by Skyler Grant
"They'll be watching you, and their security systems will be monitoring you. I don't expect that will give you much opportunity to make trouble. Still, I would say feel free to do what you can provided they don't catch you. That would ... trouble me," Mastermind said.
Right, and troubling him was the sort of thing that led to a great deal of unpleasantness.
"You got your start over there, didn't you?" Jules asked.
Now Mastermind gave a thin smile. "A great many of us do, although people rarely are welcome in the other direction. I used to be an archaeologist."
I hadn't known that. I wondered if it was how he got his powers. It was pretty common for mystical sorts—they unearthed the right relic from the past and suddenly were a great warrior out of legend.
"We'll make sure your daughter gets your gift," I said.
The assistant handed over the box to Jules who tucked it under one arm.
Mastermind snapped his fingers and another assistant stepped forward, this one bearing a platter on one arm with a wineglass upon it. The glass was filled with a brilliant, colorful and shimmering liquid. Ambrosia.
"A thank you in advance for your assistance, and to help towards success in your endeavors," Mastermind said.
Jules' dress showed flashes of green and blue—she must be happy. Reaching out eagerly for the glass, in a few quick gulps she downed it.
The effects were almost immediate, her already athletic physique shifting into one truly muscular.
Perhaps this would be a good thing, or perhaps it would go terribly wrong. I was, at the very least, interested in the opportunity to meet Mastermind's daughter. I suspected she was a part of Mastermind that few villains like us got to see.
5
The good thing about entering New Londonarium on a diplomatic visa was that we didn't have to make too many crazy travel arrangements.
Instead we reported to a ferry at the outskirts of the island. A bored-looking set of officials verified our identity, scanned but did not ask us to turn over our weaponry, and a short ride later we were pulling into a dock at New Londonarium.
"Hihihi," said an exuberant young blonde in a bright yellow and red, classic skintight outfit with matching cape. "I'm Bouncy. I'm sort of your guide and sort of your guard, but don't worry because I'm super-nice."
I took a moment to get a scan of her.
Bouncy
Registered Hero
S.M.I.L.E
Science
Power Level: 32,000
Abilities: Shape-shifting, Kinetic Amplification, Superhuman Durability
Background: Pippa Yeong operates under the code name Bouncy. In human form she is resistant to most forms of damage with rubberized skin but her true abilities come out when she transforms into a small yellow ball. With kinetic amplification and near indestructibility she is capable of rapid bouncing between targets inflicting high levels of environmental destruction.
Every so often I encountered a powerset that just made me redo my scan. Most heroes and villains operated along some fairly standard lines, perhaps with a few quirks. Really, both Jules and Ox were variations on a common super-powered physical form that manifested differently in each of them. Strength, speed, durability were all common, just like the various forms of elemental control.
Becoming a bouncing yellow ball was something I hadn't seen before.
"You certainly are," Jules told Bouncy.
Bouncy helped us load our supplies into a van. It was yellow too and looked to have been hand-painted with flowers.
She gushed, "So you work for Mastermind? I've read all about him. Is it true what they say about how organized he keeps things? A lot of people still have hopes that he can brought back to our side. That would be so cool, the world's first S-Class hero."
I wondered if that was even possible. There were multiple S-Class villains and not a single S-Class hero despite the number of heroes overall being greater. It suggested that there was something about temperament that governed power level.
"Do you know his daughter?" I asked.
"SMILE doesn't work much with STRONG. We work mostly with the government. Diplomacy, public relations, that sort of thing," Bouncy said.
"You turn into a little yellow ball of total destruction. How does that work?"
Bouncy laughed. "I heard that you could scan people. People usually don't know about me. They don't like me fighting, because my powers go kind of out of control, you know? I just start bouncing and soon I take out a whole building."
It was impressive actually. I wondered if she was recruitable. People had different reasons for going villain. The old laws for recruiting spies applied here. MONEY, ideology, compromise or ego.
MONEY was my favorite, obviously. Things were nice on the hero side, but pretty much all of the heroes were some variety of government employee. Like most government employees they were well-compensated without ever hitting the true pinnacle of wealth and privilege. I couldn't honestly claim to offer that either, but at least the potential was there.
Bouncy didn't strike me as the money-driven sort.
Ego wouldn't apply. That was one of the most common villain characteristics. Who wanted to be tied down by rules and regulations, and listening to other people, when they could instead live their own lives and do things their way? Bouncy didn't strike me as that sort either.
Compromise was all about blackmail. Maybe Bouncy had a dark side, but I'd not be interested in gaining an employee like that.
No, for her, if it was going to be anything, it would be ideology. Ideology was all about selling them on the idea behind the other side, and for villainy it might be something like convincing them that humanity needed villains. The human species was made stronger, because high-powered predators hunted it. Ideology was great for intellectuals who could justify almost anything, given the right perspective. Bouncy was a diplomat, she was all about building bridges and fostering relations. Maybe I could use that.
It was the first time I'd really seen the streets of New Londonarium during the day. In many ways it was the opposite of our side—our streets came busy during the night. It was when villains preferred to do their raiding and all of society had built itself up around that. These people were different, they built their lives around the day.
It was a tight squeeze in the van. Ox took a row of double seats on his own with his head scraping the roof.
"I didn't realize it was such a thing, diplomacy between our sides," I said. My drone had been strapped into a seat, which I thought a bit ridiculous.
"We've always got things we need to work out. There are threats we come together to face, families that are split on either side. A lot of us are just interested in fighting you, but others really do hope you'll see reason," Bouncy said.
That didn't seem favorable for my recruitment efforts.
"You think we're all unreasonable?"
Bouncy was silent for a few moments as she navigated traffic. The streets of the city were busy, cars and bicycles thick on the road. Overhead could be seen frequent hover craft or individual heroes flying or jumping along.
She said, "I know you've got a lot of different reasons. I think Mastermind just wanted to try building his own society. If Disaster wasn't doing her own thing, on her own island, she'd never be allowed to just walk free over here."
From what I'd heard about Disaster I wouldn't mind her being in captivity too much. She might technically be on her own island, and I sure wanted whatever loot she might be able to give me, still Disaster really did have a habit of destroying everything around her.
I'd never really questioned wanting a place in Old Londonarium since awakening there. Mastermind ruled his island with a deft touch and while it wasn't without its problems, I appreciated the possibilities. If I had come online under Disaster, I wondered if it would have been different. CAPITALISM could be defined as either a heroic or villainous powerset, and under different circumstances I might have been welcomed in a city like this.
>
"You should visit sometime, get a look at things yourself first hand. We're a quick trip," I said.
Bouncy flashed a grin. "I've been. Villain Tours? Have you seen them? See how the other half lives, experience what it is like. They promise you'll get to meet some great villains, but when I went our tour guide was just some D-Class named Purple Shadow."
I hadn't even known tourism was a thing. Why hadn't I known tourism was a thing? I owned real estate, I should know this. I was already thinking over the potential.
Long-term renters were great and I loved the sustained income, but I wondered if properties might work for short-term usage, sort of like Airlair—except instead of catering to villains, I could rent to visiting, tourist heroes.
Security was probably a concern for visitors, and coming with a guard force and traps might be something they'd both be willing to pay for and would give me an excuse to profit off some of my fellow villains without any hard feelings.
I'd have to keep it in mind and see what I could do. I was always interested in other income streams.
It made my recruitment suddenly seem less a far-fetched idea. Bouncy could say how she was playing diplomat, but the traces of fangirlism, the trip across as a tourist, and putting herself in a position to meet villains visiting her city ... Bouncy was interested in the other side.
After twenty minutes we came to a stop outside a ten-floor building. It had balconies with no rails so flighted heroes could land, and elemental charging stations. This place catered to a powered demographic.
"We're on the third floor. You are room three-zero-two and I am right next door in three-zero-one," Bouncy said. "SMILE assures you that your rooms are not bugged, but your comings and goings are being monitored."
They wanted to let us know that we were being watched, but not actively spied upon. We'd run our own checks, of course. SMILE was a hero organization and I trusted them to do what they said, but this city was filled with vigilantes that wouldn't mind breaking the rules. This was temporary anyways. We were just staying here tonight. Tomorrow after delivering our gift we'd move into some place more secret before launching our mission against STRONG.
6
The night was quiet. There were only the occasional sounds of gunfire or an explosion from invading villains. None of them was after anyone in this complex and really, it was quieter than the usual night back home.
Crossing the channel and launching an attack here took major resources and effort. Hitting other villains back in Old Londonarium was far easier.
The next day Bouncy was back to take us up to STRONG Tower. She had dressed for the occasion, a gown in the same yellow and reds as her super costume, and with an absurd number of sparkly bits.
Our team's outfits were a bit of a juggling act. Being in hostile territory, going armed was expected. We also had some obligation to fit in, even if we couldn't exactly help standing out as the villains in the room.
Jules was in a tasteful black dress, and had a bow and arrows with her. Ox was in a full tuxedo with his strength-amplification rig underneath. Niles had on his complete suit of power armor and we'd added a black bow tie. We'd done the same for my drone below the camera. Uma wore a pink bow on her furry head.
Inside the tower we'd be heavily monitored, so I'd given everyone their instructions to discreetly do anything they could to help our infiltration as long as they thought they could get away with it.
My role was going to be observation. Nobody could scan like I could, and I wanted to know everything I could about their defenses before we launched our assault.
The lobby was nicer than Mastermind's with huge statues of all the STRONG heroes in white stone. Less obvious were the camera spheres and turret mounts on the ceiling. I took a moment to study each.
Omnicameras
Omnicameras are floating spheres that offer a complete spherical viewing arc. They monitor all wavelengths of light and trigger alerts based on inconsistencies. This offers them the ability to detect some camouflage systems although they do not detect full effective invisibility. Cameras of this type are typically managed by an AI and thus are vulnerable to errors in those systems.
Dampening Turrets
Dampening Turrets use shaped energy fire to stun and dampen superhuman abilities. A single shot can knock out a low-powered super for hours and neutralize their abilities for several days. On S-Class villains they might result in a few seconds of disorientation and up to fifteen seconds of power dampening.
Both defenses were impressive. The good news, such as it was, was the cameras. If our team had any advantages that might really be of use here, it was our ability to infiltrate data systems through Uma and Niles' time-freezing abilities. Nothing in those cameras indicated they would detect Niles if he did things during a time freeze, and if she gained access to their systems Uma might render them completely worthless.
We were all scanned rather extensively at the door and waited quite awhile as our names were checked and rechecked against the reception guest list.
I continued to scan. The walls were some sort of composite weave, incredibly durable and resistant to almost all kinds of damage. Less so the windows. As far as I could determine they were very traditional panes of glass overlaid with a thin layer of energy shielding. They were all heavily wired with sensors.
You could breach through a window, but they would have an immediate, clear idea that you had done so.
Next, we were directed towards an elevator.
It was a security measure too, a hidden one.
Containment Cell
This is an elevator compartment but serves double duty as a mobile power neutralizing containment cell. It can be easily removed from the system and transported to a proper containment facility for long-term holding.
As a villain, capture was pretty much your worst nightmare. Dying just meant your life insurance kicked in and you'd be back in a few days. Captured and imprisoned, you could be held indefinitely.
It was yet another reason why it was usually good to work for a big villain if you could manage it. In that case there might be someone coming to break you out or willing to trade for your exchange—heroes didn't like being captured either.
We were let out near the very top of the tower. This was one of the most secured parts of the facility, the private housing and facilities of STRONG.
It revealed a massive hall. Chandeliers adorned the ceiling and a band on a raised stage played live music. The place was filled with heroes and their guests.
I recognized Ultimatum, he'd torn our base apart once. One of their A-Class. There were several others around him, and I took a moment to get scans.
There was a woman with green skin and white flowers blooming from her hair. She wore an off-shoulder dress in pink.
Magnolia
Registered Hero
S.T.R.O.N.G.
Mutant
Power Level: 63,000
Abilities: Regeneration, Plant Control, Resilience
Background: Kathryn Wilken is a mutant with a strong affinity to plants. She is able to communicate with and grow high-powered botanical creations and is capable of both soaking incredible damage and quickly recovering from any damage that she takes.
On Magnolia's arm was a cheerful-looking older man in a tuxedo.
Tinman
Registered Hero
S.T.R.O.N.G.
Science
Power Level: 62,000
Abilities: Superhuman intelligence. Master engineer. Has constructed his own powered, combat armor that allows him the power of flight, energy blasts, and enhanced strength.
Background: Roger Petrovski was abducted by the alien race, the Denoki, and experimented upon. These experiments increased his intelligence well beyond the human norm and ultimately allowed him to construct the Tinman power armor out of their technology to aid in his escape.
A blonde with vibrant green eyes and wearing a golden gown had a far slighter build than most of the heroes present.
Yesterday
Registered Hero
S.T.R.O.N.G.
Mystical
Power Level: 38,000
Abilities: Time Travel
Background: Helen Sinclair is one of the weaker heroes in STRONG as judged by pure power level, but her utility is so great she is a valuable member of the team. Yesterday is usually kept away from combat missions, as her entire purpose is, if things to go catastrophically wrong, to travel back in time one day to warn her team.
They were all so powerful, so incredibly powerful. And out of all of these, despite being considered "weaker", Yesterday was perhaps the biggest threat to our plans. If what we were stealing was valuable enough and dangerous enough, they could send her back in time to make sure we didn't do it.
We had to kill her. It looked like her time travel ability only allowed regressing one day into the past—her entire name was based around it. Killing her would put Yesterday out of commission for three days, and planning our robbery for tomorrow would put her insurance resurrection outside our window.
"Let's just get this out of the way," came an unhappy voice.
A new couple, a woman who sparkled an uncommon amount as if covered in glitter and a man in a tuxedo alongside her. I took a moment to scan both.
Glimmerdust
Registered Hero
S.T.R.O.N.G.
Mutant
Power Level: 39,000
Abilities: Disorientation, light manipulation, teleportation
Background: Glenda Rogers is the daughter of the S-Class villain Mastermind and the A-Class heroine Libra. Glimmerdust is able to disorient foes, grant temporary invisibility, create illusions, and can teleport herself within visual sight range.