The Bargainer 13 (Patreon)

The Bargainer
Interlude 13.1: Miss Militia 1

-VB-

Hannah thanked the Beast, a cape name that she still found odd, and left the man’s office.

She thought that she knew roughly what he was like, because he had trained her and the rest of the Wards for half a year. She thought when she came to meet him that he would be cruel, ruthless, demeaning, and even sexist.

Instead he offered her a cup of tea - “I think you’ll like jasmine tea.” - and asked her what she needed help with.

When she confronted him about his relationship with Jennifer…

He just laughed.

“Tell me, Hannah. Are you satisfied with what you have?”

She frowned. “How does that question relate to mine?”

“Because it is about why and how Jennifer came to see me so often. See, she wasn’t satisfied with what she had.”

“With … what?”

“Her powers.”

Her eyes widened.

Even though she was Jennifer’s friend, she hadn’t known about that. It … kind of hurt. More than that, she felt a little jealous. How did he get Jennifer’s trust so easily in half a year and why couldn’t Jennifer talk her inner turmoil with her?

It irked her.

But still, he was nice to her, so she left without prodding him for information too much.

She did, however, get one bit of information out of the visit.

Jennifer leaving the Protectorate was not about how she felt about its members but rather about its system.

As she left the PRT New York’s headquarter, the Beast’s words rung inside her head.

“She can now teleport from Maine to Florida. Why would she stick to one city?”

It was a valid question, and considering that Jennifer, in her cape persona Mouse Protector, wasn’t exactly calm, polite, or bureaucratically-minded, there was a high chance that her friend left the Protectorate… because it would involve too much paperwork.

And if that really was the case, could she convince Jennifer to rejoin the Protectorate? She could take this information to Legend and then ask to make a “mobile task force,” right?

… Something told her that it was unlikely to work.

At the very least, she should be thankful that Jennifer remained a Protectorate-affiliate independent hero. Hannah couldn’t imagine what kind of scandal if MP outright cut ties, even if it might not seem like that to her.

‘Wait, why am I the one visiting someone else for information on my friend like I’m some kind of a mother hen?’

-VB-

“Ah. I didn’t tell you?”

Hannah was about to blow when Jennifer asked that question.

They’ve been talking for the last thirty minutes, and the way Jennifer kept dismissing her concerns as trivial was really getting on her nerves.

“Tell me what?”

“I already cleared this with Legend!”

She nearly faceplanted into the table between them. “When?” she demanded.

“Like a month before I left? He didn’t tell you? Everyone else knew it.”

She blinked.

What?

And then it was Jennifer’s turn to feel like an idiot, because she obviously felt that and showed it by facepalming. “I forgot! You weren’t there for the after-training meet up!”

Hannah opened her lips to ask but Jennifer beat her to answering the question. “So like three weeks before we graduated, we were still doing the training, right? You remember the time when you got hit a little bit too hard in the stomach?”

And then Hannah remembered what she was talking about. “Jen, I flew half a kilometer,” she growled.

“I know! It was wicked!”

She slapped the irreverent friend. “I would have been dead if whatever the Beast did didn’t keep me safe from his own attacks!”

The aforementioned training session also had been at that point that Hannah realized exactly what separated regular heroes from the likes of the Beast and the Triumvirate: raw power.

Alexandria the Flying Brute. Eidolon the Unbeatable Trump. Legend the Flying Artillery. Beast the Monstrous Changer. Those were the unofficial titles people gave the four strongest heroes.

When she came to a stop after skidding on the ground for what felt like five seconds at high speeds, Hannah had been in shock and got hospitalized. Oh, she still came to train afterwards; a little training injury didn’t put her off from seeking the experience of the Beast. Apparently, that day had also been when MP leaving the Protectorate had been announced, which Hannah hadn’t known about until the very day of their graduation from the Wards.

“It’s supposed to be a message! I mean, yeah, I like how easily I can move around now that I don’t have to be in one city, but it’s telling all of the parents and other folks that if you want to join the Wards, you aren’t required to stick with the Protectorate.” She paused. “Of course, you will have to be a Protectorate-affiliate hero and continue to be a hero, but that’s give and take!”

“And you didn’t bother to tell me more?”

“I didn’t know you felt that strongly about it. I assumed someone told you, like Chevalier.”

Hannah closed her eyes with a sigh. Chevalier - Jonathan - got assigned to Philadelphia, and they came to an understanding that they couldn’t date anymore; long distance relationship didn’t work for either of them. It was something she told Beast because … she wasn’t sure. Her relationship with Chevalier had been a private thing, so why did she tell Beast about it?

Oh right, he already knew about it.

Perhaps they hadn’t been as private as they had hoped to be.

“He was busy going to Philadelphia. He knew about his move before the rest of us.”

“Well, gee. Didn’t know you two got cold that fast.”

She glared at Jennifer, who raised her hands in surrender. She huffed. “So what’s your thing with Beast?”

Jennifer giggled nervously. “Ah. I’m sleeping with him?”

“Why?”

“Eh. It kind of started because of that tantric ritual thing…”

Hannah understood now. “Is that how you got better, or rather, stronger?”

“Yup!” she chuckled. “I’ve got big bulging biceps now!” she grunted as she showed off her toned but not overly bulging bicep. “But then I realized… he’s nice? Like, he’s really nice.”

“Jordan was nice.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “And he is still a sexist, even if he tries not to be. I mean, points for him on that, but Alan is a much better-”

“Alan?”

Jennifer facepalmed. “Crap. Umm. That’s Beast’s first name. I didn’t tell you anything.”

“Right, right. You and your rapidfire blabbermouth didn’t say anything,” Hannah replied with a roll of her eyes. The identity remained safe because this was an isolated spot on the New York City’s dockside less than a block from the PRT New York Headquarters. Also, they weren’t in their costumes, which meant that there weren’t any cape-stalkers near them.

Jennifer grinned. “Yeah, well, see, Alan has this ridiculous…”

Hannah learned too much about her friend’s sex life and lost her appetite as well.

… But she would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about Alan.