Broker

Chapter 37

“Presents?” Firestorm asked, an obvious look of confusion on his face. The others looked equally confused, clearly they didn’t remember the conversation they’d had the night before the Senate Hearing, that was okay as far as Sonya was concerned. It was a pretty rough day they’d gone through after that. 

Sonya put her hands on her hips and threw her head back in a cocky laugh, “Ho ho ho! You didn’t think I would let you guys go to the Hero Day licensing without something nice to wear, did you? I’m planning on investing in you four after all!” She said and pat the packages, pulling the first one off the top and glancing at the sticky note with the chalice doodled on it. It had Firestorm’s name on it. She handed the box over to him and he looked down at it with furrowed brows.

“Something to wear…?” He murmured and opened the box. His eyes went wide and the others hurried over to look inside. There was a carefully folded form-fitting hero suit, like many in comics and and media it was designed to fit the entire body as one piece, boots and all. He examined it carefully, the off-red design had orange lines on the shoulders that formed sweeping patterned pauldrons. There was even a cowl to conceal his face while letting his hair come out the top. He rubbed the material between his fingers. “It’s… light.”

“Monster skin treated by a patented process,” Sonya said cutely with her finger to her nose and a small wink, “This one has been designed to be utterly fireproof up to the temperatures measured at one of your last fights. This outfit should be able to handle the big stuff you throw out and is quite bulletproof.”

He looked down at the suit again, sweat beading on his brow, “Woah…”

“It’s only the prototype, we’re working on something better but that all depends on you!” Sonya said with a grin and leaned back against the desk.

He looked up at her and met her eyes, “What do you mean?”

“Like I said, I want to invest in you four,” Sonya said, spreading her arms wide to gesture to the four of them, “By that, I mean I want to sponsor you.”

“Sponsor us?” Bandit asked, “What, like a racecar driver?” He asked incredulously.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Sonya said with a wink and a grin, drawing a startled look from Bandit who looked at the others in even greater confusion. “I’m a businesswoman, young heroes, and while I have a vested interest in saving humanity I also need money to keep doing business and making the tools you need to succeed,” She said with a small chuckle, “I intend to create commercial items using the technology derived from the materials we gain from monsters,” She explained, “And what better way to advertise my business than by having heroes use my products and represent me?”

Firestorm frowned and opened his mouth but Bluestar cut him off by stepping forward, “So you aren’t planning on giving us orders or anything, you just want us to do our job well and make you look good. In exchange we get the best gear without even having to pay for it.”

I really like this girl, Sonya grinned, “I knew you’d make a good guildmaster.”

They looked amongst themselves but Lifesaver was the first to speak up, “I’m in.”

It didn’t take long for the other three to follow suit, but Firestorm still looked a little uneasy. He rubbed his neck and looked at Sonya, “Did you… want to shake on it?” He said carefully.

This boy, saying a little too much isn’t he? I should have been more clear on the terms of our last deal, that was my mistake. Maybe I should exert more control over him, I don’t want him piecing together my alter ego. She glanced at the others and measured their reactions, none of them seemed curious, more just a little confused about his rather direct question. Sonya held up her hands and shook her head, “I think a paper contract will work just fine, unless you want to,” She said with a laugh.

He let out a sigh of relief, Tch, what a shitty poker face, she grumbled.

“Let’s have a look at it,” He said brightly, his eyes sparkling with unbridled faith and trust. 

She wanted to groan, He is so simple it hurts.

“We’ll hash out the details verbally for now,” Sonya said, “I want to write up the contract based on what we talk about,” She said and nodded to the chairs in front of her desk, “Let’s talk.”

They nodded and walked over as she turned away, walking past the other boxes. She kept her expression as controlled as possible, Now it’s time for an experiment. If this works, I’ll need to do some hiring.

–

Beyol crouched on top of the building, peering over the edge. His binoculars were trained on the side of the building. He took a bite of jerky and frowned, he’d been sitting here for hours with no sign of his target. He lowered the binoculars and looked out over the facility. There were dozens of drones moving in the air, all of them carefully watching every angle of approach. Darkness would help him but it wouldn’t be perfect. The numbers of guards weren’t terrible but it was still a bit on the challenging side if he was being honest with himself.

His expression tensed, If I were still a normal human, that is.

Movement and a flash of color caught his attention and he brought his binoculars back up, peering down at the entrance. The first to step out was a man in a red jumpsuit of some kind, he looked like he was pulled straight from a comic book. The next was a woman in a blue and black gown that seemed to be embedded with jewels he’d never seen before in his life. After her was a youth with a hood pulled close over his head and a dark mask on his face, there was some sort of device attached to his wrist. The next two wore all white, one was a man in a long coat and what could only be a plague doctor’s mask. Tacky, he thought before turning his attention to the last person.

There you are… 

Sonya Chernovna stepped out of the building and shortly after her, her maid stepped out as well. I’m guessing those four are heroes given their ridiculous costumes, He thought. He watched them all get into a limousine, joined by a pair of armed guards and a suit-wearing driver. It was quite the detail around Sonya. Now clearly isn’t the time, he groused and stood up, turning around and freezing in place. What?

Behind him stood a man in a fitted suit and sunglasses, he was huge, at least a head and a half taller than Beyol himself. More notable was the shark tattoo on his neck. He looked like he was grinding something together inside of his right hand, it sounded like rocks.

“One of Shark’s men,” Beyol growled.

“You must be the hitman who killed my boys,” The man grunted, “I’m Trigger.”

“Don’t care,” Beyol said, “Get out of my way.”

“No can do, the boss is pretty pissed about you going around killing people on his turf, kid,” Trigger said and cracked a smile, “I wonder what kind of reward I’ll get for bringing him your head.”

Beyol cut an opening and drew blood with a quick movement, silver flashing through the air. A trio of knives hurtled across the distance in an instant. Trigger grinned and dropped low, throwing out his right hand and flicking out one of the pebbles he was holding. It hurtled across the distance at terrible speed. Beyol clicked his tongue and darted to the right, rolling out of the way at the bullet like object. 

BOOM!

The pebble exploded just a few feet behind Beyol, sending him hurtling forward. He tucked and rolled, grimacing as he got back to his feet and began to race towards the edge of the building overlooking the next rooftop. He’d have to jump the gap to get away from this bastard.

BOOM!

Another blast went off ahead of him, he slid to a stop and turned to look at Trigger who was sneering at him. Beyol frowned, This guy is way more powerful than the last group, they were his men, huh? A lieutenant then. Beyol’s eye twitched, First small fries, than the next stage up, this Shark asshole is taking my measure! Shouts rang out down below and a sudden chill raced up Beyol’s spine. Worse, he sent the noisiest guy he could think of and started a fight in broad daylight! The look on Beyols face must have spoken volumes, because Trigger grinned at him.

“You’re quick on the uptake, ain’tcha?” Trigger laughed.

“You’re not worried about being caught?” Beyol asked, his metal blood reforming behind the guy and rising up as knives again. More seeped out of his wound on his wrist and began to spread thinly across his skin.

Trigger shrugged, “That’s an expected possible outcome that we’ve planned for.”

He wants to get caught? Why? What the hell are these villains thinking? No, it doesn’t matter, this just means the only thing he has to lose is his life and these guys are fanatics. The worst kind of opponents. No need to hold back then.

The metal spread down to Beyol’s fingertips and turned into claws, he swiped once, drawing them across his own chest in brutal arcs as the knives darted in from behind Trigger. Trigger grunted, one of them hitting before he realized what was happening. Blood poured from Beyol’s chest and was immediately replaced by his heart. His steel blood had come with a built in regenerative feature that replenished his blood as long as he had excess stamina. The result; silver blood running across his skin and clothes until a suit of gleaming armor formed.

It’s not stealthy, but it does its job! He thought as he darted forward, claws outstretched as the three daggers zipped around in the air like wasps stabbing and slicing at Trigger. Trigger sneered and swatted one away only for it to explode a moment later, sending a shockwave out that would have knocked Beyol off his feet if he wasn’t in his armor and already gaining momentum. The explosive force is based on the mass of the object? Noted.

He lunged, darting in low for a moment before kicking off the ground and going high. Trigger swatted his hands down towards the ground just as Beyol gouged four lines across his shoulder with his claws. Trigger grunted and spun, trying to land a punch but Beyol threw his weight into his momentum using his telekinetic control over the metal on his body. He missed it by a hair, landing and skidding before darting back at Trigger. He can only cause explosions with his hands. This should be simple enough then.

More daggers appeared in his hands as one lodged itself in Trigger’s shoulder. Trigger grunted and grabbed the weapon, snarling and throwing it at Beyol. Beyol threw himself to the right and continued around towards Trigger’s back. Got you!

Just as Beyol lunged to finish the man off by skewering his throat, sirens approached followed by a sudden burst of blackish-gray mist at Trigger’s feet. It wrapped around the big man like a cocoon before being abruptly pulled away towards one of the other buildings. Beyol’s eyes bulged, There were two?! He snarled and turned in the direction that the cocoon had gone. There, across the gap, Trigger was standing with his middle finger raised before hurrying off with another man next to him.

It would have been an easy fight if… no, no excuses, I’ve been lazy. He drew his blood back into his body and felt a moment of dysphoria as an excessive amount of blood entered his system. He grunted and spat, pulling the excess out as a sword and stabbing it into the ground with an irritated snarl. For now, I need to get out of here. After I’m done with that Chernovna woman, I’m coming for you Shark.

–

Feng Hyunh strode down the hall away from the latest corpse her fiance had left behind. This was the third one recently and it was beginning to become a problem. He was too unstable, how on earth had she been paired off with this man? Even worse, she still kind of liked him. She hated the fact that marrying him was the only path to power she had outside of striking out on her own, the Da Mau was not going to tolerate having a Matriarch with their backwards thinking. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, If I do nothing, I’ll end up dead one of these days. His powers are growing every day.

She glanced down at her hands and let the amethyst light of her own abilities twirl around her fingertips, It’s an option… I suppose, but who knows what effect it’ll have? I’ve only tested it on animals so far, they aren’t intelligent enough to demonstrate any real personality change. If it’s too obvious I’ll be figured out.

A crash rung out a few doors down and she stopped in place, frowning at the door where a few sparks of electricity danced around the handles. Her eyes narrowed, I don’t think I have a choice, do I? One of these days he’s going to blow a city block or something, that would be inconvenient for me.

She sighed, He’s on guard right now, I can’t do it now. But soon I’ll have an opening, She thought as she approached the door and came to a stop.

“Duang, darling, is something wrong?” She called through the door.

There was a moments pause before the door opened and he stood over her, looking down at her with fury in his eyes. Sparks were dancing off of his pupils and there was even electricity in his hair. He was breathing hard as he searched her face, it was like he couldn’t figure out who she was for a moment. She nearly took a step back before he relaxed and let out a sigh, “It’s nothing… just blowing off some steam,” He clipped and pushed past her, “I’m going to bed.”

She watched him go before glancing into the ruined room he’d left behind. It needs to be soon.