As Mia pulled into the neighborhood of Edgar's father the next day, she was surprised that it appeared rather middle-class. The old stereotype of Nazis as toothless hicks is in fact not true; the most likely profession of one is a doctor.
The middle-class is particularly captureable by prejudice due to how its membership is always in decline, and their fear they might one day fail; this worry breeds scapegoats. It was this fear Mia had often picked up on with the middle-class; that they might one day have to live like her and her family once had.
She pulled into his driveway and noticed him already looking through the blinds at her. The four went up to the front door and knocked, and he soon answered. "Who are- ah, students. What is this regarding?"
"Where is your son? Edgar Grey."
He sneered. "What a courteous introduction. I have nothing to say to you. Your academy ostracized my son for years, discriminated against him, and one of your little pissants murdered his only contact within the federal government, preventing him from any hope of having a career. I don't blame him for fleeing; I only wish that he had notified me sooner, though perhaps he didn't out of a desire to not cause this precise situation. I have no information for you, nor would I give you any if I did."
Mia shrugged. "Conveniently, I don't need your information to find him." With the speed of a host she kicked him in the kneecaps and he folded over with a loud crack, clutching his legs; her fist slammed into his chest and he went down for a while. "Yuruko, Samuel - stay outside and tell anyone who asks what we're doing. I want to make sure this is audible. Serena, I'd like you to help me with something."
Serena nodded and kissed Yuruko before she went inside with Mia, carrying the man. Mia created an enormous block of ice and told Serena to fill it with any torture device she liked; Serena chose the rack, and soon Mia had tied him upon it. She let Serena fill a few pouches of ice with various implements she had learned from Kate; nails, wax and salt. Mia sent a low electrical current through the nails; even you may have been able to survive it; until he awoke in pain, and with some wax melting upon him.
In between his screams, he was pleading that he did not know where his son was.
Mia sneered. "Trying to make me pity you won't save you. It doesn't matter whether you know where he is -- what matters is that he'll know where you are."
"That's right, bitch. Don't fuck with *President* Swarm!"
President Swarm smirked. "That's exactly right. I may need you alive, for now, but I'm certain your son will try to save you. After I show him the consequences of his pathetic assassination attempt, you will die slowly, with a hole in your gut from one of these." An icicle formed, and she scraped some skin off his arm with it. "Miasma, go ahead and show him how this implement works."
She found that after killing Kirihara, she was no longer moved by killing or torturing her enemies in any living form. Bigotry was a condition for her to accept such torture here, but it was not the cause of it, nor any notion of transferred vengeance. More important was that he was a barrier to Mia's safety. In her actions over the years she had set herself adrift from such sentimental latches, and knew that if she was to right something it was best she do it swiftly with finality. She had learned from Matoi's mistakes with Kirihara.
Both biology and personality had melded in Mia to the extent that where Worldwide began and she ended was mostly superfluous by now; she felt a powerful menace about her scarabs. She found that she enjoyed the texture of this Mia, which seemed a nascent thing of her development into Worldwide's host; it was as if, like an amoeba, she had slowly spread her mental essence over a concept of a woman, and was soon to begin engulfing it.
"…Miasma?"
"Um, yeah. One sec, I'm trying to... That's right, bitch, don't… don't fuck with President S- ah, fuck, it's not... Mia, the thing isn't rolling, the crank is... come look at it?"
"I- what? What are you talking about?"
"See?"
"How many times have you done this with Kate and you still don't -- Serena, you didn't tell me I burnt through the fucking rope --"
"What? No, it's cause--"
"Look at this! When did the wax get on here?"
"Well, maybe I can just fix it with Blackburn or something --"
"--no, because the -- one second, I need to actually -- stop trying to repair it before I cool it down, that's why the entire thing is going to --"
The rope collapsed into flames.
"See? Because the *wax* is still on there from earlier, Serena! It's SUPERHEATED! That's why I need you to wait until I cool it down -- there, now you can --"
" -- now it shattered! So what the --"
" -- *and now* you can create a new one!"
"Okay, but what about the thing with the crank?"
"The crank? What's wrong with the crank?"
"I just told you! It's not moving!"
"Well, I don't know! You told me you knew how these worked! Don't you have a blueprint for it or something?"
"...…"
"Do you?"
"Do I have a fucking blueprint?"
"Yes, a fucking blueprint!"
"No, I don't have a fucking blueprint!"
"How else did you learn to build it? Oh, god, don't tell me -- it's from one of your Japanese cartoons. God damnit, Serena, every time I wonder where you got an idea and it's from a fucking anime--"
"No! It's a real device, it's just -- okay, maybe -- but Kate's the one with the rope and the hair, and honestly, she knows more about torture than I do, so I usually just, um --"
"God damnit, I'm going outside for this. I need to impale him somewhere publicly, anyway, to lure..." Mia picked him up, walked away, sighed, turned to Serena, wagged her finger. "You should be careful I don't put you in there next."
Serena giggled.