Chapter Nine - Bearable Threats

Emily shifted on her seat. It wasn’t an uncomfortable chair by any means, but the situation had her feeling antsy. Talking to a stranger was already a lot for her. Talking to someone that was a self-proclaimed mask, a superhuman, was setting the butterflies in her stomach off in a whole new way.

“Um,” she said. “I, I don’t know what to ask. Maybe... maybe how to make my... you called it morality?”

Handshake nodded. “That’s the commonly accepted term. There are others, more scientifically accurate ones, but morality covers the idea well enough. To advance you need to complete quests. Those quests, in turn, are linked to your morality. A rogue like myself mostly has quests that are about making connections and earning money. A person closer to the heroic end of the spectrum will have quests about saving people. That information is free, by the way. I don’t make a habit of selling things you can learn on Ikipedia.”

Emily nodded slowly. “So if I want to change moralities?”

“Now that information isn’t as freely available,” he said. “I could sell it to you for a small fee.”

“Money?” Emily asked.

Handshake raised a hand and wobbled it from side to side. “Money is fine. I prefer favours and requests, but for something so simple a bit of currency is more than sufficient.”

“How much?” Emily wondered.

The man’s smile didn’t so much as twitch. “Two hundred.”

Emily felt herself balking. “That’s... a lot.” She had some money. Her parents had given her enough to cover for food and such for a while, and she’d worked all summer doing odd jobs to save up. She had enough to buy a few nice things, maybe some clothes and such for Teddy, but to lose a month’s food budget on a bit of information... it was worse than paying for her textbooks.

“I can sweeten the deal for you, if you want. I have a gift for making sure that everyone is happy by the time it comes to shake hands.” He turned to one of his laptops and clicked on a few things. “I have a comprehensive list of the kinds of quests someone who began as an Anti-Hero needed to accomplish in order to turn into a Do-Gooder.”

“What kinds of quests?” Emily asked.

“That would be telling,” he said. “As would the number you need to accomplish, and how to do so.”

“I, I don’t know,” Emily said.

He’s smile twisted just a little at the edges. “Miss Wright, I’m hardly your enemy here. In fact, I can be a great boon for you. Think of what you want out of your situation. If your aim is to become a hero, then you’ll need to chart a path towards that goal. I can help you every step along the way.”

Emily crossed her arms to warm herself. “I don’t want to be a hero. I don’t want to be a mask. I just want to go to school and live my life, Mister Handshake.”

The man chuckled. “I’m afraid that that opportunity is quite a ways behind you. Imagine what would happen if the right people found out about your current situation?”

“What?” Emily asked.

He nodded. “Oh yes. That information alone is worth quite a bit, you know. Some people on the lighter side of the line would love the prestige of capturing a villain in the making.”

“A villain in the making?” she repeated.

“Oh, you might not be there yet,” he said. “But the temptation might be there. Evil-aligned quests are always much easier than heroic ones. It’s why some would consider you a threat. More power only requires that you hurt a few people.”

“I would never do that,” Emily said.

He chuckled. “Of course not. But that’s not what others might think on learning about you. Did you know that some have powers that allow them to see the powers and skills of others? What if one of those people, say, decided that your morality made you a risk, and decided to... take care of you.”

Emily closed her eyes for just a moment. She wasn’t the smartest girl ever. When it came to social things she had always been... lacking. But she could put two and two together just as well as the next person.

Handshake had opened with a threat, one that succeeded in making her come here. Now he was trying to position her in such a way that she... what? Had to rely on him? Had to do favours for him or else he would sell her out to some heroes and watch from the side as she was arrested for maybe being bad?

She hadn’t told him that her morality was set at Villain from the start. She had thought that it was only a bit of bad luck, but increasingly she was beginning to think that it was a lot worse than she had imagined.

“Mister Handshake, are you threatening me?” she asked.

The man’s smile turned ugly. “My, Miss Wright, I’m a businessman. I only want what’s best for both of us.”

“Boss?” Teddy asked.

Emily didn’t know what her... companion, summon... sister? Was asking. But she imagined that Teddy saw the trap just as much as she did. She had to leave, to find a place to think, and maybe find another source of information.

She nodded

Teddy grinned.

Emily realized that maybe she had made a small mistake at about the same time as Teddy jumped to her feet and her chair went flying backwards.

Between one second and the next, fur bristled all across Teddy’s body, her clothes disappeared into the thick fluff of brown growing out of her. Then Teddy grew, and grew, and kept growing bigger.

An arm as thick around as Emily’s torso shot forwards and shoved Handshake into his sofa.

A paw came down on the nearest laptop, four-inch long nails digging into and through the machine with a spittle of electronics being torn apart.

Emily froze just as hard as Handshake did as she took in the massive form of a grizzly bear leaning all the way across the table.

The paw on Handshake’s torso twisted a little and long white nails poked out and pressed into his button-up shirt.

The bear moved closer to him. “Did you threaten the Boss?” it asked with a voice that sounded like gravel being poured into a tumble drier.

Emily’s mind returned from it’s vacation in the little room at the back of her head where she could scream as loud as she wanted and snapped back into place. She took in the situation as quickly as she could and drew up a neat little list. At the top was the fact that Teddy was more bear-like than she had imagined.

“Teddy,” she said. Her voice was surprisingly calm, like her mother when she found out her dad had just purchased two hundred dollar hockey tickets using the family credit card.

The bear turned a head that had to outweigh Emily towards her. The face was huge, with canines longer than Emily’s entire hand, but the eyes, those were Teddy’s placid brown eyes. “Yeah Boss?”

“Please don’t kill Mister Handshake. This place has rules.”

“Hmm. Alright Boss.”

Emily nodded and turned to Handshake. The man’s handsome face was a bit red, and she suspected that he was having a hard time breathing. “Loosen your grip on him, please, he can’t talk,” Emily said.

She felt a little like she did when she dove to the very bottom of a pool and just allowed herself to sink, like she was weightless and floating.

“Miss Wright,” Handshake said.

“We’re not going to kill you,” she said more for Teddy’s benefit than the man’s. “But, but you threatening me... that’s not acceptable, Mister Handshake.”

“I understand. I’m sorry,” he said. His confident little smile was long gone, replaced by the sheepish look of someone caught red handed. “I was just trying to do the best for both of us?”

She didn’t believe him, not one bit. “How does your power work?” she asked. “Do you even have a power?”

“I do!” he said. “I can make deals with people. I know what people want and what they’ll accept in a deal.”

Emily frowned at the news. “Then why did you threaten me?” she asked.

He swallowed. “I could get a better deal out of you if you’re under pressure.”

“And... and you didn’t think I would be hurt by that?” she asked.

He froze up. “Um. It’s more that I didn’t think your friend would turn into a bear.”

She crossed her arms again. “That’s... Mister Handshake, you’ve been dealing with me in bad faith,” she said.

The man started to tremble, especially as Teddy growled her displeasure.

“How about a new deal then?” he asked. “I’m sure I can make it worth your while!”

***