When the ABB Forces arrived fifteen minutes after the raid's start, they found their Heroin Den and Chink Takeaway in flames, their men dead, and no sign of the culprits save for the lone Empire Gang Tag spray-painted on a nearby wall. It was a pretty damned textbook raid, if Donald said so himself.

After kicking up a taste of the twenty-two grand he'd stolen from the Chinks, Donald Lokisson was now officially a member of the Empire's Elite. He'd clearly proven himself with his raid and would be getting a lot more missions to undertake in the future. Honestly? He couldn't wait. After all, this was the sort of thing he wished he would have been able to do back in his old life, but hadn't had the power to do so.

And that meant that for Donald Lokisson, he was literally living the dream. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. I decided to split the back in Brockton Interludes into two chapters, one for the Empire and one for the ABB. Both have gotten new Superpowered Recruits from the Complications on Trito's Sheet. This Interlude shows the Empire and their new recruit, Jotunblot, an Alt-Right asshole who was radicalized online during the Covid Pandemic and is insanely racist accordingly. Of course, he joined the Empire. Also, yes, Jotunblot's Father is Marvel Loki, though it's Classic Loki, which is to say the Scheming, Evil Version instead of the current God of Stories Version or even the Lady Loki Version that had been kicking around for a bit in the Early Two-Thousands.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the ABB Interlude, showing Lung's Response to Jotunblot's Raid, along with featuring the ABB's new Superpowered Recruit, Kitsune. Then we'll be back with Trito for the next part of Trito's story. I'll also have a character sheet for Jotunblot up before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .