Interlude: From Villains' eyes

“Tattletale,” the unwelcome voice was clear over the phone.

“Yeah, boss?”  Distracted. Considers this a minor issue.

“You read the file on Squealer. What do you think about Orb Weaver.”

Lisa shook her head. “I don’t have a lot of information on it, but my guess? A Thinker, maybe focused on parahumans.” She let her power free, thinking about the envelope with the USB holding the interview with the former Merchant.

Used a power to determine her weakness. Trigger event weakness. Attacked it. Doesn’t care about the unwritten rules.

“Would he make a good member of the team?”

Lisa shook her head. “Boss, we don’t even know who heis.  Just that he has a habit of going for the jugular. Like he did with Skidmark.”

“That appears to have been an accident—of Skidmark’s creation.” Amused.  Amused at Skidmark’s bad luck, thinks that—she wrenched her power back under control.

“Sure, but from what I got, he was still smashing every psychological weakness Skidmark had. Hell, depending on what type of Thinker they are, they might have known what Skidmark was going to do and planned for them to hit the wall.”

“And the fact there would be another thinker on the team doesn’t bother you?”

Lisa sighed. She didn’t need her power to know that Coil would like two people to play off against each other. But the distraction—he was more asking casually, rather than considering Orb Weaver important.

“He tries that with Bitch, or hell, just about anyone else on the team, you won’t have two thinkers, you’ll have one thinker and one dead body.”

“Hmmm… Perhaps you are correct. What I want you to do is keep an eye out. The Merchants may have been small fry, but this will still open opportunities for us.”

“What about the other job?”

“I’m still scheduling it. We have to provide you with some more muscle.” Bank job not the most important thing to him. Wants it to succeed. It must succeed. Still not the most important thing…A lance of pain ran through her head. They were about to graduate to the big time, and Lisa had no idea what was so important that it made the bank job a secondary priority.

*****

Coil put the phone down and collapsed the other timeline. The unannounced drill hadn’t ended, but he’d seen enough to know his men were still maintaining an acceptable level of performance, and if it was because they thought he had an almost supernatural ability to know when they were slacking…

Well, he really did.

He opened a new timeline, in one conducting a tour of his base, congratulating his men, mentioning the little things that let everyone know the boss cared for them. And he did. Mercenaries were expensive and a long-term investment, and unless you were in a throw away timeline, expending them needlessly or treating them poorly wasn’t smart. In the other timeline, he was sitting down and examining the file he’d already sent Tattletale. But it made sense to double-check her conclusions.

The file on Orb Weaver was very slim. Thinker 2 in the aftermath of Squealer and Skidmark, and possibly Brute 1. While little evidence had been found, there was some evidence from smoke residue that ordinary fireworks had been used. A small time player, using smoke and mirrors to shield his weakness.

But possibly useful.

Tattletale was right—Orb Weaver wouldn’t fit in with the Undersiders, especially since they were without Grue.

On the other hand, Orb Weaver appeared to be focusing on small-time criminals, and that could be an issue in the future. The Merchants had been part of Coil’s plans—once his operation had come to fruition, he was going to sweep in and eliminate Skidmark as one of his first decisions as the new  director. It would be easy, especially considering the fact that he knew exactly who Skidmark got his drugs from.

A cleaned up city would not be a city that would see Thomas Calvert as their savior. But a city that devoured and chewed up some naive would-be hero?

Especially if his death was played up as a tragic outcome of the failure of the PRT and Protectorate that needed new blood.

Coil put the folder away. He’d need to find out more about this Orb Weaver. And after that, he’d determine which group would be useful when it came time to turn a would-be savior into a martyr for Coil’s cause. Now it was time to read more reports.

His power did many things. But perhaps the greatest was the way it ensured that he was always up to date on his paperwork.

*****

Madlyn Cho (Maddie to her friends) shivered in her seat. The Chess Club was starting. Twenty five of the best chess players in school. Twenty-five members of the ABB, even though she’d never been asked to do anything. Just… Play chess. Play chess to the best of her ability. Do her best to win against…

Against Lung. Sitting on the other side. And behind him the prize to the student who beat him.  Not money. Something more important. A favor from Lung, that beyond certain limits, and they’d been explained to her, would be anything she wanted. A house? Certainly. A high position? Yes. To simply be left alone by the ABB, or to put someone under their protection? Just ask. There were lesser prizes, bundles of cash, and such, but that was the big one.

Madlyn’s brother was thinking about joining the ABB. If she won, she’d ask for enough money to give to her parents so they could move far away from the Bay.

And then the games began. As usual, it started out with Lung making errors, and Madlyn had him on the backfoot.

A new member was grinning. Madlyn wasn’t. She knew what was going to happen. And it did. Lung seemed to loom a little, heat coming from his body. And suddenly she was on the defensive. Where Lung had frowned and spent minutes looking at the board, now he glanced down, made a move, and walked to the next person.

Madlyn was hesitating now, taking longer and longer to make her choice… The new member was now sweating, staring at the board, half his pieces suddenly under threat.

Two members were checkmated and left, taking their consolation prizes as they did.

Finally, it was up to Madlyn and two others… the last. The sun had gone down and Madlyn was trembling as she tried to figure out what the next—

“Mate in three,” Lung said. Madlyn stared, spent a few moments desperately trying to find a way out…

Then tipped her king over.

Lung nodded and went on. Two moves later, he stood victorious.

Madlyn and her two fellows stood and bowed to Lung, and he bowed back. Then they left. Madlyn checked her gift bag after leaving (checking it before might imply you didn’t trust Lung). A five-hundred-dollar gift card.

It wasn’t getting out of the Bay, but she could use it to pick up some stuff for Mom. She just wouldn’t tell her idiot little brother where she’d gotten it from.

*****

Kenta sat down at his desk. The game was over, and nobody had won, but the looming threat of what the winner might do had been enough for his power. His mind sang, thoughts coming quickly as he started the paperwork, doing the work of a dozen subordinates, considering and dismissing plans. The night went on, and slowly his power ebbed, until he was finished.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Oni Lee stood by him, but his most loyal supporter said nothing. Oni Lee said less and less, these days.

His thoughts were slower now. By morning he’d just be Kenta. When he’d learned that his power could also enhance his mind, he’d been ecstatic.

But a fight didn’t make you smarter.

And simply reading a book didn’t provide the risk. His power demanded a real contest. If he’d just played a game of chess, it would have been worthless. But the buzz, the knowledge that someone might ask for something painful, risky… deadly if they won, set his power to running. Something that challenged him..

But even that was declining. The knowledge that nobody really could beat him, made the stakes less important. The same went for the fights in the Bay. The risk was less and less.

Oh, for a challenge. Something that wouldn’t just make him feel that clarity for an hour or a day, but for weeks. A foe that would help him reach out and grab that perfection…

But there were no such foes. Lung put the last paper down and turned to Lee.

“We’re going.”

Lee nodded and called for the car. Lung would go to a brothel, and the whores and booze would let him endure losing the clarity he felt now and returning to just being Kenta.