"So chief" Mika was staring at him... Or rather, at the bottle of Cool he was holding.
"Yes, my minion" he said without looking, unamused. She probably just wanted a snack. Another snack...
"What's our first step?"
It took a couple of minutes before he actually understood that she hadn't asked for the bottle. "What do you mean?"
"You're going to conquer the world, right? What's our first step?"
"That's..." He stopped on his tracks. He hadn't thought of what to do just yet. He only had a pending task, and it wasn't terribly explaining. "Let the world know your name" wasn't an instruction at all.
Which reminded him...
"Hey, you have some pending tasks right?"
"Yeah. Something called Steal the Spotlight, and a Super Minion thing..." She muttered "Toggle Status" and another hologram came into existence.
"What are the goals for each?" He asked. In the meantime, as he had no plans for him right now, maybe he could help his minion to level up? Certainly, more power in hand would mean no harm.
"Steal the Spotlight is basically robbing a bank. And Super Minion's about to 'making your chief pleased' or whatever that's supposed to mean." Putting the extremely suggestive way of the Root for assigning tasks, that did sound... plain. An ambiguous. There were lots of things Mika could do to please him and...
"No, that's not it! I swear!" He smacked his own forehead as he noticed just what kind of barbarities he was saying seconds ago. He was definitively not going to force his underlings into a bad work environment...
"What?" Mika tilted her head like a cute puppy, though she was far from one. In fact, with that plain look of hers, she looked dumb. Lawrence, like the gentlemen he was, never pointed it out.
"Nothing" he said. "Nothing at all..." He couldn't even start to picture her in that way. It was fairly impossible.
He closed his eyes, looking somewhere in space as he vaguely thought of his next steps...
There was a high-pitched sound, and he opened his eyes suddenly.
"Wha, what?"
Two new tasks have been assigned to you.
He stared at the empty void where such notification had materialized just seconds ago.
"Everything okay?"
"Yes... Yes, everything is okay. Hey, do me a favor and go scout around, would you?" he dismissed her with no better excuse as his mind focused in the notification he had just received. A new task? Now of all times?
"Why so sudden...? Well, whatever. Okay, see you in a couple of hours" she said before disappearing with a puff.
That was a neat trick. Lawrence ought to learn something like that too...
but, back to the point.
"Status"
----------------------------------------
Lawrence Lakewood --- Villain
Meta-ability:
Criminal Mastermind --- Certain actions you make trigger a chain of coincidences that will eventually act on your favor. (Grade: C)
---
Features:
-Facade: While interacting with others, unless purposefully avoided, your thoughts will be unreadable. Affects language and body language as well.
-Silver Tongue: Become an excellent negotiator. Effect wears off after negotiations are done. Cooldown: 2 hours.
---
Pending Tasks:
-First Stain
-Grand Master
-Financial Fiasco
---
20 FP
----------------------------------------
Alright, those sounded shady. Maybe not in the "kill someone" type, but shady nevertheless.
"Let's check upon these new missions" he said as he tried to squeeze the memory of how to check the task board from the memories of his meta-society class.
----------------------------------------
-Grand Master-
Your army makes up your strength. Make your loyal servant grow stronger
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Reward: 20 FP
----------------------------------------
-Financial Fiasco-
Money is what moves the world. Get money to finance your evil deeds.
Reward: +1FP for each 100 Doralls
----------------------------------------
"Hmmm..."
Lawrence went to a nearby sofa and sat, caressing a nonexistent beard as he reflected upon the tasks the Root had assigned to him.
Originally tasks were meant as a system to push meta-humans into acting for the sake of their patron forces. By accomplishing tasks, either the Greater Good or the Utmost Evil would reward you with power. On their side, they gained power through your own actions, thus making you even more powerful, which in return would increase the effect your actions would have on their power... It was, at the same time, an ascending spiral and a mutually beneficial relationship. No wonder metahumans would be so desperate to accomplish new tasks.
Now, how would he take these?
The first was easy. in fact, it complemented with Mika's own task. The problem was the second. It wasn't too hard, per se. However, it was a hidden goldmine which could or couldn't be exploited properly. It was easy to earn one hundred doralls, however small the reward was. However... However, what if actually robbed a bank? Not only he would be rich, but would also gain a lot of points on the road... Of course, no elegant villain with at least a minimum of decency would rob a bank for a reason like that, but even so...
Well, he would have to see. For now, he should check it with Mika.
"Hey minion, what do you think of this... Minion?" He looked around at the lack of an answer. "Minion? Where are you? Minion...? Mika...?"
He was starting to panic. Where had she gone? What if she was going to alert the authorities of everything he had done? Or worse, what if she turned to another villain? That would be a disaster! She was the only part of his army! And she knew all of his plans so far! (Nevermind that they didn't exist)
What did he do wrong? Treat her bad? Sure, he was feeding her properly and giving her a place to stay, but what if that wasn't enough? Maybe she wanted some attention? But what was he thinking! Of course she wanted it! She was an orphan for God's sake! The worst of all was what could happen to her now! Sure, Lawrence wasn't going to have her sitting around all the day doing nothing, but what if the new gang pushed her the bad road? What if they killed her? Lawrence wouldn't be a able to hand that! Sure, they hadn't met until basically two days ago, but she was still basically a child (nevermind her age) and that would be partially his fault...!
"What the hell did I do? Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit... oh... shit... oh..."
...
"...shit?"
Wait.
Hold it there for a second.
Hadn't he...
Hadn't he sent her to scout to send her off?
"I am the idiot-est person in the whole earth"
If he had a mirror right now, he would've died of laughing at himself. Unfortunately (or not) he didn't have one. Also, thanks to his Facade feature, he had kept an extremely cool front (even though he was dying inside), so he kind of imagined a completely serious person said what he had just said with a serious expression and... well, it was kind of funny now that he thought about it.
"Alright, no more panicking like that." He dusted off his pants, got up from the sofa and sighed lightly, shaving off all traces of nervousness on him.
And then, with no previous warning, a tremendous explosion ripped half of his house from its foundation.
----------------------------------------
"Why so sudden...? Well, whatever. Okay, see you in a couple of hours"
After telling the chief she was leaving, she busted in black mist, feeling as her body turned lighter and somehow, timeless as well. As the mist dissipated, she could watch the shadow world in its fullest.
There was no real difference between the shadow world and the real world, except for the lack of color and shadows becoming more... dense here and there. She knew, however, that this was a world only she could see. And only she could get in to.
Feeling smug at how special she was, she felt a pressure upon her body. It was the shadow world's way of telling her she had little time left inside. Once that pressure got to strong, she would be pushed back into the real world. What happened to this place when she got out? It merely sank back to sleep? Or maybe this whole realm was created the moment she got in, and disappeared once she was back out? To be honest, she didn't know. And to be honest, she didn't care either. As long as she could refuge herself from the cruelty of life, even for a scarce couple of seconds.
Ever since she could remember, life had been miserable for her. Living in a forgotten orphanage wasn't pretty. Waking up amidst a mountain of foreign people, fighting with your fists to get a minuscule part of breakfast which tasted like shit, and then leaving to walk on the street and doing whatever was necessary to survive until it was time to return. Then drink a moldy cup of flavorless soup, and going to bed with an eye open to care for people with little-to-none sense of private property or personal space... which was a nice way to say rapers and thieves.
This had been everything she knew. Until she got her super cool powers.
It had been the night he robbed that kind-looking man. She didn't like to steal too much, but years of nearly starving to death had taught her to do what she didn't like. She decided to sleep in one of her secret hideouts, because she knew sleeping in the orphanage with so much money was begging to be attacked. Then, as she fit herself sack slash makeshift blanket in which she knew she was still going to nearly freeze to death...
And then, the message came.
Successfully established a link with Mikaella Brown. Congratulations, Mikaella Brown. Your meta factor has reached critical levels. You have been granted a meta-ability and alignment.
Acquired "Shadowbender"
Your alignment is Villain. May the Utmost Evil give you strength.
Three Feats left before ranking up.
She still felt her hands tremble a little, and even now she wasn't completely sure she had been chosen to use powers. She, of all people! She sometimes had nightmares, where she woke up and everything was just a dream and she didn't have any powers... But that didn't matter. She was strong now. She could face this miserable life of hers and show everyone just who she was...
Even so, not everything in this life was bad.
There were caterpillars. They were green, and wriggly, and kind of cute. And they were just like her: poor little bugs who turned into beautiful things when given the chance.
There were also apples, which were juicy and yummy.
And then there was the chief.
Mika... honestly didn't know what to think of the chief. For firsts, he didn't hate her even if she stole his wallet. Also, why hadn't he turned her in to the police? She was sure he could deal with all the villainy stuff even without her. Then why? Not only that: he offered her a job! Sure, she didn't gain any money, but any food that wasn't stolen or foraged from the dump was ten thousand times better. And his house, oh the house...! It had warm showers, and a fluffy bed that felt like heaven, and she could use a lot of comfy, clean clothes...! She didn't remember how she truly looked like until she took that shower for the first time and looked at herself in the mirror. It was like finding a lost part of her, and it felt so good she actually cried... Though she would never cry in front of other people.
She couldn't lose any of that. She had to do whatever she could to keep this life she liked so much. Only a couple of days had been more than enough for her to feel like the chief's house was a place she could call home. As for the chief... She would have to give it some though, but she was sure he was a good person too. Somehow he seemed to truly care, eve if she didn't know~
A thunderous explosion cut her track of though abruptly. Well, that was weird. Not every day you got to see something like that...
She looked back, trying to figure out the source of the explosion. And then, she saw...
"Chief!!!"
A cloud of black mist came into existence as Mika's silhouette faded into nothingness.
Two miserable days and life had already found a way to screw Mika up...