SSV3 Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Kim was pushing the issue, and while I could blast myself out of the office, that would be admitting everything in its own way.

“Kim, you don’t need to force it. I came to the BSH today planning to tell you.”

“Then spit it out.” She continued to block the doorway. “We both know, I already know. What’s the harm in saying it? I’m done with subtlety. I’m ready to be tenacious, like Stella or Mona, who, by the way, seems to have found her augmenter.” Kim wasn’t backing down.

I sighed. “We have history, bad blood between us.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to settle it. Hell, I’ll take down Hendricks and Pratt with you if necessary.” Kim was spiraling, so I worked to bring her back to the moment.

“Don’t do that. I actually need you to keep being the Director at the BSH.” I sighed.

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself.

“I’m Void. I’m Miles Matherson, the kid who killed Fortress.” I got the words out and then waited for her response.

Kim’s hair went from little sparks of fire to a full-blown, raging, burn the house down, fire.

I had to throw up a barrier around her and leach the heat from it before it set me and the whole building on flames.

“I knew it.” She grinned like a madwoman, completely oblivious to the fire she was emitting. “I knew it! I knew it!” Her smile got impossibly wide as she grabbed my hand. “Thank you for trusting me.”

I was pretty fire resistant, even so, she was putting off extreme heat.

I reduced the ki coming off of her to shut down her power, and then I banished the heat so that we could actually talk.

Kim’s eyes only grew wider. “This is your power?”

“Part of it.” I shrugged. “I can do a lot of things.”

“Energy manipulation.” Kim guessed.

I laughed. “No. Complete energy control. All forms of energy, Kim, even the one that powers run on.”

Her eyes went wide with shock as she started calculating through everything she knew with the new information. “Shit. I should have the anti-listening device on. In everything—“

“Don’t worry. I’m better than that device, and I’m already on it.” I waved her concern away. “So, now you know. What now?”

“Now I know.” She still grinned, looking around the office. “Thanks for putting out the fire.”

“I’d rather not have to explain why you set the bureau on fire. Now, can I go?”

“Go?” Kim frowned. “Now that we are both on the same page, we can actually plan! Sit back down. We need to talk about what you plan to do and how I can help. Let’s start with why you need me in charge of the BSH?” Kim pushed me, and I let her urge me back to the chair before she grabbed the other chair and pushed it closer. She sat down close enough that our knees were interlocked.

Even then, she leaned forward. “So. What’s next?”

I rubbed at my forehead. She was a lot to take at the moment, but I was glad she was willing to help. “Melody is going to have to crack a few heads, apparently. And I’m going to go out and help her before we fuck off to New Haven. I don’t know what is going to happen to the city after that.”

“If you make a show of leaving, Pratt will probably stand down his people. We might be able to go back to normalcy.” Kim suggested. “Getting back in will be hard, though.”

“I can be invisible if needed. Light is energy.”

Kim’s brow rose. “Ah. Okay. That makes things easier. Invisible, can control power, able to mimic telekinesis. And then there’s that big beam you shot to kill Fortress. Any other capabilities I need to add to the list?”

“Control over heat and electricity.” I added for a start. “There’s a lot of applications, really. Energy is everywhere.”

“Convert mass to energy or the other way around yet?” Kim asked.

“No?” It came out as a question. I’d never even thought about it.

“E equals M C squared and all that. I didn’t know if you’d touched on it.” Kim smiled, already feeling helpful to me. “We can play with it when you get back.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play with creating a fusion reaction, but then I focused on the last bit. “When I get back?”

“From New Haven.” Kim clarified. “We need to deal with Pratt first, but when you come back, I’ll help you train your power to its fullest.”

I snorted, but it wasn’t a crazy offer. Kim had a lot of resources. But the way she was looking at me was intense. I wasn’t sure who was more obsessed, her or Mona.

She is not more than me in any way! Mona was quick to interject. I’m the one who lives in your head.

I tried not to laugh at her response. Hard to have a contest on who is more obsessed with the voice in my head.

At least you understand. I’ve told the others that things are okay and progressing as expected.

“Miles?” Kim asked.

I must have missed a question. “Sorry. Distracted for a moment.” It was time to get down to business. “Void and Melody need out of the city, and we need to calm down Pratt and Hendricks.”

When she didn’t object, I continued. “Here’s the options as I see them. One, I could go pretend to be Void, rip apart the city and kill any opposition until I was satisfied, then leave. But let’s be honest, that would continue to escalate until I likely destroy half the city and subjugate the other half. I don’t really want to rule the city.”

Kim blinked. “That’s an extreme option, and I’m a little concerned that it is option one.”

“My therapist would agree.” I laughed.

It was Kim’s turn to be surprised. “You are actually going to therapy?” Her eyes raced. “Ah. Angelina. Is that the reason you wanted her?”

“I wanted her for who she was, and to help save her. I saw her pain, and I understood it. But having a therapist in the harem has been brilliant.”

Kim nodded, lost in her thoughts for a moment before she asked. “Option two?”

“Melody and I fight a little and then publically fuck off. Less collateral damage, but harder to explain why Void didn’t just take down the city. And there’s the problem of my Miles person disappearing at the same time, but that exists for most of the remaining options. I was hoping you’d help me with that.” I leaned back to get a little more space from her.

“Anything.” Kim nodded eagerly.

“Angelina can change her shape, so she could pretend to be me for a while. Also, I might have to take Stella with me. She’s having growing pains with her power, and I don’t know if she can last very long, separated from me.” I was throwing a few wrenches into the plan, but it was still doable.

Kim rubbed her chin. “No one would miss Angelina if we pulled her from the prison program. Then she could pretend to be you, but Stella’s disappearance would be hard to hide. We can use some excuses, but it might put some pressure on you returning sooner.”

I didn’t miss the fact that it would also bring me back sooner, which she didn’t seem to mind. “Don’t worry. I’ll end up leaving several members of my harem here; I’ll be back after I see what’s happening in New Haven and what exactly Daeva has planned.”

My short experience with Daeva had been… interesting.

“You fought her above the city, so we don’t have a ton of intel. What more can you tell me?” Kim tried to scoot her chair closer, but there really wasn’t any space left.

I ignored it and looked up at the ceiling at the scorch marks as if I saw something in them. “She’s a little messed up. The fact that I could take her on and made her heart beat faster seemed to spur her into some sort of deep attachment. She mentioned thinking she was in love.”

Kim’s knees squeezed my own. “You don’t believe that, do you?”

“No, but she was quite convincing. She’s clearly pretty broken. But it sounds like she is treated like a deity in New Haven. I made the call to drain the life from her body, letting her die peacefully before she did more harm, but then she came back from what I thought was death.” I shook my head and focused back on Kim.

She was thoughtful. “The project had disturbed me, and I pulled a few favors to get it closed maybe a decade ago. They gave her lethal injections in front of Pratt and I. I’m not sure what her third power is, but it does make me wonder. She was always a telekinetic, and they grafted Fortress’ power onto her, but supposedly her third power was only regeneration.”

“Hell of a regenerative power if she can come back from a lethal injection or what I did to her. I took the energy, electrical and chemical, out of her body.” I shook my head, only to see a flicker of fear from Kim.

“I’m very glad you didn’t become some evil monster. That shows me just how dangerous you could have become.” Her hand rested on my thigh, where she ran her fingers in little circles.

I shifted in my seat, about ready to bolt. “You misunderstand. I was a villain for almost two decades. I’d pop into this or that city and take what I wanted.”

Kim licked her lips. “You know, the number of villains that have operated in multiple cities is very short.”

“You think I was ever caught?” I snorted. “If I was anything but a rumor, I’d be surprised, even with the BSH’s resources.”

Kim seemed eager to learn more, to understand more about that time after the fight with Fortress. “Emma, she was a part of that, wasn’t she?”

I shrugged. “No comment. Back to the issue at hand, unless you want to continue the tangents. I haven’t told you option three yet.” The last option had only come to me recently, but I thought it had a good chance of working.

The issue was it required a little extra work, and the city wasn’t exactly going to come out unscathed. But we’d get Pratt and Hendricks off my back.

“Why do I have a feeling that you’re leaning towards option three?” Kim grumbled.

“Because faking our deaths is going to satisfy Pratt and Hendricks enough that they might just stop looking.” The plan was spinning out in my head as I looked down into her eyes. “This is what I need from you.”

***

The moment I’d walked back into the manor, Doctor Wells had wanted a moment with me. My heroes had headed back with me as well, given time off by the director.

We all knew that Void wasn’t attacking… yet.

“My research isn’t complete.” Doctor Wells crossed her arms. “If you leave, my researched will be forced to wait for your return.”

She was observant, knowing that it was time for me to leave as soon as I stepped foot in the manor. Her gray hair kept falling into her face, despite the clip that should have prevented it.

“I don’t have a choice at the moment. I had hoped to delay this a little, but it’s getting escalated. We need to put it into motion.” I shrugged.

Wells shook her head, clearly disappointed. “I’ll have to focus on the biological angle until you return, I suppose. Did you need something from me?”

“Yes, please join the meeting.” I gestured towards the kitchen table where the rest of the girls were waiting.

Wells wasn’t happy, but she sat down amid the rest of my harem.

Even Beatrix was present.

Kim had her own job to do, mostly stalling Pratt and Hendricks until I could get the pieces of the plan together. Melody was still out in the field, playing nice with Pratt, but listening in through my comms.

The table of women were all moody. Goodbyes, even temporary, were never fun.

“Okay. The plan. I need Obsidian, Wells… and Stella to work together.” I added the last bit after the fact, a new idea coming to me.

“Me?” Stella pointed at herself. “In… the lab?”

She wasn’t the only one surprised. The mood lightened as a few of the other snickered.

“Of course. Without me, you are the only one here able to manipulate ki, even if you just drain it from people. I need you to work with Wells and Obsidian to mutate a few clones that lose Obsidian’s ability to clone and thus leave bodies.” I explained.

Stella tilted her head, considering what I’d asked of her and looking concerned.

Obsidian patted her on the shoulder. “Just follow the doctor’s instructions.”

“Oh! I can do that. Do as the doctor says. Check.” Stella nodded emphatically.

“We’ll need you to transport the bodies, too. When all is said and done, you’ll be slipping out of the city with us. If Wells can get you hooked up with another comm that is paired with Melody and mine, that would be even better.” I continued.

Wells nodded along. “You are asking for a lot in a short period of time.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t make the deadline. Blame Pratt for being a prick.”

Angelina raised her hand. “I’m going undercover as you?”

“That’s the plan. Kim is on board and a safe haven if you need it. She’ll support you in this. But otherwise, you are going to have to be convincing. But I don’t expect to be gone long. Please don’t add anyone to the harem.” I added that as an afterthought.

But with how quiet the table got, it became awkward.

“Of course she doesn’t get to do that.” Stella rolled her eyes. “Jellybags is the sensible one. Besides, you are the center of this whole thing. It’s only fun to add when we get to throw women at you and watch you be all twitchy.”

She smiled, her mind clearly wandering off as soon as she’d finished.

“Like the dinner with Amelia and Ivanna?” I raised an eyebrow, not having forgotten that stunt.

“That was Emma!” Stella thrust an accusing finger out at the catgirl, whose jaw dropped in mock affront.

“Pointing fingers isn’t a good look, dear. Besides, he liked it, even if he doesn’t want to admit it.” Emma shot me a grin as she dismissed the subject, daring me to refute it. “I know he liked at least one of them.”

I coughed in my hand. “You’re right. Now isn’t the time. I can deal with you when we get back.” I gave her a mock scowl before pivoting us back into the plan.

“Beatrix will be at the bureau with Mona, passing any needed messages to me via Mona. Her telepathy is still a secret from the organization. Also, while I’m gone, I need Beatrix and Wells to continue to dig into Project Cerberus. I need to understand Daeva’s third power.”

Everyone nodded along, understanding their role.

“What about me?” Emma seemed left out.

“I need you and that new beautiful throne I built you to ferry Stella around with the Obsidian bodies. She can’t exactly go flying through the city with two corpses under her arms. It shouldn’t be too hard to locate us, and when you are ready with the bodies, we’ll take our swan dive.” I replied.

“Any questions?” I looked around the room.

Stella’s hand shot up into the air. “How many sandwiches do I need for the trip?”

My face slapped into my palm. “None. I’ll barbecue some monster meat if we need food while we’re out there.”

Stella nodded, mouthing ‘barbecue sauce’ to herself a few times to remember it.

Wells’ hand went up next. “Can I get some blood from you before you go? I’d like to try something.”

“Sure. Whatever you need, doctor.” I replied, continuing to run through everything we needed to set up for the plan to be successful.