Magnetic Attraction 28 (Patreon)

Fixed!

-VB-

Magnetic Attraction
Chapter 28

-VB-

The final death of Empire Eighty-Eight cleaned up not just the last ties my wives had to that toxic organization and its degenerate ideas but also, by sheer chance, helped to spur the rest of the heroes to move in and clean the city.

The city’s cape scene, which connected to so many other areas and fields, was in flux, and I stood in the position to take control of it.

But just because I could didn’t mean that I should.

What I needed to do differed from what I wanted to do. What I needed to do was to support the city so that it didn’t fall back down into its decrepit state. Continued poverty would push people back into crime, if not migration, and this needed to be stopped.

For that reason, I made a corporate hero team, yes, because I wanted to let capes know that here was a non-government body of capes like them. But more than making a corporate team, I reorganized some of my company assets, hired some people from within the city, and began a reconstruction effort.

The first of these reconstructions was actually not a reconstruction but an expansion of the local economy. The first new subsidiary company of Anders Solutions was Brockton Aquaculture. Scrapped metals taken to recyclers came out as platforms. Plastics also got recycled and came out as sealed barrels, which were tied to the undersides of these platforms. Tossed fabrics soon became ropes. All of these processes involved my second subsidiary here in Brockton Bay, Brockton Dockside Recyclers, and would have been impossible for a simple startup. After all, a metal shredder regularly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and an industrial-grade smelter sells for millions of dollars. A fabric shredder-reprocessor actually costs me one point nine million dollars. Most startups generally did not have that kind of total capital on hand.

Well, once we had the infrastructure necessary, what did we do with them?

We made an aquaculture farm. Aquaculture as an industry possessed none of the stringent regulations of a normal farm, mostly because no one cared enough for it. With limited paperwork and a lack of regulations, I didn’t even have to apply for a federal-level aquaculture license because it didn’t exist. I mean, I wasn’t fishing. I was farming, just doing it with something people regularly made connections to farming with. The state also didn’t have one, so the only people that I really had to talk to had been the mayor, who was just happy that some rich guy was back in his hometown, working to make more jobs for the city.

Hiring people to recycle the scraps of the city made jobs. Hiring people to work in the recyclers made jobs. Assembling the aquafarm made jobs.

All the while I worked to make the city better, my corporate team - with rebranded cape-wives(?) - and my unofficial ally in the Undersiders kept the unwanted criminals out of the Docks and the coast.

And within a month of my announcement of the E88’s fall and my declaration of a corporate team, there were five floating farms off the coast of Brockton Bay growing not just fish but oysters. The distance between the aquafarms and the city also helped keep it from any looters, thieves, and griefers.

Did I make money off of this venture?

Hell no.

The basic recycling infrastructures alone costed me almost ten million dollars. Recycling was a known net loss activity without government subsidies and tax breaks. I paid everyone more than the minimum wage with full benefits for each of the unskilled full-time employees, which further cut into my budget. In the first month of operations, I was negative twenty million dollars. Anders Solutions’ minority shareholders didn’t put up a fuss because I promised them long-term future profits and a share of a market no one had really stepped into. While wild oyster harvesting was a thing, aquaculture was not, and I was less affected by the whims of nature.

It was also at this time that the city’s latest troublemakers arrived.

-VB-

“The Return of the Trees!”

The headline was a cheesy copycat incapable of originality, and I wanted the editor of the Brockont Gazette found and hung.

“You are seriously upset over a headline?” Jessica asked. Seated next to me at the table, she glanced over at the news shown on the TV for everyone at the table to see.

Even Theo was here.

Our breakfast today consisted of oyster sauce and garlic sauce stir-fried beef with broccoli and zucchini, clam chowder, soft milk bread slices, and an assortment of condiments to go with the bread slices. As a whole, our breakfast was on a heavy side, but the current time was also six-thirty a.m.

Yes, we were up early, because wealth did not equate to laziness. To maintain wealth, one had to be busy fighting against tax, inflation, scammers, incompetent businesses, local politics, and more. This was just to keep my own money as it is. To make more money, I had to go beyond that, and what was revitalizing a city if not making money, just not completely for myself?

One of the reasons why I was up already was the “team meeting.” Since I wanted to have not just my women but also the Undersiders together for the planning before I went and focused on Brockton Aquaculture today.

“They made it seem like Barrow is here to stay.”

“Aren’t they?” Kayden asked. “Fighting them, from what I heard, is not easy. Never mind the fact that they cause overgrowth everywhere..”

“Barrow takes young women away. I intend to keep all of us out of Barrow's way. This is why I will have all of our focus on patrolling only the Docks and coastal Downtown.” They were the areas of our operation.

“Wouldn’t that be like abandoning the Commercial zone?” Theo asked. He knew who I was. It was hard not to when all of the capes who left the Empire stayed with me.

“It would be if I don’t ‘negotiate’ with the local Protectorate and PRT to have them take over the patrol there.”

Not that we did any patrolling. Despite calling ourselves a corporate team, the truth of the matter was that we were a morally gray version of a masked New Wave. The only one patrolling was me and Kayden, and even then, we stuck to areas where my business had a strong hand in. For me, this was the coastal Docks where all of my subsidiaries had their infrastructure and the Downtown coasts, where we lived. For Kayden, it was Downtown area where Medhall was. This was more for Theo’s sake than hers.

“What are you going to do, then?” Nessa asked me.

“I’ll ‘begrudgingly’ agree,” I air-quoted. “To take over patrolling the Trainyards and the Docks, and ask them to take care of the rest. With the biggest gangs and their capes gone, they should be able to focus on whatever is left and new.”

And that was that.

Or so I thought.

Some two hours after breakfast and during a phone call meeting with the Undersiders, I got a very different message.

“{What?! No! I’m not just going to stay by and let the Teeth run over the people!}”

To my surprise, my sister/employee/secretary Jessica (it’s a hassle having two Jessica’s close to me) had not managed to completely control Taylor.

“{Skitt-!}” I assumed that the baritone male voice was Grue.

“{I’m amenable to alterations,}” Jessica hummed. “{We are trying to show that the Undersiders are not villains anymore, but outright avoiding confrontation with the Teeth is not good. It makes us look like cowards.}”

“Better cowards than enslaved by a pedophile,” I snapped. 

“{She has a wide area of effect,}” she dismissed my concern. “{In fact, she doesn’t have to directly fight the Teeth. She is a Master, after all, and I, personally, think it’s time she learns how to fight like one.}”

I let out a sigh. “Fine. Have it your way. But you will be helping us, yes?”

“{Of course~! Just don’t forget to keep us fed and work on Grue’s situation.}”

“Don’t worry about it.”

And the call ended, but I couldn’t help but feel that Skitter might become a problem.