Chapter 03-04

“What exactly is your plan with these yahoos?” Obsidian asked. She still walked with a little bit of a hitch in her step from the blow that Laser-Man landed. She was probably lucky to be alive truth be told.

“I can’t let them just walk free. Especially Laser-Man.” Alex said shaking his head. They rounded the corner to the street where the Hero bureau was located.

“I get that, but this place is not exactly going to hold them. Not in its current state.” She said. As if on que a board came loose, dangled for a second, then fell to the ground from the front of their building.

“Alright, so I’ve got to put a little bit of money into HQ.” Alex said with a shrug.

“But this isn’t HQ!” Obsidian sighed, “This is supposed to be temporary.”

“You’re right, but you’ve got to spend money to make money.” Alex said with an assuring smile or the best fake one that he could force onto his face.

With a nudge in Laser-Man's back Alex pushed him into the building. The Scanner followed right behind him without the need for any additional persuasion. The small group walked into the dimly lit entryway and turned into the office where Alex had first met Dick where they found him sitting at the back of the room facing away from the door.

“I did not expect to see you again.” Dick said spinning around in his chair. His expression fell flat when he noticed that not only did Alex have a sidekick, but he had two villains in toe.

“I live to surprise.” Alex said with a wide grin stretched across his face fanning out his arms to present the three other people.

“Who are these lovely people?” Dick asked with a forced smile.

“This is Obsidian,” Alex said clasping her shoulder, “These two are Laser-Man and The Scanner. They happen to be my first collars.” He said with a proud stance. With his elbow he nudged them both forward.

“Excellent work.” Dick said with a curt nod. There seemed to be like a ‘now what’ in his tone.

“Does this Hero Bureau have a holding cell?” Alex asked.

Dick blew out a long breath through his nose and opened his desk. He removed something and stood up from his chair.

“Follow me.” He said shaking his head.

The four of them followed Dick out of his office and down the hallway. They came to a large steel door that had the same set up as a large bank vault. Dick turned the lock’s combination while covering the dial so that the two villains couldn’t see. The large door swung inward allowing them access to the holding area.

They all piled inside concrete room. There were three holding cells inside the larger holding area. All three of the cells were of similar construction. Concrete walls formed their back and metal plating formed the remainder of the walls. There was a single door in or out of each cell. The wall at the rear of the cell to the left of the main holding area door was completely blown out.

“Happened the day of the Exodus.” Dick said resting his elbow in his hand and his chin on his fist after he noticed Alex notice.

“I don’t think that this cell is going to hold a man that can fire lasers from his body.” Obsidian said clearly in an attempt to point out the obvious.

“Just a few little upgrades and we will be right as rain.” Alex said cheerfully. His confidence in the situation was starting to fail just a bit when his voice cracked with the end of his statement. They had two good cells, but the outer wall’s structural integrity was damaged.

Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket. Most of the services in any and all the world could be accessed from one’s phone. He opened an app that would contact the same system of robots that repaired the damage after Obsidian and her sister’s fight.

When the app launched a map of the city appeared on his screen.

-How may the Vulcan Assembly be of assistance?

Alex found the Hero Bureau on the map. The building was labeled as a hazard in dark red. There was only one color worse on the map and that was worse than the Hero Bureau and those were a couple of abandoned buildings that were label in black.

When he clicked on the building a 3D representation of it appeared floating in the center of his screen rotating slowly in three hundred and sixty degrees. Stats appeared on the right-hand side of the screen.

-211 Virtue Street

-Owner: Dick Michealsons

-Structural Score: 15%

-Organizational Alliances: Winter Guarder Heroes Alliance (Disbanded)

-Market Status: For Sale

-Market Value: 130,000t

-Sale Price: 145,000t

Alex was able to click through the building within the Hero Bureau. He clicked on the holding area. The system was quick to inform him of the massive structural damage to the back wall.

-Repair (Cost: 9000t)

-Yes | No

“How come this thing is letting me access all of these menus when you are the owner of the building?” Alex asked looking up from his phone.

“I’ve opened the building management permissions up years ago. Back in the day when there were four or five heroes working out of this place everyone would chip in for repairs and upgrades.” Dick explained a longing sound of the past in his voice.

Alex clicked ‘no’ on the repair and opened up the upgrades menu. There were pages of upgrades that could be purchased for the holding area alone with each page having dozens of items. He knew exactly what he was looking for. It would be a bandage for the time being.

-Unfocused Power Inhibitor

-This device will negate all powers within its area of influence.

-(“Everyone is on the same playing field.”)

-Cost: 3000t

Buying the upgrade would pretty much wipe out what little money that Alex had earned so far, but there weren’t really many other options. Well at least options that didn’t include getting Villainous points and he wasn’t ready for those.

Alex had to force himself to press the confirm key. Only a span of minutes passed before a hovering truck of the drones arrived outside the massive hole in the back wall. Two of the drones launched from the back of the truck one of which retrieved a package from the rear hatch.

They flew into the building using the hole as an entrance. The drone carrying the package placed it on the ground in the center of the room where it extracted the new device. The other drone began to install it while the first held the device into place. When everything was installed and working the drone flew over to Dick and handed him a remote before they both flew away back out the way that they had come. Once reloaded the truck hovered away down the block.

“What’s this for?” Dick asked holding up the remote.

“Press the button for glory!” Alex said dramatically.

Obsidian giggled, a win in Alex’s book, and Dick pressed the button on the remote. Green lights on the outside of the device came on and with a low hum it activated. Alex could feel his abilities draining away from him.

“Unfortunately, the only one that we could afford today takes away everyone’s powers not just the baddy’s powers.” Alex explained looking at the back of his hand. He felt so weak compared to a few seconds before.

“So that means we are all on the same playing field!” Laser-man yelled. He ran towards Alex who was blocking the exit. As soon as Laser-Man was close enough Alex reached out and punched him square in the nose for a second time that day. There was a loud crunch and Laser-Man was knocked backward landing hard on the concrete floor. He reached up as the blood began to rush down his face also for the second time that day. The streams separated and ran down his cheeks onto the floor.

-You’ve stopped a Villain Escape

-Laser-man went for a Daring escape

-300xp (300xp Each)

-+4 Hero Points

-+2 Hero Tier (-47 Until Next Tier)

Laser-man didn’t say a word. He stared blankly at the ceiling as his blood pooled under his head. Alex took a few steps forward until he stood over Laser-man. He reached down and pulled him up from the ground by his collar. Dick waved the thing he’d taken from his drawer, a key card, over the door to unlock the center cell. Alex tossed Laser-man inside. Stumbling a little Laser-man caught himself on the wall and dropped down to sit on the bench at the back.

The scanner walked into the cell, hands up making the most annoying sound every time that he thought that someone was going to hurt him. Obsidian was having a good time threatening to punch him, after which he would throw up his hands and make the sound.

“I know that you were trying to get Odin’s Lance back online, but what exactly is your end game beyond that?” Alex asked resting his elbows on the small window that looked into the cell.

“I was going to use the laser.” Laser-man spat. The blood stained his reflective shirt around the neck.

“On what? To do what?” Alex pushed.

“I can assure you, that now it will be you that I use the laser on.” Laser-man said with a snarl.

“Dude give it a rest.” The Scanner said rolling his eyes. He sat down on one of the side benches and rested his head in his hands.

“Did you just become an arch nemesis?” Alex asked with a wide grin plastered across his face. While playing the game before becoming an admin Alex had never had a nemesis before, and while he was an admin he didn’t really interact with the players unless he was playing god.

“I’ll see you in hell!” Laser-man hissed through the bars.

“This is exciting!” Alex said while clapping his approval, “Though I wish that my nemesis was a little less of a…” He said trailing off.

“Whinny ass hole.” Obsidian said chiming in with a laugh.

-You’ve got a Nemesis

- Laser-Man

-Challenge Rating: 3

-Let the rivalry begin!

“Challenge rating three. That means you are around level,” Alex said tilting his head to do the math, “fourteen to nineteen.”

“He’s level seventeen.” The Scanner said with a huff.

“Dude!” Laser-man yelled throwing up his hands.

“What? He is level two, and he’s got us locked up in a cell. His sidekick is only level four.” The scanner said solemnly.

“Wow you guys really suck.” Obsidian said with a chuckle. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned on one hip with a ton of sass.

“Indeed.” The Scanner said shaking his head.

“What level are you?” Alex asked The Scanner.

“I am level ten.” He said.

“Why did you guys do this?” Alex asked gesturing with his hands.

“I wanted to get paid, and this guy offered cash.” The Scanner admitted.

“Would you shut your face!” Laser-man yelled, “I swear I hate that you are my brother.”

“And I have to put up with that as my brother.” The Scanner said rolling his eyes and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder.