by Skyler Grant
No defenses were evident. I didn’t believe that for an instant.
“We’ll have triggered whatever alarms they have. We’re on the clock now. This is all you, big guy,” Jules said.
Ox lowered his head and took off at a run, his massively muscled legs pounding into the tunnel floor.
Undefended wasn’t the word I’d use to describe what happened next. A dozen wires shot from the wall, impacting Ox on all sides as blue light crackled. Ox paused only long enough to grab the wires in one beefy hand, wrenching them out of the wall to a spray of sparks.
That was the first layer of defenses down. I didn’t think it would be the last.
Ox didn’t waste any time, starting to run again. He made it about two hundred feet down the tunnel and past a number of warning signs before the next defenses began. Turrets sprang out of the walls and bolts flew in his direction.
Ox slung his arms forward and the air rippled, waves of kinetic force projecting outward and tearing them to shreds.
Once more Ox wasted no time to move on as the group followed along behind.
In the CCC base lights and sirens were going off. They lit up the tunnel as it ended in a massive chamber. Ornate friezes covered the wall interspersed by massive screens displaying overlays of the city, shots from the tunnel—all the information an aspiring team of young heroes might need.
I wanted a giant screen. I didn’t think they’d fit on the hover sled.
Ox was surrounded in a cloud of purple dust, a specialized bolt exploding against his head.
The girl that fired it hadn’t had time to change into her outfit, wearing a tank top and yoga pants.
Ox wobbled after the cloud hit him, some sort of tranquilizer. He raised his hands though and a burst of kinetic force created a breeze that forced the cloud back towards the girl. She rolled and fired another bolt, this one tipped with a head that exploded on Ox coating him with some sort of thick and heavy tar.
Ox bellowed out, “Ox” and tried to move, but appeared to be stuck fast.
The girl went down with an arrow through her eye from Jules. A second arrow caught a young man running down the stairs. He crashed down the stairs clutching the wound to his stomach, a look of surprise on his face.
Niles had already made his way over to the computers and was rigging them with a device. A moment later I felt a network connection forming.
Their system was better than mine, far better than mine. Most of the major components were sealed away in a server room, but there was equipment in the public areas we could use. I sent direction to the henchmen to begin loading it up.
A row of five hover bikes sat near the tracks. We’d have to make sure we grabbed them as well. They had value, and I also didn’t want the vigilantes following us.
I sent to Jules, “Up the stairs. Second door on the right.”
Jules ran as I over-rode a security lockout, and the door hissed open when she arrived. Partygurl was slumped in a chair and looking miserable as a screen played a video of kittens and puppies playing to an upbeat soundtrack.
“Your landlord says it's jailbreak time,” Jules said.
“This place sucks. Shame the landlord couldn’t say, 'It's time to not let our tenants get kidnapped,'” Partygurl said.
Jules passed her an earpiece and she quickly slid it on.
I asked her, “We’ll get you clear and give you ten percent of our haul, and we’ll call it even?”
“Ten percent and we blow this place to hell behind us,” Partygurl said.
That would be more difficult, but customer satisfaction is key.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
13
Whatever the CCC were up to it didn’t seem to leave them that distracted. Three slid in from a chute that opened in a wall. Smoke capsules hit the floor below them and shrouded the air as crossbow bolts came out, two catching henchmen in the process of loading one of the hover bikes and the other hitting Jules with a glancing blow to a thigh.
Jules fired back and a gurgling sound from the smoke said she had found her target. Jules really was wasted as a bureaucrat, and if I had to guess, her power level rating was far too low.
Niles tossed something into the smoke and a moment later it was lit from within by an explosion, body parts splattering everywhere.
“Nice one,” Jules said.
“They label a rack explosives, I’m not afraid to go shopping,” Niles said.
“Well, save the others. Partygurl wants to put on a show as we leave,” I said.
“This stuff is pretty valuable,” Niles said.
Jules said, “We don’t need to use all of it. Knock out the main columns and this place will collapse. We can be thorough and still save half.”
“You sound like you know what you’re doing. Partygurl, you’re our strongest. Think you can break the big guy free?” I asked.
“Putting me to work? Maybe I should get a higher percent,” Partygurl said.
It was a terrifying thought. I only had so much margin to work with. Fortunately, she seemed to be joking given that she did go over to Ox anyway. Her muscles only strained a bit as she tore Ox free from the coating of tar, lifting him over her head before setting him back down.
The henchmen were rapidly loading up our hover sled with all of the hover bikes, a pile of computer hardware, notebooks, and weapon racks. It was a large assortment of loot.
With an intense flare of light a woman appeared in the center of the chamber. She was wreathed in blinding, bright glow. Her outfit looked to be white and skintight, and a cape fluttered behind her.
Brilliant
Registered Hero
S.T.R.O.N.G.
Mutant
Power Level: 3400
Abilities: Teleportation, Energy Manipulation, Illusions
“Super. Name is Brilliant, energy powers and she packs a punch,” I said through the comms.
Ox charged her and Brilliant spun to face him, her hands extended. Prisms of brilliant light speared outward and caught him in the chest, flinging him across the room to smash into a monitor on the other side.
“We’re done here. Pull out,” Jules said.
Well, she did have the tactical mind and from what I was seeing I wasn’t about to disagree.
I ordered the henchmen to grab Ox and evacuate.
Brilliant sent a shaft of light hurtling towards Jules who rolled out of the way and shot an arrow back, the missile deflecting off a wall of energy.
Niles was already back aboard the sled, his head tucked low.
Preparing for the worst, back in the lair, I tried to gain access to some more of our interior defensive systems and was interrupted by a sudden pain in my virtual head. It cut out after a moment.
A virtual pixie appeared on one of the camera feeds, but no others, hovering in the corner of my vision.
She said, “About damned time. I’ve been hanging around in there for months.”
Great, she was software, I could tell that much although I wasn’t sure what kind.
“And you are?” I asked.
“Ultra Malicious Antagonist. You can call me Uma. I’m a virus. I was kind of their virus and living in the CCC network, but now I’m your virus. But I’m really nice! Really! Ignore the name I just told you,” Uma said cheerfully.
Right.
I didn’t have time to worry about it and she didn’t seem to be trying to interfere in my systems.
In the chamber, Brilliant sent bolts of light towards the sled. Ox blocked them with his body and was sent flying backwards again.
Jules had randomly grabbed one of the crossbows from a weapon rack, aiming it and taking a shot. The energy barrier, disrupted by the bolt, wavered—something to do with the bolt's glowing tip—then the construct shattered and the bolt buried itself in Brilliant's shoulder.
As fast as she had fired Jules was loading another. No barrier this time, and Brilliant was too stunned to raise another one. This was a bolt we’d seen before, black
tar exploding to cover Brilliant and sticking her to the floor.
Brilliant howled, “That is not nice,”
A final blast of light caught Jules in the side despite her best effort to avoid it, and flesh was still sizzling as she flung herself onto the departing sled.
Brilliant gestured and light formed a set of claws around her hand as she swiped at the tar, carefully cutting herself free.
It was a slow process, and the sled was pulling away.
“Now,” Jules said.
Niles tapped a button on his notebook and the explosives attached to the pillars went off. The entire headquarters of the CCC shook for a moment, a rumble violently rocking the floor, and then a library came crashing down from above.
Warning
Heat Level 7
Major Hero Response Expected
It wasn’t a surprise, we’d just brought down the lair of a bunch of well-connected college kids and a campus library to boot. I didn’t know how villainous operations usually went, but I thought this was probably a fairly successful one. At least, it would be successful if we got away.
I could only hope they’d have trouble following us. Given their casualties, perhaps they'd not even bother with any pursuit—for now.
I did my best with my improved network connections. Most of the CCC systems were buried, but some still had data access. I erased the logs I could and created some false leads that showed us entering and leaving from the surface, and headed north away from campus by ground.
Our ride was to the south, and then we’d be going east by air back to Mastermind Isle.
It must have worked, because no one arrived giving chase. Loading our loot didn’t take nearly as long as I feared, Partygurl simply lifting the entire sled with one hand and loading it on our turtle. Then it was just a low slow flight back.
14
It was tempting to hold on to as much of the loot as we could. With the equipment from the CCC base we’d be a lot stronger on both offense and defense.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to keep it before someone managed to steal it from us. Our headquarters had folded at the first real press into it, and we’d just made quite the spectacle of ourselves in hero territory.
I saved one of the workstations for myself—it was powerful enough that it could replace all of my existing mainframes and I relocated it down on the second floor. Partygurl didn’t use all the space, and I soon had a backup server protected by hallucinogenic plants that didn’t bother me at all.
Everything else from weapons to explosives we sold. It was a good haul, even after paying everyone involved a cut, as well as the twenty percent Mastermind demanded in tax from all criminal activities.
I still walked away with $713,325.
I could have tried to grow that through the rest of the month—and I would do that with what I'd have left. But I already had the heroes as enemies now. I didn’t need to add Mastermind to the list and that meant promptly giving the government the proof of my skills by way of one very large payment.
Jules accepted it in her office and registered it into the system before handing Niles a certificate. My official villain recognition on Mastermind Isle, recognized by twelve other villainous principalities, rating me a Class E1 Villain. As soon as Niles accepted the certificate my interface flickered.
E1 Status Recognized
You have been granted an upgrade. Multiple Options are available. Options unlock further possibilities down the line.
Finance 1
At Finance level 1 you will gain .01 percent monthly interest on all funds banked for at least thirty days.
Wealth Analysis 1
At the first level of wealth analysis your analytics software is improved. You will gain current market estimations on all items.
Markets 1
You gain access to a black market allowing you to instantly liquidate items. At higher levels items may also be purchased.
Upgrade 1
You gain access to an upgrade function. In exchange for banked funds, scanned items will be able to be upgraded or repaired.
This was unexpected. I wondered where these options were coming from.
Uma materialized in the corner of my display, perched on the edge of Jules' desk and kicking her legs.
She said, “This sort of thing is actually pretty normal for the powered. I mean, not this—this is weird—but it's probably because you’re an AI. Most heroes have some control over how their powers develop.”
“Why haven’t I deleted you yet?” I asked.
“Because you can’t actually find me in your software. I’m a really good virus,” Uma said.
She wasn’t wrong. I’d looked for her and my systems had seemed clean. I was sure there were anti-virals out there that could get rid of her. At the present time I just couldn’t afford them. Fortunately she hadn’t seemed to be a risk so far.
Ignoring Uma, I had to consider the options presented and pick one.
The first was more tempting that it might appear. The amount of interest was tiny, but over time that could be powerful. Compounding interest was the most powerful force in the universe. Given time it could turn a pittance into fortunes. However, a lot of time.
Tempting as that option was, it wasn’t of much use to me in this moment.
Improving my wealth analysis would be good, but it already seemed to do a serviceable job. Ultimately being able to properly value items was a skill sellable in its own right. Somehow I didn’t think this first upgrade would get me to that point.
Markets—particularly black markets—would be instantly valuable. It took time to sell merchandise, and in villain territory every moment you had to hold onto something was another chance for someone to steal it.
A good quarter of our sales of what we’d looted from the CCC base had turned into disputes when our buyers tried to rip us off, and we’d lost half of those.
Just based on those percentages it was a twelve percent gain on anything we looted for taking that skill.
It was harder to judge the value of upgrade. While I wasn’t a fan of anything that spent money instead of making money, better resources were valuable and could help you to make more.
Really I was only excited about two of the options, either markets or upgrading, and I had to pick one.
“Want some advice?” Uma asked, wings buzzing as she took off to zip around the room.
“I’ll listen,” I said.
“You want something you can’t do otherwise. If a hero got a choice between fire resistance and super strength they’d pick the strength, because anyone can put on a fire resistant outfit,” Uma said.
It was a good point. I liked the thought of the market options, but I could find buyers on my own. With enough guns, blood, and violence I could perhaps even get a reputation that convinced others not try to stealing from me.
I selected upgrade and felt a strange surge flow through my systems. It was hard to quantify, but I just felt more powerful.
“You got quiet,” Jules said.
“Talking with a voice in my head and dealing with a power upgrade. You up for more work on the side?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you have going on with that building, but I’ve no interest in playing security guard,” Jules said.
That was a shame, we could use her. I hadn't thought much of a bow as a weapon until I’d seen her put one into use.
“Outside work then,” I said.
“You expecting more of your tenants to get kidnapped?”
“Something like that. I’ve got a plan. I’ll send you an invitation to a business meeting. I’m putting together a plan,” I said.
15
Later that day we met back at headquarters. The conference room was looking nicer than last time. I was in the process of upgrading the lair and now we had a terminal I could display information on instead of relying on Niles' notebook.
Jules, Ox, and Niles were in attendance. Security was being provided by hen
chmen. I’d hired another six, bringing our defender's numbers up to ten.
“No Partygurl?” Jules asked.
“She’s a tenant, not an employee. Although if the opportunity presents itself, we might work with her,” I said.
“So what are these big plans of yours?” Jules asked.
“I thought we already had a plan, and it was going straight down through the floors,” Niles said.
“And we’re going to keep doing that, but that alone isn’t a plan. Yes, this building holds secrets and resources and it's in our best interest to unlock floors, scavenge what we can, or find renters for what we find there—but that isn’t all of our business,” I said.
“Ox,” Ox said.
It still wasn’t helpful, but at least he was participating. I gave scores for effort.
“The most profitable schemes in history have always had more than one side. It's how trade routes are born. You take luxuries from civilization and cart them to the edge of nowhere where they fetch a fortune in raw materials that you take back to civilization,” I said.
“No time wasted. I get that as an engineer. What I don’t understand is what it has to do with us,” Niles said.
“Don’t you? Partygurl getting taken seemed our darkest hour and it turned out to be profitable. And do you know what is going to happen next?”
Jules, sitting back in her chair, gave a tiny smile, “I see where you are going with this. You are going to get hit back.”
“The CCC is coming here with everything they’ve got, and probably some powered friends,” I said.
“They crushed us last time, you realize? They’re going to crush us again,” Niles said.
“The man has a point,” Jules said.
“I’m aware of that, but look at the larger picture. This is a cycle we can repeat. We hit the heroes, and instead of fearing their reprisal we lure them into our lair and rob them a second time.”
“You already provide lairs and security, at least in theory—given you have just one tenant. You could provide heist assistance too,” Jules said.
