Chaotic Clusterfuck 30 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Definitely Not Dio

Chaotic Clusterfuck 

Chapter 30

-VB-

I stared at Miss Zinnia while silently tapping my fingers against each other. 

“That is a very dangerous statement,” I replied without changing my tone. “After all, I have already put up all of the element zero I salvaged on the auction. Keeping more of that stuff around will only get me raids from the federal government in the long run,” I added.

I was beginning to doubt if she was even from the Elite. 

The Elite may be numerous and filled to the brim various capes in their ranks, but someone capable of sussing something like that out from me? It could just be that someone didn’t believe what I said publicly, which was fair, but that wasn’t reason enough to start sending people out like this. 

Or was it? 

I could still be underestimating the value of eezo for the people on Earth Bet. Batarians - whether they were members of the Batarian Hegemony or simply pirates - held orbital control (to a degree). There was that fear of orbital bombardment.

Yet research and development for space exploration and defense lagged behind too many other legitimate and much more pressing concerns. 

I understood that but I also knew that having a few kilos of element zero was not going to change that status quo. Hell, it might not even be useful for R&D in the long run.

So why come trying to claw out every single grain of eezo from me, going so far as to suspect and request sale in such a forceful manner? 

Because this was forceful. 

“Very dangerous,” I repeated before leaning back. It was only then that I noticed how stiff she’d become. Oh? Was she scared of a few words? “Of course, nothing said here would mean anything to you,” I said quickly. “You are just the messenger, after all. Right? Messengers shouldn’t be hurt for just delivering the message.”

“Yes, of course,” she replied quickly. 

I mentally asked my clones in the treatment plant and around the city to send their ajins to scout out the area around me. 

“So I will reiterate. I put up for auction everything I salvaged,” I told her while meeting her eyes. 

Zinnia nodded swiftly. 

“Good. Now, what other business propositions does the Elite have with me?” 

She quickly reached into the briefcase she brought with me and brought out multiple tablets. 

“Uppercrust is very interested in some of the metamaterials that the xenotech may have had aside from element zero. He believes that many of their metamaterials were made in zero gravity, which we no longer have access to due to, well, the xenos.”

I nodded. Zero-gravity manufacturing definitely was something people didn’t have access to anymore. Of course, capes weren’t exactly willing to sit down to do a manufacturing job, assuming they could even find a cape with the right power and mindset. 

“I have some of those. In fact, we could go over to my warehouse and I could show you.”

Her eyes sparkled. “That would be wonderful, Mister Marris,” she smiled. 

Okay, let’s get down to business.

-VB-

My businesses, ventures, and auction all smoothly went along smoothly. 

No more issues cropped up at the warehouse or the treatment plant, my clones were now out at sea, and the auction completed, netting me a hefty six hundred fifty-five million dollars, after taxes. Apparently, when the world fell to shit, tax went down so I paid less in taxes. 

Those corrupt politicians and businessmen helped me for once in my life. 

What was not going smoothly was my lawsuit. 

What lawsuit? 

Lawsuit against the Protectorate for a whole litany of illegal actions, of course.

“What do you mean this case can’t be won?” I asked incredulously at my lawyer from one of New York City’s best law firms (or so my contacts have told me). 

Mister Joseph Loestar cleared his throat. 

The man looked less like a lawyer and more like a drill sergeant from hell. 

“It has a lot to do with the … legal leeway that the federal government gives the PRT.”

“Enough to excuse a warrantless incursion onto a private property and then an assault on an individual inside of it without calling for arrest?” I asked with a frown. 

“Not enough to justice any of that, no,” he replied. “But … well, you’re a man. You know that justice is not necessarily what people want and get.”

I gritted my teeth. Or rather, the clone meeting Mister Loestar gritted his teeth. 

At the same time, I had more ajins move into his office to spy on him. He may be working for PRT behind the scenes for all I knew. Or his boss was. Or his boss’s boss. 

“Is there anything we can get them for?” I asked. 

“The most we can get them for would be just for Hero Battery’s action. But the bigger problem is not you punching the Protectorate with the legal fist but them coming down on you for having so many parahuman employees.” He showed me something on his smartphone. “Mainly, the fact that you lack a license for that.”

I stared at him and then read the policy shown on the smartphone. It was a federal law and the other tabs had subsequent subpolicies of multiple agencies related to this that was available to the public. 

I tilted my head back and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I need a corporate license to hire parahuman bodyguards and security officers?! Since when was this a thing?!”