Though they were the reserve group in name, they were anything but. Blue and black camouflage spread around the building, the colors of the allied central army. Different from the old army greens the ones currently fighting on the front lines and dying wore.
These were the elite, trained to perfection, they ate, slept and breathed the battlefield all of their new life. Which was why they were let to wear these uselessly colored uniforms those up top had decided to come up with. As if to say, 'we're already so strong, we don't care that we look like a flashy target even inside a thick forest.'
Those at Central had trained these men to be deadly even with their pinkies, while in the process they might've believed that they had added a leash to control the powers they had created, training them to submit to authority.
Problem was... that leash was for humans, and few realized that after gaining a certain amount of power, it was hard for anybody to truly stay human.
But not only did they create the beast, they also gave it fangs and claws. Arming them from the tip of their hair to the nails on their toes with the best they could innovate in the new world.
Moto-tsune couldn't help but become a little nervous at being the center of their attention. These were the men he was going to send out if all hell broke loose, but now, they had become a third party opposition.
Even if he was more high leveled than them. He had no confidence in facing all of them all at once. Even if he was fast, he couldn't dodge if so many bullets flew around, and as an assassin class, he couldn't take even one of those shots standing. Like this he could only sheath his gun and raise his hands.
"Calm down, we don't want to kill you if we don't have to, I have to admit, your plans were great, I didn't need to change a single thing, just had to speed up the process is all." Bartram spoke with a smug smile plastered on his face.
But he was right, Moto-tsunes strategies was akin to a cat and mouse. The cat showed it's strength t instill fear into the mouse, but still gave it some space to move around as a show of benevolence, waiting for the mouse to give up out of fear and powerlessness.
But fear could be easily turn into desperation, and all at once the mouse could feel like it was trapped in a corner and had no chance to fight back. A sniper shot too early, and the opposition had suddenly turned into a charging horde of psychotic men. Send in the armored vehicle too fast, and they had turned into a guillotine that was fast closing in on the enemy's neck.
"Ya see, despite not agreeing with the way you do things, I think your'e brilliant!" Bartram raised his arm and patted the Japanese on his shoulders.
"I don't think you brought half my... your army just to tell me I'm smart, get to your point." He glared at him ever the more fiercely.
"Heh! not one to mince words aren't ya? that's fine." somehow through all this commotion Bartram still had the bottle and two shot glasses in his hand, shoving a filled one into the hands of Moto-tsune.
"You remember how I said I didn't like to share? Well although I meant with these barbarians at the time..." He waved his hands at the field before them, the sound of shooting and the clash of metal still resounding clear in their ears. "I also don't particularly like the idea of giving up a lot to the people you work for, and neither do your guys apparently."
It was easy to understand, after gaining strength, who would want to live under the governments rule. Even though being in the army gave them a position, their quality of life in a city where everyone was a super powered being wasn't that much different than it was in the old world, they still had to bow to those with authority, claim a minuscule government salary, and were even punished if they flaunted their abilities at civilians.
Only those who had reached the top of their abilities could truly live without any fetters. Them and those tycoons and large families, they had somehow maintained their power in one way or another.
Compared to that, being a Lord here was like heaven and earth since any little piece of land in this new world was like a gold mine with all new kinds of miraculous resources, enough to make anyone who knew how to exploit it rich. It probably wasn't hard for Bartram to convince them to follow.
"If you're thinking of going against Central then you're an idiot, and the rest of you are idiots for following!" Moto-tsune spat, "Even if your combined powers is pretty strong, Central has at least 10 more detachments even bigger than you and..."
"That's why we're not planning on fighting." Bartram interupted
"Wha...?"
"This is why I've gone through all this trouble... We don't like sharing, but we can't exist if we don't share." Bartram explained. "So we'll still give them the 40% of the resources they want us to send back to Central, but we'll just tell them that the 100% is smaller."
For once, Moto-tsune didn't answer, no he couldn't answer, it was brilliant. They would just give Central a fake report on the resources they were able to get and keep the ones unaccounted for.
"That's why I need you." Bartram seeing Moto-tsune quiet for awhile, figured that his proposal was going well. "As this area's supervisor you will be doing the reporting to your higher ups, keep them from getting their noses into our things, and just for that you'd get 10% of the whole pie, while the other hundreds of us share the rest."
"I've already reported the attainable resources and projections of income from this place, the higher ups would be suspicious if I reported so much less."
"Projections don't mean results, with the change in nature I doubt your experts can say that the tests used now were accurate, just say the resources wasn't as much as reported." Bartram answered. " We can even make some fake locations to fool inspectors."
"What if they spot something?"
"We can take them out, say they were attacked by some mysterious beast, that's if we can't offer a share of the profit with him." He replied almost instantly, "but of course we won't be taking from your cut."
"And what's your cut?"
"Same as every one else's."
"Bu**sh$t."
"No, it's true, I'm not their leader after all." Bartram responded, with a smirk. "I might've come up with the idea, but I can't even begin to compete with these here men in terms of power, so an equal cut fits me pretty nicely."
He was a difficult opponent, Moto-tsune had been trying to poke holes in his plans maybe even get the men and him to turn on each other. But it seemed Bartram was prepared for any thing he might've had to say.
His left hand went to his left side pocket, fumbling something in it. "Well I guess there's only one thing I can say if you put it so nicely like that is..."
Bartram looked on gleefully thinking he'd gotten the man.
'click'
"If any of you move, I'll blow his brains out." His gun appeared in his hands again pointing right at Bartrams forehead once more.
Bartram sighed. "Stupid move by a smart man Mr Moto-tsune."
"Why you think they'd risk killing their leader for me?" Moto-tsune asked his head had already prepared some ways to get out of this while they were talking, the conversation in part was to understand what Bartram was trying to do while the other part was to give him time to think of a way. "I want all of you to take 5 steps back and make a path out!"
"Dummkopf." Bartram said.
"What'd you call me?"
"An idiot, they won't make way."
"Yes they will if they want yo..."
"Just look then..." Before he was able to finish, Bartram was already turning his head. Moto-tsune looked around, and sure enough none of the men had moved from their spot, instead they had moved their arms and trained their guns on him.
"But you're their..."
"I told you, I'm not their leader." Bartram continued to drink, downing a cup before letting it clink on the table as he set it down. "At most, I'm an opportunist who wants to earn some wealth together with them. They wouldn't risk this opportunity just for me."
"So there's two things we can do here, you can take a deal, not the one I already mentioned of course as that expired the moment you heard the deal and answered with a gun. I can promise some shares to you, but we'd need to put a contingency on you, you know just in case you look around for opportunities to get back at us... or you can pull that trigger and try your look against them." Bartram said, his previously smiling face now looked at him lazily.
Moto-tsune's face was getting uglier by the moment.
Out of the blue, a different voice called out. "Uh... hi, can someone take me to your leader?"
The real monkey wrench had arrived.