System supervillain book.., p.1
System Supervillain: Book 3 - Axis Industries, page 1
System Supervillain
Book 3: Axis Industries
Prologue – Trade Chat
(Capes & Cowls Forum, General Chat)
Message of the Day: Remember, Capes & Cowls is ‘neutral ground’. Keep it civil, and if you try to track someone through our site, it will not end well for you.
Speedy, AngelEyes, Victory, HotStuff, Jester, Aegis, Stars, Emerald, Snowflake, MagicGurl, RedHot, Scholar, Turbo, DontYouWantMeBaby, KoolAidMan, SliceNDice, Destroyer, Inquisitor, Chummer, LuckyDice, GrimDark, DarkAngel, Chiller, MultiMe, Stepford, Dollmaker, Mindtaker, MrRoboto, TitaniumTits, Lolth, InfoGirl, ScoopGirl, HolyBlessing, and DonJuan are in the chat.
ScoopGirl: How is the cleanup in Imperial China going?
Victory: As well as it can. The damage to the capital was extensive. This ‘blood rain’, as the locals are calling it, was some kind of highly acidic magical attack. Everything within fourteen kilometers of the Imperial Palace looks as though it suffered fifty years of acid rain in a night.
HotStuff: Power is down throughout the area, since all above-ground power lines have melted. Traffic in and out of the area is difficult, due to roads and subway rails being compromised. Any civilian vehicles that were outdoors during the rain are damaged beyond repair. Even military vehicles are needing to have minor repairs done, mostly to their tires, antennas, and so on.
Victory: The search for survivors is finished. The mystics can detect no more life signs trapped in the rubble and sludge. Final casualty numbers? Two hundred and ten thousand wounded, at least six thousand missing or dead. That’s one percent of the total population of Beijing.
MultiMe: My gods! And this was all caused by one person?
Victory: That is correct. The new Emperor just announced it, but his father, the former Emperor, was assassinated by a former heroine during the Blood Rain.
Dollmaker: Controlled, or free-willed?
Victory: Free-willed, it seems. Though changed. Before, she was known as Moonchild, and had a costume of white and blue, with a red bow. Now, she apparently goes by Bloodmoon, and her costume is red and black, and she has black wings.
HolyBlessing: Moonchild? That was the heroine that had to quit because she got pregnant last year, right?
ScoopGirl: No, she had to quit because she was raped by Jinlong, and her powers came from her being a virgin. When she found out she was pregnant, the Emperor decreed that she would carry the child, to ensure Jinlong’s line endured. Jinlong did not receive any punishment for what he did.
Scholar: So, she found a new power source, and took out her vengeance upon the Emperor, not caring about collateral damage?
HotStuff: It appears so. They’re still looking for exactly what managed to power her up like that.
DontYouWantMeBaby: Speaking of Jinlong, didn’t he get killed earlier in the evening?
Victory: Yes, it appears to be a contract killing, also by Bloodmoon.
Chiller: She was Moonchild when she paid for the killing, and Bloodmoon after.
Scholar: Wait, do you have some information on her transformation?
Chiller: Of course, I do. I was there.
HotStuff: That does not surprise me.
Scholar: So, what happened?
Chiller: A ritual involving the heart of her rapist, the blood of her child, and me getting to enjoy her body. A nice way to finish off my little Asian vacation.
Stars: Vacation? You made several attacks in Japan, Korea, and China!
Chiller: No, I tested my abilities on the Tokyo Rangers, and then made it a working vacation to have some fun and pick up some extra beer money.
Destroyer: Hey, Chiller, who is the hottie you’re supposedly running with?
RedHot: Not me, I promise!
HotStuff: Did you enslave some poor girl again?
Chiller: Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy our time together, HotStuff.
Destroyer: Nah, it wasn’t any of the normal people seen with him. There were a couple cameras that caught him and some woman in costume together, outside a Yakuza boss’s house.
Lolth: How did you find out about that?
Destroyer: What, I can’t have contacts, and people I know?
Chiller: Well, I don’t see the harm in saying that I’ve taken on a partner. The System’s activation, and the changes it has brought about, mean that it is advantageous to have someone that can cover my weak points.
DarkAngel: You did not answer whether or not she was enslaved, though.
Chiller: I have not enslaved her, no. She is a willing partner.
Dollmaker: So, you have some form of actual enslavement or long-term mind control power? You should come have tea with Stepford, Mindtaker, and me sometime. We can compare notes.
Chiller: Hmm. I think that I would prefer some assurances before I met with two mind controllers in person. No offense, understand, but I have no desire to be on the other side of that power.
Stepford: We aren’t brutes like you who take everything we can. Some of us are far more selective.
InfoGirl: Your main gig is providing ‘mail order brides’ that just so happen to be people the ‘husband’ knows!
Stepford: Please. I provide a service, connecting lonely men with lovely women who have been specially prepared to be loving spouses and cater to their every whim.
InfoGirl: You mean they can be controlled by the app you developed and send to the husband’s phone.
Stepford: You say that like it is a bad thing.
Victory: It is. You are robbing those girls of their free will, and condemning them to a life of servitude!
Lolth: I will say that the coding on the app you made is impressive. The firewalls, however, on the control devices? Not so much.
ScoopGirl: Wait, you’re telling me that these ‘Stepford Wives’ can be hacked?
Lolth: Yes, fairly easily, too. All the thought was given to control, and putting in a few safeguards to ensure that they could not be turned against him directly. However, the ability to alter their memories and mood via the app means that they are vulnerable to hacking.
HotStuff: Wait. Even Iceblade didn’t change memories! Sure, I ended up thinking everything was my idea, until someone snapped me out of it, but he didn’t actually change my memories of what happened!
Lolth: Oh, I’m afraid that Stepford’s system does worse than that. It can change ALL the subject’s memories, erasing who they were completely. And permanently.
Stepford: And how would you know any of this, if it were true?
Lolth: Because I’m a technopath, darling. That’s why they call me Web Mistress. You have no secrets from me, if you put them online.
Stepford: You bitch! You best watch your back!
Moderator message: Remember, keep it civil.
Stepford: Gah! Fine. I’ll be the bigger man. But you best hope I don’t catch you alone out in the real world.
Chiller: You should worry more about yourself, Stepford. Making threats against my partner is generally considered to be a career-ending decision.
RedHot: Oh, shit! That means your partner is a technopath? Fuck, nothing is safe!
Mindtaker: Hmm. An ice-based assassin and a technopath. And probably guarded against mental attacks, given that at least one of them has one, and knows the danger. That’s a powerful combination, there. I see what you mean by ‘covering your weaknesses’. I’ll have to recruit helpers, as well, it seems.
TitaniumTits: I do not like where this is going.
Chapter 25 – Considerations
“So, Brother, what are we going to do tonight?”
“The same thing we do every night, Sister. Try to take over the world!” I grinned as I quoted an old cartoon. The rodent mastermind in the show was always a good laugh, even if his plans were always too overcomplicated. But I knew villains in real life who were the same way. They let their intellect and ego get in the way of actually getting things done.
“So, what are you doing, really?” Crystal asked, as she leaned over the top of my chair. “Playing on the computer? I thought that was my thing?”
I chuckled. “Well, you do much more than ‘play’, sister. And, no, I’m not just playing. It has been a while since I’ve gone out and just enjoyed a night out. Now that we’ve got the ring set up so that I am not driven to screw any woman I touch, going out is less problematic than it was before.”
“Oh, I see. So, what were you planning on doing, then?”
“Well apparently, they are opening up a new exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the museum is hosting some kind of gala to celebrate. Lots of big-name movers and shakers are expected to attend. Could be a lot of fun.”
“Chicago, huh. Isn’t that where the Squadron Supreme is based? The same Squadron Supreme that flew over to Japan just because our activities there were reported, and then helped clean up the mess after the China job? The same ones who publicly said that they were going to do their best to hunt you down, and bring you to justice?”
“Yes, well, I’ve fought them before.”
“You told me yourself that you got lucky! And that was before the System! We both know that, without surprise attacks or being able to control the environment, things are a lot more dangerous. I analyzed the System Logs after our battle with the SDI goons. If they’d had a bit better luck, they could have taken us down. The System does not mess around, brother, and it doesn’t pick favorites! We need to prepare more before w
I leaned back in my chair, considering. “So, shore up some weaknesses? Make sure we’re better able to take hits without getting stunned?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “But also, compensating for things like Endurance. We are both capable of acting far more quickly than a normal human. However, that means we blow through our END faster, if we use any of our more powerful abilities. And neither of us has enough Recovery to easily get that back passively, meaning that we have to limit ourselves in a fight.”
“So, which do you recommend? Increasing our END, or our REC? Both would be best, obviously, but that’s likely more expensive than we can afford with our available XP, right?”
“Well, small boosts to CON and REC, with a more substantial boost to END would all be possible, if there were sufficiently limiting factors put on, and it was created as some form of device, rather than an innate part of ourselves. Ideally, something that could be worn in and out of costume. That way, we would be able to defend ourselves, even without the other nastiness.”
“That makes sense. Anything else we should do, before we take on heavy hitters like the Squadron?”
“Well, I was theory-crafting with the numbers, and our access levels. If we could spare a few points, I could make a fork of our System Administrator access allowing us to teleport anywhere between one and a million kilometers. That would take us to the moon, easily, as well as all the Earth-Moon LaGrange points.”
I nodded, considering. There wasn’t much reason to hit a LaGrange point if you weren’t parking a satellite there, and I didn’t exactly have much in the way of mobility in deep space, but it was helpful to know that I’d be able to teleport back to safety if I was on a deep space job and shit went sideways. “So, pretty much anywhere we’d need to go. What kind of cost did you manage to get that down to?”
“Well, that got down to two points, actually. Surprisingly cheap, I know, but you’d have to be careful using it, since it does not cancel out your relative velocity.”
“So, if I teleport to the moon, I’ll go flying off? Since I’m basically being held down by gravity as I go spinning through space right now?”
“No, that’s actual velocity, not relative velocity. So, if you took a header off a building like that Green Ranger did, and teleported before you hit the ground, you’d want to make sure you teleported someplace that would negate the damage, or at least give you time to slow yourself, since you’d still be falling at the same speed. Which, as the ranger showed us, is bad for your health.”
“Yes, that would be a rather unfortunate way to end my supervillain career. I’ve found I’m actually quite fond of having my brains inside my head, rather than spread across the pavement. So, other than making sure I’m either standing still, or have someplace to slow down, any other restrictions?”
Crystal just shrugged at me. “It will take a little time and concentration to pull off, so, like I said, using it in the middle of combat is not a good idea, unless you can break contact for a moment. And you wouldn’t be able to carry much with you, just what you can normally carry in your arms. So, out of costume, you could carry me, for instance, but the enhancers on your suit would let you carry a few people, or something big, like a bear.”
“Right, that doesn’t sound too bad. And all of that for just two points?”
Crystal blushed slightly, and nodded. “Well, I may have min-maxed things to an absurd degree, but you know how I enjoy playing with the numbers like that!”
“Hmm. So, we could arrange the teleports now, since we have XP built up from our recent Asian adventures. But what about the rest? Since you’re talking about something that we can wear in and out of costume, I’m guessing a ring, or something like that?”
“Yes, brother. If I combine my Inventor skill with my System access, I can create rings, or bracelets, or other things. Also, by using the System, I can ‘cheat’ things a bit, drawing from different situations. For instance, one of my theory-crafts involved a ring that was ‘powered up’ by tongue-kissing someone every six hours. Those kinds of requirements can be found in magic items, but I’m able to replicate them.”
“So, in other words, you’re going to cheat the System for all its worth until someone from higher comes around and tells us to stop it?” I laughed. “Perfect. So, what do we need to do?”
“Well, to make these devices work, and get the System Teleport, we would need to get two more XP, each. Which means we need to figure out a couple jobs. Preferably ones that don’t have us taking on the most powerful superteam in the world. Jinlong would have been a devastating fight if you hadn’t assassinated him the way you did. We can’t always count on that, you know.”
I sighed, and nodded. “Yes, I’m aware that I can’t always assassinate a foe by incapacitating them in a single hit and then finishing them off before they have a hope of responding. So, did you have anything in mind, or should I go looking on the job boards, and see if there is anything interesting out there?”
“Wellll…”
“All right, you clearly have something in mind. Out with it!”
“Well, there is a little something. You know that gypsy settlement out in Montana, the one you had scripts bought off the dark net checking on? The ones I took over supervising, since I’m a literal tech goddess?”
“Yeah, I remember them, oh tech goddess,” I smirked. “They’re good people. Helped me get my head on straight after I had my breakdown as a kid. Didn’t know which way was up or down, and they set me straight. Well, best they could with me being a supervillain in the making. Why, is someone messing with them?”
“As it just so happens, yes, someone is starting to mess with them, though they don’t know about it, yet. Industrial outfit is trying to get rights to the mountains there. They want to set up mining operations.”
“Mining? What for? There shouldn’t be anything valuable in those mountains.”
“That’s the thing. There aren’t any of the typical things mining companies are interested in. No gold, silver, platinum. Not even iron, at least not in lodes big enough to be worth the hassle.”
I frowned, leaning back in my chair. “Well, that has all kinds of red flags going up all over the place. If the company isn’t actually interested in mining, then what are they up to? And who is this concern, anyways?”
“The company is Axis Industries. As for what they’re up to? Well, while Axis does have a strong mining division, they’re better known for their biochemical science division. Their most famous little invention is a tailored pathogen, that can go after specific gene sequences. They got a lot of government funding for it. Officially, that was because it could be used as a cure for cancer. Infect someone with the tailored virus, especially at early stages, and the virus will go around killing the cancer, but leaving the normal cells alone. At least in theory. It hasn’t been completely worked out, yet.”
“Officially, huh? Let me guess, unofficially, that grant money traces back to Department of Defense slush funds, doesn’t it?”
“Aw, brother, it is almost like you’re a complete cynic! But, yes, you are correct. The money came out of a DoD slush fund, specifically, the ones for weapons research and development. The government is looking at the virus as a tailored bioweapon.”
My blood ran cold. “And, let me guess, Axis needs both a secure, isolated testing facility that won’t draw any attention, as well as test subjects to conduct trials on. While the Montana mountains aren’t exactly convenient as a place to put a facility, they would be nice and out of the way, so restricting access would be easy. And as for test subjects…”
