Magnetic Attraction 10 (Patreon)

I knew exactly who this guy was, and knowing exactly who and what kind of power he had, it was infuriating to smile along while he cheated himself to victory in golf. 

“Damn, Thomas. You are on a winning streak today,” I said out loud. 

Thomas grinned. “Oh, I had a lot of time to practice lately,” he replied casually. 

‘You mean you cheated with your power,’ I thought to myself. There was a reason why I was sure Thomas was using his power in this game of golf. When we met up to talk about business while playing golf, I threw him a bait: if he won this game of golf, then I would tell him a secret about Medhall that might get him to start investing in it more. Seeing as he should know about Kaiser’s civilian identity but not necessarily the internal happenings of Medhall Pharmaceutical and all of the shares that have been exchanged since I stepped into Brockton Bay, it was a good enough of a bait. 

Thomas was probably thinking on how best he should use whatever information he could pull from me, and considering that I intended to do nothing with my power until the end of this act, he wouldn’t get anything from me either. 

I’m sure that he tried to simulate me at least once if the wince at the very beginning of our match was any indication. Just because I wouldn’t use my power didn’t mean that I didn’t have a knife on me. Or a gun. Or the very golf club in my hand. Or that Thomas himself could miss far too often with his own pistol.

“So how are you liking our corner of New England?” he asked. “It’s quite the shithole, isn’t it?”

I snorted. “If you and my brother are adamant about remaining here, then it shouldn’t be too bad.” Here, I implied that I haven’t seen much of Brockton Bay when, in truth, it was very much the opposite. As Eisenfeld, I have been everywhere from the northern Trainyards to the Downtown Coast and then to the only in-city residential districts.Of course, not many spotted me because I spent 90% of my time flying high above the skylines for anyone to see me and usually flew in the dead of the night that I did not spend fucking away, but I have been everywhere. 

I smelled the stench of rot, saw the unchecked levels of violence, and felt the hopelessness of the people as their city sunk ever so slowly into depravity and lawlessness. 

It wasn’t at all like the “status quo” that Alan thought the state of the city to be.

And yet, I gave no shit about it. If someone wanted to rule over a cesspit of a city, then let them. It was their prerogative, after all. Coil - Thomas here - was one such individual.

But unlike the rest of them like Kaiser who supported an ideology that simply sickened me to the stomach with its stupidity, Coil was dangerous because I could not keep track of him all of the time. Max - Kaiser - considered me to be on his side, so he readily told me what he thought I needed to know.

Coil?

I wouldn’t know what hit me if I let him be.

It was my turn to hit.

I lined myself up with the ball and the target, calculated the distance, swung backward easily, and then rolled my torso rather than striking the golf ball using my arms. It was a little trick a lot of people didn’t get.

At the last second, I boosted the speed of my iron 7, and watched as the golf ball flew soar pass the first hundred yards, then hundred fifty, and finally land at two hundred fifteen-ish. I smirked after turning to Thomas.

He whistled. “Not bad,” he said genuinely. “Still won’t save you when we’re in the last hole of the game. You’re behind me by four.”

I chuckled. “Well, I don’t have time to practice, unlike someone.”

He smirked as if to confirm his superiority. “Well, it certainly speaks much about my success, doesn’t it?”

“Or your ability to harangue your secretary into doing your work.”

He seemed to consider that statement for a second and then burst out laughing. “Alright, I may be great at doing some delegation…” he said as if to admit something.

“Well, if you ever have to fire that secretary or manager of yours, then give me a call, yeah?”

He barked out a laugh. “No thanks. I intend to keep her all to myself.”

Probably talking about Tattletale, huh?

He walked up to the plate set his golf ball down where he had marked it previously. He straightened his back, brought out his Taylormade iron 6, and set the head of the club down right next to the ball.

There was a pause.

‘Is he simulating with his power right now?’

He paused for ten seconds before he shifted again and paused again. 

He’s been doing this every time it was his turn to hit the ball. 

‘Which means he is definitely using his power… and he doesn’t have any back-up.’

I did advertise my secret insider info as having some worth, so he must have been curious. He, of course, knew that I was Max’s little brother, which meant that I had to have some greater information as I spent a lot of time with Max and his legitimate business lately. 

I knew Coil was observant enough to keep such things tracked.

It was time. 

The thing about this arrangement of golf was that this course was very close to Downtown Coast. It actually sat right outside the city, which meant they didn’t pay any of the taxes properties within Brockton Bay city limit had to pay. In fact, this property didn’t exist in a city at all. 

And there were barren lands surrounding, hills and slopes, that no one wanted. 

They were the place where I hid a metallic replica of myself. It was, as far as the world was concerned, Eisenfeld with his signature hoodie and the ability to control metal. Of course, no one would suspect that the Eisenfeld in question was just a compressed iron puppet wearing clothes.

With a mental command, that replica of myself sprung to life. I had it fly towards us. 

“Thomas, you take forever.”

“Relax, Arthur. I’m just getting the feel of it.”

‘Feel of it, my ass.’

He took another two turns of simulation - if the next two ten second pauses were anything - but by that point, my puppet was in the air right above us.

I dropped it , shaping its form to that of a man jumping down from a great height. 

It landed only five yards from both of us, shaking the earth and cratering the concrete road it landed on.

Thomas jerked back as did I.

Then with a vocal box I had it installed, I spoke by typing in the words using my power to pull down the metallic keys.

“Coil, you have gone too far.”

Thomas jerked up. “W-Who?” he asked, faking it really well while looking at me.

“Thomas Calvert, otherwise known as Coil. You went too far.”

Thomas jerked back to the figure. 

“W-Wait-!” he shouted and then flinched. He must have tried to run with a simulation. I had qualms about killing by striking his back. “I have no idea what you are talking about!”

“You broke the Unwritten Rules, Coil. You collected identities of those I considered to be … friends.”

Then without any preamble, my Eisenfeld puppet pulled out an iron sand blade out of thin air (really, it was from the soft earth and nearby sand bunker) and jumped at Coil. Coil tried to pull out his pistol, but I made sure to dull his movement by weighing the pistol’s ferrous components down with my power. He screamed as my blade came down and sliced through his head from the top down.

I screamed too all the while I directed the puppet to dissipate the sword like a man finished with his job and then fly away.

I would have to tell Kaiser that I killed Coil because he knew of all of the Empire’s identity later. I knew that he knew that I was Eisenfeld anyway. 

I kept on screaming on purpose as the golf course security showed up. I “confessed” about how I couldn’t do anything while “some hoodied cape” killed his business associate. It just so happened that the final hole of the game was right next to a building with security camera that was facing just our direction when it normally would not be.

Job complete.

-VB-

About twelve hours later, the Downtown area surrounding Fortress Construction’s office building blew up.

I forgot about Coil’s security measure. Oops. Oh well, it wasn't like the Downtown area was close to where my house was.