“There are few things more important for a Villain than his minions. First, money.

What? Run out of minions, you buy more with money. It’s the way life works. But, even more important than that- A proper Villain needs firepower. And I’m not talking of minions here- those are the cannon fodder, the distraction for the actual plan.

Now, the most important part of building an empire is having reliable people to dump responsibility on them. You can’t expect to control a country all by your own, after all. And I’m not just talking about commanders here: you need someone to handle every fundamental aspect of that empire if you don’t want it to fall on your back. Get an information manager. Get a counterintelligence manager. Get a supply logistics manager. Get a team leader for each minion squad. Place all the cannon fodder under that command chain, and boom! Massive increase in efficiency.

And what kind of people is reliable and powerful enough for a Villain to fill those requirements?

Other Villains, of course.”

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“Oh God, I love this coffee…”

Lawrence dropped his head in the back of his chair, taking another sip from his mug. It felt like heaven, even if there were no special ingredients or exotic brewing. He simply felt good, sitting there, in the Clowdsweet, looking from a glass panel at the cold, buzzy world that was Worne YK as if it had nothing to do with him.

Relaxation was a luxury these days, it seemed.

“Mr. Lakewood?”

Emma’s voice broke the spell, and he looked away from the window and at his favorite waitress.

“How was the coffee?”

“It felt like a sip of heavens, thanks” he sighed, breathing out stress.

“Oh please” she giggled. “Do you like coffee that much? It’s about everything you take.”

“Well, this is a café, after all. Besides, it’s the place what keeps me at ease. Even the water feels purer.”

“That’s a good to hear, but it hurts a bit that you think of the place as a stress relief more than a place to eat sweet things…”

“Oh you surely jest” he laughed. “I’m all in for the food, really. The calm aura is a pro-bono actually.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind buying another coffee, right? And a pancake to go with it!”

Oh you sly girl, hitting me with your sales speech!

“Sure. Make it two pancakes.”

“You’re no fun. I was joking you know?”

“I guess so. Now, coffee and pancakes miss waitress, or are you keeping a customer waiting?”

“Right’O” she laughed and disappeared into the back of the store.

Lawrence sighed again, melting in his chair.

It had been a couple of days since recruiting the newest member of the team. Christiane was… strange, to say the least. Whatever process of thought she had used to measure him was way off the point, for better or for worse. He still couldn’t get his head over her reasoning, which apparently laid him as some kind of mastermind pulling the strings of every little thing in the city by setting domino chains larger than a week without Sunday.

So I apparently noticed she was after me since we first met and somehow coated myself in political and legal immunity by allying with Chase while also securing a powerful asset, and solved the Yakuza problem which would be otherwise much more difficult to tackle, and I was apparently testing her for recruiting during the interrogation…

The way he saw it, he had been wild running around the block with a blindfold and a target on his back, but eh, he had no need to fix that misconception for her.

Whatever worked for him.

Still, Christiane proved a powerful asset since the moment he provisionally accepted her in the team (under Mika’s full-time custody until further notice, as she had been hiding in her shadows from time to time and following her around on Lawrence’s orders). The day following recruitment, she had sent him a handful of valuable information on the Yakuza branch in the state, including possible headquarters locations, a bunch of known and suspected members, part of the command chain…

And information on their empowered assets.

Because of course the Yakuza would have empowered assets.

He had forwarded the information to Chase- after filtering a good part of it, just to make sure he didn’t feel like throwing their alliance out the window, as unlikely as that would be. Lately, he felt the lower the chance of something bad happening, the more likely it would happen.

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And Chase had sent him back a message asking to meet sooner.

Which meant this was his last free day, effectively cutting the so-called ‘rest week’ by the half, and his hopes of having some quality time with it.

Ah, well, you can’t have everything.

…Should I worry I find free time as a luxury?

…I really hope this doesn’t turn into a habit.

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Joe carefully observed the live feed from his Earth replica, ignoring his sore neck and the fact he had eaten nothing in days. Ignoring it pretty well at that, what with being a deity and all of that.

His eyes were fixated on his avatar.

“He is improving at a fast pace…”

It appeared luck hadn’t failed on him. He had to admit, Lawrence’s way of acting was incredibly flawed- someone else would have been killed by now, or worse. But his luck boost was precisely what he needed to develop. Putting him through a handful of stressful situations with no time to rest had proven the right decision. Be constantly keeping him on the edge, Joe had managed to partially condition Lawrence to a stressful ambient where everything could blow in matter of seconds.

“And as a result… Reaction time. Decision taking. Stress management. He has improved a lot in those aspects in the last month.” To compare him with the Lawrence before Wakening Season… He was an entirely different person- in those aspects.

“And the way he solved the problem of that girl… That was a spectacle, worthy of praise! Nevermind that he was shitting his pants on the inside, he masterfully handled the situation. He did that, improvising! Impressive, absolutely impressive.” Joe had his good time laughing his ass off as he observed the situation, but a part of him was worried about Lawrence’s future if he ended up with the lower hand.

But in the end he had been worried about nothing.

“Which means… ”

He wouldn’t have to switch players mid-game.

Now he was going all out on him-

“Hey.”

“Whathatha-EEEP?!” Joe jumped on his suit, turning into a hare and jumping around the void, changing orientation as it went. He ran and ran until an arrow pierced one of his long bunny ears, turning into a grappling hook and retracting before a hand caught him by the head.

“What are you plotting, Joe?”

…Oh shit.

“Andromeda, as much as I enjoy being mishandled by such beautifully soft hands, I humbly request that you put me down in the ground.”

“That’s disgusting, and you are floating up.”

…Oh, right. With a flicker of his mind, gravity pulled itself towards Andromeda, so that Joe would be in the same perspective as her. “Now? Pretty please?”

“…Fine” she let go of his ears and he bumped to the ‘ground’, returning to his original form…

And taking a glance at her small, red-dish feet while on it. “Did I ever mention how sexy your feet are?”

“I’m aware. You saying it only makes it disturbing.” She stepped on Joe’s head and pushed, even though she knew it wouldn’t do much harm, maybe thinking intention is what counts. Joe emitted a suppressed moan and slid away from Andromeda, spinning as he repositioned right in front of her.

She was wearning a casual tank-top and shorts that showed just enough of her curves.

“Cute and sexy, as always.” Joe bowed and made a motion to kiss her hand, stopping mid-way at her murderer gaze. It’s still too early to lose my fingers.

“So, what can I do for my favorite goddess…?”

Andromeda sighed, summoning a simple chair with a wave of her hand. “You are acting weird.”

Joe’s eyebrows twitched. “I don’t know what you mean. If by acting weird you mean that I am behaving different from the standard among divinities then you know, my dear Andromeda, that I can’t help it. I am, after all, Joe: God of Chaos, Random and Cookies. I have a reputation to maintain, as you can see…”

“Cut it” she sighed. “Look, I know you are way, way crazier than the rest of us, but you’ve been really suspicious lately. I can smell you’re hiding a secret and I want to know if it’s somehow going to affect me.”

“If” he pointed. “If I were plotting something, I would make sure it wouldn’t end up as someone else’s mess. And don’t worry, it wouldn’t directly affect you or your realm if worse came to be- mayhaps a Keeper would bother you with a couple of questions, at most. Not that I am plotting anything, though. Wink wink.”

“Are you actually saying ‘wink’…? No, forget it. I don’t want to know. And Joe…”

“Yes?”

Andromeda sighed once more.

“If you need help, remember some of us still count you as a friend.”

“Will do. Now, if you please, I would like to continue with my casual human observation, and your presence is distracting. Alas, such is the price for your astonishing beauty. So, shoo shoo!” Joe made a sweeping gesture with his hand, smile still plastered on his face as he grabbed Andromeda by the shoulders. The deity flinched and tried to fight him back, but before she could do anything, Joe opened a rip in the fabric of existence before her.

“What are you…?!”

“Transportation. Now…” Joe leaned closer, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Thanks for the offer. Means a lot.

Bye.”

He tickled her neck with his breath, and forced her into the portal as she involuntarily quivered. Before the lilac-haired goddess could curse his name, she was gone, banished to her own realm.

“Ah, it warms my heat to see such a dedicated friend…! I only hope she accepts my proposition one day. I am completely smitten with her… Such a romantic I am, I am hopeless…!”

Joe’s shoulders slumped back.

“Such a shame I can’t let her in in the details…”

But if he did that, he risked having her killed. Or worse. “So I better keep it to myself.”

“Now, back to my business…

What are you doing next, dear avatar o’ mine?”

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Lawrence sneezed.

Is someone speaking about me?

He shook his head. Probably my imagination. I’ve got to let loose- constantly being on the edge isn’t good for my sanity.

Damn it’s cold out there.

Lawrence threw his scarf on the back and started walking faster. He didn’t want to freeze before getting home, after all. And for some reason, Worne YK was getting colder and colder. Is that a bad sign?

No, I’m not a supersticious guy- probably climate change or something.

They’re probably going to send of big fish to fix that up- maybe heat up the atmosphere or something.

He pocketed his hands. It felt cold even inside his pockets.

I better hurry up.

Lawrence wanted to relax properly for the rest of the day. It would be the last one in a long while if things went the way he saw. And they usually went even worst. So he would have to brace himself for what was to come. First, training with Mika. Then, trying to make out some decent plan together with Christiane- and making sure he could trust in her, at least for the moment. Also, the meeting with Chase, and scouting new Metas for the team. They didn’t have enough raw power on the team, and he intended to fix that. But he also needed a way to pay them. Mika was getting a place to stay, and Christiane was practically forced to do whatever he wanted to, at least the way she sees it, but he would need a steady source of income in the foreseeable future…

There were a lot of things to take care of.

But first, a hot shower to shake off the chill.

He’d go with the small steps first.