Act Two, Scene Three
May 26th, 2013
Act Two, Scene Three
The squat concrete bunker that was the county seat of the Fifth District might have been the worst palace in terms of measurable ability to loom, but by God it loomed as Melissa approached it. Her head turned left and her eyes flicked left, then right, then left again... this was incredibly stupid. Melissa knew it was incredibly stupid. You shouldn’t get involved with Powers. It was certain death. Why was she doing this? Even with the sun up, Count Pyre’s territory wasn’t the safest place for an unaccompanied, non-Power woman to be. She hadn’t broken any laws, but how little did that matter with any count? It’s not as though Pyre or Just or Ilderia had ever cared about it.
She knocked on the door, and spared a smile for the frightened young man who opened it. He wasn’t wearing any uniform, just a crude little badge.
“Is this where Nicator is employed?” she said, and hoped Victoria hadn’t changed her name between the docks and her new job.
“He’s away,” the man opening the door said curtly. That was true, or at least not a deliberate lie. She could hear people inside, moving. One of them poked his head into the anteroom, met her eyes with a lazy smile. Cool, sleek, timing off. He moved the same undercranked way Victoria did, almost, but she could see less confidence, more bravado, less sleek discipline and more feral energy. His heart was beating so fast. If he wanted he could kill her, and there would be nothing she could do about it.
“And you’re Nicator’s friend?” said the Thunderer, bowing. “I’m so very pleased to meet any friend of mis-ter Ward’s.”
That was true, and much more terrifying than any lie would have been. She started looking for windows, there in the entry room, and Pyre’s doorman took the opportunity to retreat as Pyre’s other goon snuck into the room. She was now twice as dead.
“I’m sorry, sirs, I was really just hoping to see Victoria - ”
The other two exchanged looks.
“Victoria?” said the Captain.
“I’ve never even met Sir Nicator, I just thought his sister - ” She could tell when she was lying, too, but other people couldn’t.
“Ah,” said the Thunderer, considering for a moment. “Then you may as well be going.” His eyes narrowed. “Do tell ‘Sir’ Nicator when you find him how… generous we were.”
She backed out the door again, moving very quickly. As quickly as she could, without turning. She did not look around until she was out the door.
Victoria was approaching, walking quickly, from some distance away. Her left leg was bleeding, but she wasn’t limping, and Melissa was suddenly unsure if Victoria could even feel pain.
“Melissa,” said Victoria calmly. “Good to see you. I was hoping you’d come. Though you could have tried the phone book, first.”
“Please, I just have a few questions...”
Victoria watched as she trailed off. “Follow me,” Victoria said calmly, and strode off away from Pyre’s bunker in an apparently random direction. Towards the center of the city, Melissa realized, not along the usual paths but straight into one of the most run-down neighborhoods in the Fifth District, the walls speckled with burn scars and bullet holes and lightning-bolt graffiti.
It was a short walk, but Melissa was still worried. Victoria seemed to still be losing blood and not even noticing it. She’d heard about people who couldn’t feel pain, and so would walk around with pins stuck in their feet until they died from blood loss, but Melissa was still sure someone had noticed it -
Victoria led her to one of the most dilapidated apartment complexes, surrounded by almost equally ruined buildings, unlocking the door with a small key on a large keyring.
“Come in,” she said. “Up the stairs, if you don’t mind.” The main room looked as much of a ruin as all the rest of it, and so Melissa followed her up the stairs.
They went up to the second floor, and through another locked door that Victoria opened with an electronic keycard, and Victoria said, “Lights,” and the lights turned on in response to her voice.
They illuminated a command center. Soft blue carpeting on the floor, fans whirring, a hum of electricity - up against the walls were computers, the sort of huge complex machines she’d heard of but not seen, banks of screens in all directions that glowed with the light of their boot-up sequences, chairs and workstations and -
Victoria collected a first-aid kit from an unmarked cupboard and sat down on one of the chairs.
“Please sit down, Melissa.”
Melissa sat, and met Victoria’s eyes, and Victoria nodded politely, unwrapped the kit, pulled a knife from it and began cutting through the tough cloth of her pant leg.
“Now, what did you want to ask me?”
“I just …”
Melissa ground to a stop. Victoria was silent but listening.
“My sister. You knew so much about me, about everything, you’ve got all this mystery knowledge even though you’re a newcomer - I was hoping you knew what happened to my sister. We haven’t seen her since just before the war.”
Victoria’s smile returned. “This is Ilderia’s knight Chrona, Elizabeth Campbell?” Melissa nodded, and Victoria looked at the injury. There was a nail embedded in her leg.
Victoria dug it out with the knife, speaking as if she was instead holding a glass of wine at some fancy noble party. “Last I saw her she was doing very well.”
That was true. Melissa smiled.
“But,” Victoria continued, “the last time I saw her was before the war ended. I haven’t heard anything recently.”
That was also true.
Victoria began smearing the wound with some sort of horrific ointment, continuing to talk as she did. “If she survived as I hope she did, I expect to receive a sign from her within the next two months. I regret that it won’t be sooner, but she was one of Ilderia’s most trusted knights and you know as well as I do that none of the Powers who worked for Ilderia can safely show their faces in Novapest.”
Those were true. Can’t show their faces. Victoria’s unnatural face.
She looked at Victoria with horror, which Victoria ignored. “Now,” said the supervillain, “the other side of the coin. I offered you a job. You have a unique and valuable skill which I would like to borrow, at least for a week or two. You’ll be paid handsomely.”
She considered stammering out apologies about never telling anything, then realized that would get her into an even worse position.
“Melissa,” said Victoria calmly as she wrapped a bandage around her ankle, “I understand your fears of being found working for enemies of the Tyrant, but let me give you a few promises. You should be able to confirm that I am telling the truth.”
She fastened the bandage, raised one hand to tick off points.
“I am not now working for Countess Zero, nor for the remnants of Ilderia’s faction, nor have I at any point since the end of the war. I have no intention of working for Countess Ilderia’s faction, nor her subordinates, ever again now that the war is done. I have no intention of participating in any revolt or other military action against the Titanium Tyrant. He’d win. I have made a fortune as a supervillain working with Jim Skullcracker, Blackbox, Jailbird, and Jacket, and that gave me enough funds to have my face changed so I could return to the country of my birth. I do still desire power, but my present objective is to ensure that Nicator does such an excellent job as a knight that he is made Count when Pyre retires, dies, or is forced into retirement.”
Every neatly shaped subclause was factually correct. Wait, which of Ilderia’s knights could she be? Most of them were dead. Sunder and Century were male, and so had Firesteel and Acerbus been, and most of them, really... Was she Morgan Mars, or Dreamlight, or Zero herself? If she was Zero, she couldn’t be working for her - wait, Melissa was getting distracted. Victoria drank from a hip flask before continuing.
“I am not asking you to do anything illegal, and though this might surprise you, I do not even believe I am asking you to do anything immoral. I am hunting a pair of criminal terrorists, one of whom stole military supplies from two counts, killed one of Steelstorm’s knights, and, I believe, is plotting to lead a revolt to overthrow the Titanium Tyrant. As recent history has just proved, rebellion cannot possibly succeed while the Tyrant lives. If Ilderia could not defeat the Tyrant, we both know that no republicans can. Therefore in the interests of minimizing suffering we should put this rebellion down quickly, because anyone else they recruit will almost certainly also die. I have planted a great many monitoring devices in places where my enemy may appear, and I wish you to monitor them. Your superhuman senses mean that you can effectively extract useful information from them, and your lack of ambition and our shared friendship with Eliza -” Victoria has a friend? “- means that you are unlikely to betray me. If you will do this, then the first time I hear from Eliza, I will tell her that you are hoping to see her, and pass any messages she has on to you. I will also pay you six times what your job at the immigration office does.”
That was also true. How was it true? All this was true, but - Chrona had been one of Ilderia’s knights, yes, her time-stopping power was useful; it wasn’t that much better at combat than Melissa’s was (she couldn’t move while using it any more than anything else could), but she was smart and knew when an extra moment to study or think made all the difference. Ilderia had spotted her talent and paid her well and she could send money home, but she’d always been near the foot of the table, not up near the end where Firesteel and Acerbus and whoever Ilderia was hosting today tended to rest, and yet even with that she’d never talked about anyone who could be this Victoria.
“It is,” Victoria concluded, “pleasant not to have to lie.”
Even that was true. “Well, I could get leave,” she said doubtfully. There wasn’t anything wrong with this, was there? So Victoria was creepy. Lots of people were creepy. But Victoria could bleed like anyone else, and Victoria...
Victoria knew her sister. Victoria was friends with her sister. And Victoria hadn’t done anything her sister hadn’t. Did she have any reason to condemn her other than that she was creepy?
“I can get leave.”
“Thank you very much,” said Victoria. “I look forward to working with you.”
True, and Melissa had no idea why.