Nine-to-Five 031 (Patreon)

Workforce Development VI

~~~

Villain.

That was the first thought that ran through Disk’s mind upon laying eyes on the man who had dropped down in front of him. The black suit, the hard lines, the ominous green. It was hard to think of him as anything else.

His mentor, White Stripes, once told him judging people by their costumes was a bad habit of his. Of course, that had been in the days before the PR Department started doing its utmost best to have everyone dressed in primary colors. It was a testament to Sentinel’s popularity that he got away with his mostly black, always menacing suit.

Still, PR interference aside, the advice was a good one. There were plenty of vigilantes who never knew the hardships of having to argue several hours to keep some purple on their costumes and many villains who cared more about looking snazzy than they did about being menacing. Thespian, leader of the Circle, was one such person.

“Hello? Did you hear me over there?” The black knight shouted at him while pointing to where his ears would be. “You can’t pass. Is that okay?”

Disk snorted. Unlike the knight, who was knee-deep in the snow, Disk floated several feet above the ground using one of his trademark energy disks.

“As a matter of fact, it is not. I can’t imagine why you thought it would be.”

“Oh.” The knight looked down awkwardly. The gesture was completely out of place coming from someone dressed so menacingly. “To be honest, I had kind of hoped.”

“We have received several 911 calls from this area,” Disk said, his voice loud and clear. “I would appreciate it if you would let me pass through.”

“Oh, that? Nah, don’t worry about it. Everyone’s gonna be fine. Totally fine. We’re almost done over there.” He nodded to himself. “So yeah, why not wait here with me?”

Disk raised an eyebrow.

“We?”

“We,” the knight repeated, either not noticing or not caring he had given something away. Disk narrowed his eyes.

If this person was in a talking mood, why not take advantage of it?

“Are you related to Jack Frost in any way?” Disk asked. Port Stanley had enjoyed relative peace for years. Now two Exceeds suddenly showed up on the same day? That could not be a coincidence.

“Related?” He scratched his head. “Not really, I guess.”

“You guess? You don’t sound very confident.”

“Eh, it’s complicated, and…” The knight suddenly cringed. “Hey, no need to shout in my ear. That’s annoying.”

“I am not shouting.”

“Not you. I meant… Ah, there we go. I knew there had to be some way to shut that down.” The black knight raised his hands and stretched. “Yeah, that feels way better. Say, how about an autograph?”

The casual request threw him for a loop. “An autograph?”

The knight shrugged. “Why not? I’ve never gotten a hero’s autograph before. Not even that time I went to a signing event. The line was so long I never even got to enter the building before it was over. That was super lame.”

That settled it. The voice might be altered, but his speech and mannerisms made one thing very clear.

“You… are young, aren’t you?”

“What?” The knight jerked his whole body back. “No way! I’m totally ancient. Scout’s honor!”

“Ah, my mistake then.” His energy disk gently levitated him a few more feet up. “You know you can’t stop me, right? If I want to leave, I can just fly around you.”

If the calls had reported anything serious rather than just odd, Disk would have already done that. The only reason he stayed to talk to this man, boy, was because his gut was telling him to. However, he had already wasted enough time.

“That so?” The knight asked. “How about I do... This!”

The blast of green came straight at Disk before the knight had finished speaking. With but a thought, Disk summoned an energy disk in front of him to act as a shield. The green blast impacted it harmlessly.

“So cool…” The knight whispered. “Oh, and don’t worry. They’re in the stun setting, so they probably won’t do much even if they hit you.”

“Are you saying that to reassure me or to get me to lower my guard, then up the intensity of your blasts at the last second?”

The knight actually stopped to think about his answer. “Can it be the second one? It makes me sound smarter.”

Despite himself, Disk found himself smiling.

“Why are you doing this, kid?” He asked. “You don’t strike me as the villain type, so what’s so important about me not getting past this place?”

“Eh, I can’t tell you that, and what do you mean I don’t strike you as the villain type? I could totally be the villain type.”

“If you were, you’d be aiming at any of the people around us to force me to take one of your blasts. That’s what a villain would do.”

“Yeah, but if I did that, you’d start taking me seriously, and that’s no bueno.”

What?

“Sorry, it’s just....” The knight giggled. Actually giggled

His green eyes glowed.

“I probably shouldn’t be excited right now, but I’m really excited right now.”

~~~

What had happened to her life?

Nathaniel Robards was beaten. Amanda had done it. Ridiculous as it sounded in her head, she’d marched up to his home and, with the help of the Regum men stationed around his building, easily took down the man who had seemed so ominous during their first meeting. It all happened so quickly it didn’t feel real.

It hadn’t been.

In the blink of an eye, the situation had completely changed. No longer was she delivering well-deserved punishment unto Robards. He had summoned multiple bodies to push her away all of a sudden, and now…

Honestly, Amanda wasn’t sure what was going on anymore.

The snowplow that had been driving up the block came to an abrupt stop as she landed in front of it. People all around cried and pointed, but Amanda could care less about them right now. There was only one thing that commanded her attention.

Nathaniel Robards came down.

He wasn’t floating or flying, though she could forgive the panicking, pointing people on the street for thinking so with the way his body was seemingly suspended in the middle of the air. However, she knew better. Her suit’s sensors and the way the snow crunched told her all she needed to know.

Robards wasn’t floating. He was standing on top of dozens of bodies.

Before, he had summoned four or three bodies at a time. Despite being far stronger than a regular human, the copies had been relatively easy to deal with. The man seemingly had little idea of how to handle himself in a fight, while she somehow did for reasons she preferred not to dwell too much on. However, something had changed after he had injected himself. He had summoned so many bodies they had been enough to throw her off the roof through sheer mass.

“Did you see that? Did you see it?” The doctor’s voice came in through her helmet. He sounded so excited Amanda could imagine him jumping on the spot. Completely different from the caustic, irritated man she had interacted with so far. “You must retrieve that needle and its contents! It is of the highest priority, Tristan!”

Tristan.

The name had appeared in her mind when the armor was deployed. Amanda supposed that was her codename now, but she had no strong feelings about it. She knew Tim felt cheated that he didn’t get to pick his name. He’d made his feelings quite clear on that. Many kids spent their time in class dreaming about what their hero self would be like, and Amanda had no doubts Tim had been (and still was) one of those kids.

Amanda never had such desires. It didn’t even matter that Tristan wasn’t a girl’s name. It was as good a name as any.

What mattered was that she had been about to win!

On some level, she understood why the doctor wanted that fluid. Jack Frost had somehow increased his powers beyond what they believed possible, and now, right before their eyes, another Exceed had suddenly increased his powers by injecting himself with an unknown drug. Amanda could put two and two together as well as anyone.

She just didn’t care about it.

If the doctor thought she was going to hold back her punches to avoid breaking an ampule, he had another thing coming. With but a thought, Amanda increased the intensity of her blasts once more. The red of her suit glowed brighter as she aimed her blaster at Robards. The growing number of bodies around him meant lower settings wouldn’t get close to hitting their mark.

She also really wanted to hurt him, but that was neither here nor there.

Her visor glowed red. Robards no longer looked calm or dignified. She took perverse pleasure in knowing the growing swelling on the side of his face was caused by her. She was pretty sure she had knocked out a tooth or two, and Exceeds didn’t regenerate teeth. That was permanent damage. The old Exceed would surely do his best to repay it, but she was ready for him.

He turned around and fled.

To an outside observer, it would look like Robards was flying away. He was actually creating more bodies to push himself down the block, essentially creating a mountain of flesh down which to slide on. Clever, if not exactly dignified.

He was running away.

“Tristan!” the doctor yelled into her ear. “What are you doing? He’s-”

He was running away!

A sound she would have never believed herself capable of rose from her throat as she began to give chase. Red blasts fired from her palms, causing the people around her to scream as she blasted the snow away from her path to give chase.

Amanda was a blur as she ran. The doctor had told them the armor was supposed to be just protection, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like she was able to bring her abilities to a level she hadn’t been able to before. Robards had a head start, but she would catch up to him in no time

At least, she would have if the avalanche of bodies didn’t get in her way.

The many bodies Robards created fell upon her to secure his escape. Her cannon fired time after time, but it wasn’t enough. There were far too many bodies. Dozens of arms grabbed hold of her, trying to push her down, trying to bury her alive in full view of everyone.

“What are you waiting for?” She shouted into her helmet. Anger coursed through her body. Anger was good. Anger was great. Anger meant she wouldn't start panicking. “Shoot them.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Once upon a time, hearing Gerald’s voice so close, as though he were whispering in her ears, would have made her giggle and blush. Now, she can only focus on the man trying to flee. Even as his copies tried to push her head down, her gaze remained on his back.

“It won’t be a simple bullet this time,” Gerald continues. “We can’t see the bodies holding you down, so we’ll have to fire directly at you to free you.”

“I know!” She shouted, not even bothering to ask why they wouldn’t fire at Robards instead. He was a moving target surrounded by invisible obstacles. If they missed, they might end up hitting one of the buildings. “Fire!”

They did. The men from Regum positioned on the buildings around the block opened fire. They weren’t carrying just simple firearms but also larger (if less efficient, according to the doctor) versions of the blasters she had in her suit. The blasts struck right above her, blasting the copies out of the way.

It was the opening she needed. With a grunt, Amanda pushed the remaining copies off her and took off. She ran over a field of invisible bodies. They tried to stop her, but Amanda vaulted over them like she had never vaulted over anything in gym class. People pointed and shouted at the figure who, to them, was running in the air. She didn’t care.

She only had eyes for Robards.

~~~

AN

Sunday Morning instead of Sunday Night, but I'm going to assume no one minds that.