Risk It All: Old Debts (ch. 41) (Patreon)

The behind the scenes stuff for PR releases was beyond complicated, I realized as I was handed a stack of notecards that had listed questions on them. On the back of the note cards were the answers that I was supposed to give. The makeup department was fussing over me, or, rather, they were gushing.

"What do you use for your hair? It's so silky," one remarked while another lightly dusted foundation on my cheeks. "Your pores are so small -- what do you use to exfoliate?" I don't think that they were satisfied with the answer of I didn't use any product at all. Partly because this was their profession and partly out of jealousy.

I sat in a chair that reminded me of a barbershop, slightly tilted back but not enough so that I couldn't look into the mirror. Zatanna was next to me, watching the 'touch up' being done to me with amusement dancing in her eyes. She was inflicting this upon me. And everyone else. She simply spoke a spell to apply her own makeup -- eyeshadow, eyeliner, foundations, lipstick and whatever else that was thrown on. On the other side of me, Conner was suffering a similar fate, but he was putting up far more resistance.

Wally was doing his damndest to flirt with the makeup artists even though they were only touching up the bottom half of his face and his hair. They seemed more amused by it than anything. Kaldur was enduring the makeup stoically, but at this point I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't a fan of it. Artemis wasn't much better, but I think she seemed pleased with the results as they took shape.

"Press releases are usually pretty planned out and controlled. Especially one like this. The reporters would have been given a similar list of questions to ask about. Occasionally, you'll get an oddball reporter that goes off script, but most won't because it's a really good way to get blacklisted," Zatanna informed me, sounding right at home with the process. I guess she would be since she was involved in promotional material for her family's magic show.

That seemed pretty wild to me, to be honest. I always suspected that there was some level of script to stuff like a PR event, but I had no idea that the script was so involved that word for word questions were issued to be asked.

"Unless you're Lois Lane," Conner spoke up, squinting at the mirror as make-up was being applied to him and his hair was being styled… probably for the first time. Probably for the last time too based on the look of things.

Zatanna considered the point before inclining her head, "Unless you're Lois Lane, but she made her name by investigative reporting. She just uses PR events for dramatic accusations. Invited or not. I think she's here, but she won't be gunning for us like she does with Lex Luthor."

I took the time to flip through the expected questions. They were pretty basic, truth be told. When did the team form? What did the team hope to accomplish? What did we stand for? Some of the written answers were outright lies to cover up the fact that we were a black ops team originally, but they weren't outrageous. I think they were penned by Batman because they made use of dates and events to help solidify that we were playing around with the idea of being a team beforehand and after the disaster, we decided to be public about it.

My makeup was fairly light. I was already handsome thanks to my Charisma stat, but the makeup bumped me up a full number when the artists stepped away. Zatanna grabbed my hand and gave it a small squeeze, "Are you nervous?" She asked me, and I… honestly had no idea.

Things were going to change after this. Change in ways that I couldn't really be certain about. And while that did make me a bit nervous, at the same time, it was overshadowed by the prospect of how much Prestige I was about to make. I was decently powerful with less than a million prestige invested into myself. By the time this press conference was over, everyone left in the world would know the name Ren Song. My rank would increase dramatically and a lot of options would become available.

It was too early to say if undoing the disaster was a possibility, but… it was a possibility.

"A little," I decided to answer, squeezing her hand back. Zatanna flashed me a smile before planting a kiss on my cheek, smudging her makeup ever so slightly, along with mine. Given that she didn't undo it, I could only assume that it was intentional.

"Five minutes!" Someone shouted a warning, giving us a heads up as the final final touches were placed on the lot of us. I got out of my chair to look at the team that was gathered up. All of us were dressed in our costumes -- Superboy with his blue jeans and black t-shirt, but one without his signature shielded S on his chest. Wally dressed in his yellow and red costume, Zatanna in her magic show costume, and Kaldur in his Aqualad suit. Megan was dressed after Martian Manhunter in a black bodysuit with a red X and a dark blue cloak. While I was dressed as Koi, just without a mask on the bottom half of my face.

In the end, my plan had been thoroughly dashed by reality and between Beifong and Koi, Koi was by far the most compromised. People had seen my face, they had seen me fighting with the rest of the team far more than Beifong had been. So, if Ren Song had to be connected to an identity, then it was better Koi than not. Plus, Koi's abilities could most easily be passed off as cultivation techniques that were developed.

"You all ready?" I asked the gathered up members of the team, everyone here except for Robin. I got a series of nods, some more reluctant than others. "Any second thoughts? It's not too late to back out. Robin is still with the Team," I voiced the offer, looking to Conner and Wally specifically.

Out of everyone, Conner was the most reluctant to go public but, at the same time, he was the most motivated. He never said it out loud, but I think he was taking this as an opportunity to step out of Superman's shadow. Personally, I think it would be good for him. Conner spent too much time comparing himself to Superman, and viewing himself in a negative light.

"I believe we should be asking you that," Kaldur remarked, giving me a subtle nod. "I myself have never had a secret identity. I imagine revealing yourself will be… a tremendous change."

It would be. "Better reveal it now than have it be revealed later," I shrugged. That was my thought process for getting rid of the mask. "My Dad will be revealing his Sect soon enough. Covering up my whole existence would pretty much be impossible, so why bother trying?" The social media accounts made Ren Song a known quantity in certain circles and people were already starting to question my relation to the Song family in China. Both because I was half Chinese and had the last name Song. Pretty sure the theory was out there as a result of ignorance, but the connection was made.

It wasn't ideal, but there was no point crying over spilt milk. With the surplus of Prestige I would be getting, I could afford to max out some important skills -- like Multi-form. I was limited to one clone right now, but if that limit was removed, in theory, I could have a full team of mes running about as separate entities. It would be good for the world too because the world could use every hero it could get.

"That's one way to look at it, I suppose," Wally answered with a shrug. "It's your secret identity. Do what you want with it. So long as the rest of us don't have to unmask," Wally decided, earning an agreeing nod from Artemis. She seemed less certain about it, though. Like she was considering taking the mask off, but something was holding her back.

"I can't wait!" Megan blurted, sounding like she genuinely couldn't. Her hands were clasped in front of her and there was a wide smile on her face. 'Being on a black ops team wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I came to Earth!' She added mentally. And I was with her there. Just without the coming to Earth part.

'Robin will be alright. I'm pretty sure he thinks he's going to lead the black ops team now that we're going public,' I remarked, making Wally snicker. The black ops team wouldn't be going away. It didn't see much use with us, but with future heroes, it would be a place to train their abilities outside of the public eye. There was still plenty of undercover work that could be done. Just, right now, the world needed a public team of young heroes more than it did an undercover hero squad.

"Three minutes!" Came another warning and I spared Conner one last glance to make sure that he was completely onboard. He scratched at his chest, as if he could feel the absence of the shielded S, but he nodded all the same. He was on board.

I returned to nod before going to the Xs that marked where we were supposed to stand in a line up. I could hear the general muttering of what sounded like hundreds of people. From where I stood, at the back of the line, I could see a long table that was dotted with microphones. Off to the side was a podium and behind it was a young woman in her mid to late twenties with dark black hair and bright green eyes. Catherine Cobert, the public relations officer for the Justice League.

It wasn't the same as having a member of the League here blessing the endeavor, but it was the next best thing. Even if things were getting better, the Justice League was in very high demand -- from dealing with threats, to spearheading whatever expanses there were outside of the Havens. While we were getting touched up, Catherine was warming the crowd up for the mysterious announcement that only a comparatively small group of reporters were invited to witness.

"Through their own initiative, but with the blessing of the Justice League, it is my honor to introduce the newest team of heroes -- the Titans! Some of whom you'll recognize -- Kid Flash!" In response, Kid Flash blurred forward from his place at the front of the line and took a position at the end of the table.

"Hellllooooo~ everyone!" Kid greeted the crowd, snapping off finger guns and giving wide smiles as he posted for the cameras. Megan giggled while Zatanna looked to the heavens for strength. If she found any there, she didn't show it.

There was a smile in Catherine's voice, "Aqualad!" She continued and in a calmer manner, Kaldur stepped out from behind the curtain, wearing a polite smile and a wave as he took his assigned seat.

"Zatanna!" Zatanna followed Wally's example and appeared in a puff of smoke behind her chair and offered a deep bow and a smile.

"Some," Catherine continued as half of the newly minted Titans. That was my cue for Gluttony to spit out my mask that I loosely put on my face to avoid smudging my make up. "Are heroes that you may not have known beforehand, but after the disaster, they are no less worthy of joining this team of heroes -- Miss Martian!"

Megan floated out, her surprise and excitement evident to everyone as she waved enthusiastically.

Conner spared me a glance from over his shoulder, as if he were having second thoughts at the very last second. I offered a shrug, letting him know that it still wasn't too late to not step into the spotlight. Worse came to worse, I would just have Beifong take his spot on the team. I'd rather do that than leave Conner out to dry.

"Powerboy!" Catherine continued, making Conner look back out to the press meeting for a moment, clearly hesitating, but he stepped forward all the same. He took his seat, doing his utmost to look like he didn't notice all of the cameras that were undoubtedly being pointed his way as he was being bombarded with so many questions that they all blurred together.

Powerboy wasn't the name I would have gone with, but it was better than Superboy, I guess. Conner was making his own way. One baby step at a time.

"And, finally, the leader of the Titans… Koi!" Catherine introduced me as I stepped out from behind the curtain to see a large conference room that was filled to the absolute brim with reporters, each one equipped with a camera that was marked with the news company they were with -- Daily Planet, Gotham Gazette, CatCo WorldWide Media, and a bunch of other news companies that I had never seen before that must belong to countries across the globe.

I had my Prestige open, driven by curiosity to see how high it would climb. After a few days of a trickle of passive prestige?

I had about three thousand Prestige to spend. Comparatively, it was pretty much nothing. Especially when investing in skills and stats for so expensive.

In the time that it took for me to walk across the room and take a seat at the center of the table, between Zatanna and Conner, my Prestige counter hit 100,000 Prestige. And it was going up fast as Koi entered the public eye for the first time, everyone in the world paying attention to the announcement that a young team of heroes was formally announced to the world in an official capacity.

Taking my seat, I swept my gaze over the crowd, spotting a few familiar faces within it. Such as Lois Lane. Despite just putting on my mask, I took it off and flipped back my hood, revealing my face to the public. "Koi's my hero name, but you're welcome to call me Ren. Ren Song."

The entire room lost it's absolute fucking mind. My gaze slid over to the Chinese news agency, who didn't seem that shocked by the revelation. The opposite, really. He clasped his hands together -- one fist into a straight palm -- before offering a bow to me. Lois Lane saw it, and she also didn't look surprised.

"We have time to answer some questions," I spoke up, cutting through the barrage of questions, leaning on Diplomacy to steer the conversation, so to speak. "But, as you all can imagine, every minute we spend here is a minute we're not out in the field." Doing a public release was the best option to announce the Titans, but at the same time, it would garner criticism simply because we would be here, soaking up the press, while people out in the world needed help.

Establishing that we wanted to be out in the field as soon as possible while making it seem like we were reluctant to be here in the first place should undercut the worst of the criticism.

"To start things off -- Daily Planet," I said, gesturing for Lois Lane to speak. She stood up from her folded chair, giving me a sly smile that I knew would be missed by the cameras.

"Should we consider the Titans an extension of the Song Dynasty in China?" She questioned, taking one of the approved questions and bending it until it just about broke.

"Absolutely not," I responded instantly. "The less we have to do with my family in China the better." To the public, that probably sounded like a hardball question but it might as well have been teed up for me. It was established that neither the Titans nor I were in any way an extension of the Song Family. People might not believe it initially, but that was fine.

The Song's days were numbered. Between Dad's Sect and how my extended family's Sect was destined to implode because you could only have so many egomaniac blowhards in the same room without them coming to blows about something -- it didn't matter if some people didn't believe we were completely unconnected. They'd see soon enough.

Another reporter, unprompted, stood up, "To clarify, you are claiming to be related to the Song Family that rules the Heavenly White Tiger Fist?"

"Unfortunately, yes," I answered. The man started to speak, but I gestured at another reporter. On the list of questions, there were those that were given exclusive permission to ask one. Basically, it made them plants while doing them a favor by giving them exclusive access. Public Relations was a scary world, I thought.

"What do you hope to accomplish with the founding of the Titans?" The reporter asked, standing up.

It was Wally that answered it, "If you're asking if we're going to be a baby league Justice League, then no." He spoke up while Kaldur smoothly interjected to prevent any misunderstanding.

"It is unfortunate, but there were many that developed powers -- metahumans and Homo Magi alike -- because of the disaster or the aftermath of it. We hope to make the Titans a beacon for those that have found themselves burdened with powers," Kaldur stated in a far more gentler tone.

"So, we can help them learn how to control their newfound powers like we did. Most people can't really understand what it's like waking up one day and all of a sudden you're able to break someone in two," I said, jabbing a thumb at the scars on my forehead. "We want to offer a place for teens like us to safely learn and if not embrace their powers, then help them learn not to be afraid of them."

And, from there, things started to fall in place. Megan was asked if she was related to Martian Manhunter, which she was, but it was a little weird to ask given that it only came up because they were both martians. Conner was asked about his origins, and he answered that he was a genomorph with human DNA. Completely not mentioning that he was related to Superman at all. Zatanna and Wally were asked about what their mentor/parent thought of the Titans and they said that they were onboard.

More than once, my relation to the Song family was brought up. The press really dug their hooks into it, especially when I made my dislike for the main branch clear without clarifying why. All the while, I sat back, answered a handful of questions and simply watched as my Prestige counter shot up.

200,000. 400,000. 900,000. 1,000,000. 2,000,000. 10,000,000. 25,000,000.

I had several dozen times all of the Prestige I had gained cumulatively until this point. A truly insane amount. And it didn't really seem to be slowing down. It would, eventually, but only when every last person left on the face of the Earth knew who I was. Already it was enough that my mind was buzzing with ideas as I blew past ranks -- one for breaching a million, one for breaching five million, one for breaching ten and twenty million. So, at the very least, I got five free rolls for my skill gacha. I didn't use any of the rolls for the ranks, meaning I could buy about forty rolls and then max out the new skill if I wanted. And that number was going to keep going until I maxed out the Prestige Ren Song could generate on Earth.

My fingers were itching to start rolling just to see what I would get or to start maxing out some skill. Maybe bump all my stats up to ten thousand as a start.

Under the table, my foot bounced ever so slightly as the press meeting went on. I was excited to announce the Titans. It would be good for us and for others, but at the same time, I wanted to wrap things up for the sake of putting this Prestige to use. The fact that we knew every question that was being asked didn't help things at all.

Zatanna noticed my bouncing foot and reached out, placing a hand on mine under the table. I glanced at her to see her offering a reassuring smile, mistaking the bouncing for nervousness. Well, better that than her finding out it was impatience.

"To the son of Song," another reporter spoke up, this time the words were uttered in Chinese but they were… weird. At first, I thought it was just poorly spoken Chinese, but that wasn't the case. I could clearly understand the Chinese, so it was less of a different dialect, and more of… a regional accent, I suppose. I looked at the reporter to find that he was standing up, interrupting another reporter's question, and earning a lot of dirty looks. "How will you answer for the crimes of your family?"

My eyes narrowed into slits as the rest of the team began to look at me or each other. Only Conner would have been able to understand that since he had every language downloaded into him. A neat thing I learned when I was learning various other languages. "That would be a question of which crime you're asking me to answer for," I responded in Chinese, sizing up the man.

He looked… off. I didn't quite know how to phrase it other than that. Nothing particularly stood out, but looking at him was like catching something in the corner of your eye that made you stop to look at it -- just something not quite right. He wore a simple suit, was of clear Chinese descent, and he was alone by the looks of things. Seemed to be in his mid to late forties with some lightly grating hair. It was like an inch in my brain got stronger the longer that I looked at him.

"I don't hear a heartbeat coming from him," Conner spoke up, making me tense while the man continued.

"I suppose the question was too open-ended," the reporter without a heartbeat uttered. A reporter that I couldn't detect with seismic sense. A reporter… who was brushing up against Mind Defense because the itch on my brain could only be compared to the kicking whenever Megan used her telepathy. "For your family has committed such heinous crimes… that even us among the Demon Sect find ourselves ill with your deeds."

I went very still when I heard that, but I didn't react. I knew more about cultivation than I've ever had before. I needed to puzzle out who exactly would be my family's enemies over in China -- at least the ones that my family didn't eradicate.

The Demon Sect, in theory, could be one of those Sects. However, there was one issue.

"As I understand it," I responded, "The Demon Sect officially disbanded six hundred years ago. On account that every sect began to dabble in the forbidden arts in their pursuit of power." I spoke up, and people were picking up on my tone and body language.

The world of cultivation used to have lines, according to Dad. Those lines weren't exactly great, but they were lined all the same. The Demonic Sects, however, got their name by stepping over those precious few lines by gaining power through forbidden arts. What they were? Dad couldn't tell me. Not because the knowledge was lost, but as fewer Spirit Beasts or magical tree roots were found, the stance on the forbidden arts became laxer and laxer. Because morals were always the first thing out the window when things were desperate.

So lax that the Demonic Sects just became normal Sects.

The reporter smiled at me, "Those that came before often disagree with the decisions of their successors."

I took a breath and let it out very slowly. In English, I spoke up, "I apologize for the inconvenience, but would everyone please evacuate to the nearest exit?" I spoke, my voice calm as I never broke eye contact with the reporter. He inclined his head at me, and people were very quick to give him a wide berth. In Chinese, I spoke, "If you have a grievance with my family for what they did to the world, then you won't hear any arguing from me."

"You carry the blood of the Song Dynasty," the definitely not a reporter uttered. "That is reason enough to expunge you from this world. As I should have done so with your family three thousand years ago."

Okay. That was… something. I'm not sure what, but it was definitely something.

"Are you sure we can't talk this out?" I questioned, everyone vacating the room except for the Titans.

"No. The hypocrisy of your bloodline has disgusted me to the point words shall not suffice. Everyone carrying a drop of Song blood dies tonight," the man said as the illusion that masked him faded away. He wore a black on gray hanfu, his face and hands were skeletal with dry and cracked skin which made his almost elegant thin mustache and long beard seem out of place. His eyes were gone, replaced with a pitch black void that seemed to stare into me as much as I stared into it. "However, I understand you are blameless for your family's wrongdoings. As such, I shall kill you myself, personally, as an apology."

I really fucking hate my family. "I don't suppose you'd give me your name?" I asked, reaching into Gluttony's mouth to pull out the longswords that Wonder Woman gave me.

The corpse in front of us gave a long rueful chuckle, "In my time, I’ve been known by many names but the one I have been known the longest is Ming-Yue Long. However, I suspect that history remembers the epithet Sovereign of Death far better." Ming-Yue introduced himself, striding forward as the shadows at his feet began to condense and rise. In those shadows figures clad in dark on dark gis, every single one of them undead but the conference room was filled with the hum of power.

I never heard of him, but I really got the feeling that I should have. I shifted my blade, deepening my breathing as I slipped into the Black Heaven and Earth Technique. Ming-Yue seemed to smile has he took a single step forward.

"Now show me how far the Song Family has fallen to be reduced to methods such as these."