System Supervillain, Chapter 72 (Patreon)

Chapter 72 – Interview

Maria Sandiego, the newest field reporter for Channel 5 News in Miami, was nervous. One look at her camerawoman, Zoe Barret, told her that she was, too. That much was only natural, really, given the situation. They were about to interview a supervillain, after all.

She was still in shock after the meeting where her producer had said that the supervillain Iceblade wanted to give an interview, and had requested her in particular. Why her? Why Miami? She was a new face, sure, and she was sure he counted on her being young and eager to make a name for herself. But there were plenty of young reporters out there, some of them who had better reach than she did. And Miami might be a major market, but it isn’t someplace one thought of when talking about ice-based supervillains. In fact, there was no evidence that Iceblade had come to Miami before in his entire career.

Still, that was neither here nor there. Her producer had agreed to the interview, obviously, because getting to score an exclusive interview with a figure like Iceblade was a major coup for a studio, and the reporter doing the interview. If she didn’t screw it up. It was the kind of interview that could launch her whole career! No pressure, right?

Which is why she and Zoe were now in the penthouse suite of the Four Seasons Miami, finishing the setup for the interview. Zoe was busy setting up her cameras and doing sound checks on the microphones, so that they could get several angles at once, and be sure of the sound quality. Meanwhile, she was putting the finishing touches on her makeup and checking her outfit to make sure everything was perfect.

“Ah, Miss Sandiego!” A woman’s voice surprised her. She turned around, to find two figures there. One was obviously Iceblade, but the other was a woman, and pressed very close to him. Wait, was this the rumored Web Mistress? Part of her wondered when they got in here, but there was no point asking that of someone who managed to slip into the US Capitol to assassinate a Senator during their speech.

“Um, yes? We’re just putting the finishing touches on as we get ready for the interview.”

The woman smiled. “Of course, but my brother wondered if you would like to have a bit of extra spice for this interview. While obviously we can’t show his entire face to the world, there are ways to do an interview without the mask, yes?”

“Zoe!” Maria called to get her camerawoman looped in directly. “What do you think? Mosaic, shadow, or behind the head?”

Zoe shook her head. “Not mosaic. We don’t have the setup to do that here, and police would definitely want to subpoena the unedited recordings. Shadow is possible, but we would definitely need to do a screen test before going live. It would also make any establishing shots of the two of you useless. Same with the behind the head. Either of those will look like one of those interviews with someone in Witness Protection.”

Maria looked over at the pair, who shared a look. No, she could see Iceblade’s jaw moving, slightly, under the mask. Subvocal communicators, then? That wasn’t exactly bleeding edge technology, but most groups didn’t use it, since it took some training to use properly, especially in stressful situations.

Iceblade turned back to her, and said, in a voice that caused her to tingle all over, “Well, then perhaps this will do?” From a pocket, he pulled out an old-style half-mask. It was a style that had fallen out of favor after the Second World War, when heroes had gone from costumed vigilantes to officially supported crime-fighters. But it would disguise the shape of his nose and eyes, maybe even hiding his ears, depending on how big it was, but would leave his jawline and mouth exposed. It would make for a much more visually distinctive interview, at least.

Maria looked over to Zoe, who nodded. Looking back at Iceblade, she smiled. “Yes, I think we can work with that. Especially if you planned to have your full costume on, other than that?”

The villain chuckled, and nodded. “That, or I could change into something more casual. A smoking jacket and trousers in the same colors, perhaps?”

Maria quickly looked around the room. It was neutral tones, though everything was expensive and luxurious-looking, as one might expect. A penthouse was expected to have parties, and no one wanted the furniture to overpower the look of what the hosts were wearing. Yes, that would work. “In that case, instead of the two chairs, perhaps a more intimate setting? The white couch, there, is close enough for a good two shot, and still wide enough that we can get good angles on each face. Right, Zoe?”

“Yeah, I can make that work, no problem,” the camerawoman nodded. “Uh, Iceblade, sir. Can I get you to go sit on the couch real quick with Maria? I need to see how the sight lines will be, so I can set up the different views.”

The villain nodded gamely. “Of course. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t let a professional go about her business. I know enough about shooting video to get by as a layman, but I know when to let a professional do their thing.”

They sat on the target sofa, and Zoe quickly called out a few instructions as she adjusted four different cameras, before looking back to a set of monitors, checking how the different angles looked. While they let the camerawoman do her thing, Maria decided to try and get a bit of a rapport going, or at least find out where the limits were going to be. “So, before we start, how would you like me to address you? I know that supers in general, and villains in particular, try to guard what privacy they have, so I don’t want to step over any lines.”

The villain chuckled, and she was sure that he was smiling behind his mask. “Ah, you can call me Iceblade. Unfortunately, my real name is rather distinctive, and I don’t want to do you the discourtesy of using a fake name, you understand. And how about you? Would you prefer Miss Sandiego, or Maria?”

Ooh, he was smooth! She could see why so many women had fallen for this man, if this was how he normally acted. “Whichever you like best, Iceblade. Unfortunately, we don’t have a set agenda for this interview, so I was planning on just starting with something current, and then seeing where the conversation ran from there. Are there any issues you want to keep away from?”

“Well, obviously I won’t discuss anything that might allow someone to locate my base, or things like that.”

“Understandable. But talking about the numerous heroines that you’ve had children with the last couple years?”

“Oh, certainly!” He laughed. “I’d be happy to talk about that. After all, I haven’t done anything I’m ashamed of, and the women are all supported, either through their own means or my own.”

“And the children?”

“I try to be as active in their lives as I can. However, with them being scattered around the world, that makes things difficult, obviously. But I do spend at least one day a week with them, and their mothers, to make sure that they all know my face, at least. Obviously, I’d prefer if everyone were all in one spot, together, so that I could see them all the time, but some of the girls wanted to stay in their homelands, even if they didn’t continue being state-sponsored heroines, and I wasn’t going to deny them that.”

Maria felt her eyes light up in anticipation. A supervillain human interest story was beyond rare! “Ooh, that angle will play well, I think. The supervillain dad, doing what he can for his kids? I’m definitely going to bring that up in the interview, so if you can expand on that, it’d be great.”

“That’s just fine. Though, if we go too far down that road, it may be best to decide what age rating you’re thinking for this interview? Like I said, I haven’t done anything that I’m ashamed of, and I don’t mind giving all the spicy details.”

“Zoe, what did the producer say?”

“Cursing is fine, we can edit that for broadcast. Uncensored version for the streaming sites. Same for sex talk. It isn’t getting broadcast during daytime TV, but the FCC will still jump on us if we go too far on air. We need enough PG-13 material for the broadcast version, but anything beyond that could be kept in the unedited, uncensored version they release to the streaming sites.”

I looked back at the villain, and he nodded. “I can work with that, fine.”

“Excellent! Then, in that case, are you finished, Zoe?”

“Yep, just need to finish setting the lights, but I don’t need you two here for that. If you want to change into the clothes you’ll wear for the interview, Mr. Iceblade, and then we’ll see if we need to put makeup on you while we wire you up.”

“Of course, of course.” The villain moved towards the master bedroom, along with Web Mistress. When the door closed behind them, Maria turned to her camerawoman excitedly. “This is going to make our careers, Zoe!”

“Hmph. I saw how he was eyeing us. More like he wants to see if he can get the both of us on maternity leave, like all those other women he’s slept with.”

“Fuck it, you saw him, didn’t you? Even if I wasn’t on the pill, it would be worth the risk, just to have a man like that work me out. But to get an exclusive with him, after the reports that he’s the one responsible for the Squadron Supreme getting wiped out? I’d gladly give him an all-access pass to my body, and yours, for that!”

“Fuck you, too, Maria,” Zoe laughed. “Though he must have some kind of magic going on, like people say, because I’m normally into gals like that Web Mistress, but even I was starting to squirm a bit when he talked to me.”

“You know, that’d be a good thing to ask him about. After all, he did shoot that video with those two Korean supers that disappeared from public life after it went up on the Korean filesharing sites. They were supposed to be super-hardcore lesbians, as in, actively repulsed by guys, but they were like putty in his hands the moment he touched them.”

“So, how many times did you watch that video?” Zoe smirked as she started moving around Maria, hooking up her body mic, so that, when Iceblade came out, they had one fewer thing to do before they got into the interview.

“Well, I had to do some thorough research, you know!”

“Sure, sure,” she laughed.

“Like you didn’t watch it, yourself!”

“Of course, I did! That was some quality amateur porn, there. Even after the shot was ruined by a naked guy, the ladies were delicious. Wouldn’t mind seeing further videos of them.”

“Fucking dyke.”

“Slut!”

The two friends laughed, and then got back into ‘work’ mode as the door to the bedroom opened. Maria considered it a win that her mouth kept shut, and she wasn’t drooling. There Iceblade was, now dressed in that half-mask, with his lower face visible, hair pulled back in a low ponytail. He wore a blue silk smoking jacket that matched the colors of his costume, with black pants. He looked like a playboy out of some men’s fantasy movie.

“Well, let me just get this mic on you,” Zoe said, breaking the silence. Even Zoe gasped as he opened the smoking jacket, revealing his bare chest underneath. By the time she had reached around to clip the battery pack to the back of his pants, and then run the wire up around to where the mic clipped on his lapel, and he had tied the jacket back, Maria was pretty certain that there wasn’t a dry pair of panties in the room, especially if she read the hungry look in Web Mistress’s eyes correctly.

Zoe recovered well, and moved back to look at the villain through the cameras. “All right, looks good under the lights. He has enough natural color that we shouldn’t need makeup for this.”

Maria took a breath to steady herself as she sat on the sofa, half-turned towards Iceblade, so that they could look at each other, but still present to the camera. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. Glancing over to Zoe, she saw the camerawoman hold up three fingers. Two. One. She pointed back at Maria.

“Hello, Miami, and all our viewers around the world. This is Maria Sandiego with Channel 5 News, and today we are fortunate enough to have the chance to interview one of the most enigmatic supers still active in this Post-System world, Iceblade!” She smiled, and turned to look at her guest. “So, Iceblade, how does one become a supervillain?”

The villain laughed, and it was like music to her ears. “Well, Maria, that’s different for everyone. As for me, well, I don’t want to get too much into specifics, since I know there are going to be law enforcement agents pouring over this for anything they can try and use against me, but you could say that I fell into it. Almost literally, actually. See, I first discovered my powers one winter, when I fell into a puddle, and the thing froze…”