Chapter 79
A Darker Path
Part Seventy-Nine: Double Trouble
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
00:07 hours, Tuesday Morning
Dallon Household
Glory Girl
Vicky looked around at a light tap on her bedroom door. She frowned; wasn't everyone in bed already? Getting up from her computer chair, she padded over to the door and opened it a few inches.
"Ames?" she whispered on seeing her sister standing in the corridor. "What are you doing up?"
Amy, who looked like she'd been about to head back to her own room, raised her chin. "Me? What are you doing up?"
"Atropos gave the Three Blasphemies twenty-four hours, remember? Crystal bet me ten bucks they'd surrender before she got to them." Vicky hooked her head back at her glowing computer monitor. "I'm waiting to see what happens."
"Oh." Amy glanced to the side, down toward their parents' bedroom door. "Can I come in?"
"Sure, okay." Vicky opened the door all the way and headed back to the computer chair. She watched as Amy shut the door quietly, then came over and sat on her bed. Half-turning the chair so she could still keep an eye on the monitor, Vicky crossed her legs—much easier when flight was involved—and propped her chin on one hand. "So, what's got you up at this hour?"
Amy took a deep breath. "You know how you used to keep trying to drag me out on double dates?"
"Yeah, I remember." Vicky cringed a little inside at how sure she'd been that Amy would like this guy or that guy just because he was nice and had money. Of course, this had all been before she'd discovered that Dean had bought his powers, and that Amy was more interested in girls than guys. Her double-dating days were probably over, but she was almost certain that Amy wasn't trying to rub this fact into her face. "We both know I'm not gonna be doing that again any time soon. So, what's up?"
"You know how I'm seeing Parian." Amy waited for Vicky's nod, then kept going. "And Spitfire and Flechette have a thing, right?"
Vicky hadn't actually known that precisely, but from the way things were going, she wasn't in the least bit surprised. "I know that now, yeah." She paused, literally adding two and two together. "Oh. Oh. You want advice on how to do a double date?"
Amy hitched her shoulder and nodded uncomfortably. "Yeah. Parian and me have done a lot of talking and I've visited her at the Boardwalk a few times, and she says Spitfire told her that Flechette was getting a long weekend of leave to come to Brockton Bay. So, I was thinking that if we double-dated, Parian and Spitfire would be able to relax more with a teammate around."
Vicky frowned thoughtfully. "So, you're looking for a sort of a girls' night out vibe? Less in the way of implicit expectations, that sort of thing."
"Yeah, exactly. I mean, Parian knows I'm interested, but I don't want to come across as too pushy, you know?"
"No, good point. Pushy is bad. Comfort zone is good." Vicky leaned back in the chair, thinking. "Keep it low-key but fun. Light-hearted but room for intimacy. Movies, cafés, a picnic on the beach. Ask her, ask them, where they want to go, then make sure everyone's okay with it before you act on it. The last thing anyone wants in this sort of situation is to feel like they're invisible, or they're just coming along to make up the numbers. Or that they're trapped once they're there."
Amy raised an eyebrow. "What, like I used to, on your double dates?"
"Ouch." Vicky winced. "I'm really sorry about how badly I failed to read the room back then. Honest."
"I'm not going to say you didn't, because you did." Amy sighed. "But we've both learned a lot since then. A ton of things have changed. I don't feel boxed in anymore. The pressure's off us as heroes. We don't have to pretend that everything's alright, because it's finally actually alright."
"Well, not everything," Vicky grumped. "I'm still mad at Dean because he doesn't understand why I'm mad that he didn't tell me he bought his powers. I mean, that's a major breach of trust, isn't it?"
"More than the way I breached your trust by not telling you that I had feelings for you?" Amy nibbled on her thumbnail. "The way I see it, there's fault on all sides. You didn't take how I felt into account because you assumed you knew, and I resented it while at the same time refusing to tell you how I really felt. And Carol was determined for us to be the perfect team, so we always lined up and smiled for the camera, no matter what was going on underneath. Now you want to break away in one direction, I want to break away in another, you've broken up with Dean over something he lied about because he thought it was personal and private, and I honestly have no idea if we should blame everybody or nobody."
Vicky blinked as she absorbed Amy's words. Quiet though it was, her sister's little tirade held the ring of truth. "Wow, damn," she muttered. "You've been holding all that in for a while, haven't you?"
"Yeah, a bit." Amy grinned at Vicky. "Tell me it's not true."
"Oh, it's all true." Vicky sighed ruefully. "I wish it wasn't, but it is. I'm just glad you and Parian and the others can actually come out in public and be who you are."
"That means a lot." Amy's grin became a smile. "Okay, now at least I've got an idea to go on with for that double date—hey." She pointed past Vicky at the screen of the computer. "I think a new thread just dropped."
"Ooh, ooh, let me check." Vicky spun the chair around and dropped her feet to the floor. A click of the mouse confirmed it. "Yes, yes, yes! Bite me, Crystal!"
Amy jumped off the bed and leaned over her shoulder. "Don't say that too loud or she might get one of her girlfriends to do it for her."
Vicky nearly ruptured herself trying not to laugh out loud.
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Topic: Blasphemy Zero
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► New Capes ► Atropos
Atropos (Original Poster) (Banned) (You Wish) (UnVerified Cape) (Can Actually Kill Anything) (Yes, Really) (Watch Me) (Verified Dethpicable)
Posted On Mar 8th 2011:
Hello to you wonderful Brocktonites!
I have good news for all and sundry, especially those who support Interpol and everything it does.
As will come as zero surprise to anyone who's been following my career, the Three Blasphemies decided to not surrender to Interpol after I gave them fair warning. (According to my maternal grandfather, 'some folks just gotta pee on the electric fence').
I caught up with the first one in Brussels, doing the zombie thing on the rooftops adjacent to the Interpol building there. Now she *could* have been lost, or maybe intending to go in and give herself up. She might even have been waiting for the last minute. Or the last bus.
(She wasn't).
After a little bit of effort, I got it through her head that she wasn't welcome anywhere, ever. (Bullets really get the message across). Like a good little zombie, she died for real.
The next one was airborne over Paris. As also happened to a whole bunch of nobles in Paris back in the late 18th century, she lost her head. None of them were vampires (that we know of) but the Blasphemies have come back from the dead plenty of times, so I shoved the garlic in her mouth just in case.
As for the last one, I set things up so she took a stake through the heart, in good old-fashioned Dracula style.
[image]
[image]
[image]
So, there you have it. Those capes who are a problem on the international scene, be aware: if you keep yourselves to yourselves, I probably won't care. But if you start being enough of a nuisance that people are willing to pay me to remove you from consideration, you'll get exactly *one* warning.
(Note that my previous consideration about people being a net positive or a net negative to society still stands.)
In any case, the good people of Europe can sleep a little easier in their beds tonight, and the bad people (you know who you are, and I know *where* you are) ... well, what happens next is up to you.
Mwahahaha.
Toodles!
(Showing page 1 of 1)
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
You know what?
Not my problem. Not anyone's problem.
Nicely done.
Not totally sure how she managed to decapitate someone in midflight like that, but I'm not arguing with results.
►TheRealGloryGirl (Cape Daughter) (Verified Cape) (New Wave Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
I don't think anyone argues with Atropos' results.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
*sigh*
One of these days, people will learn.
►MonocleKitty
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Shot through the heart!
And you're to blame ...
No, really. You're to blame.
►TheDemonDrink
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Well, as the saying goes, the Blasphemies fucked around and found out.
Is anyone even keeping count now?
►MageWolf
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
I get that Atropos isn't doing this for herself, especially for monetary compensation for herself, but she is putting in a lot of work and a lot of hours for the Betterment Committee. Shouldn't she be on the payroll in some form or fashion, if only to satisfy union rules on payment for services rendered?
►Atropos (Original Poster) (Banned) (You Wish) (UnVerified Cape) (Can Actually Kill Anything) (Yes, Really) (Watch Me) (Verified Dethpicable)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm good.
I've got a stimulus card, even.
(Showing page 134 of 211)
►UnconcernedFox
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
*notes that the last Blasphemy was killed in a monastery*
*so close to being in a church*
*god dammit*
*orders more popcorn in*
►J0e_Eagl3ton (Verified Robotic American) (Dockworkers Association Member) (Verified Atropos Fan Club Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Blasphemies were wastes of processing time and battery power.
Artificial intelligence does not preclude natural stupidity.
Their casings had stickers saying "Intel not inside".
►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
BAHAHAHAHAHA!
Holy shit, AI humor is actually funny!
J0e, you rock!
►J0e_Eagl3ton (Verified Robotic American) (Dockworkers Association Member) (Verified Atropos Fan Club Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
No, me metal.
►GstringGirl (Verified Human) (Verified Atropos Fan Club Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
*falls off chair laughing*
Atropos Fans represent!
►Sayshi
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Hey Atropos, Just out of Curiosity, do you have any plans on Ending Cancer or the Grey Boy Bubbles? Or would someone have to offer you money to deal with those?
►Atropos (Original Poster) (Banned) (You Wish) (UnVerified Cape) (Can Actually Kill Anything) (Yes, Really) (Watch Me) (Verified Dethpicable)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Hi, Sayshi!
Cancer is a natural consequence of being alive, and every type of cancer is different.
In order to End all cancer everywhere, I'd have to either kill off every multicellular organism everywhere and replace them with perfect animatronic replicas, somehow rejigger the entire way cells are constructed and how they reproduce to End any chance that cellular division can result in cancerous growths, or wrap every single one of us in lead-lined cotton wool to End any chance of being exposed to something that might cause cancer to happen.
You might object to the first, I'd find the second one way too tedious, and you'd find the last one way too tedious.
Now, that isn't to say I can't kill *individual* cases of cancer. That I can totally do. Chemo and radiation therapy are just ways of traumatizing the cells so that the cancer dies at a measurably faster rate than the patient does. I can do targeted trauma *really, really* well.
As for Gray Boy loops, well ... yeah, I could kill those. I can think of four separate ways, right now.
But you've put your finger on the answer to the question of "why am I not doing this?"
The answer is simple. I'm not a hero. I never was. Never pretended to be.
I'm fixing Brockton Bay and making it a pleasant and prosperous place to live in, because I want to live in a pleasant and prosperous city.
When I End people, I do it because either a) they're attempting to personally threaten me or mine, b) they're a potential threat to what I'm doing in Brockton Bay, or c) they're a net negative to society and killing them will somehow benefit Brockton Bay. Also, because they've ignored at least one warning.
So I don't just go helping people for the good of all. I do it for Reasons.
However, because I'm not totes evul, I *will* point out that the New York Wards' latest recruit is able to create single-use devices with an almost limitless variety of wide-area effects. Just saying.
Mwahahaha.
Toodles!
►Harmless Fuzzball (Verified Harmless) (Random Internet Hugging Stranger)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
So, are you saying this Ward could make, say, anti-cancer bombs? Panacea will be thrilled.
►Badaboom (Verified Cape) (New York Wards Member)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
Wait, I can do what again now?
►Atropos (Original Poster) (Banned) (You Wish) (UnVerified Cape) (Can Actually Kill Anything) (Yes, Really) (Watch Me) (Verified Dethpicable)
Replied On Mar 8th 2011:
You never know until you try.
I say again, mwahahaha.
End of Page. 133, 134, 135, 136 ... 209, 210, 211
Later That Morning
Director Piggot's Office
Shebang
Alice tapped on the Director's door.
She wasn't quite sure why she was being summoned this time, but she was quite willing to walk out again if the questions took the same turn that they had yesterday. On the upside, there'd been zero backlash from doing that, so it seemed Piggot wasn't quite the hardass she'd heard rumors about from the other Wards. Also on the upside, Scribe had backed off from trying to fuck with her, which Alice greatly appreciated.
Director Piggot's voice sounded from within. "Enter."
Turning the handle, Alice opened the door and walked in. The Director was seated in the same position behind the desk as yesterday; the only difference was that Deputy Director Henderson was not in the room. Alice wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad thing. "You wanted to see me, ma'am?"
"I did." Director Piggot folded her hands together. "Have a seat. I'd like to discuss a minor matter and a major matter with you, the minor one being your cape name. Have you decided on one yet?"
Alice blinked, and sat down in the chair before the desk. Okay, I can handle this. "I've pretty well settled on 'Shebang', ma'am."
"Good. It's evocative, light-hearted, only two syllables, and has a nice hard consonant in the middle. Image will appreciate that." The Director paused to make a note on a pad, then put the pen down again. "As for the other matter: there was a discussion on the PHO boards this morning, stemming from Atropos killing the Three Blasphemies. Someone asked Atropos if she could kill cancer or Gray Boy loops, and she made a comment suggesting that you might be able to. Your response indicated that you weren't sure if you could. Do you still feel this way?"
Okay, wow. This was definitely taking a different tone than yesterday's discussion had. "I've never tried, ma'am, and I doubt I could just rig up something and make it work perfectly first time. But if I did a bit of study on the subject, I'm pretty sure I could figure out a way to differentiate cancer cells from healthy ones, then make a bomb that ignores everything but cancer cells."
"And what would that do?" Piggot turned her hands palm up. "Make them stop being cancer cells?"
"No." Alice shook her head, leaning into her power to try to get the answer. "I don't think so, anyway. You wouldn't get normal healthy cells back. I think, best case, I could kill the cancer cells. Turn them into undifferentiated slurry, or something nonliving like water or glass." She paused, thinking about that. "Not glass. Glass is a bad idea."
"Glass is a terrible idea," the Director agreed. "Even if you turned a tumour into water, there might still be medical intervention needed. Lung cancer, for instance. And there will literally be a hole where the tumour was."
"Yeah." Alice grimaced. "I don't know enough about cancer. If someone's liver is basically all one tumour and I destroy it, that's his liver just … gone. He doesn't have one anymore. He could still die from that."
"But if someone's had surgery to remove the main tumour," Director Piggot suggested, "this theoretical bomb of yours could scour his body to get rid of tiny traces hidden elsewhere."
Alice considered the idea. "Yeah, it could totally do that."
"Okay, we'll put a pin in that idea for the moment." Piggot made another note. "Miss Medic will be coming down from Brockton Bay in the next week or so, and I'll make sure to give her time to work with you on the cancer thing. But let's talk about the other matter. The Gray Boy loops. Do you honestly think you have a chance of releasing the prisoners stuck in them?"
This was another difficult question. Alice took her time answering, mainly because her impression of the Director was someone who was willing to wait for the right answer rather than push for a half-assed guess. Eventually, she nodded. "I think, maybe if I could get some readings off one of the loops, and maybe do some practice runs, yeah, I could make it work."
Director Piggot rubbed her chin with thumb and forefinger. "Would it help to practice on other time-frozen items right here in New York?"
"Yeah, totally." Alice nodded again. "It'd definitely help me ballpark my figures for when I'm working on the real deal. Wait." She frowned. "Where are you going to get time-frozen stuff from?"
Piggot smiled for the first time since Alice had walked into the room. "Being a PRT Director is largely thankless, but it does come with some perks."
Winslow High, Midday
Taylor
"Hey, Cherie." I sat down and put my lunch tray opposite hers. "How's things?"
"Pretty good, actually." Cherie grinned. "You know the principal? And that Gladly moron you've mentioned a few times? They're out. And from their state of mind when they left, they might just be looking at legal charges."
"Huh." I picked up my banana. "I wondered where he was last period. Oh, well. Couldn't happen to a nicer asshole." As I started to peel it, my phone rang. I put the banana down and took out the phone, my curiosity piqued. When I saw the caller ID Frenemy Mine, my eyebrows hitched upward. I hit the answer icon.
"Hi, Dragon," I said casually, causing Cherie's eyebrows to raise in their turn. "I'm assuming this is important, or you'd just be pinging me on PHO."
"I believe it is, yes." Her tone was serious, the accent faintly Canadian. I appreciated the attention to detail. "This relates to the Blasphemy kill, as well as some other things."
"I'm listening." And I was. My ongoing working relationship with Dragon had not been without its friction points, but we understood each other fairly well by now, and I was absolutely willing to pay attention to anything she wanted to bring to my attention.
"There are two potential groundswell movements on the rise, both in reaction to your actions in the Blasphemy case and to the Ellisburg, Eagleton, Freedom and Flint actions. The first is self-serving, the second is fear-based."
I was pretty sure I could handle any self-serving motivations that came my way, but I was also fully aware that Dragon wouldn't be wasting my time on trivial shit. "Why those incidents, specifically?"
She sighed. "They represent what could be seen as a troubling shift in your priorities and your modus operandi. Each of those was performed for payment, and unlike the Gary and Gallup quarantine sites, you didn't give the perpetrators involved the option to simply go away and not bother you. It was either surrender or die."
I blinked. She was actually correct, though I seriously hadn't thought about it that way until now. "Um. Okay. In counterpoint, where could Nilbog have gone where he wouldn't have caused more problems? And the Eagleton robots … well, you know what they were like."
"I am fully aware of all that. I'm also aware that while the Blasphemies were perfectly capable of surrender or even ceasing their murderous activities, they would have chosen to defy you no matter what choices they were offered. As that one Eagleton robot stated online, artificial intelligence doesn't preclude natural stupidity." She paused just for a moment. "What I'm saying is that the outside perception of what you're doing doesn't necessarily follow the reality of it, especially if people with an agenda are deliberately reshaping the narrative."
This was starting to sound ominous. I checked my threatscape, but nothing was popping quite yet. Just a few rumbles here and there, without anything specific to focus on. Nobody was buying a sniper rifle with bullets intended for my favourite skull, or building a bomb. But Dragon was still concerned, which meant I was concerned. "Okay, you have all of my attention now. What are the details on these groundswells, and what do I specifically need to be concerned about?"
"The first is the self-serving one. To a certain portion of the international community, you've shown that with the application of enough cash to the Betterment Committee—and for all they know, that's your private piggy-bank—you will kill anyone who can be demonstrated to deserve it, no matter how little impact that person has on Brockton Bay. In other words, you're just another high-priced assassin. A really good assassin, but still just an assassin. The welfare of Brockton Bay, to them, is just a façade that you're promoting. You're a killer for hire, and that's the bottom line."
"What?" I shook my head. "No. That's not true. The money isn't the point. It was never the point. Fixing Brockton Bay is the point. The money is just a means to an end."
"I know that, and you know that." Her tone was matter-of-fact. "But to the kind of people who run in the circles that have both access to the amounts of money you've been funnelling into the Betterment Committee and use assassination as a means of getting ahead, that's not the way the world works. The reputation and the money are always the point. There's been a lot of talk among the oligarchs and other big-money people about getting their squeaky-clean proxies to point you at their rivals, with the offer of lots of zeroes to the Betterment Committee to grease their paths to the top. Nobody's stupid enough to consider shorting you, but it's very much a matter of 'if we pay her enough, she will take care of our problems for us'."
I didn't normally get angry, but I was starting to feel like I should. "So, they'd just use me like a tool to get what they want? Is that what they think?"
"That's the general idea, yes. And they're not the only ones. Since your cute little note that unblocked the logjam in the House over the Simurgh payment, members of the US government have been considering ways—in a very low-key manner—to point you at heads of state that they disapprove of. Top of the list is the CUI, and by association the Yàngbǎn." She paused to clear her throat, a vocal gesture that she and I both knew was entirely unnecessary. "I will point out that this is not exactly a novel move by the Pentagon. They've been at it since before super-powers were a thing, but some of them are very excited by the possibilities that they see in you."
"Possibilities." The word tasted like acid in my mouth. "Are they aware that I could've walked into the White House and dictated terms to the President, but I didn't because I want the current system to work the way it should be working? I mean, I've been pushing the PRT and police force to shape up so I don't have to do their goddamn jobs for them. And they think I want to get into politics why exactly?"
"Because they want to reshape the political landscape to their own ends, and they believe that sufficient money will override whatever objections you have, especially if they can show you evidence that their prospective targets are a net negative to human civilisation."
I figured out the other half of what she was about to say before she said it. "And if they can even make it look like they have me on retainer, their rivals will fall into line so fast there'll be a sonic boom involved."
"That's an extremely reasonable prediction of their aims, yes."
I sighed in aggravation. "Okay, thanks for the heads-up." The next step would be figuring out how to End this situation before it got too far adrift. There was a reason I preferred to blow the hydra's head off before it grew too many of them. "Give me a second here."
"Certainly."
When I leaned into my power and asked it the question, it evinced what I interpreted as amusement, then gave me its answer. I frowned and queried it, and got the same answer back.
"Okay, this is weird. Step one in the solution is to ask you what you've already figured out."
"Oh, good. We're both on the same page then. I do have solutions, but I'd like your permission to go ahead with them."
Once more I said, "I'm listening," though this time with interest instead of mild apprehension.
"I've already been squashing a lot of the talk in the wider community, discouraging idiots from being idiots. With your say-so, I'd like to go proactive. A lot of the people who've seen what you did with Ellisburg and Eagleton and the Blasphemies and so forth see your reputation as 'will kill for money, no matter what' because they're unaware of some of the other things, such as the Ravioli incident. If I post in your name, spoofing from your account, and drop the appropriate footage into the correct inboxes, I can see interest dropping dramatically. Nobody wants to end up with their reputation murdered as savagely as you managed to do with hers."
"Huh." I'd known there was a reason I'd done things that way, but it had never occurred to me that it could be used in quite this fashion. "Okay, sure. I trust you to do it right. And let me guess: I should back off on accepting any more bounties for the time being?"
"It would make it easier to present the image adjustment, yes."
Well, I wasn't married to the bounties. "Well, if it helps keep the idiots off my back, it'll be worth it."
"No problem. So, about the other thing."
I had to stop and think for a moment. "Other thing? Oh, the fear. Isn't that a good thing? If people are scared of me, they won't try any shit, yeah?"
"No, this is more insidious. When you were starting out, you very publicly gave Coil and the others the option to leave, surrender or die. This quickly became your go-to. People grew to expect it. If anyone got in your crosshairs, they could still just leave. You even offered this to the capes in Gallup and Gary. But you didn't do it for Nilbog, the Machine Army, Pastor, the capes of Flint, or the Blasphemies. For them, it was just 'surrender or I will do something extreme to you'."
"We've been over this." I frowned. "Just walking away wasn't a credible option for most of them, and even if it had been, they wouldn't have taken it. You know this as well as I do."
"Yes." Her tone was patient. I wondered if she'd ever thought of being a teacher. "But there are people out there who can only see that you've changed your MO, and they're worried that if you do it once, you'll do it again. There's the fear factor, you see. Your ability to kill anyone you choose is daunting, but if you're seen as safe and reliable, they can look past that. However, once you start changing the way you operate, altering your rules as you saw fit, then who's to say what other rules you won't change? What if you decided one day that left-handed people were bad for Brockton Bay, so you started hunting them all down? Who could actually stop you?"
"But … people don't think like that, do they?" I shook my head in denial. "I mean, not really. That's the sort of thing people like Jack Slash do. I wouldn't do that, because there's no point. Just because I change one thing about how I do things doesn't mean I'm going to go full ham murder-crazy."
"No, it doesn't. And to be honest, you've done very well at presenting yourself as a power in the region without scaring everyone off. It's a delicate balancing act at the best of times. But some people just worry because that's the way they are, and the groundswell I'm talking about has a core of people who hate you for various reasons, so they feed on that and deliberately amplify it."
"Of course they do," I grumbled.
"Sorry, but it's true. They're using your change in MO as a talking point to spread the fear, even among people who wouldn't normally be worried. With a persuasive enough argument, and the very real fact that you're extremely good at killing, they've been able to prevent some people from moving to Brockton Bay who otherwise would've done so, and convince others to move away when they were in a good position there. And if they're left unchecked, this will only spread."
This promised to be even more of a headache than the other thing. When had being Atropos gotten so complicated? I just wanted to fix things and End problems. "And let me guess. If I go after the people who are saying shit about me, it'll just exacerbate the problem."
"Some of them are actually hoping you'll retaliate in some way. It'll give them the critical mass to spread the fear even wider. So no, I'd advise against that."
Again, I consulted with my power. The amusement seemed even stronger as it gave me its answer. This time, I wasn't surprised. "You've got a solution lined up for this too, I take it?"
"I do. You're good, but you can't be online every second of every day, squashing every nasty rumour about you. I can. In fact, I can launch—again, with your permission—a PR campaign, highlighting what you've done to help Brockton Bay and the world, and minimising the platform of the haters. But there's something you need to do as well."
I didn't even have to check with my power this time. "Go back to giving people the chance to walk away, right?"
"And be seen to do it," Dragon confirmed. "You've got a good connection to the public via your PHO account. Talk to them about it and explain why you did what you did, and how you'll be doing things going forward. Communication is huge for building trust. If you can bring the fence-sitters back to your side, you'll have a good chance at reversing the spread of the rot."
It wasn't exactly a terrible imposition; in fact, it made a lot of sense. "Yeah, I can do that. Was there anything else I needed to know, or have you messed up my lunch hour enough already?"
She chuckled. "No, that's it for the time being. I'll let you know how it goes."
"I'd appreciate it. Thanks." I ended the call, then put my phone away.
"Well, that sounded fascinating," Cherie offered, quirking her eyebrows upward momentarily. "Problems with your public image?"
"Mmm." I finished peeling my banana. "And it's not just one person I can sneak up behind and beat the crap out of until they figure out where they went wrong."
"Ah, yes," Cherie intoned sagely. "I remember those days. They were fun."
I wrinkled my nose at her. "Fortunately, Dragon says she can help. But it looks like no more cash bounties for the time being. Or if I do take them, nothing political, and give the other guy a chance to walk away."
"Not that there's many cape bounties left behind that could really add to what you've already amassed." Cherie spread her hands. "And nobody but nobody is stupid enough to threaten Brockton Bay anymore. I'm pretty sure the bad guys don't even acknowledge its existence on the map."
"Which, you know, was always my business model." I took a bite out of the banana, chewed and swallowed. "It'd just be a lot easier without all the idiots."
Cherie saluted me with her juice box. "Ain't that the truth."
End of Part Seventy-Nine