Scene 26 - May 30th

Interior High Stakes Bar, Continuous

Quinn Kaufman

Hertz turned out to be an petite, curvaceous woman with a spiky black pixie cut, wearing a dark-colored skirt and a sunflower-pattern blouse. La Borda, standing just behind her, was taller and thinner, her equally-dark hair rolling down to her shoulders in waves. She wore a full suit, but also bore what must have been the jacket to Hertz’s outfit folded over one arm. She also looked at least ten years younger than her wife, oddly.

“Alessandra DeVitto,” Hertz introduced herself, offering a hand to me with a pleasant smile. “But please, call me Essa! Everyone else does.”

“Nice to meet you, Essa,” I said, shaking her hand.

“The tall drink of water next to me is my wife, Maria,” she said as La Borda shook Holly’s hand. “I understand you two just graduated?”

“Uh, yes,” I said as they pulled up a pair of chairs to sit at the end of the table - Maria slid a chair beneath Essa as she sat without either saying a word, in what looked like a very practiced motion. “Is that DeVitto like the DeVitto gallery?”

Essa clapped her hands together under her chin, clearly pleased, as Maria left. “Yes! I funded the place - I’m glad you know it! I’m quite a fan of the arts, you know, although I’m not really talented myself. Are you an artist?”

I scratched the back of my head, a little uncomfortable. She certainly seemed nice... “I, uh... I try? I haven’t really had the time,” or the mental energy, I privately thought, “to do much for a while now, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get back to it now that I’ve graduated. I won’t be juggling school and work anymore.”

“I quite understand. What about you?” She asked Holly.

“I’m an artist, yes.”

“Wonderful! I wonder if I saw your work at the event this winter?” she mused. She probably had - Holly had submitted a piece to the MLED’s winter art show, although I hadn’t.

“Maybe.”

“I, uh... I’m a little unfamiliar with the etiquette here,” I said. “I’ve never met a supervillain out of costume before.”

Essa shrugged. “There’s not really a specific etiquette. I’m not the most formal person out there - our clothes aside - and the Mountain King’s rules are more about how to treat civilians than other metas.” Maria returned with two glasses of beer, handing one to her wife, and she took a sip. “If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but this is mostly just... we’re friends of Miriam, and I like to think that we’re friends of Abe and Emilia as well. This is just mutual friends introducing us to each other, yes?”

“...I suppose so.”

“I have a question,” Holly said.

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“Ask away!”

“Why are you okay with us knowing your identities?”

Essa raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“...because we’re on opposite sides?”

“Are we?” She took another sip of beer. “The fact is, what you as heroes want is not an end to crime - at least not for its own sake. What you want is for as few people to be hurt as possible, right?”

“...that’s not entirely wrong,” Holly allowed.

“Maria and I don’t go out and hurt people senselessly,” Essa explained. “We even do our best not to harm people accidentally. And we impose those rules on those who follow us as well. Oh, sure,” she said, waving a hand dismissively, “there are occasional skirmishes with the Buff Boys, but they cause much more damage than we do. And occasionally there are... irate customers, let’s say... who need to be discouraged, but you would do the same thing if you saw a woman being menaced, sex worker or not, yes?”

“...yes,” I admitted.

“So, we both do the same thing,” she chirped happily. “We maintain peace over what we can, and prevent people from being hurt! The only difference is that you’re backed by the government, and I make much more money.”

“See, it sounds like you’re saying that you fund pimps and run protection rackets,” I said, sipping my beer.

“Don’t forget the gambling dens,” she reminded me. “But we don’t fund pimps - that’s not as safe for the workers. We maintain brothels, it’s a lot more secure and easier to make sure everyone involved is safe - both physically and sexually.”

“And you just out and say it, huh.”

“I’m not ashamed of it - I’ve made things better for sex workers in this city.” Her eyes danced wickedly as she offered, “I can give you a coupon if you want to see for yourself.”

I nearly choked on my beer as Holly cut in. “No, thank you,” she said with a glare, and Essa laughed. “But I don’t think that answered my question.”

“Oh yes, why am I okay with you knowing my identity.” Essa took a long draft of her beer, finishing it, then turned to Maria. “Would you mind getting me a second glass, dear?”

“Of course,” Maria murmured, taking it as she rose. She leaned over for a moment and kissed her wife on the top of her head, and Essa hummed happily.

“It’s a mutually assured destruction thing, basically,” the supervillain told us. “I find that having a good working relationship with superheroes is much easier when I can destroy you if necessary thanks to knowing your secret identity. And heroes find that possibility much more palatable when they know mine, and can tell themselves that they could do the same.”

“...just tell ourselves that, huh?” I observed. “You don’t think we actually could?”

She shrugged. “More that I don’t think you would. I’m a much better option as a crime lord than anyone else short of the Mountain King, else I would have been toppled years ago. Combine that with your heroic obsession with doing the right thing, and I find it hard to believe that you would use my identity against me.”

“...she’s got us pegged, Loki,” I observed.

“Essentially,” Essa continued, “I’m quite all right with you knowing who I am. It’s not as though I don’t know who you are.”

I blinked.

“What,” Holly said flatly.

“The MLED isn’t as leak-free as it likes to pretend,” she said as Maria returned with another glass for her. “That said, Quinn, Holly, would you terribly mind if we set business talk aside and pretended to be civilians for a little bit? I have a new friend I’m trying to poach from her current employer, and unlike Maria, she’s not aware of your identities - she thinks I’m just introducing her to some of my friends.”

I swallowed my anger and, as usual, looked to my best friend for guidance. She bit her lip, thinking, but after a moment she said, “Fine. Remember us.”

“Thank you.” Essa blinked in surprise. “Hm. I thought you were blonde.”

“No,” Holly coldly said.

“Well, in any case. Abe, Emilia, you’re alright with it, yes?”

“Any friend of yours is a friend of ours,” Emilia assured Emma, emerging from the quiet conversation she and Abe had been having while we spoke with Essa.

“Then Maria, dear, would you mind fetching her?”