“Galatea, do you think there is a way to incorporate a popcorn-dispenser into my mask?” I asked, watching the chaos unfold after I had finished my remarks, with the presentation playing in the background.

It was almost hilarious, at first, Senator Murphy turned an interesting shade of white, before blushing in embarrassment, which quickly morphed into anger. His microphone, which I had graciously turned back on, managed to pick up and amplify his mumbled words, as he tried to escape reality. His state of mind was not helped by the fact that I had added my own statement about copulating walruses to the video, though I could hear a snort of laughter from the audience.

Luckily for him, only the very first part was actually around him, the rest was focused on his partner in crime, so to speak, tracing the steps that followed their tryst and the involvement of Mr Lopez. While I had quite a bit of circumstantial evidence, and had edited the presentation to make it look as bad as possible on a lark, there was no real, smoking gun that conclusively tied the incident together with her and her campaign. Though, I was not certain it mattered, as she, too, turned interesting shades and began shouting in anger, condemning me in the most vile terms. One had to wonder why I was suddenly the bad guy in the situation but she certainly had lost her composure.

“You really don’t do things by half, do you?” Technica asked me, having not seen the full extent of my presentation previously. She sounded amused, so I hopefully had not broken too many rules regarding Guild-conduct. Not that I really cared if I had, at the end of the day, I had been attacked both personally and as part of the Guild, retaliation should be expected. Nobody should be under the illusion that attacking me in any way, shape or form was a good idea.

“I certainly do not.” I agreed, a chuckle in my voice. “But at the end of the day, this is a situation in which I felt that demonstrating strength and control was important. I also do not know what Ms. Lopez’ agenda was, why she tried to drag me into things or if the American Superheroes are involved on an organisational level or if it was an individual’s involvement in the scheme.” I admitted, giving her access to the actual results of my investigation, without the spin I had put into the presentation.

“Eh, it’ll be some sort of political power play. They happen far too often for my tastes but there’s nothing we can really do about it. At the top-level, everyone understands that the Guild is necessary, especially in the developing nations. The education we provide, the perspective, if you will, is far too valuable to discard.” she explained, reminding me that I had quite a bit of theoretical understanding of the Guild’s structure but that my practical experience was awfully lacking. Thanks to the reports to Technica, which I received as copies, I was slowly getting clued in, but it would take quite a while until I would be able to understand the complex tangle of relationships, owed favours and power.

While watching Senator Murphy and Ms. Lopez get into a frenzy accusing each other, while the audience shouted questions and the moderator completely lost control of things, I noticed Brightstar walk over, the microphone still pinned to her collar. Curious what she wanted to say, but not willing to broadcast it to everyone, I turned her microphone back off, made sure that mine was deactivated and stood, meeting her on the same level.

“Is it true?” she asked, without elaborating, leaving me momentarily confused what she was referring to with ‘it’, causing me to raise an eyebrow in question.

“Elaborate.” I simply responded, after realising that my raised eyebrow was hidden under my mask, and thus rather useless to convey my question.

“That it’s all a conspiracy by the Lopez.” her voice sounded a little inpatient, with some anger mixed in, making me curious what she knew and how she was involved.

“All, conspiracy and the Lopez, those are the interesting topics.” I replied, not giving her a straight answer, before elaborating. “

“Sadly, I do not have all the answers to those questions. I can confirm that there is a link between a person close to the Lopez and the female Senator Murphy had sex with. I can confirm that there was no physical coercion applied to the female Senator Murphy had sex with, though I cannot confirm that for other types of coercion. I can confirm that there was suspicious financial activity linking a security-operator who just happened to be on duty during the timeframe in question and a different person close to the Lopez and between that person and the Lopez themselves.” I paused for a moment, shaking my head and decided that listing more topics that could be considered important would only muddy the waters more.

“Just how many of those questions can ultimately be answered, I do not know, though I do think that you should examine your memories closely, regarding your own involvement. I do remember that Technica suggested this debate in the first place, but I also remember that you seemed to be eager to join in. Why that is, I cannot answer.” I concluded, leaving her visibly stunned. It was impressive just how much her body-language, the sagging shoulders and fidgeting movement were a departure from her earlier confidence and theatrics.

Luckily, my involvement with this whole mess would hopefully end soon, allowing me to erase the recording from my digital memory. Maybe, with either copious amounts of alcohol or a careful application of the nanites within my body, I would also be able to erase the images of it from my biological memory. And if I was truly lucky, I would be able to use the whole incident as leverage to make Technica promise that I would never have to do such a debate again.

“I…” she began, her mask moving in such a way that I thought she had a frown on her face. “...Do you think I’ll have to speak on this?” she paused again, before softly musing, “David suggested I should try talking to Senator Murphy. Her plans to create Powered-schools sound so reasonable, you know, like in the comics.” she admitted, and I had to fight the momentary urge to facepalm. It would not work with a mask anyway, but even that movement would undoubtedly be seen as rude. How could an experienced, hopefully intelligent, heroine be naive enough to believe life and society could function like they did in some comic-book?

“Your earlier statements, did you come up with them yourself? Or did you have someone coach you?” I could not stop myself from asking, before realising that the question would only drag me further into the mess. “Wait, please do not answer my question. Let us just forget I ever asked it. We can simply stand here, watch those two, maybe place a bet or two, to see if they start physically fighting and if so, we can bet on who would win.” I suggested, trying to move into an observer position, where I would be an innocent bystander, not involved in this whole mess.

“I think it would be Ms. Lopez, she looks quite scrappy.” I told Brightstar, almost laughing when I noticed her visible confusion.

“What?” she asked, before turning to stand next to me, so she could see the middle of the stage as well. “Shouldn’t we make sure there’s no fighting?”

“Eh, you can certainly do that but personally, I do not want to be involved in this mess. I would advise you to act in a similar fashion, there is no way to win here, not with the politics involved.” I replied, having a feeling that nobody would come out of this smelling like roses, and those involved would most likely be splattered with fecal matter, the deeper one was involved, the more foul-smelling the stuff would be.

“Maybe you are right.” she quietly agreed, her body-language calming down, as she stood next to me, looking officious, as the two politicians on stage started to accuse the other of actual crimes. While there was something to be said for having a front-row seat in political theatre, I truly did not need to know that Senator Murphy’s shouting was angry enough to cause spit to fly.

“Say, Metis, would you be interested in participating in one of the American Superheroes’ training-exercises?” Brightstar asked me, her voice very much as if she was making small-talk while watching some sporting-event. Which, in some ways, we did. Maybe we could market it as verbal mud-wrestling.