Lair For Rent

by Skyler Grant

  “And profit, profit, PROFIT,” I said, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice. There was nothing more glorious in the world than a profitable endeavor.

  “Ox,” Ox said.

  “I’ll take that as the voice of ringing support,” I said.

  “Long term it might work, if you can survive in the short term. The CCC is coming and whatever you made from the last haul, it isn’t going to be enough to really get ready for them,” Jules said.

  “I’m hoping we don’t have to,” I said.

  “We could seek allies. Maybe one of the animal gangs? Or someone else moving into the district,” Niles said.

  “You become aligned with someone vastly more powerful than you, and you’ll be their sidekick, not an ally. You’ll have a hard time crawling out from under that wing,” Jules said.

  “The CCC must have enemies. Surely we can find someone willing to shoot them in the back while they’re busy attacking us?” I said.

  Jules considered and nodded. “Maybe. I can look into it.”

  “Even if they aren’t our friends, the animal gangs are going to look badly on heroes invading the district. Things get loud enough for them to notice, they might step in,” Niles said.

  “Or we look at this a different way. Maybe our goal isn’t to defeat them,” Jules said.

  “I’m listening,” I said.

  “Transportation. That's their weak spot now, getting a strike across the channel. Before, they used those hover bikes—which we stole,” Jules said.

  “Do you think they’ll just buy more, or try something new?” Niles asked.

  “They'll try something new. They’re supposed to be proving their heroism, and we embarrassed them and blew up their home. Their parents are going to make sure they have something better this time around,” Jules said.

  “Probably armored, and with stealth capability. That light-wielder they threw against us. Do we know what group she belonged to?” Niles asked.

  “S.T.R.O.N.G. according to her readout,” I said.

  “Your analysis showed you that. Handy,” Jules said with a speculative look.

  I suppose it was. Maybe I should have gone for further upgrades of my vision? I hadn’t had time to test my new upgrade abilities yet. I hoped they were worth it.

  Niles tapped away and pulled up a visual on the main display. The aircraft was large and crescent-shaped, like a silver moon that hovered on blue jets.

  “The Silver Scythe, STRONG’s deployment vehicle. Capable of transporting up to thirty heroes as well as a ground vehicle,” Niles said.

  “I’d hoped we might steal whatever they brought, but I don’t think we’ll be stealing that. Not if they're bringing that kind of firepower,” Jules said.

  “Will they? Bring that kind of firepower? We might have taken down Brilliant, one of their members. Does that mean they’ll throw everything they have against us?” I asked.

  “And leave their own base and city undefended? No. They’ll want this to be the CCC's show, but they’ll probably send a heavy hitter or two along as backup,” Niles said, leaning forward.

  “We can’t handle even one of their heavy hitters. You’ve never seen a powerful super in action,” Jules said.

  “You took out the one you fought, more or less,” I said.

  “I slowed her down until we dropped a building on her head, and I’m not sure that even forced a resurrection. She probably shielded herself. She wouldn’t have been of their strongest. Probably a junior member who had come up from the CCC,” Jules said.

  There was still an opportunity here, I knew it. I just had to figure it out.

  16

  Main Doors

  Condition: Poor

  Resistance: 3

  Description: The main doors of the Lair for Rent corporation are about as good as you’d expect for doors that have been allowed to decay in a highly nature-charged environment for decades.

  Upgrade Options

  Reinforced Doors - These doors have been reinforced to resist easy intrusion. They will be capable of keeping out an average human attempting to gain entry by force but will still be vulnerable to supers or specialized equipment.

  Upgrade Cost: $20,000

  Friend or Foe Doors - These doors offer similar reinforcement as reinforced doors but are further rigged to automatically identify friend or foe based on access list.

  Upgrade Cost: $50,000

  Blast Doors - In addition to Friend or Foe functionality these doors are hardened against explosions, heat, and cold. Sustained fire even from specialized powers will be required to penetrate them.

  Upgrade Cost: $100,000

  I was pleased with what I was seeing of my upgrade options so far. Money was still at a premium and so I selected the lowest, reinforced doors. They shimmered for a moment with a green glow and suddenly looked far more durable than they had moments ago. ‘Lair for Rent’ had even been emblazoned across them in gold lettering.

  Everyone had been hard at work preparing for the assault we thought was coming. Jules wasn't willing to play base guardian, but in exchange for a cut of any loot taken had agreed to come to a nearby rooftop whenever we signaled, where she’d snipe at any enemies with her bow.

  I’d connected the air circulation systems with the floor below so that on command I could cycle up some hallucinogenic air. Gas masks had been procured for all henchmen and we’d gotten them some armored chest pieces that should deflect the average crossbow bolt. The CCC had specialized bolts, but those just had too many possibilities to prepare for.

  We had just gotten our henchmen back, their forty-eight hours up. If the timer was the same for the CCC who had fallen we could expect any attack soon.

  It happened that night.

  There was no warning, a pair of energy blasts meeting my recently upgraded front doors and instantly reducing them to fragments as the Silver Scythe shimmered into visibility overhead.

  The CCC had upgraded their outfits. This time they wore mechanized suits, covered head to toe in armor. Crossbows were slung over their backs.

  They’d come prepared for war, I was ready to give them one.

  I signaled Jules that they’d arrived and suggested she bring armor-piercing arrows. The mundane variety wouldn’t penetrate what they’d brought.

  A man hovered down from the airship. He was wearing a red outfit with a cape. I made sure I got a scan.

  Ultimatum

  Registered Hero

  S.T.R.O.N.G.

  Science

  Power Level: 75,500

  Abilities: Flight, Invincibility, Telekinesis

  Background: Ultimatum’s real name is Kyle Weaver and he comes from an alternate version of Earth with far advanced science. The result of genetic manipulation he is of average power on his own plane, but on ours is one of the most powerful heroes on Earth.

  Well, that was terrible. They had only sent one heavy-hitter as a babysitter—but they only needed one. Whatever hope I had of winning this encounter vanished in an instant.

  “Oh crap,” Niles said over the comms.

  “I take it you already know what my scans are telling you,” I said.

  “That we are totally and completely screwed. Yeah, I kind of got that.”

  “What am I missing?” Jules asked over the comm.

  Niles told her, “Ultimatum just showed up. Why? What did we do that was bad? We didn’t do anything that bad!” He was panicking.

  “I’ll call it in. Mastermind needs to be informed of any A-Class heroes on the Isle,” Jules said.

  Perhaps Mastermind had a contingency plan for something like this. It would fit with his name. It didn’t help us, of course.

  “We need to charge him,” I said.

  “That isn’t our plan and is suicide,” Jules said.

  “I know it is. And I’m the only one of us without resurrection potential so I’m sorry, but that means we need to keep me safe. They came here for a slaughter and to redeem their names, and we have to let that h
appen,” I said.

  “Coming up,” Partygurl said over the comm.

  “I didn’t know you were monitoring,” I said.

  “I want a piece of them as much as anyone else. I’m listening. They come down looking for me they might find your servers, and you’re right, we can’t have that. I’m not letting them take me back and show me more fluffy kitten movies,” Partygurl said.

  “I’ve got one of their bows still. You come outside I’ll put a bolt through your throat that will penetrate even your flesh,” Jules said.

  “Fun times. You are so paying my resurrection fee,” Partygurl said.

  “And mine,” Niles said.

  “And mine,” Jules said.

  Yes, yes, everybody wanted to be brought back to life. It was all terribly expensive. Still, it was also touching. Even if dying didn’t cost them anything but a few days of time, it must not be exactly pleasant. They were willing to do that, for me.

  There are a lot of ways to calculate value. There are things that are precious. I knew what I was being given.

  Then let's make a good show of it.

  We didn’t, not really. The CCC really had come for a slaughter, and they were not happy about what had happened last time. Within seconds of making an appearance a henchman was down with at least three bolts sticking out of them.

  Ultimatum literally tore Jules' head off and kicked it like some sort of ball across the city. Niles chickened out at the last moment and tried to run, but a dozen bolts found his back anyways.

  Our people dead, they trashed our base, but they didn’t even bother with the second level. Perhaps they didn’t know I existed.

  They’d killed everyone they knew was involved in their shame.

  17

  It took two days for everybody to resurrect. I’d hired a few henchmen to clean up the place in the meantime, and I used my upgrade powers to make some repairs.

  We could have dwelt on what just happened, gone after them again in retaliation, but I didn’t see the profit in that. Revenge was only fun when you could get a good return.

  We needed something else to do instead—like exploring a new floor.

  We had the drill all set up to breach floor three. No special help this time around, it was just my drone, Niles, and the henchmen although at least we had more of them.

  The drill chewed through stone and broke through into the new level.

  Again, the lights were already on here, white and bright this time against white walls. Fake potted plants lined the walls along with occasional seating.

  My drone led the way with armored henchmen wielding pistols following.

  “Some sort of offices?” Niles asked, studying the video feed.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  The walls weren’t marked. Exploration finally led us to a larger room filled with seating and tables. Ancient magazines were scattered around, and a reception desk filled the center of the space.

  “Clinic,” Niles said.

  “You saying with any certainty or are you guessing?” I asked.

  “Of course I’m guessing, but I’m right. Trust me, as a human you sit around in places like this too much of your life. They’re familiar.”

  “I hope decades-old medical equipment is still worth something,” I said.

  I sent my drone further ahead. A room off the clinic entrance held a large assortment of firearms.

  “Well-armed for a clinic,” I said.

  “I bet it's for the patients. It makes sense. This place was anonymous, they probably mostly treated people that couldn’t go to the hospital,” Niles said.

  That seemed possible. The firearms at least were something we could use, or if we decided to sell them I was sure we’d find a market. Killing people kept getting more advanced with time, but the classic methods still usually worked and were popular.

  A greenish blur erupted from a side door and one of the henchmen began to scream. It looked as if his flesh was actually melting off him.

  The other henchmen didn’t wait to see what was going on, or for orders. They fired five shots felling him and he sprawled on the floor. A greenish ooze had covered half his body, glowing faintly.

  “Don’t touch that,” I said.

  “You don’t pay us enough,” said on the henchmen. “I mean, you do, of course. We’ll touch anything you want us to, because that is what we do even when it is certain death. But you know, uh, don’t ask, please?”

  Like I wanted them to dissolve. What use did I have for melted henchmen?

  The green ooze covering the corpse seemed to still be spreading, moving to smother the felled henchman completely. Once it has covered his face, the body began to twitch violently, half-melted limbs flailing as the corpse tried to stand.

  The henchmen shot the body again, but this time the bullets didn’t seem to be working. Oh, they blew holes in flesh and slime—it simply didn’t seem to matter.

  “Pull back,” I said.

  I fired a shotgun blast with my drone that splattered ooze from the dead man against one wall. Within seconds it was peeling itself away and the corpse was reassembling.

  It flung itself at my drone and ooze covered the sensors. Still, it didn’t seem to do much more than that. The drone's metal casing wasn’t melting.

  I moved my drone away from the henchmen. Whatever cargo it was now carrying was obviously fatal to them.

  Niles meanwhile was tapping quickly away at a keyboard and suddenly the visual feed became a lot cleaner.

  “I’m filtering out the ooze, or trying,” Niles said.

  Whatever he was doing, it was working.

  While walls weren’t marked, doors seemed to be. I was hoping to find an incinerator of some kind where we could try burning this ooze off.

  “Ward A”

  “Recovery”

  “Facial Realignment”

  “Cryonics.”

  That last would do so long as their body containment system remained intact. My drone shot the handle off the door and pushed it open to reveal the interior.

  Tubes lined one wall, the glass frosted over, although within could be seen the dim shapes of severed limbs and body parts carefully frozen.

  Ooze was still flowing along the surface of my drone. It didn’t have any strength, but it seemed to be desperately trying to find some opening in the chassis to penetrate. I didn’t give it the chance.

  I spotted a tank of coolant and with a round of my shotgun blasted a hole in it, dousing my drone in liquid nitrogen. My sensors went out almost at once, the intense cold shutting down the systems.

  I had to hope that was enough. I ordered henchmen to cryogenics to load it properly into one of the freeze chambers.

  “Well, that is some terrifying slime,” Niles said.

  “Isn’t it wonderful? It turns organic matter into more of it. I think I finally see a use for all those bodies we keep piling up,” I said.

  “You want to feed it our corpses? Is that really a good idea?”

  “We’ll make sure, when we use them, they’re carefully confined or we have some way to shut them down. They melt people though. That is a fantastic defense,” I said.

  “If you were hoping to rent this level out as a clinic though, something that melts the patients is going to be a big negative,” Niles said.

  Probably. I thought we either needed to clean out the slimes and have a clinic, or clean out the clinic and rent the space to someone not bothered by the slimes—there had to be someone. It would just depend on what was the easiest or more profitable market.

  A bit of research would reveal that.

  18

  I wound up losing three more henchmen exploring the level. The slimes weren’t the only horrors in there. There were tiny creatures that changed your face by eating the old one, and a few other medical horrors.

  Despite all that, interest was keen on the space.

  Kli’zza was a demonic princess trapped in this universe who loved nothing more than being surrounded by pa
in and suffering. A lab of organic horrors suited her just fine, and they wouldn’t pose much danger to her flesh.

  Achimi was a golem, a bronze man that had once worked in the forge of Hephastus and something of a mad scientist in the modern day. The medical facilities didn’t seem dated at all to one as ancient as him, and his metallic flesh wouldn’t be at all bothered by the slimes and other horrors.

  They both were capable of paying the rent, so really it was just a matter of who I preferred to have in my building.

  While I was pondering the matter my vision flickered, my array of camera feeds being replaced by a virtual forest and pond. Uma was perched on a leaf, kicking her legs out in front of her as always.

  I tried to shift my focus out of the environment and couldn’t—she’d totally dominated my sensory feeds.

  “I don’t like that you can do this,” I said.

  “Well, of course you don’t. Who wants someone in their mind that can control what they see and hear and feel?” Uma said cheerfully. “It’s a good thing we’re friends. We are friends, right? It is a bad thing to say no, by the way, just in case that wasn’t ominous and threatening enough.”

  “Of course we’re friends,” I lied. I wasn’t an idiot. There was no profit in pissing Uma off.

  “You want some advice again here?” Uma asked.

  “You think you have some to give?” I asked.

  Uma jumped off the leaf to flutter through the air, her pixie wings leaving dark trails in the air.

  “Of course I do. I know you want to look at everything in terms of money, because you’re you. But it isn’t just about money. Tenants you take aren’t all going to get along with each other. They’re going to bring different enemies, different friends, along with them,” Uma said.

  “And you think one of these candidates is better than the other?”

  Uma shrugged, “Sure. The demoness is more connected. Royalty is royalty, and that counts for something. Demons are also a big thing, there are lots of them. But they’re at constant war with angels and it gets nasty. If you start housing a princess of demonkind you’ll get sucked into it.”