SSV3 Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Beatrix had her head hung, and whispered, “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Obsidian patted her back. “It’s okay. Remember what I said?”

The analyst blushed in response but nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

I paused, not wanting to mess up the conversation. It seemed Obsidian was doing well getting her to open up. She had even started while meeting Beatrix’s family.

“Now, if that’s what you want, you need to be honest with Miles. Tell me everything and leave the rest to us.” Obsidian coaxed.

Beatrix swallowed and looked at me with fear etched on her face.

For a long silent moment, I thought she was going to balk and break Obsidian’s control over her, but then she spoke.

“I watched the recordings of you being kidnapped by the Giantesses, and then you walking out of their place unscathed. Never again have the Giantesses pinged on any cameras across the city. I… I expect they are dead. Then I watched the video of you and there was something you put down the grate that then startled the woman behind you on the street.” The sentence came out quickly as Beatrix seemed to want to get it off of her chest.

We were far enough from her family that they wouldn’t see her facial expressions, but I had no doubt her father was still picking up some of her body language.

Then again she thought she was walking with a killer. She didn’t understand, not yet.

“What did you do with that information?” I asked, too eager to know the answer. I kicked myself mentally after I said it, but I tried not to show any reaction.

Beatrix glanced at Obsidian for just a second before answering. “I brought it to Kim. She berated me heavily; she said I might spook you too much and put myself at risk. That you might even kill to keep your secret.”

My leg went rigid and I nearly stumbled on my next step. “What? What does Kim think she knows?”

I knew Kim suspected me.

“That you are Void. And even after your show on the roof the other night, she’s convinced that you are Void. Kim is obsessed with you; she asked me to research Void and all of your women. I’m aware of the alert you set up on yourself and had previously stopped digging.” She answered.

I realized that the compulsion shouldn’t have worked so easily when I was asking the questions. Something else was happening.

“Now the big elephant in the room, why are you telling me all of this?” I asked, a little anger tinting my tone.

Beatrix winced, but Obsidian stepped in between me and the analyst.

“She recognized the compulsion as soon as I tried it.” Obsidian scratched her cheek. “But I had another card to play. The others agreed that if this failed I could offer her something else.”

I tried to determine what they could have offered her, and the best answer I came up with baffled me. “You offered her a spot in the harem?”

“Provisional.” Beatrix piped up. “They said I could walk away if I haven’t slept with you yet, or if you weren’t interested. But… you’re Void, aren’t you? I stayed up late last night at Kim’s request. And I’m pretty sure you are.” There was an awe in her eyes and fear, but fear of rejection.

Her father and I had it all wrong, she wasn’t afraid of me, but this moment.

Obsidian nodded to confirm. “She immediately recognized the compulsion and asked for my protection.”

“I was trained to resist this sort of thing. Most people who join the Bureau are, especially when they aren’t fast tracked with the director signing off on everything without actually training you.” There was a hint of bitterness in her voice.

But I was pretty pleased I didn’t have to go through a bunch of mindnumbing training.

“Though, I have no idea how Obsidian now has Candice’s power. Can you give people powers?!” She hissed, struggling to keep her volume down.

“No. Well, sort of. We are still working on doing it smoothly. Obby’s clone here was a prototype.” I gestured to the multiplier. “Easy to work on one of the clones and then let her reabsorb it and lose the power.”

Beatrix nodded dumbly. “Okay. Shit, Kim has no idea what she’s up against.”

“She’s determined to figure it out?” I asked.

“She’s obsessed in a way you couldn’t understand. She’s like a full on stalker only restrained by the idea that if she pushes too hard you’ll disappear and she’ll never be able to find you again.” Beatrix put it all in a new light. “She is convinced it is you. Every time you do something like last night she just grows more certain, even if she doesn’t have definitive proof.”

Kim was growing to be a larger and larger headache by the moment. I was going to have to do something about it before long.

“What was the giveaway last night?” I thought I’d done a pretty damn good job.

Beatrix smiled a little. “You were willing to have Void go protect Melody. She didn’t think that you’d give up the ability to protect her yourself unless you were Void.”

And she was right. I just hadn’t realized Kim knew me well enough to have picked that apart. Then again, she had been watching me closely this whole time. She even admitted to it last night.

I felt a headache coming on. “The next step here I was supposed to convince you to help me bury my secret further from her. But I’m feeling like that isn’t going to work too well.”

Beatrix nervously scratched the side of her head. “If I do that and she then starts to realize that I’m dating you…” The analyst paused to think. “I really don’t know what she’ll do, but it won’t be good. She wants you to stay close so that she can earn your trust as Miles.”

Looking up at the sky, I let my thoughts wander.

If it really was as Beatrix said, it wasn’t a matter of hiding this secret so much as preventing Kim from growing desperate. She was immortal and had a lot of political power; I needed to avoid pissing her off or making her more obsessed.

Would it really be so bad if I brought her in on the secret? Or would this obsession of hers become a burden?

“What are the risks if I let this continue?” I asked.

“She’s desperate to know. She’s going as far as trying to get me to engineer a disaster today to see if you’d react and come out of hiding.” Beatrix replied.

I stopped and looked around for said disaster. “Do we need to get someone here to stop it?”

“No. I threw a fit when Kim suggested it, and she backed off. She’s just starting to run out of ideas. I’d never put my family in danger.” She said quickly.

I shrugged. “Not much of a challenge for me to prevent harm from them too.”

Beatrix looked at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity. “What exactly is your power?”

I grinned. “A secret. I don’t even know what yours is. It’s impolite to ask mine without sharing yours.”

And it was true. Standard etiquette after powers was not to ask unless you were close, and you were both willing to share. Although I had seen some of Beatrix in action, so I had a guess.

“Localized super speed and…” she blushed. “I can breathe under water.”

I ignored that and focused on the super speed. “That’s why you type so quickly?”

She nodded. “It comes with the standard mental capability, so I can interpret things at super speed too. I can only do part of my body at a time though, so normally you see me doing just my wrists and fingers. That’s about my limit.”

“Still impressive. And you’ve found a way to use your power well.” Obsidian interjected. “From what I’ve heard, you are a complete wizard with computers. Stella was particularly impressed.”

I snorted, suddenly imagining Stella sitting at a keyboard trying to type as quickly as Beatrix. I had no doubt she’d be sticking her tongue out like she did when she was focusing.

“What’s funny?” Beatrix asked.

“Stella. She makes me laugh. Just the idea of her trying to describe your talent with computers is humorous.” I said with a smile.

“She makes you happy. Is that what changed you from being Void to the Miles I’ve met?” Beatrix treaded slowly on the question with a little hesitance.

“I block sound when we talk, so don’t worry about eavesdroppers. And I’m not someone on a hair trigger.” I rolled my eyes. “A long time ago I was an angry teen after what happened to me, then I became a refined thief. After that, I worked at the marketing agency just trying to blend in. My villain days were behind me. Stella was the turning point to using my powers more heroically, even if I detest the identity of a hero.”

“Because of what happened to you? I heard Kim’s story.” Beatrix whispered.

Much of who I had become was shaped by my battle with Fortress and the ensuing years as a villain. “If it wasn’t Fortress, my power would have come out another time. It might have been a day, a week later, but there still would have been a disaster. I had no way to control it.” As I said it, I realized my therapy sessions with Angelina really were starting to make progress. She’d be so proud.

Beatrix swallowed. “Your power is incredible. You give off more types of energy than I even realized existed.”

I chuckled. “Yeah. Maybe if I understood it completely myself, I could tell you what some of those were, but that big blast is basically just me being pissed off and throwing everything I have forward.”

Beatrix had a puzzled look on her face as she tried to put it all together since, she liked puzzles. “You can apparently detect when Obsidian or Candice use their power or she wouldn’t have to keep using it on me at the beginning of the conversation. You also are able to kill people and hide their bodies in a tiny space. Then there is the black energy forms that Kim has described.” Beatrix rambled off. “That’s power detection, physical manipulation and even light. All in one power?”

“Okay, I’ll satisfy your curiosity for a minute longer, and then we’ll have to get back to your family. And I’ll drop the barrier at that point, so we’ll need to be careful what we say.” I commented.

“That too!” Beatrix twisted a lock of hair as she thought. “Are you just able to manipulate everything?”

“Close. But I have no mind control, or I wouldn’t have to engineer Obsidian’s new power.” I winked at her.

But Beatrix just took a deep swallow. “Yeah. But physically is there anything you can’t do?”

“I’m not super strong. I can control kinetic, electric, and any form of energy.” I told her my secret. “Though, I must say that I’m trusting you a lot here.” I left it at that with any conditions unsaid.

“Of course!” Beatrix jumped. “Yes, as a girlfriend, I’m in your corner on everything. But every form of energy…” She paused. “You were able to manipulate Obsidian’s power, and you were there when Doctor Wells performed the procedure on Melody…” Her eyes were darting back and forth as she processed her available information.

 “Shit you can affect powers, which means they run on a form of energy. The devices from Libertech detect that energy.”

Beatrix’s eyes grew impossibly wide at the implications as she finished. “Powers. You can control powers.”

“Boost, or suppress mostly. I can’t just create powers. That requires some help from Wells and the Monster Fruit.” I clarified.

“Suppression.” Beatrix hissed. “Is that how you killed Fortress?”

I frowned. “No. That was just a blast where I threw all available energy at him. Though, I cut off Daeva’s power.”

Given recent events, I added, “And those who take monster fruit seem to have a high resistance to my ability.” Several times now I had fought monster fruit users and their bodies seemed to absorb ki like giant sponges, to the point that I’ve had to strain to keep ki out of their bodies.

She nodded along.

“Now if you don’t mind. Can we head back to your family and pretend to be a couple?” I asked.

Obsidian coughed. “You are a couple now. The least you can do is try.”

“Right.” I nodded. “Sorry, take my arm and maybe stop giving off whatever fear your father was picking up on?”

Beatrix gave me a stiff smile. “You could destroy everyone here in a blink of an eye couldn’t you?”

I nodded. “But I could also save everyone here if something happened. I’m not a monster. I just do what I need to do, which isn’t always along legal lines. But you need to trust me and I’ve accepted your offer.”

“Right. I’m your girlfriend. If anything, you would save me.” She sounded happy with the change. “Sorry, I’ve been so twitchy the last few days. It is hard to adjust. I just didn’t know what would happen, then there was Obsidian’s offer.

“I know now that nothing will happen, but at the same time you are just so powerful it is hard to wrap my head around.”

“May I?” Obsidian waited for Beatrisx to nod before she cleared her throat and spoke. “Relax.” Ki rolled out of her throat, and Beatrix visibly relaxed.

“Better. Let’s head back to my family before my sisters start some silly rumor.” Beatrix turned us around. “Besides, once you get to know my father, he’s not that bad of a guy.”

“No, I think he’s already a wonderful man and father. He saw that you were afraid of me and confronted me to leave. In my book, he’s running for world’s best father.” I tried to ignore the lump in my throat as I thought about my own parents.

We headed back to the area of the park that her family had set up.

The grill was cooling off and everyone was in line with their paper plate, picking at the table full of food and taking a seat.

“Just in time.” Beatrix’s mother peeled out of the line to catch us. “I was worried for a moment that Henry had scared you off.” There was a smile on her face that just seemed to overwhelm any negativity of the statement.

“Mom.” Beatrix rolled her eyes. “We just needed a moment to ourselves. Tell papa that Miles is fine, and he’s staying.”

In response, her mother put down her plate and wrapped me in an enormous hug. “You’ll be so good for my little girl. She’s a handful and too smart for her own good, if you don’t stimulate her, she gets very bored.” Her mother bounced her eyebrows in case I didn’t get the suggestion.

“Mom! I’m not a little girl.” Beatrix was turning beet red.

Now I understood her mother’s nickname for her. “Ah, there’s the little Beet.” I joked.

“Not you too.” Beatrix sighed and pushed past us both to grab her food.

I laughed.

The moment was broken when a large boom was followed by an air splitting crack. Then the screams came.

Beatrix’s mother and most of her family scrambled to flee. But Beatrix didn’t even budge an inch, trusting me.

The top of a building next to the park exploded, and a part of it was shearing off the side of the building to fall into the park.

Two figures flew over the buildings as a running battle between a super and Velody played out before us.

The chunk of the building was hurtling down to the park, but not an immediate danger to Beatrix’s family.

Reaching out with my power, I slowed the chunk’s fall and leached away the kinetic energy before impact.

The building would still hit, but the people inside would face far less danger.

I watched as it fell, hitting the ground but managing to maintain its structure.

“Did you do that?” Beatrix whispered.

“Maybe.” I looked up into the sky. “But I’m more worried about Melody.”

The analyst followed my line of sight. “Is she going to be okay?”

“Worried about a villain?” I teased her.

“I give access and revoke it. Not only was she assigned to your special access project, but no one asked me to revoke her BSH clearance.” Beatrix said flatly with a little curl of a smile on her lips. “I don’t look inside the special access projects, but that doesn’t stop me from making inferences when I see who’s on it and everything.”

Melody was spinning through the air while another hero joined her in the sky before sending out a whip of energy that exploded against another building when Melody dodged.

“Though, I’m not sure who’s the villain here. Fuck, that new girl isn’t even considering the collateral.” Beatrix watched the fight play out.

I frowned as I reached out to identify the other super, realizing that it was one the new recruits. She was going too far.

With my power, I reached out and weakened the amateur super hero, trying to mimic power exhaustion by dialing it back and slowing down the function of her body.

“Oh, she’s worn herself out.” Beatrix observed as the trainee crash landed on one of the rooftops while Melody exchanged a few less destructive blows with the other hero in the sky before zipping off far faster than they could keep up.

Melody had just been trying to get away, unable to kill a super in broad daylight.

“No. I weakened her. Come on. Let’s see if we can’t recover your family’s lunch. It would be a shame to let that ruin it.” I turned back to the pagoda and started to get lunch.

It didn’t take long for Beatrix’s family to return and even go help out some of the people from the fallen building. There were only about a dozen of them and her family brought them over to the family’s lunch and fired up the grill again.

I smiled, watching them help the wounded civilians. They were good people. When push came to shove, most of the people in Point City would look out for one another.

AN - Whoops sorry woke up and realized I hadn't posted this last night.