Magnetic Attraction 31 (Patreon)

Magnetic Attraction
Chapter 31

-VB-

“It has to be Purity.”

Anne glanced at Emma before she turned back to her homework. “Okay.”

Emma stared incredulously at her. “What do you mean ‘okay’?! He’s obviously a nazi!” she hissed.

“And the people he is arresting have no racial bias and skew for the area he patrols. He also saves more minority than whites,”  Anne countered without looking up. “You just don’t like him because he’s turning villains into heroes when they shouldn’t be heroes.”

“... Well, yeah!”

“But they are survivors.”

Emma grimaced. “Nazis aren’t survivors. They- they’re just people clinging to dead ideas.”

Sometimes, Anne wondered if that’s not what Emma was doing. She’s been clinging to that new friend of hers while completely ignoring Taylor. Oh, Emma said otherwise, but Anne wasn’t their parents. A simple talk with Taylor had been enough. What were mom and dad thinking, just letting impressionable Emma next to someone like that bloodthirsty girl?

She sighed as Emma stomped out of her room.

Sometimes, she wondered if it wasn’t a mistake to come back home, now that the Bay was safer than before. The main reason why she’d gone to dorm in her college, despite how expensive it was, was for the safety of a school outside of the bay provided. Brockton Bay, before Leviathan, was just … too dangerous.

Now, it wasn’t. New Wave might have been neutered in the latest tragedy to befall the bay, but there were now two other teams, one formerly villainous and another corporate.

Normally, people didn’t like corporate teams. The general trend of corporate teams was that of law-skirting almost villains or a corrupt megacorporation’s attempt at PR stunts. However, the corporate team, Anders Patrol Team, was backed by Anders Solutions, one of the most successful businesses headquartered in New York City. It was a very clean company, mostly because it was a small company with very tight control over its employees and managers. Some called Anders Solutions a “new age fascism” with how tightly they ran their ship, but no one could argue with the results, not when the CFO was an African American, the CEO was white, and half of the managers were Asian as well as being profitable and, well, scandal-free for the most part. Hell, dad really wanted to buy stocks of the company because of how dependable they were, but couldn’t because AS was not a publicly-traded company.

Now, they got their first scandal-worthy issue, and it had been in Brockton Bay. At the same time, they helped here in the bay. They didn’t keep their capes just to their businesses and property but loaned them out to the city to help with patrols. On top of that, AS somehow convinced the Undersiders to turn over to the good, though that was only rumors floating around in PHO right now.

‘Or probably,’ she thought to herself as she twirled her pen around. ‘It’s probably Eisenfeld who convinced them.’

Eisenfeld was the new name in town, and he was the guy who replaced Lung as the BAMF of Brockton Bay. Videos of him fighting the Endbringer on equal footing with the Triumvirate showed everyone that he wasn’t someone to mess with, and, let’s say, he liked to keep his hometown safe and clean, then who were the Undersiders to dispute it?

Slowly, she looked over her shoulders. There was no one in her room.

She walked out and looked around. There was no one in the hallway.

She walked over to Emma’s room, and her bitchy little sister was busy texting.

Mom and dad were gone.

She hurried back to her room and pulled out a board from underneath her bed. It was something she brought back from college, and it was her masterpiece.

Right at the center was Eisenfeld, and strings led from his picture and the pin to other parts. Everything from his name to his connections showed up as separate pins.

The biggest and thickest connection was between him and Anders Solutions. Why would Eisenfeld choose to work with Anders Solutions?

Her theory was that it was because of who Anders Solutions’ founder and CEO was: Arthur Anders. Not a lot of people knew it, but the man never hid the fact that he was the younger brother of Max Anders. The prodigal son of the Anders family, if she wanted to be dramatic about it. This tied to another one of her theories, the very first theory she’s had actually.

See, she knew that the Anders had to be involved with the Empire Eighty-Eight from its start to the end. Medhall Pharmaceutical had always been in the hands of an Anders, and suspiciously enough, Mr. Max Anders inherited his share of the big pharma after the death of his father, whose death was recorded within days of the death of Allfather. Even more suspiciously, Max Anders didn’t leave the city when Leviathan struck and died. Just like Kaiser. Both of their deaths were attributed to Leviathan, which she agreed with, not because Leviathan killed two among many but because Kaiser was Max Anders!

She also looked through public records, and she saw that Arthur Anders had returned to Brockton Bay roughly around the time Eisenfeld debutted. Not after but before.

Eisenfeld’s name was also northern European like he wasn’t even trying to hide the fact!

It was why Purity showing up as this “Sola” made too much sense in Anne’s mind; Empire Eighty-Eight had a schism! The two brothers fought over the succession of the empire, and Leviathan had made the choice for them! Arthur Anders wasn’t a man who liked scandals, though, so he went and made his own little team with his own agenda.

See, Arthur Anders was the black sheep. He didn’t care about the Empire, not really. He cared only about profit, and Brockton Bay was ripe for profit after Leviathan’s attack…!

She giggled.

Then she laughed as she put the board away.

Only she knew this! She’d solved the puzzle!

And it was going to be her little secret!

-VB-

A/N: Random Conspiracy Theorist Anne Barnes is on the scene!