The young man’s despair was absolutely delightful, an unexpected treat that he just happened to stumble across in one of his trolling sessions. All that doubt, frustration, self-loathing… he was the perfect victim in Red’s eyes.
That little escapade in Gorgevade ruined his plans for the would-be Bard, though.
Argo Derren was supposed to lose the Violin of Henrietta Sorzatia. He was supposed to watch impotently as the Skragogs picked the legendary artifact from his corpse after using an Astral Cube to seal his ghost pack away. He was supposed to fall deeper into despair, to stumble across an artifact of legend only to have it taken away from him before he could even begin his journey.
And then he Morphed, donning a disguise to literally walk past the Skragogs. The little bugger somehow managed to sub-class into Spy before level 10, get his grubby mitts on a Deceiver’s Reflector to unlock the hidden ability.
This brought Duke Red’s full attention upon the man in question… and he did not like what he was currently seeing.
He brought up another window, reviewing a spreadsheet full of information gathered by his botnets.
Argo Derren, age 24
Father, Mark Derren (CEO Derren Agricultural)
Mother, Cynthia Gallagher
Brother, Milo Derren (COO, Derren Agricultural)
Sister, Constance Derren (CFO, Derren Agricultural)
Undergraduate, Orchid City University (Agriculture)
Graduate, Orchid City University (Master of Business Administration, dropped out)
Aspiring stage actor (associated with Nightingale Theater, currently assisting Magarito Pasivah)
He continued reading the rest of Argo’s profile, pulled together from his public social media profiles along with not-so-public university and hospital records. His displeasure deepened as he reviewed the information. The man—no, the spoiled brat—was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And yet, the man-child’s chat log revealed a whiner that thought he was the most miserable victim in the entire world.
Red brought up a new window, this one a live security camera feed from the beachfront along Mandarin Heights. A woman walked beside Argo, the two no doubt on a date of some kind.
“Hah!” Duke Red barked out, his voice tinged with hatred and vitriol… and just a little bit of jealousy that he would never admit to anyone else.
Argo Derren had a face handsome enough to win over the affection of women, keep them clinging to him no matter how pathetic he was. His family possessed the political clout to easily fend off a mayor’s son making unwelcome advances, bring the full might of the so-called ‘justice’ system down upon him—instead of just lying back and letting everything happen. If Argo ever figured into a drunk-driving accident because the aforementioned idiot son couldn’t lay off the booze, rich ‘Papa’ Derren could just buy vat-grown limbs to make him right as rain. His family would bring a fleet of lawyers on retainer, hire armed muscle, instead of hiding out in a dingy basement to get away from a corrupt mayor out for bloody revenge.
But no… poor Argo Derren was too busy feeling sorry for himself to recognize all that he had going for him. It made Duke Red sick to the broken, battered bones of his crippled body… his real body.
A timer sounded off in the corner of Duke Red’s screen, reminding him of his real-life needs. He cursed, wishing he had one of those full-immersion models that handled all the bio needs from nutrition to excretion. He pulled up the exit menu, logged off, and felt the cold darkness of reality replace the warm, vivid dreams of the Astra-verse.
Red pulled her naked meat-bag body out of the Astral Bubble, crimson locks draping down her scarred, sweaty face all the way to her ruined breasts. She grunted as she set herself down on the cold concrete floor, dragging along the two stumps that used to be her legs.
She crawled to a corner of her tiny basement room, ripped open a can of corned beef, and shoved its contents between two chunks of stale bread. She began chewing angrily on the sloppy sandwich in between gulps of tepid water, wanting to finish fueling her meat-bag body as quickly as she could.
The Astra-verse was waiting, after all. It was her world, her power… and her vengeance. She’d give this rich boy actor-wannabe something to really cry about.
Spy: Reborn Page 26
