Magnetic Attraction 34 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Kejmur

Magnetic Attraction
Chapter 34

-VB-

Alan Barnes walked into his boss’s office thinking that he had another client to talk to. After all, important clients were always introduced directly by the boss to him because he was that fucking good at his job.

He did not expect to hear that Anders Solutions sent Eisenfeld to offer Davion & Martha partnership.

He also did not expect to hear that his daughter, Anne, had somehow irritated Arthur Anders.

“... And that’s all Eisenfeld came here for?” Alan asked Mr. Davion.

“Yes,” the man huffed and looked away to stare at the contract currently sitting on his desk. “He specifically told me that Davion & Martha will not find any issues with Anders Solutions even if I were to ignore the issue, but we won’t be getting that contract.”

Alan gulped.

Davion was a ruthless businessman before he was a lawyer. That contract would be worth at least half of the firm’s business if they could secure it. It was that important. To hear that it was contingent upon his daughter not bothering Mr. Anders alone?

He didn’t even know that Anne was pretending to be a journalist!

“No, the bigger problem is not the fact that she bothered Mr. Anders,” Davion interjected.

“Wait, how is that not the bigger problem? What other problems are there?”

“The bigger problem, Alan, is that she’s shoving her nose into cape business, visiting the houses and businesses of people known to hire capes.”

Alan felt his heart stutter. “You’re not going to imp-?”

“I’m not implying anything, boy,” he grunted. “No, what I fear is little Anne -” that was Davion’s nickname for Anne ever since he met her many years ago at firm’s welcome dinner. “- finding things she’s not supposed to, and whether she wants to or not, releasing that information to people who shouldn’t have them. Thinkers don’t care if you are willing to share. They know regardless, Alan.”

Alan felt his hands curl up into fists.

“Don’t think that I will fire you for not convincing her to stop. She’s an adult, so there’s only so much you can do,” Davion sighed. “No, what I fear is what happens if such an event occurs. What happens if the identities of the capes currently hired by Anders Solutions is released.”

He grimaced. “It won’t be pretty.”

“Everyone is calling that boy Triumvirate’s equal,” his boss shook his head. “What they forget is that Triumvirates are what they are today not just because of their versatility and power but for the fact that they have survived hundreds if not thousands of trials of ordeal and have yet to break. But even they have yet to face a trial such as full identity release. What happens then, Alan? What happens when an equal to the Triumvirate have their identity released and villains start crawling out of the woodworks to fight him?”

“Martial law.”

Though it was a rare occurrence even with the advent of the Endbringers and S-class threats like Nilbog, martial laws have been invoked before by state governors. The biggest example of this was Eagleton, where the Machine Army took over. The world watched as not just the Protectorate but the U.S. military was called upon. Everyone watched as an S-class threat fought against the might of the United States of America and won.

A single Triumvirate was an S-class threat onto themselves if they were a villain, and so if Eisenfeld was forced to fight for his life along with the lives of his teammates…

Martial law would be called.

Brockton Bay would burn.

There was a reason why once a cape reached a certain level of either notoriety or strength, everyone steered clear of them. Journalists did not go out of their way to research the identities of the Triumvirate, though many people have tried to, because they were afraid of the law. They didn’t because the law would break down and everyone around them would be doomed to suffer. Anyone caught trying the find the identities of certain capes, like the late Kaiser, simply disappeared.

Alan had been involved in one before.

He remembered as clear as day when Danny called him in for help. Allfather had found out that one of the Dockworkers had been trying to find out about his identity, and had nearly gone on a rampage. It was stopped because Danny personally and privately delivered the confirmed dockworker’s head to Allfather.

It was uncharacteristic of Danny, sure, but he was a different man from today. Danny back then had been far more pragmatic and even more ruthless in the protection of the union as charged to him by his dad. It probably made it easier for Danny that it wasn’t even a union worker but a temp.

Annette had really mellowed him out (Alan still had a bet with Zoe that Annette was a nymphomaniac; there was only so much energy a man can spend outside his house when he left it exhausted like he ran a marathon as Danny did for the first three years of his married life).

“I’ll… go and talk to Anne.”

“Good. I don’t want to see that girl dead, Alan,” he said with a deep and long sigh that seemed to rattle his bones. “I really don’t.”

Disaster was around every corner, and another one had reared its ugly head in Alan’s path.

God must hate him for breaking all of those families.