“Um, what?” Lilith murmured in shock.
Archon didn’t reply as she strode toward the doors, and Lilith stared after her in confusion.
Chapter 14
Saturday, August 23rd, 2031
Daven Hotel, Paragon City
“I’m going to be delayed,” Black Harbinger said, his voice unusually subdued and mellow, at least if anyone who knew him were to hear it. Not that they would know even if they did. He could count the number of people who knew both of his identities on one hand, with fingers to spare.
He’d come to Paragon city to look around and prepare to abduct Lilith Carpenter, as well as cause a great deal of chaos, but thing had gone awry just as he’d thought that they would be easier. The departure of Morgan Le Fay and Warden had both pleased and annoyed him. It was good that they wouldn’t be in his way, but he wished he could show Warden that her victory had been a fluke the last time. Black Harbinger longed for a rematch, so he could see the woman spitting blood on the ground while he slowly crushed her under a foot.
But just as he’d been making more plans, the situation had changed again. The announcement that Dracula’s Bride was coming to Paragon City had set the news abuzz, and both heroes, villains, and mundanes had begun flooding the area. It was fortunate that Black Harbinger had already gotten a room before the news had broken, as from what he’d heard, the local hotels were actually having to decline business.
Worse for his plans, there were now dozens of high-power heroes throughout the city and its surroundings, enough that he would have a hard time causing more than cursory damage before being defeated again, which would be a complete waste. Why, even some of the villains would go after him as well, which irritated Black Harbinger. It was only to be expected, though. Many villains were materialistic and selfish.
However, all of that simply confirmed his suspicion that he wasn’t going to be able to carry out his mission any time soon. With two class S heroes in the city, as well as another rumored to be on his way, combined with the ability to call for reinforcements from the Guardians… it wouldn’t work out right.
“If nothing else, I can scout the area. All of the sheep will give cover for anyone deciding to see the sights,” Black Harbinger said, and glanced at the mirror as he did so.
The man who looked out of the mirror at him was bland, like he always was. Brown hair topped an unremarkable, round face with spectacles over brown eyes. He stood just over five and a half feet, and he wasn’t exceptionally muscular or thin, while he wore the simple slacks and a button-up shirt appropriate for his cover. How many people would really think much about the representative of a grain conglomerate traveling around the country, anyway? Particularly one as normal as he appeared to be.
Satisfied with his appearance, Black Harbinger nodded and headed for the door. He’d just have to resist the urge to arrange ‘accidents’ for the several heroes and heroines who’d chosen to stay at the same hotel as him.
It wouldn’t be that hard, of course. Black Harbinger had plenty of experience bottling up his rage for important occasions.
Chapter 15
Sunday, August 24th, 2031
SuperNet HQ, Paragon City
For once when Lilith visited SuperNet, she wasn’t instantly the center of attention. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t attract attention, but the sheer number of people present meant that most of them couldn’t see her at all. The disadvantage was that the crowds were so enormous that she wondered if she’d wandered into the mall during the lead-up to Christmas.
While she saw a few heroes in the crowd ahead of her, their brightly colored outfits were almost completely hidden by the enormous number of civilians, many of whom were wearing bandanas, cloaks, or other outfits based on different heroes. Lilith came to a stop, blinking at the crowd, then looked at the man guarding the door. The security guard was a man she knew named Dave, and he was a tall, burly man with bronze skin and a bald head, who still looked a little out of place in the suit to her.
“What’s going on?” Lilith asked Dave, who gave her a slight grin.
“With all the heroes visiting, a bunch of fans have been begging for signatures and meetings with them, but it’s been causing a fair amount of chaos. So the Director stepped in, and arranged some meet and greets over most of the week,” Dave explained, jerking his chin at the crowds as he continued, pitching his voice to be more easily heard over the rumble of voices. “That’s not even the worst of it, you should’ve seen the crowds an hour ago. I was afraid people were going to get stampeded in the initial rush.”
“I… can believe that. This is pure chaos,” Lilith said, and winced as a few people started examining her speculatively. “I don’t suppose he’ll be annoyed that I’m early?”
“I doubt that. I’d suggest heading for the back, before you get dragged into it,” Dave said, chuckling, pulling out a lanyard with a card on it as he added. “I’m pretty sure that Veltor would get annoyed at you stealing his thunder anyway. Here’s your badge.”
“Thanks, Dave,” Lilith replied, giving him a smile, then took a deep breath before plunging into the swirling mass of fans and heroes.
It was… complicated, making her way through the crowds. A couple of people tried to talk to Lilith, but she pretended she hadn’t heard them, and she was incredibly thankful for her enhanced reflexes, with how many people tried to ‘accidentally’ run into her or block her path. She was faster than pretty much all of them, which helped significantly.
She did catch a glimpse of the five heroes and heroines who were standing past most of the crowd on a slightly raised dais, though. One of them was a man in a silver and red outfit, who had a shock of incredibly bright red hair atop his head, and the outfit had a distinct lightning theme to it. As Lilith watched, the man created a miniature tornado in one hand that he held up while posing next to a blushing young woman, while other people took a picture of them. The others were interesting as well, but she didn’t get a good look at them, as Lilith was busy dodging someone’s attempt to grab her arm.
It took a bit to reach the doors into the back, which thankfully were being kept clear by another security guard. A guard who thankfully recognized Lilith and tipped her hat as Lilith slipped past, and she caught her breath before scanning her badge and stepped through the doors.
The noise of the crowd quickly quieted as the door closed, and Lilith let out a slight sigh of relief, and took the moment to look up at the minotaur behind the secretary’s desk in front of her. The woman looked back in disapproval, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“You’re early,” Marge said flatly. “Your appointment isn’t for another fifteen minutes, Miss Carpenter.”
“Believe me, I’m aware of that. I’d intended to see if there were some resources that’d be useful to me on the computers in the lobby, but under the circumstances, I believed it best to vacate the area quickly,” Lilith replied apologetically. “Could I wait in here until it’s time for the appointment?”
Marge seemed to consider for a few seconds, staring at Lilith, then spoke in a grudging tone. “Very well, you may wait. The circumstances are exceptional, so I will allow it. Do not make a habit of it, though!”
“I won’t,” Lilith assured the minotaur, and took a moment to catch her breath, still stunned about how many people had been outside. She’d been expecting things to be about the same as they usually were, with a few people registering as heroes, a bunch of reporters, and a handful of fans or heroes. Maybe the gift shop would have had more people in it, but that had a different entrance for a good reason.
Lilith sat on a nearby bench and closed her eyes, tuning out the clamor from the other side of the doors as she considered the past couple of days. She couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do, not with how much had changed. It hadn’t even been a week since Gina and Rachel had left, and already people were flirting with her, and… well, to put it bluntly, she wasn’t sure how to deal with that, or even if she wanted to. Archon and Emily
’s advances had been startling enough, but she’d also gotten a few flirtatious emails from people who she barely remembered having met, and who were using the Las Vegas incident as an excuse to make contact with her. At least none of them had managed to track down her phone number yet.
It was almost a surprise to Lilith as she found her mind simply… drifting after a minute, the soft sound of a clock behind Marge’s desk ticking softly. It was an actual clock, she realized belatedly, with gearing and all, and she wondered where the woman had gotten it. Lilith only had digital clocks at home, so it was different than what she was used to.
Time passed slowly, but Lilith didn’t do anything. She just let it wash over her. There was something to be said for not being at home, surrounded by the utter absence of companionship. It was nice to be surrounded by other people, even if she was alone while being there. The problem with being actually surrounded by other people was that they wouldn’t leave her alone.
When Lilith finally opened her eyes, nearly ten minutes had passed, and Marge was typing at her oversized keyboard, scowling slightly as she glared at the screen. Lilith wondered if the woman had an expression that wasn’t either annoyed or unhappy. She wasn’t going to ask, though. She’d learned that Marge didn’t like people much, which made her wonder why the minotaur had taken a secretarial position to begin with.
A minute passed, then two. At that point Marge looked up and grunted. “Go upstairs, the Director will be waiting for you.”
“Thank you, Marge,” Lilith replied, feeling a little more at peace, at least for the moment, and she stood. Marge just snorted in response. Unsurprisingly, she could make a very respectable snort.
Lilith went to the elevator and hit the call button. An instant later the bell pinged, and the elevator doors opened, which made Lilith wonder if the elevator automatically returned to the ground floor after being used. Abandoning the question after a moment’s thought, she stepped inside and used the badge to unlock the elevator before hitting the button for the floor she needed.
The elevator silently ascended, giving Lilith a few more seconds to think, especially without the sense of movement she normally got from elevators. She did admire how much work SuperNet put into making their buildings comfortable. She also wondered why Osmar had requested the meeting. He’d mentioned something about helping her, but as per normal, he hadn’t specified how he’d help, which had her suspicious.
The doors slid open a few seconds later, letting Lilith out onto the relatively familiar floor she’d visited a few times over the last couple of months, most recently to approve the model of her in her armor. She wasn’t sure if that was the best idea anymore, since she didn’t have the armor, but she supposed Osmar would know best. Maybe it’d be discontinued and replaced with a different one, and the manufactured models would become collector’s items.
The hall was a little louder than it usually was, and as Lilith stepped out, a pair of workers emerged from the insurance adjudication department, chatting intensely about something, but they grew quiet once they saw her, and the woman nodded politely, giving a wry smile.
“Hello, Miss Carpenter. Here to speak with the director again?” the blonde asked, tilting her head slightly.
“That’s right. He didn’t warn me about the chaos downstairs, though,” Lilith said, gesturing downward as she slowed, smiling at both of the workers. The man had black hair and a complexion that she was pretty sure was Korean. Lilith was getting a little better at reading nationalities, but she wasn’t quite there yet. The two laughed, looking at each other as they grinned.
“Well, no, he wouldn’t. He thinks everyone will be as excited about these sort of events as he is, so he just gets them put together as fast as he can without warning anyone,” the man told her in amusement. “It certainly can make coming to work interesting, but we do have our own elevator and parking lot, which helps.”
“I believe it. Good luck with your work,” Lilith replied, then she was past them.
“Thanks, we’ll need it,” the woman said fervently.
Lilith smiled a little, happy that she was able to interact with someone who was, for lack of a better term, ‘normal’. Or at least mostly normal. When she thought about it, it’d been months since she’d really interacted with anyone who wasn’t part of the superhero community, and that was… disconcerting, really.
“Was it when the inspector came to look the house over? I think so,” Lilith murmured to herself, then paused and shook her head. “No, it’s when I met James. That… is so odd to think about.”
She was approaching Osmar’s office, though, so Lilith composed herself, focusing on the here and now. He had to have a reason for asking her to come in, after all.
It was just as she was getting closer to the door that Lilith realized she could see a silhouette through the frosted glass of Osmar’s office, and she slowed down, realizing that there were not one, but two people on the other side of the door. That surprised her a little for a moment, but then Lilith chastised herself internally. Of course Osmar met with other people sometimes. If he didn’t, why would he have an office with multiple chairs?
That being the case, Lilith slowed down still more, lingering far enough from the door that she couldn’t hear more than the faintest hint of their voices. The building definitely had good soundproofing. After a minute, the door opened, and Osmar’s voice carried down the hall.
“…see what I can do, but I can’t make any guarantees. It isn’t like I’ve ever spoken with Dracula,” Osmar said, his voice unusually serious.
“Still, if you can help, I’d deeply appreciate it,” another man replied, and Lilith’s eyebrows rose a tiny amount as the speaker stepped out into the hallway. The man was about as tall as she was, and he had a suit on that was primarily white, with some silver accents to it. His face was obscured by a breathing mask and he wore silvered lenses over his eyes. The entire suit was streamlined, but she could see a muscular physique beneath it… that or it was contoured to give that sort of impression. She wasn’t certain who the man was, but she didn’t think she’d seen him before.
The man paused on seeing her, and Osmar peered out from behind him, then smiled. He didn’t look much different than he usually did, with his short black hair, thin mustache, and brown eyes, while he wore a casual business suit.
“Lilith, you’re here! I must have let time get away from me, I’m sorry about that!” Osmar said, and added, “This is Lilith Carpenter, Soundblade. Lilith, this is Soundblade, a hero from the Phoenix area.”
“Hello,” Lilith said, nodding politely to the man. She was briefly tempted to offer a hand, but since the man seemed to have no inclination to raise his own, she resisted the impulse.
“I’ve heard of her, yes. Thank you again, Osmar. I hope to hear from you soon,” Soundblade replied shortly, then headed down the hallway, ignoring Lilith. She watched him go, resisting the urge to sigh. She wished she knew how to make people like her, but… there was little she could do about it. And even if she had powers like Amber did, she’d never be tempted to use them, especially not after what she’d seen done Gina and Rachel.
“Drat. I’d hoped… ah, well. It isn’t like we can get along with everyone,” Osmar said, sounding a little disappointed, then he forced a smile onto his face as he continued. “Come in, though! We’ve got a bit of a conversation to have, and you’ve had a very eventful week, from everything I’ve heard.”
“You have an incredible gift for understatement, Osmar,” Lilith replied, smiling back at him as she stepped into the office, and he laughed.
She just had to wonder what all of this was about.
Chapter 16
Sunday, August 24th, 2031
SuperNet HQ, Paragon City
Osmar’s office was much the same as it had been the last time Lilith had visited, except that it looked like he’d swapped out a few of the posters on the walls, and the display of hero merchandise looked like it’d expanded to Lilith. That was unsurprising
, as he was a collector, and not the type that left items in their boxes. No, he now had turned a fish tank into a diorama of part of the fight against the alien at Hill Air Force Base, including figures of Spark and Lilith, though Lilith was in armor. She’d have wondered where he’d gotten the figure, if he hadn’t asked for permission to 3D print one based on the action figure she’d approved.
“Why don’t you take a seat? This might take a little while to get through,” Osmar said, circling his gleaming desk to sit, and Lilith nodded.
“Of course. It isn’t like I have any pressing engagements, I’m afraid,” Lilith said, a whisper of grief rippling over her, but she did her best to ignore it. It wasn’t easy, but it was easier than it had been at any point since Gina and Rachel had told her they were leaving.
“I was afraid of that,” Osmar said, his smile fading, and he looked down at his desk. “I don’t have any details, of course, but I’ve heard a few… rumors about Morgan and Warden. That they’ve left you.”
“That…” Lilith began, but let her voice trail off as she considered, then shook her head slowly, thinking better of what she’d been about to say. “I don’t think that it’s something I should discuss without their permission. Suffice to say, things have become… strained. I suspect they will not be returning to my home when they’re done in England.”
For several seconds Osmar was quiet, as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. When he spoke, he sounded almost pained. “I’m sorry, Lilith. I wish that I’d never passed that invitation along to you. I may not have had any idea of what would come of it, but even so, it’s had terrible results.”
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