Evan strolled into the lobby of a massive building trailed by a pair of reporters and feeling thoroughly out of place, despite the immaculately tailored suit he was wearing. Rebekkah had acquired this and two other fairly large corporations for him to kick off a true crusade in what felt like an impossibly short time. She had cornered him the moment he got back and started briefing him on what he should do, giving him tips and pointers on how to handle these corporate fat cats and their lackeys. Most importantly though, she gave him a very thorough rundown of what he could and couldn’t do. Which, as it turns out, was much more could and not a lot of couldn’t. She had been meticulous, ensuring that their charters and policies, and whatever other guidelines they used to conduct their business that he didn’t care about, would give him complete control.

Something to do with finding out how much of the company you needed to own in order to make unilateral decisions that nobody could do anything to stop. In some, it was fifty-one percent, in others sixty or sixty-five. Which led to the here and now, entering the ostentatious and overdone lobby of the Infracorp world headquarters. His new status as the majority stockholder allowed him access to the meeting schedules, and through some stroke of fortune, they were having a board meeting today. Every important person in the company was there, including the CEO, and Rebekkah had been virtually over the moon when she found out, as opposed to his literally being over the moon a couple days ago, and she immediately told him to get down there and make a mess she could take advantage of.

Security tried to stop both him and the reporters as he swept past their desk, but his own bodyguard, a new and awkward feeling development that had been forced on him for the day, intercepted them. “You can’t enter without a pass!” one of them shouted, looking disgruntled at having a man that looked nearly twice his size and in ten times better shape interfere with his job. He didn’t try to get around him though, clearly having decided on the spot that he wasn’t paid nearly enough to volunteer for that particular beating.

Evan smiled winningly at the guard, slipping into the over-the-top public persona he was becoming known for. “My apologies sir! I have my pass right here,” he slipped the laminated badge that Rebekkah had given him before he left out of his pocket and showed it to the guard, “and they’re with me, I’m afraid I have some business to attend to upstairs that I am quite late for, so you will have to excuse our rudeness this time.”

He continued to the elevators without further interruptions and selected the floor he had been told to go to. Near the top of the building of course, because higher-ups were rather predictable sometimes. “Mr. Ebonheart, while we have a moment, could you answer a few questions?” One of the reporters, a man in his mid-thirties, asked him tentatively, and he suspected that they had been ordered not to pester him just yet. It would no doubt happen eventually, because, well, reporters. He nodded genially and waved for the man to continue. “Well sir, I was curious as to what you have planned here today and why you would want reporters to come with you for it.” He paused a moment. “I was also rather hoping we might get more information about the new game we’ve been hearing rumors about but that’s for more personal reasons.”

Evan realized that this particular reporter wasn’t being respectful and unobtrusive because of orders, he was doing it because he was a fan of their work. He glanced at the floor counter as he answered. “Well, we don’t have much time right now, so the short version is that I intend to expand on the Ebonheart Crusade in spectacular fashion, and perhaps initiate something of a paradigm shift that will no doubt have countless unpredictable consequences, both good and bad. As for the game, well, progress is being made swiftly now, and if you like I can arrange for you to swing by the office for a test run.”

“I would like that very much, sir!” The man practically squealed.

“Lisa?” Evan asked idly.

“I heard, one Jack Nesbit approved for tester status, will you need lodging or transportation arrangements?” Her usually chipper voice still sounded a bit down from the numerous angry lectures she had received.

“Err, yes? That would make it much easier to convince my boss to let me travel that far.”

“What about your friend? The stunningly quiet reporter lady?” Evan chuckled, Lisa may be a bit depressed at having disappointed them, but she was clearly already bouncing back, you just couldn’t keep her down.

The other reporter, a woman of a similar age to Jack, looked up from her phone in surprise. “What, me? I’m sorry, I was distracted, something came up at home, but my boss said this is too important and I can’t leave to deal with it right now.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, as they stepped out and headed for the boardroom Evan took a moment to ask. “What is it? If you don’t mind me asking?”

She shook her head. “Nothing I can do anything about from here, my son got in a fight at school and they sent him to the hospital for a broken arm and a three day suspension, but I’m stuck here and they are just going to have to wait until I’m done, since otherwise I lose my job.” She sounded depressed.

Evan shook his head gently. “Afraid there’s not much I can help with there. Beyond mentioning that as a fledgling company growing at breakneck speed, Archangel would most certainly have openings in our Public Relations department that an experienced reporter would no doubt more than qualify for. Should you decide that dealing with whatever mess your son may have gotten himself into is more important than continuing to work for your current boss of course. I’m afraid we have arrived though, and time waits for no man.

“Here,” he gave her a card with a number on it, “if you want, you can message Lisa directly while I’m busy making a scene, and if you decide to make a change in career, simply slip out the door and go deal with your personal issues. Family takes precedence at Archangel, and I for one, would not insist you work through a family emergency. Now, it’s time for my show, lights, camera, action.” With ‘action’ he pushed the doors open wide and strolled into the boardroom as though he owned the place. Which after a moment’s musing he realized he rather did own it after a fashion.

“What do you think you’re doing barging in here! We’re in the middle of a meeting!” A man Evan recognized as the CEO shouted at him the moment he entered. He then keyed a button on the table. “Security! What the blazes are you doing down there?! How did these people manage to get all the way up here? Get up here now and deal with it!”

Evan smiled at him, then paused and turned to his pair of reporters. “I just realized they didn’t send you with cameramen, did you only bring audio recorders?”

“Boss didn’t think I would even get in, let alone get in with a cameraman, so all I brought was a little handheld one that gets a bit better resolution than a phone camera,” Jack responded with a helpless shrug. The woman, whose name he had never gotten, nodded and confirmed she had something similar with her.

“Well then!” Evan declared, rubbing his hands together in that ‘it’s time to get down to business’ manner popular in cinema and almost never seen elsewhere. “I don’t much care for this business stuff, so I intend to make this brief, if not painless. As of, he glanced at his watch dramatically, “fourteen hours ago, I became the majority shareholder of this company.”

“Impossible!”

“Outrageous!”

“Where on Earth is security?!”

The few that weren’t shouting were muttering to each other as though hoping their neighbor might know if he was telling the truth or not. “I assure you, gentlemen, I am telling you the truth. Furthermore, when I say majority shareholder, what I mean is that I own a great enough percentage of the shares to make unilateral decisions about how this corporation will operate going forward from today on and I doubt you will care for my preferences nor agree with my goals. Frankly speaking, I don’t much care what you think of me and my decisions.

All I care about is the fact that this company produces a number of medications that mean the difference between life and death for a considerable amount of people, and has taken advantage of that fact to extort them for appalling amounts of money. From this day on we shall no longer be providing those lifesaving medicines at a five-hundred percent markup or more the way you have been. Instead, we shall be providing those medications for close to what they cost to produce. I don’t care that this will drastically affect profit margins and no doubt devastate the outrageous bonuses you all receive each year, nor am I interested in how much I would stand to benefit if I simply changed nothing. This corporation’s very foundation is built upon lives. Not the saving of lives, as some would expect from a pharmaceutical company, no, it is built upon the lives of only those that can afford your extortionate prices, while those that can’t are abandoned, left to die in misery and agony, ignored by the world.

“This will no longer be the case. Our foundations will no longer be built upon lives, but instead built upon the saving of lives! You are all welcome to stay and aid me in this endeavor to better the world, or should you so choose, you may leave at any time. Until you decide you care more for money than you do the lives of your fellow man and leave us I only have one thing left to say.” He spread his arms wide. “Welcome, gentlemen, to the Ebonheart Crusade!”

He offered the roomful of pale-faced businessmen a cheery smile, then swept out of the room before they could gather their wits and respond. Rebekkah would handle things from here, or at least the people she hired to take care of it would. His smile widened when he saw that Jack was holding two cameras and the woman was gone. When he noticed Evan looking at the pair of cameras he just shrugged. “What can I say? She was cute. Single too, kid sounds like work, but most women my age come with some baggage.”

Evan chuckled, and didn’t say anything else until they were leaving the building. “Oh, before I forget, get in touch with Lisa whenever you want to arrange that trip to Archangel.” He handed him a card. “Good luck.”

Jack looked a bit confused by the ‘good luck’ comment, but before he could ask Evan had left the building and promptly gotten surrounded by reporters. He got through the doorway behind him just in time to hear him answering a question. “I’m afraid I really must be going, places to be and things to do, but fret not, my new friend here, Mr. Jack Nesbit, has everything that occurred today on film, and will doubtlessly share it with you the moment he can get it approved by his editor.”

Jack’s face went pale as the sea of faces and microphones turned towards him. “Why?” He asked, but Evan was already making his escape, easily following in the wake of the mountainous bodyguard. “Wait! Come back! Don’t do this to me!”