System Supervillain, Chapter 92 (Patreon)

It was pointed out to me that my math didn't math correctly last chapter. Edited it to fix. Now have a new chapter!

Chapter 92 – Unmasked

Stepford took a breath, and said, “Would it be possible to do two trips? So that I can get my staff out of here? Without them providing any resistance, or having weapons that could be illegal on site, my lawyers can hammer the heroes for the damage they’ll do.”

I glanced at Web Mistress, who nodded, once. Looking back to Stepford, I said, “We can do that.”

“Like hell I’d trust my life to you, even under Guild rules,” spat Hypnodomme. “Why should we go with you, instead of just getting out on our own?”

I looked over to her, and said, “Because part of this is your fault. You didn’t do a good enough background check on your latest crop of toys before snatching them up. Why not ask young Akim Moses what his real name is, and who his costumed name is.”

That brought Hypnodomme up short. Turning to the boy, she said, “Well? Answer the question, brat!”

“Yes, Mistress. I am Akim Dobias, known as Heavenly Champion while in costume.”

“WHAT?” Hypnodomme screeched. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“You did not ask, Mistress.”

“Anyway,” I said, clapping my hands for attention. “Even though she is the reason why the Sword of the Faith is coming all the way over from the Middle East, she is not the only one with enemies on the way. The Knights of the Order of St. Iacopo, Patriot, Inviolate, and the Denver Heralds are all coming out in force, and they’ll be here shortly. So, decisions need to be made right now.”

Party Girl was the first to speak. “My party zombies and me will go with you. No fun in tangling with that crowd. Holy weapons hurt like hell.”

The General nodded. “We will make a strategic retreat with you, as well. Under Guild rules, naturally.”

Mindtaker smiled, and said, “Same for us. I’m not sticking around against those odds.”

That started a chain reaction. Everyone quickly decided that now was not the time to get pissy, even though I could tell that Hypnodomme and Mistress Midnight were particularly displeased with things. Well, they never exactly made a secret about hating me, so having me rescue them from this situation had to be an uncomfortable feeling.

Maestro’s Acting check, 15-: 3d6 = 9 (Succeed by 6)

Iceblade’s modified INT check, 6-: 3d6 = 6 (Success)

But one person caught my eye. Maestro looked particularly annoyed. He was trying to cover it up, and doing a good job of it, but I noticed it all the same. Something to consider.

But that didn’t matter, right now. Stepford called the kitchen staff and security in, and Web Mistress took a few seconds to quickly pop back and forth between the digital world and this one, shuttling the entire crowd over in two groups. I made certain that Maestro and I were in the second group. Just in case.

The digital realm that Web Mistress deposited us in was one of the ones we used for combat training. The programmed ‘rules’ of the space were to be as true to life as possible. However, attacks that hit did not have any actual effect. Rather, ‘damage counters’ appeared, using the System as a guideline. So, if I stabbed someone with my sword, they would get ‘damage counters’ equal to the damage done, and possibly a ‘stunned’ effect, keeping them from moving temporarily, or an ‘unconscious’ or ‘killed’ effect, if the damage was great enough, immobilizing them until the room was reset.

The room itself was nothing to speak of, really. In its current state, it was a large metal cube, fifty meters on a side. Of course, since this was all a digital space, environments could be loaded in, allowing my pets and I to train in any conditions we liked. Honestly, the whole thing was an impressive bit of coding on Web Mistress’s part.

Of course, my sister wasn’t just going to leave it as an empty room for long. With a wave of her hand, she altered the environment, turning it into a copy of the room we had just escaped, down to the furnishings and everything. Of course, the food and drink at the buffet table were just digital recreations, rather than the real thing, but it was an impressive display nonetheless.

Stepford looked around, and whistled softly. “I’m no expert, but this is not like any VR game I’ve seen. Don’t tell me that you managed to recreate the room at my lodge from memory alone?”

Web Mistress smiled, and said, “Of course not, Stepford. While other spaces of your ski lodge would be more difficult to reproduce, the meeting hall we were in was closer to what digital designers would call stock assets. The tables and chairs are all of the same make, and mass-produced designs, as is typical for convention spaces. Even the decorations are commonly used designs, with just the wording needing to be filled in properly. And if you look closely, you’ll find that everything on the buffet table is a stock image, as well, since I don’t have the artistic talent of FX.”

Stepford nodded slowly. “Interesting. So, I’m assuming that you have already accessed the security system at my ski lodge, yes? Asking hackers not to hack things is like asking fish not to swim, after all.”

“Naturally,” Web Mistress nodded. “However, I took care to not alter or copy anything, or leave any access codes in your system. It was strictly ‘read only’ access.”

The mind controller laughed, though there was a dark tone to his voice. “That’s fine. If you still have access, perhaps you could bring up the cameras? I expect that there will be a bunch of angry superheroes intruding on the premises soon, and I would like to hear what they say. Perhaps we will learn who the traitor was.”

That caused a stir amongst the other villains. While Web Mistress brought up the camera feeds in ‘mid-air’, complete with audio, so that we could see the heroes while they approached, I kept an eye on Maestro. At the moment, he was my chief suspect.

“Well, I think we can safely rule out several people already,” I said, to draw everyone’s attention to me. “Naturally, Stepford wouldn’t call down a superhero attack on his own base of operations, so we can rule him out. Likewise, several of us are the likely prime targets of these heroes, so can be cleared, provisionally. The Sword of the Faith is coming for Hypnodomme, to rescue his younger brother and sidekick. The Knights of St. Iacopo are here for me, since I have Serafina as one of my slaves. Patriot is here for the General, and Inviolate is most definitely looking to put Dollmaker away.”

Stepford nodded once, seeing where I was going with this. “Indeed. While it is not inconceivable that a deal could be struck, we are the least likely parties to be doing that. What of everyone else, then? Are they all suspects?”

Hypnodomme grit her teeth, obviously displeased with having to go along with what Stepford and I were saying, but not willing to be contrary just for contrariness’s sake. “If we’re counting out those with direct ties to the heroes that were called in, then yes. Though some are more likely than others. I believe that we can rule out Party Girl and Mistress Midnight, since the Knights and Sword of the Faith are coming. Party Girl is an undead, and Mistress Midnight has demonic heritage. Both would be anathema to the ‘holy warrior’ types.”

“Very true,” the General nodded. “Whoever brought in the heroes has to be someone who can reasonably make a deal with them, in the first place. However, it would also be someone who can escape them, if they decide to double-cross the traitor.”

“Which means someone with access to abilities like the one which got us here, or teleportation of some sort,” Stepford added. “After all, anyone coming to bust up this party is not likely to go light on the protections from mental attacks.”

“Well, that makes for an easy enough list to narrow things down,” I said, smiling behind my mask. “After all, to my knowledge, the only person who hasn’t been tentatively cleared so far, and has the ability to get out of here without relying on mental magics, would be Maestro.”

“What? That’s insane!” Maestro yelled, acting indignant at the thought we would suspect him.

“Is it, though?” Mindtaker asked. “We all have done our research on each other, after all. Part of being in the same line of work. We all know you have that ability to go time-hopping. Even if the mysterious System Administrator locked travel to before the System turned on, you would just need to go, say, a couple decades in the future, get to a safe place, and then come back to this time. Works just the same as teleportation, but doesn’t get blocked by teleport disruptors.”

“More importantly,” Mistress Midnight said as she fixed a glare upon Maestro that would be the textbook example of ‘if looks could kill’, “while the party was being held under Guild rules, it was not a Guild event, so someone selling out the location wouldn’t even get in trouble with the Guild. And, if they escaped in the middle of a fight, no one would have thought twice about it.”

“Something’s happening,” called Brain Drain, looking at the camera feeds.

Indeed, something was happening. Fifty Knights of the Order, Patriot, Inviolate, Sword of the Faith, and the twelve members of the Denver Heralds were all converging on the ski lodge. At some point, I would have to find out who the members of the Heralds were, but Denver wasn’t really the kind of city that I did most of my work in, so I’d never needed to pay attention to them before. Especially since I was more of a global player at this point.

That was when the world exploded. Well, not literally, and not in the server where we were. But it was definitely a good thing that we’d gotten out of there, because a few dozen ranged attacks blasted through the roof of the meeting room we had vacated, absolutely wrecking the place. Stepford was looking at a full rebuild, from what I could see on the one camera in the room that survived the assault.

The Sword of the Faith descended upon his wings of golden light. The fifty Knights of the Order came after, on their mechanical wings, as did Inviolate, who carried Patriot until they were low enough that she could drop him. The Denver Heralds brought up the rear, in their flying attack vehicle.

One of them (Void, according to the popup Web Mistress added to the live feed) groaned as he looked at the devastation. “Damnit, you told us there were going to be a bunch of supervillains here. There’s nothing here except a potential lawsuit if we don’t find some probable cause!”

Stepford looked my way, and I just smiled. “I am quite certain Web Mistress has several active backups going, don’t worry.”

The Sword of the Faith roared in anger, and slashed his blade, unleashing a cone of golden light that obliterated one of the walls that was still standing. When he spoke, it was in a heavily accented English. “The musical heathen sent word, confirming the party, and all targets in attendance! They must have escaped!”

All eyes once more turned to Maestro, and he cursed. “Damn that zealot’s big mouth!” As he spoke, he whipped his hand to one side, as though scrolling through a music catalogue, and then touched something only he could see. Aaaaand… nothing happened. “What? Why didn’t it work?”

“Oh, dear, Maestro,” Web Mistress said with all the sweetness of a spider talking to a fly caught in her web, “did I forget to mention that this server is its own dimension, with its own rules? Mental attacks, dimension shifts, and other powers of that sort are restricted by administrator access only. Which means that if you want to use any of those powers, you’ll have to hack my system first, while I actively oppose you.”

The General cut off whatever Maestro was about to say by putting the business end of his handgun directly to the man’s skull. “Now, since the heroes went and told us who the traitor is, I guess the question now is what do we want to do with him?”