"Hey. Are you really done?" I asked and lightly tapped Army Ant's broken arm with my foot. To my great relief, she didn't budge at all.

I was tempted to celebrate, but we were still in too open an area. I grabbed the unconscious body by the ankles and dragged her to the edge of the building as fast as I could, which was still pretty slow. I always forgot how god damn heavy grown adults were. With a little more effort, I pushed her onto the broken fire escape. Most of the ladders were either partially or entirely missing, but that didn't really matter to me. I carefully maneuvered her down one deck and just left her there.

I looked at the drop-down from where I stood, and the skeleton of the fire escape before me. This shouldn't be a problem. As a hero I often needed to find good vantage spots and hiding places to connect to an enemy's mind without danger, so learning how to free climb had been one of the first steps on my to-do list after High School.

I had gotten a bit rusty, of course, and had more difficulty pulling it off than I had imagined, but even so, I found myself back on ground level after just a minute, give or take.

I hurried around the corner to check on my compatriots. The first one I noticed? Jess, of course, but I was a little bit surprised to see the other three had stuck around as well.

It seemed like Slugger had....secreted, I guess, her slime on the other Army Ant's, probably as a precaution. Toy General stood next to Jess, who held her hand out as his soldiers were crawling all over it and her arm. Smooth Criminal was running his mouth as usual. He was the first to spot me.

"Ah, my dear Master Controller. You return to us at last. Let me state here that I had never any doubt you would emerge victorious and handle the unpleasant situation yo..." he started but stopped when I just walked past him and hurried over to Jess. "How very rude....."

When I arrived the plastic toys jumped off her arm revealing a freshly applied bandage around the hand that had been pierced by Tin Triumph, as well as a makeshift splint around her broken wrist. "Everything alright, Witchling?" I asked.

She chuckled, but it was clear from the strained look on her face that she was still in a lot of pain. "You're asking me? You're the one who got taken by a hero. I should be the one asking." She stretched out her arm to give me a better look at her improvised brace. "It'd probably be a lot worse without these guys." She waved at the soldiers and they returned the favor. Now that I was looking at them more clearly, these toys were a bit smaller than the others and had a big red cross painted on both their fronts and backs. "I'd still like to go see a Family Doctor if ya don't mind." I nodded.

Family Doctor was the widely used term for criminal physicians who work directly for or have a partnership with the BHF. Like almost all BHF services save for fences, the prize point was directly proportional to your notoriety and proficiency. Low-tier villains had access to what was quite probably the cheapest Healthcare in America. Not that it was actually cheap, just cheaper than the legit alternatives.

"Sure. We'll go in a minute. Let me just finish up here real quick." I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze....well, as reassuring as I was capable of.

I looked around and went up to Slugger, who had sat down on one of the Army Ant's while the last of her excess slime dripped off her. "Hey. My body is going to go limp for a bit in a minute. Can you keep watch?"

She looked up at me and grinned widely. "Sure thing. I need to dry off anyway. But if you take longer than 10 or so minutes I can't promise we'll still be here. Too risky. So keep that in mind." I nodded and eyed every unconscious drone one by one, trying to decide which to choose.

"What, pray tell, are you planning? Surely not yet another possession?" the glamorous pretty-boy interjected.

I shook my head and went up to the Army Ant I had taken over initially. She was lying next to the broken wall the other body had freed herself from. "Of course not. I'll tell you later. Now let me concentrate."

There was rarely a time I had unfiltered access to an immobile hero, so I decided to make the best of it. To do that I prepared to use the final gadget in my metaphorical toolbox. Deep Thought.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Deep Thought was the ability to enter someone's mindscape. It gave you the ability to fully read someone and find out pretty much anything you wanted about them, to freely peruse their memories and thoughts. An unparalleled tool for gathering information. But information was not what I was after.

.

I focused on the unconscious hero and prepared myself. Using Deep Thought was an entirely different beast than any of my other Powers. It was less of a connection and more of an invasion. Even Possession, which I would count as displacement, relied on having formed a mental link beforehand. But not Deep Thought.

It was also a lot riskier. Mind reading and Thought left both me and the victim free to do whatever we pleased. Possession left my body vulnerable, but it also took out one enemy completely. A fair tradeoff. Deep Thought on the other hand not only left me vulnerable but also unable to both act and perceive the world around me, while not restricting the victim at all. At least not immediately. There were very few opportunities for me to use it safely, so whenever one presented itself, I pounced.

After about a minute of concentration, I was finally ready. The world around me turned a bright white.....

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Deep Thought had been a tricky thing to figure out at first. I looked around the featureless white void. Every mindscape worked slightly differently, and it was all filtered through the victim's mental perception of things. When you got into the nitty gritty personal details of someone's mindscape you were bound to come across a lot, and I mean A LOT, of cryptic symbolism. And since it's all personalized even if I saw the exact same thing in two different mindscapes, they would more than likely mean completely different things. Luckily, I was going for something near the top layer of the mind. A recent memory. These were usually clear and free of difficult-to-parse abstractions.

I concentrated on myself. Not Master Controller, the Villain. But me, the person. Soon, a scene materialized in front of me. A familiar scene. Me, being escorted to an ambulance for a check-up. Leotigris' burned body and hideous exposed skeleton lying on the scorched asphalt. Army Ant next to me, trying to reassure me. This was the only one of her memories involving my uncostumed civilian persona.

I had flirted with her a bit back then, just for fun and to calm myself down a little. It had flustered her quite a bit. And while that exchange ended with me getting her number, I seriously doubted there were any real feelings involved. She was known as a bit of a brute, so while I didn't doubt she had a lot of friends, I figured that she was rarely approached romantically. Too intimidating.

But this was great. I focused on her memory of me in greater detail. Thin strands of colored light began to emit from my facsimile and connected to the hero's self-image. Interesting. So emotional bonds were presented as light in her mind. Definitely one of the less obtuse metaphors I'd seen.

I ran my hand through all of them and let the feelings flow through me. It was just like I thought. There was some weak affection, but it was barely present and definitely not romantic. But while that was what I had been looking for originally, I had found something much more exploitable. One of the strands of light, the green one, gave me a very, very faint feeling of trust. It was barely there, but that was all I needed. I refocused on that particular strand.

Usually, all Deep Thought allowed one to do was explore a mindscape. Interacting with it in any way was impossible. That was one of the reasons why people with Deep Thought didn't have to disclose their Power to potential employers and spouses despite so many other Mental Powers requiring you to do so. There was no possibility of illegal mind alteration. But mine was different.

The green strand slowly thickened and became more vibrant and luminous. When I felt a slight pressure build up in my head I immediately stopped. With my specific brand of Deep Thought, I was theoretically capable of completely altering my victim's personality in any way I saw fit. It was a marvelous Power. But it came with risks.

Army Ant being unconscious mitigated them somewhat, but they were still present. Right now, I was a hostile invader. The mind has a desire to protect itself from creatures like me. I could look around however long I wanted without being bothered, but once I started messing with things it became tricky.

Every manipulation brought with it a chance that my victim's mind would forcefully evict me. This had three major consequences. First, it left me reeling and confused once back in my own body, which almost never boded well. Second, it made the victim fully aware that their mind had been invaded. And third, it not only reverted all adjustments I had made but also prevented me from ever entering that person's mindscape again.

But fortunately, I was already done here. I did not know quite yet how I would make use of her, but having a Hero fully trust my civilian persona was never not useful. With a satisfied smirk, I relaxed myself and exited the void.

-------------------------------

It only took a second or two to reacclimatize to the world around me. Much easier than Possession. "Back in the land of the living?" Slugger asked, still seated atop the drone.

"More or less." I answered, getting back up on my feet.

"Right." Toy General said. "Let's retreat then. We've already been here too long."

All of us nodded in agreement. "Now then, my friends. I bid you farewell and a marvelous trip to the good doctor." Smooth Criminal exclaimed joyfully and offered me his hand. I guess he deserved at least this much after saving our asses. I took it in mine, shuddering at the unnatural smoothness and near impossibility of getting a good grip, and shook it. "Then let us be off, dear companions. Back to our humble abode." He turned and walked down the alley, disappearing around a corner.

"You better not spend all of your loot. We want 10% for bailing you out." Slugger said.

"I guess that's fair." I responded and she went to follow her friend with a small wave.

"Attention, company! Move out!" Toy General bellowed and his little army saluted him and started marching homeward. I guessed they were going to use the manhole a bit further in. Before he went to leave, he turned to me and Jess. "When you come back, knock at our door. Smooth wants to hold a little celebration for you two. You'll be the talk of the town for at least a day or so. Let's toast to that."

Before I could reply anything Jess let out a "Hell, yeah!" and with that I had no choice but to begrudgingly agree.

"We'll be there."

Toy General gave us a thumbs up and hurriedly followed after his soldiers.

When he was gone I turned to Jess, who tried her best to give me a wide smile. I sighed.

"Now, let's get you to a doctor."