Revenant did in fact love hearing about this exchange.
Or, to be exact, it was less ‘loved’ and more ‘being reassured that the knight was still on their side more than against them’.
The tests continued. And thus far, they managed to avoid failing them. That was reassuring. Because to be honest, the knight was terrifying. Even to a hardened supervillain like Revenant.
In a more regular environment, the knight wouldn’t be even nearly as much of a threat. They killed enough SS or even SSS-Rank heroes/villains to know how to deal with them. But how could he take down that jackass without suffering the sort of casualties that made it pointless?
The enemy knew the area and their abilities were perfectly tailored to exactly this type of environment. Revenant had no way of getting to him through other people, unless he decided to lose some braincells and threatened to have some civvies executed if the knight didn't come out.
In short, be an idiot and start a war against a potential ally. A potential highly efficient ally, if the knight’s ambush of the Truthseekers command unit was anything to go by. By doing something that was going to end all chances of future cooperation.
Yeah, no.
If he couldn’t get to them through their closed ones/allies, the only reasonable alternative was hitting their support infrastructure (like, a hero agency) or whoever was supplying them with what they needed to continue operating.
Knight was impervious to that tactic too. Revenant has no clue where that guy was getting his supplies. To a degree. He is fairly sure that he robbed the Nazis during his assault on the advance camp, at least judging from how little provisions, explosives and tools they found for such a place.
Revenant acknowledges Decay’s tale, then tells him to go and rest. He was ready to take over. Is it so wrong that he wishes Demiurge or even Mastermind were there, to let them have a talented tactician present at all times?
In the meantime, they are waiting for Demiurge’s group to report back. Destro is tasked with guarding the still unconscious Truthseekers commander (together with a handful of soldiers), just in case.
Revenant contacted the remaining Triumvirate members, elaborated upon the situation and said that moving out as soon as possible is the only option. Thankfully, they were reasonable. Lois Knight agreed to urge the people to prepare for the journey while Wilcher was tasked with doing the inventory of their stocks, a job to do together with Clockmaker. Deciding how much stuff they can take with them.
He also sent someone to recover one of the Uragan-B bombs (Humility told him where it was before leaving, just in case it turned out useful) to prepare it for being set-up near the battlefield.
In short, Revenant did what had to be done, delegated the new jobs to the right people, and what was left to him was waiting for the reports to formulate the next step of his plan.
The best/worst part of being a first league mastermind? If you are disorganized and chaotic in your activity, it means you’re about to die.
Everyone - everyone - on that level was good at planning. Which included planning your own timetable. Revenant spent maybe twenty minutes after he woke up (and thanked Hypothermia for still being there before telling her to go to sleep because sitting for so long had to be taxing) figuring out his plan.
He did it while eating breakfast. He could multitask. Although at the cost of eating his breakfast with a rather absentminded look on his face.
Then about two hours of issuing orders. In just the correct sequence. While using the commplant’s communication feature to make sure that the message reached their destination immediately.
Then, free time.
All while waiting for the hammer to drop.
***
The Truthseekers’ officer woke up an hour later, just to start yelling expletives at Destro and demanding to be let out. Or else.
Revenant decides that the man was delusional from that alone.
The officer belonged to one of the most evil organizations out there, with a history of using small armies of completely expendable clone troopers. His belief that he was any less expendable to the Truthseekers Corporation than the clones under his command was laughable.
He was a card to be thrown away whenever it benefited the Corporation. And yet, he had the shortsightedness to think that the corporate overlords he was serving would come to save him.
If they did break him out, it would be just to find out how much he told his captors only to promptly execute him for the crime of failure and getting caught. The Corporation must have had thousands of goons with a delusion of importance to fill the gaps.
Corporations don’t strike Revenant as the group from which you expect to respond to failure of this magnitude with help and support. Neither do fanatic cults or organizations of mad scientists. Truthseekers were all three of those.
That told him a lot about the man. Aside from his command skills, he was a fanatic idiot. But he could be a useful fanatic idiot.
“What’s the official way of treating captives from the Corporation in the Confederation of Mankind?” Revenant asks Destro calmly, the giant man temporarily replaced at the guard duty by Virtue.
They weren’t far from the captive’s cell. Revenant wanted to get it done as soon as possible. There was no need to wait.
Having such a talk in the middle of a corridor was an odd choice. Then again, it was rare for someone to wiretap a corridor. And Revenant had his praetorians to guard both sides of the corridor in a safe distance.
“Death.” Destro replies calmly. “Preceded or not by appropriate interrogation. Kept alive only if there is a practical reason for this, and always temporarily. But…”
“But?” Revenant asks. He acknowledges the fact that Destro omitted one thing from the list. Psychological reprogramming of people without human rights was, technically, legal. Then again, that could as well be considered a form of an execution.
“But the RPC has a bit of a different approach to the issue.” Destro replies. “They refuse to accept the idea that any group of humans has the right to deny the human rights of an entire community, regardless of the reasoning behind it. Their representatives have always abstained during every expulsion vote.”
Abstaining, in this case, meant washing their hands off the whole situation. A rather laughable attempt to preserve your moral high ground, in Revenant’s opinion. But the fact that they’ve attempted at least that much meant a lot.
For as much as he understood the modern Galaxy, not a lot of groups bothered to do even that much.
“And what about the court proceedings?” Revenant asks then.
He isn’t leaving it all to Destro. Having an individuality like Mastery robs him of any sort of excuse for slacking off with learning. For him, it’s a swift and pleasant activity (if you exclude the headaches, but those are a normal and unremarkable part of life for him at this point).
His girlfriends understand that they consented to having their boyfriend spend a lot of time with his nose in a variety of reading material the moment they choose him of all people to spend their life with. Even Onslaught was only putting in token complaints (that quickly vanished for as long as he gave her a kiss on a cheek or a hug).
His advisors are better or comparable to him on their own, narrow fields, but he requires at least the basic understanding of the subject. Thus he doesn’t need Destro’s political acumen to know that there were two groups that had the power to invoke the highest sanction in the Confederation.
The Supreme Council of Mankind was the legislative power of the organization, composed of more than ten thousand representatives of all member states of the Confederation. It was, naturally, a mess. If it had any actual power, it would mean the end of the Confederation. Most of the member states would immediately refuse to follow any laws voted in by the Council.
It was a glorified discussion circle… and a neutral diplomatic ground where people had to talk with each other instead of shooting each other. But the results of the voting for expulsion still had certain implications.
Voting in favor of such a motion was a very big sign of hating someone, even if you knew for certain that it wouldn’t lead anywhere.
The second one was the Supreme Tribunal of Mankind. One hundred and one judges picked to proceed the most important court cases. Those about the violation of the Founding Charter or the Icarus Accord, two of the most important documents ever.
The former laid the foundation for the legal system of the Confederation, but the only really important parts of it included stuff such as the ban on saturation bombardments of habitable planets. New version of Geneva convention, in short.
The latter was almost entirely composed of technological bans. Most of them courtesy of their friendly little AI, as their exploits during the Icarus Station massacre lead to the Accord being created in the first place.
That was one hell of a thing to write in your CV.
The Truthseekers Corporation was expelled by the Tribunal ruling. Like an overwhelming majority of the groups that went through similar treatment.
“They abstain as well.” Destro replies. “Officially, that is. The most extreme cases are often dealt with… confidentially. In the most extreme of extreme cases, like the Fimbulvinter Protectorate, the country was sanctioned and annihilated despite the accusations never being made public. HUMILITY refused to explain what happened there to me when I asked, but they stated confidently that it was the correct course of action.”
Revenant is nearly certain that NIGHTMAREs were involved. ‘Fimbulvinter’ - being a name for a three-years long horrible winter preceding Ragnarok in old Norse mythology - was also a rather suspicious choice for a name of a country.
“So, you suspect that they might not be voting in favor officially, but often they don’t oppose or even support the motion when the media weren’t looking.” Revenant replies. Destro nods. “The knight is probably attached to the ideological rather than pragmatic approach of his betters. Then again… he feels pragmatic enough himself.”
“Yes.” Destro replies. “What it boils down to is that the RPC doesn’t execute captives from groups like the Corporation by default. They are judged for their crimes, individually. Most of them are eventually executed, but there are exceptions here and there. Especially the people that ended up realizing their mistakes and genuinely strived for redemption.”
Revenant would have laughed at that, but for once he decided to restrain his cynicism. Because with the understanding of local technology, he is certain that all hopes for redemption can be verified. Beyond any reasonable doubt.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Well, I guess that… what was his name, again?” Revenant asks.
“Enlightened Udo Weber.” Destro replies. What a lovely title for a fanatic.
“Then it seems that the best way to satisfy our friend on the outside is to keep Weber alive.” Revenant decides. “At least until we manage to gather everything we need for a proper trial.”
A proper trial before he gets - inevitably - executed. The outcome was certain, the rest was just fulfilling appropriate procedures.
“You’re playing along with him?” Destro asks, squinting at Revenant.
“I see no reason not to.” Revenant replies. “The knight is… useful, for as long as he is testing us. His ambush decapitated the Truthseekers unit. Their top officers died. Most of their combat data was lost. What will make it back to their HQ will be much less detailed than it might have been. This is extremely beneficial to us.” He stays quiet for a few seconds, thinking it over. “Interrogations aren’t a problem for the RPC, right?”
“For as long as they aren’t accompanied with permanent mental or physical harm, no.” Destro replies. That would be a massive setback for Revenant’s plans, but… with people like Overhaul (or even Chronoshift in case of Weber’s mind snapping completely) at his disposal, he could do nearly everything.
Funny thing, that. Because he planned to do nearly everything.
“Splendid.” Revenant replies calmly. “I’ll do the initial interrogation tomorrow morning.”
It was a bit of an embarrassing thing to say, but that particular part of his interrogation expertise was based heavily on the methods of the Imperial Inquisition in the Warhammer 40k franchise.
He always started his interrogations with a close and tender talk. Quite often that was all that he needed to get what he wanted.
“Who are you going to involve in this?” Destro asks. Something in his face tells him that he has a point to make.
“Overhaul, Kitsune and Hypothermia.” Revenant replies, eyeing Destro curiously. “Songbird was my dedicated interrogation specialist, but… she’ll be there for it once it really starts.” It was a nicer way of saying ‘torture expert’. Destro looks at him without a word. “What is it?”
“I think that Onslaught should be there as well.” The man then says the words that Revenant expected to hear the least.
It wasn’t often that Revenant found himself completely surprised by something. But it was certainly one of those cases. Even then, on the outside, there was little to no indication of the shock he just felt.
“Elaborate.” He says. Calmly.
“When I was dead, you’ve managed to overtake me in terms of experience and skills in most fields.” Destro replies. “I’m fine with admitting that. It’s the nature of the world that children are better than their parents. after all.” Revenant gives him a tired look. “But the one field that you’re not better than me is the experience in terms of relationships, especially when one of you is a villain.”
The irony is that Destro became a supervillain after his wife’s death. What he was talking about was the experience of being in a relationship with a villain. Even if not a very serious one.
Long before becoming the head of the People’s Liberation Front and instigating the First Villain War alongside Archvile, he was an actual senator, elected to the US Congress with support from the Freedom’s Party.
During the chaos of the early years after Wishgranter, it wasn’t uncommon for paramilitaries to spring up here and there. Destro’s wife was a head of one of such groups employed for ‘security’ by the Freedom’s Party.
Haven’t done a lot of serious crimes and was never prosecuted for anything (in big part thanks to their friendly Party legal support and downright lobbying), but an illegal individuality usage was an illegal individuality usage. If you did it, you were a villain.
Even with the individuality as weak as her Double Tap and even if Anna Stanton was a villain before the villain names became the cultural norm that they were today.
In Destro’s opinion, his daughter inherited most of her mother’s personality. This opinion was strengthened when she accidentally revealed her ‘true’ self to him after his resurrection.
He really sees his younger self in Revenant. Calm, rational and logical man in relationship with a walking ball of destruction and chaos that added some much needed life into their daily… well, lives. Yeah, it’s just that Revenant was that but more. At least twice as much, as Hypothermia really can’t be counted as a ‘ball of destruction of chaos’. Quite the opposite.
Do two balls of chaos and one ball of emotional stability partially negate each other into just one ball of chaos? Does it really matter?
“I don’t think that interrogating people counts as a cool date idea.” Revenant replies. He can’t picture anyone, even Kitsune, finding it romantic. Aside from some really insane people like Songbird. “And I’m not sure if I want her to see me and her two sisters indulge in something like that. I’m hoping to be able to stop doing things like that and…”
“And that’s the reason why she should be there.” Destro cuts in. There aren’t a lot of people that can get away with doing that to him.. But he is one of them without a doubt. And there are no people around that he wants to keep an image for. Instead of doing anything severe, Revenant simply looks at him questioningly. “Onslaught needs to see you, needs to see them acting like you all used to while we were dead.”
“Why?” Revenant asks shortly.
“It’s simple.” Destro replies. “Villainy is something that demands dishonesty. It’s a way of life that is almost entirely based on it. There are people who can live like that, who can have a long-term relationship without honesty. But you four? You don’t work that way. That means that the biggest threat to what you have going is doubt.”
“Doubt in each other’s honesty?” Revenant asks. Destro nods. “I can’t imagine…”
“... my daughters and Kitsune doubting you?” Destro cuts in again. Revenant ignores the slight pangs of anger at that. “That’s because thus far you’ve been open with each other about everything. Everything. Because you’ve persuaded them that your goal is reforming yourself. That they could help in that and that you needed their help in that. Hiding things from Onslaught will only make her angry at you. Potentially suspicious. Worst of all, polygamy makes things more complicated, as you also need to consider the relations between them. You want Onslaught to properly understand Kitsune, and see how much Hypothermia changed while she wasn’t there.”
Revenant stays quiet, staring at Destro for a few lengthy seconds.
“You’re afraid of what Onslaught is going to see.” Destro states (not asks). When Revenant still says nothing, he speaks for him. “That only proves that I’m right, you know?”
He hates to agree with him, but Destro might be onto something. And even if he agrees, it was only going to be the initial talk, right? He should at least ask Oni. If she says no, that would be all.
***
Demiurge expected - hell, partially hoped for - any sort of significant resistance on the Engineering Deck. But she got none of it. Oh, there was a relatively heavy resistance, the place was crawling with NIGHTMARE/VIRIDIAN’s reanimates. But…
‘Heavy resistance’ in this case meant the sheer number of the enemies. Not the threat that they provided. It was heavy but, in the scale of things, insignificant. It didn’t stop them, it couldn’t stop them. It only delayed them.
Humility has managed to hack into the ship’s security system. Not deep enough to use the active part of it, but the camera feed and all the sensors were on their side by now. They knew where the overwhelming majority of the enemies were.
The few that by sheer dumb luck were outside of it (typically at some odd corners of the maintenance spaces) were detected by Songbird’s individuality long before they could hope to do any damage.
Reanimates’ speed was subpar. Despite that, they could still pose a serious threat if amassed in the correct place. Demiurge could imagine them - with their complete lack of self-preservation instinct - to be dangerous if used as suicide bombers, for example.
However, that required some sort of overarching mind, capable of issuing orders to them. Capable of piling up the bodies against the enemies. Capable of understanding the sort of informational advantage the enemy had and trying to work around it.
Without it, it was an overglorified mop-up operation. Interesting aesthetic (planet warped by an eldritch abomination, zombies created by another eldritch abomination, spaceship from the Roman Empire), but not much more than that.
Amplitude snaps her finger, and the head of the reanimate that stumbled from beyond the corner of the corridor explodes before the zombie can do anything, or even realize that they were under attack.
Explosions were one of the things that Amplitude could do through her perfect control of temperature. Rapid freezing and warming lets one do a lot of interesting things.
“Stop making a mess.” Demiurge chides her lover. “We need to burn everything. Every bit of organic matter. You scattering it around is only going to make it harder.”
Amplitude glances back at her, rolling her eyes visibly behind the glass of her gas mask.
“It’s boring.” Amplitude complaints. “Boring! That’s worse than dealing with Armageddon’s drones, they at least could coordinate their maneuvers. This is just a goddamn grind!”
Amplitude was sometimes a bit… childish. Although Demiurge hated to put it that way. The better term was ‘untethered’. She didn’t really care about most social norms. She didn’t really care about a lot of things aside from their own enjoyment.
She changed a lot from their school time. She was an asocial girl back then, observing life from the side of the road.
Demiurge was perfectly fine with how her character developed. And she elected to ignore the fact that her past was apparently a lie written by someone that she couldn’t garotte to death.
Was it a rule that every mastermind out there was inevitably falling in love with their exact counterpart, personality-wise? Demiurge would have expected it to work differently, for them to look for someone that they could connect to intellectually, but…
Maybe it was something that they subconsciously looked for to avoid having their emotional sides shrink and die by always being ruthlessly logical and pragmatic? To avoid becoming an emotionally stunted husk of a man?
Like Mastermind?
“Fine, fine, it is quite boring.” Demiurge admits. She doesn’t even bother to avoid setting up flags. She wants them to be set up. “Use your imagination, though. Imagine something nice.”
Humility was with Palmer a few rooms, corridors and hallways away, busy working on the reactivation of the ship’s main reactor. Despite that, Demiurge was fairly sure that the AI could multitask.
Thus, with the cameras and microphones likely around them, Demiurge had to work around with that in mind. As a result, she said ‘something nice’, but she actually meant ‘slowly and viciously murdering Revenant and everyone he ever loved’.
Songbird giggles in the background. She had the correct image in her mind, most likely. Then again, Demiurge isn’t sure if she cared about who she was butchering in her mind. It was a very simple and terrifying mind.
“Mmmmm.” Amplitude lets out. She understood it as well. “That’s a nice vision. Right now I’d prefer to imagine something nice with you, though. Or, to be more exact, you without something on.”
Demiurge is really looking forward to celebrating once the Aesculapius will be fully theirs. Surely, she can piece up some interesting things (or just a good old booze) from its stores of chemicals, right?
And she’s absolutely taking the captain’s bed for a test drive before handing it (temporarily) to Revenant.
Because fuck you, Revenant. She needs no other motivation to do that.
ACORN: running final procedures all systems nominal
ACORN: the reactor will be on in a few minutes
ACORN: the security system are slowly breaking apart
ACORN: i’ll have full control in a few minutes
Demiurge sighs. So much about getting to flirt some more. Humility was doing their best to make the mastermind hate the AI even more.
SUNRAY: So we’re about to move to the full purge of the ship, right?
ACORN: yes
ACORN: i should be able to locate everyone through their commplants tracking function
ACORN: the biohazard sensors should also tell us when the NIGHTMARE/VIRIDIAN is completely purged from the ship
“Oh, great.” Amplitude groans. “More grind. You think that the Revebitch had a better, funnier time back there? That we missed something fun while on this field trip?”
Having issues with mass-killing of people (even if zombies, some of them were children) due to it being boring rather than it being mass-killing of people was a very Amplitude thing to say.
Then again, it was also a very Demiurge thing to think.
“I sincerely hope not.” Demiurge replies. “I hate him enough already, no need to make it worse.”
***
You remember the rules and so do I.
Onslaught's mom (while much younger and, well, alive).
Obraz [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1142152652864626789/1152171538116792380/image.png]