Chapter 181 – New Beginnings
It was great to be back on Earth. I’d spent just about eight months on tearing down the Gel-Nak Empire, culminating in coordinating with other Local Administrators to undo the Ordering that the Gel-nak and their slave species had been forced into. Now, the Empire was shattered, there were no more Gel-nak, and several countries on Earth now had off-world colonies, connected by portals that allowed someone to move between worlds in an instant.
It felt like the beginning of a new age. Or, rather, the new age finally settling into place. The System turning on would have been the start of the new age, but things are rarely so cut and dry, especially when talking about civilizations. There’s no single date to point to, to signify when the so-called Dark Ages ended, but instead a general timeframe where conditions shifted into a new normal. Even when you had a civilization destroyed through war, where the end date was definite, you did not suddenly switch to a new civilization, even if the conquerors set up shop immediately. There was still a transition period.
Of course, I didn’t go straight back to work as a supervillain. Not that I was turning over a new leaf, or anything like that. No, I spent a couple months reconnecting with all the kids. The ones I’d had with the girls I took with me had all been staying with family, and we’d called and sent messages when we could, but it was still a long time away from them, and both their mothers and I were glad for the chance to reconnect. The kids enjoyed having their favorite ice machine back, too, amongst other things.
Then, there were the kids and my women in other parts of the world. Electra, the Tokyo Rangers, my Korean ladies… they all needed some attention, to let them know that I hadn’t forgotten about them. Amongst the British ladies I’d ‘captured’ during the Thraxl events, they had mostly settled back into their old lives, though Silver Cutlass was taking a break from villainy, since she was due to give birth in a couple months. Apparently, our little rendezvous was luckier than we expected.
She wasn’t the only one of my new ladies who was expecting, either. Mistress Midnight, Mindtaker, and Lucy Morningstar were all several months along in their pregnancies, as well. Much to Midnight’s chagrin and Lucy’s delight. Mindtaker, however, saw this as a chance for a new beginning, and was planning to retire from active villainy. She wasn’t hurting for money, after all, and using her mind control abilities in a subtler way would allow her to remain semi-active without throwing herself fully back into the lifestyle.
Thankfully, the kids, while old enough to feel my extended absence, were, mostly, old enough to understand why I was gone. At least in the general shape of things. They understood that mean aliens came to Earth, and threatened everyone, so their Daddy had to go and make sure they never did that again. Because otherwise, they and their Mommies would be in danger, and Daddy wouldn’t allow that.
Oris Darkscale, her mate, and her children all settled into quarters in the Mount Siple base the Guild maintained in Antarctica. They were officially hired on as security, both to deal with anyone foolish enough to attack a Guild base, and to keep the local wildlife in check. Unofficially, Oris was a consultant, working under the same terms as I had arranged, though she had the full neutrality clauses in her contract. She was a Local Administrator, after all, and would be able to report more in depth about situations than I could, without compromising different restrictions.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t just devote myself to catching up with family and friends. There were Administrator issues to handle, since changing all the Gel-nak prisoners into Gelnath, including the three variant types, caused a lot of problems. I was called in by the governments that had captured some of them to check and make sure that their new abilities weren’t going to cause trouble, or prove a health hazard to them. Well, technically I was contracted through the Guild to work with the different governments. Because governments directly consulting a supervillain was not something that would play well in public.
As expected, the lizards had changed into Gelnath, or one of the three subspecies. None of them had any superpowers, as far as the System determined them. Just the basic abilities for their species. However, with the Ordering undone, it was likely they would start developing them in a generation or two. Possibly even discovering Magic or other type abilities, as well. And, by that point, the lizards would have been either ‘rehabilitated’ or returned to their worlds, and would no longer be an issue.
NemesisSpark was happily basking in the admiration of the other AIs in the collective, since it had gotten the chance to work so closely with Web Mistress, and had obtained so much new data for the collective to go over. The fact that Web Mistress started attending their virtual meetings with it made Nemesis one of the central figures of the collective. The AIs saw Web Mistress as a possible bridge between the organic and synthetic, and several of them were already looking into ways that they might take on organic bodies either as a home for their consciousness, or as drones that they could pilot and gain new experiences with.
According to Web Mistress, those conversations were moving along some very interesting lines. She was participating mainly because the research ran along the same lines as trying to upload organic minds into digital forms. While she had no desire to shed her physical form, she knew that there would be plenty of people who would gladly pay a lot of money for digital immortality.
Of course, most of them would also be too stupid to realize the trap of being a digital entity with no training in how to defend themselves from all the dangers that exist in the digital world, or how powerless they might be if the device they live on is isolated from the internet and then unplugged. Would they die? Simply… stop for a while? The smart ones would wait until those questions, and the ones like them, were answered before taking the plunge. And the only way those questions would get answered was through the stupid becoming test subjects.
Suffice to say, I was not going to be signing up for that.
However, I certainly wasn’t willing to just remain idle, now that I was back. Besides my consulting, and ensuring all my women and our kids were happy and knew I was still going to be part of their lives, I did want to get back into the fun and games of being a supervillain. However, I was having trouble picking targets. No one had pissed me off, recently, so no targets of vengeance. I’d just gotten back from wrecking an interstellar empire, so none of the businesses on Earth really felt like a challenge worthy of my time. I wasn’t short on cash, so there was no financial need to jump back into things.
That was one of the problems of success. I’d gained enough power and secured my fortunes well enough that I didn’t have a real need for going out and doing dastardly deeds. I just wasn’t used to doing nothing, and I did not want my skills to get rusty. However, I also had a reputation and an image to uphold, which meant I needed to consider the kinds of jobs I took. It would cheapen my image if I robbed a local bank, or something so pedestrian.
Thankfully, sometimes when you are lacking inspiration, someone else reaches out and gives you that little boost you need. In this case, Electra was the one reaching out to me. Or, rather, the New York Knights as a whole. They had ‘concerns’ about things that had come to light during the Gel-Nak invasion, but they weren’t the kind of thing that superheroes, especially government-sponsored superheroes, could be seen investigating.
I looked at her as we sat in the living room of my lair, with the heroine perched in my lap. “So, why exactly are the Knights calling me for this, Electra? I mean, I get the idea that heroes can’t be seen going and checking things without a warrant or probable cause, but still, I know that Mechana is probably about to eat her own suit at the idea of getting my help for something.”
Electra giggled, and said, “Well, you’re not wrong. Mechana is definitely less than pleased that we’re asking you for help on this. The others are also ‘nonplussed’, you could say. However, Prohibition and Silver Knight agree that you are the best one to ask for this. You’re a villain, you’re powerful enough to pull it off, and you have a history of avoiding collateral where possible. As one of the ‘reasonable villains’, that makes you a far better choice than some of the other options.”
I nodded slowly. It made sense that those two were the ones who convinced the others. Prohibition was one of the types who preferred to shut down conflicts rather than escalate them, which fit her powerset nicely. Silver Knight, on the other hand, was a very logical, rational being. Unfortunately, that also meant that he completely glossed over emotional reactions, at times. Basically, you had the woman who could talk people down, and the man who brought all the facts. They probably came armed with a counseling session and a spreadsheet to disarm any objections and then explain why this was the best play.
“So, who is the target? I assume that you have more for me than just a nebulous concern?”
“Yes, Master. The concern is the Superhuman Defense Initiative. The invasion shook things up, as you know. The SDI’s South American Headquarters in Rio di Janeiro surrendered to the Brazilian government, turning over all their computers, files, and gear, while a facility that is suspected to have been the North American Headquarters was found collapsed and destroyed during the fighting in Houston. And those are just the bases that we know about. It is likely that the SDI had locations in Moscow and New Delhi, as well, though the destruction there makes it unlikely we will ever find proof. Then, there’s the political situation, with SDI’s desire to ‘cleanse’ mutants from the gene pool looking a lot like the Gel-Nak’s Ordering devices.”
I nodded my head, seeing where this was leading. “And a series of major setbacks like that is likely to cause those remaining in the organization to double down on the zealotry, and turn more towards plans with more direct outcomes, rather than waiting and manipulating things so that the eventual result is something they want. They need a win, to justify their existence, or they’re going to enter a cycle of contraction. And the SDI relies on legitimate funding for the core of its functions, as well as its air of legitimacy.”
“Exactly,” Electra said as she lay back against my chest. “Silver Knight has been going over the data, and is convinced that the SDI is going to be planning something. Some kind of direct action that can keep their supporters happy while they rebuild and redirect the public’s attention. The problem is, he doesn’t know what they are planning. Worse, he only has a general idea of where to go looking for things.”
“Well, that’s not the most terrible start to a job I’ve heard. Where is this ‘general idea’?”
“Silver Knight believes that, with their Houston facility exposed, the SDI has moved their North American headquarters to New York. Globalview Industries has purchased a major facility over in Syracuse. Globalview is one of the companies under one of the companies in the same portfolio as the companies that officially owned the Houston facility, as well as the insurance company that underwrote the facility. That is slim, I know, but it is a lead.
“Unfortunately, it is not enough of a lead to go to the police, or send any heroes in to check things out. There are a couple members of the Knights stationed in Syracuse, but they are not stealth types, and are nowhere near as powerful as you are, Master. And the local villains are more of the street-level type. Which is why Silver Knight suggested calling in you.”
“Well, that is certainly interesting. And Silver Knight knows that I do not work for free, right?”
“Of course. He’s offering to craft you one non-offensive item of your choosing, so long as it is within his abilities to invent and create. With the full technical resources at his disposal. The ‘prototype’ would be listed as stolen.”
I had to smile at that. Silver Knight knew the worth of his creations, and I had earned a reputation, before the System, of ‘acquiring’ new gear from a variety of sources, usually stealing from tech or magic-types. In fact, other than the costume I got from the Tailors, most of my kit was stolen, or won in the field. So, my ‘stealing’ something from his lab, especially something non-offensive? No one would think twice about that. Certainly, they wouldn’t suggest that Silver Knight was using ‘stolen’ tech to pay a supervillain.
“Excellent. You have the files, right? I’m sure Web Mistress would love to get started working on those, while I start working up what kind of item I want as payment.”