Mark was woken by a crick in his neck and a dull back ache. After a second of disorientation and confusion, he realized where he was. The park about a thirty-minute walk from his apartment, and his spot was not nearly as secluded as he thought it was last night. There were a group of kids in the distance watching him and speaking amongst themselves excitedly. A middle-aged woman was peering through a nearby apartment window as well.
With a groan, Mark got up and resisted the urge to stretch in front of everyone. Truth be told, he was still sleepy- sleeping in the grass and dirt didn’t make for restful sleep, and he seemed to be going through some kind of extended adrenaline crash. He was hungry as well- he hadn’t gotten to eat dinner the previous night. He sighed as he recalled the incidents of the previous night, and Liquefy. He needed to figure out his next steps.
He had Bitbird hover around him and he used its cameras to find spots where dirt and grass stuck to his costume and brushed it off. He checked the time- ten in the morning. It was swelteringly hot; almost as if to compensate for the rain of the previous day. It was humid and Mark’s costume was sticking and itching against his skin. He pulled at it and scratched a bit, but he needed to take it off and take a shower.
As per his morning ritual, he checked through his devices for information- his location, the distance and paths to areas he could go to, the news. He couldn’t find any mention of his robbery, which wasn’t a surprise he supposed. He checked the usual websites and forums where people gathered to talk about masks and other Abnormals- at a cursory look he couldn’t find any recent pictures or mentions of himself, but he couldn’t count on that for long. The kids in the distance were snapping pictures, especially now that his drone was doing its thing.
Mark tensed when realized that he had received a message. A message to a phone number that no one except him knew. Until Scalpel reached out to him about a month ago, that is. Lucky Guess’ power, Mark figured. With trepidation, he used his power to read through the message.
“If you’re willing to listen to our apology, swing by your apartment before noon. PS: We’ve dealt with your plumbing issue for you. Come and see. -S”
The ‘plumbing issue’ was Liquefy, he supposed- he was probably hiding in some pipes as Mark suspected. The message had been sent only thirty minutes ago. He could get there in another thirty minutes if he wanted. But did he want to?
What did ‘dealt with’ mean? He doubted Scalpel would murder someone on his behalf; did they intimidate him, capture him? Mark wondered if he owed them thanks for that but shook his head. We’re even at the very best.
Now that he had woken up, more people were coming to gawk at him. More cameras, more photos, in and out of his range. The pictures were going to be online sooner or later, and people would start coming after him again, sooner or later. He would have to move again, slip under the radar again, start stealing again and live this ‘life’ again.
“Fuck it”, he muttered, and started walking back to his apartment.
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The first thing he noticed as he approached his apartment was that his car was parked outside on the street. A cursory glance suggested it was in fine condition. Apparently, they had gone through the trouble of bringing it back to him. A friendly gesture.
Still, Mark waited outside for a second and watched through the camera in his apartment room. He saw a handful of people waiting inside, all in costume. His attention was immediately caught however by the person sitting in the middle of the room, facing the door. He was tied up, and from what Mark could tell, he had his mouth, eyes and ears covered. Liquefy. Someone was standing guard right beside him, a hand hovering over Liquefy’s shoulder as if ready to grab him at any second. Someone big. Steelskin.
Mark tried to examine the others, but someone was sitting in front of the camera and their body was blocking too much of the picture. After watching for a few more seconds, he decided he might as well talk to them.
Mark considered what he was going to say as he walked into the building and called the elevator. He decided that he would only speak from his mask this time and took a second to make sure that his artificial voice was as intimidating as ever. He was holding Bitbird in his hand for now, but he would have it hover behind him when he talked to them, in case he needed to tranq any of them. He didn’t have enough darts for all of them, and it wouldn’t work on Steelskin regardless, but it was better than nothing.
As the elevator dinged and the doors rolled open, Mark walked towards the entrance of his apartment. The door was unlocked.
Technique took two deep breaths and opened it.
His apartment was essentially a single room, with a section devoted to a basic kitchen with an attached counter. The apartment didn’t come with much furniture- just a table and two chairs. He had been using his own sleeping bag for a bed.
Liquefy was sitting on one of the chairs, facing Technique and the door. Both his legs and arms were bound, and he had a cloth gag to keep him from speaking. He had some kind of ear muffs over his ears and another rag of cloth covering his eyes. He was seated facing Technique as he entered, and he seemed to pick up enough sound or sight that he perked up at Technique’s arrival. Technique briefly wondered why he wasn’t just turning himself to liquid and slithering out of his restraints, but he turned to look at the others instead.
Right behind Liquefy was Steelskin, as huge and muscled as last night. He wasn’t wearing jeans anymore but some kind of dark cargo pants. He was still wearing the leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders but it wasn’t zipped up. Underneath he was wearing some kind of loose red mesh shirt. He was wearing biker gloves that covered his palms but not his fingers. Unlike yesterday, he wasn’t wearing a ski mask but something more elaborate. It was a red, stylized plate that covered his eyes and forehead but not his nose or mouth. The contours of the eye mask made it seem like his eyes were glaring. When he blinked, Technique noticed that he had painted his eyelids red as well. Finally, he had diagonal streaks of red warpaint or face-paint extending from the corners of his mouth up to his ears. Together with the mask it gave an impression of a half laugh and half grimacing glare. Coupled with his height, Steelskin looked even scarier than ‘Quan’ was the previous night.
Lucky Guess was standing a bit further away to the right, her arms crossed. She was wearing the same costume he had seen her in last time. She nodded at him as his eyes swept over her; her full face mask kept him from reading her expression.
Thinker was sitting in the other chair, an arm resting on the table. He and his third eye watched him with interest, apparently waiting for Mark to speak first.
But Technique looked for the last two members of Scalpel instead. At the furthest corner, a woman was leaning against the wall, situated in such a way that she could see both Liquefy and Technique at the same time. She didn’t bother wearing a mask. Technique had seen her face often enough- she was his only reservation about joining Scalpel- until yesterday at least. Butterfly.
Like Steelskin, she didn’t seem to be wearing any significant body armor. She wore a greyish full body suit that hugged her form tightly. There were no flourishes or stylizations whatsoever. It seemed thickened at some spots such as the knees and elbows, but that was about it. Technique knew that she didn’t wear a mask because no one could find her true identity, himself included. Or perhaps, she didn’t really have a true identity. Despite not wearing a mask, despite knowing that she called herself ‘Laura’, there was no record of where she was born, what her last name was, who her parents were, or anything to suggest she wasn’t just ‘Butterfly’.
Her face was interesting, in a way. Androgynous- she had a strong sharp jawline but ‘softer’ eyes and an aquiline nose. Her hair was a shade of blonde so light it was almost transparent. Beautiful in a way that he could admire, but not quite be attracted to. ‘Ethereal’ was a word that came to his mind. ‘Weird’ was another. She was paying more attention to Liquefy than Technique, and she seemed the tensest in the room, apparently ready for Liquefy to try something.
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Sitting on the kitchen counter, with her legs swinging was the last member of Scalpel. She was the one who was blocking the camera’s view, he supposed. To his surprise, she wasn’t wearing a costume- just blue jeans and a yellow Hercules T-Shirt. She was wearing a makeshift mask- a cloth tied around her neck covering her mouth and nose, but leaving her eyes uncovered. She had dark blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes suggested she was smiling and waved at Technique as he looked at her. He didn’t reciprocate.
Looking at Liquefy, he had his digital voice speak. “Why isn’t he turning into liquid?”
Steelskin shrugged. “My power trumps his.”
He wanted to ask what that meant, but Thinker spoke up instead. “We have him under control, don’t worry. He’s not going anywhere.”
“So what is this? An apology? A present?”
“Among other things”, Thinker replied, standing up and walking closer.
“Yesterday- “, Technique began, but Thinker shook his head, interrupting him.
“We’ll get to that, I promise. We regret the way things played out. But first, we should talk about him”, he said, pointing to Liquefy. “What should we do with him? And more importantly, who should do it?”
“You want me to handle this? You were the ones who captured him!” He was starting to get annoyed again.
Thinker raised his hands in acquiescence. “Hear me out. If that’s what you want, Scalpel can handle this. We intimidate him a bit, tell him to leave, warn him not to come back. Alternatively…”
“I do it myself. Make that transition.”, Technique completed, realizing what Thinker was getting at.
“Gain some rep”, Steelskin put in.
He frowned. It wasn’t actually a bad idea. Technique didn’t know much about intimidation, but if he could pull it off, perhaps word could spread. Perhaps people would be more hesitant about coming after him next time. The only problem was of course that he wasn’t the intimidating type.
“What would I do exactly?” he asked.
When Thinker looked at Lucky Guess, she pulled a phone out of her pocket. He had detected it earlier but assumed it was hers. She held it up in her hand.
“He was smart enough to leave it at his motel before coming after you. But I went back and found it”, she said. Using her power, he guessed.
“Perhaps you could do something with that?” Thinker suggested.
Technique frowned and explored the phone. It was good. He saw two different bank accounts, with money adding up to about seven thousand dollars. There were phone numbers and texts, but both the names and the messages didn’t make sense. The names were just symbols- dots and dashes and numbers. The messages seemed gibberish as well. It was coded.
“He has about seven thousand dollars on this- but I can only transfer about two thousand a day using just the phone.”
“Simple theft isn’t intimidating either.” Lucky Guess added.
Technique nodded. “All his contacts and conversations are coded. I was considering sending a message back to the Happy Family- they’re the ones that put the bounty on me- like to tell them not to come near me again, but I don’t know which one’s them.”, he replied.
The blonde on the counter shrugged and said, “Then send it to all of his contacts.”
Technique frowned.
“Why not? The same effect- just to more people.”, Lucky Guess, said, nodding.
“Do you think it would really make a difference?” Technique was skeptical. Liquefy wasn’t exactly a non-threat, but he wasn’t a famous name either. Did capturing him mean much?
“Not a huge one”, Thinker admitted. “But bigger than you think. And you have to start somewhere, and this kind of stuff adds up. Unless the Family ups their bounty, this would probably discourage some of the bounty hunters out there- you might not be worth it anymore, risk-wise.”
“Hand me the phone?” he asked Lucky Guess. After she handed it over, he had his power unlock the phone and open the camera.
“Do you mind removing his blindfold?” he asked Steelskin. “The more his face shows, the better.” Steelskin grinned but spoke to the girl on the counter instead. “Go hide in the bathroom or something”, he told her. She rolled her eyes but left without complaint. Technique wondered what that was about.
When she was gone, he roughly pulled Liquefy’s blindfold up onto his forehead. His ear muff things were still in place, and his mouth was still gagged.
Liquefy did not seem happy. His face was perpetually watery, as if threatening to turn to goop at any second. His flesh had always hung from body as if barely clinging on. Disgusting, really. And it was worse now. Liquefy looked like he was sweating gallons and the flesh on his face was sagging to give the impression of jowls. His eyes darted around the room in terror, craning his face almost comically to see the others behind him. Technique wondered again why he wasn’t just turning to liquid, but he would ask about that later.
When Technique used Liquefy’s own phone to take images of him bounded and gagged, Liquefy’s eyes were pleading, desperate. He knew he should feel sympathetic, guilty even. But he didn’t. The disgusting asshole deserved this.
He took a few pictures until he had one he was satisfied with. Liquefy bound, almost crying, and looking positively pathetic. His plan was to send it to all of his contacts with a warning. But he paused. What would this warn them of? That he would tie them up and just release them again? No, there would have to be some sort of punishment.
He thought for a second, and smiled.
First, he sent the pictures to every contact on Liquefy’s phone. He then sent the records of all of Liquefy’s conversations on the phone to every contact as well. The conversations were coded of course, but maybe someone could decode them. Finally, he sent Liquefy’s bank details as well- logins, balances and bank statements. Somehow this felt better than robbing him. After a second’s thought, he capped it off with a message.
“A warning for those who come after me. – Technique”
Not as intimidating as he would like, but the pictures and the other stuff would hopefully do most of the work for him.
“Done, I think. What should I do with the phone?” he asked Thinker.
“Would you mind if I keep it?” he asked.
Technique shrugged and tossed it to him. Liquefy’s eyes traced the arc of the phone from Technique to Thinker in horror.
“Now what?”
“We release him. With a stern talking to, of course.”
Technique nodded and gestured to Steelskin to remove the earmuffs. Liquefy immediately began saying something, but it was muffled and incomprehensible beyond his gag.
Technique’s digital voice spoke slowly. “Listen to me.”
Liquefy stopped whatever he was saying and looked at him. There was fear there, but also anger. He wasn’t quite intimidated yet.
“I’ve uploaded those pictures. I’ve uploaded your bank details for your colleagues to steal. And I’ve uploaded your conversations as well. I imagine your coworkers aren’t going to be too happy about that last one.”
Liquefy’s eyes widened in response. Good; it was working. Technique continued.
“And you’d be amazed at how much information can be stored in a phone, all the connections that persist even when you try your best to isolate everything. Privacy was dead long before I came along, and there is nothing I can’t access if I want to. ‘Frank Brimm’ is the fake identity you’re using on this phone. But I know your real name, Arnold.” Technique glanced at Lucky Guess remembering what she had said the previous night, but she didn’t react.
“I know your social security”, Technique continued, “and I know a million other details. You’re unmarried, no surprise there. Hmm, let’s see”, he said, his devices furiously trowling the internet and all his databases as he spoke. Despite his claims, he could only access so much information from a phone. He had found out Liquefy’s identity a while back using his scanning tech, but he didn’t have to bring that up now.
“Your mother, Marta. Does she know what you do? How do you think she would react if she knew your line of work?”
Liquefy squirmed and started speaking under his gag again. The flesh around his face started sliding off down to his neck. Technique took a step back, but Steelskin put a finger on Liquefy’s neck- and Liquefy immediately pulled his flesh back together. Steelskin nodded at Technique to continue.
“I just destroyed your mask career, Arnold. Are people going to want to work with you after you compromised their confidence, after you let their conversations leak? And now that I’ve done it once, I can do it again, from any distance” Another lie. “It would take me moments to empty all your bank accounts and publicize all your private information again. Every time you come after me, you’ll have to rebuild your whole life. This is easy for me, you understand?”
There wasn’t anger in Liquefy’s face anymore. He was crying.
“So tell me you understand me when I tell you to never come anywhere near me ever again.”
Liquefy nodded with vigor.
Technique looked at Steelskin and Thinker. Both of them nodded.
“Leave.”
Within an instant Liquefy and his clothes melted into a orange-red chunky goop that flowed across the apartment floor. Technique stepped away to the side in disgust, and Liquefy darted out through under his front door. Technique opened the door and watched as Liquefy flowed through a crack in the hallway. He stared at it a few more seconds just to make sure he wouldn’t ambush them again.
“He’s gone.”, Lucky Guess spoke.
Taking that as confirmation, Technique closed his door and turned to look at Scalpel.
Steelskin was grinning at him, and the blonde was exiting the bathroom, without her cloth mask this time.
“I guess congratulations are in order”, Thinker said, with a slight smile.
“Congratulations?”
Thinker nodded. “You’ve just taken your first step towards real villainy.”