I’m in a bad mood. A darker mood than usual at least.

Pretend you’re a dealer. A dealer for supe wannabes.

Crap.

Was it the Government Agent ordering me around?

Either that or he had forgotten to eat any lunch today again but the sheer hunger pangs which he had chosen to ignore were simply making him far more irritable than usual. A mask was a mask, this one belonged to him now.

This particular one was a dark blue with white tiger stripes. Frank had been able to make out his appearance in the reflective metals of the containment boxes. His blue eyes shone through the mask. Frank took the plain-looking grey hoodie and wore it over his clothes.

Baggy enough to reach down past the suit trousers and helped to make his figure look less distinguishable. His body although strong wasn’t jacked up to the point where he would stand out in a crowd it was enough to make sure that it was unlikely that anyone passing would stop and hassle him.

Besides a person wearing a hoodie at this time of day was going to be ignored. After a minor supe street fight, he’d be considered another nosy tourist looking to keep his privacy but still turning up to look at the damage and drool over what might have been if he had sufficient power.

At least, that was the look that Frank was trying to go for. Now, that everything had been tidied away he realised that there was one item lying on the ground. The package that he had been given by the owner of the used supe costume shop, Shelly. It looked insignificant given its size, around the size of a small briefcase.

Grabbing it with his hands he felt the sheer solidness of the package. It felt rigid and tightly compacted and could be useful in some way Frank thought. She’d never given him anything for free before and he’d never asked for a handout.

As long as it’s not a cape I don’t mind.

With his hoodie on and now dressed Frank was ready for his debut at the shop. Or rather the converted and modified basement underneath it.

He decided to stuff the brown package into his baggy hoodie and hold it up by putting his hands into his pockets. He could always drop it off later once he reached the hidden entrance to the auction that would be taking place shortly.

The most important thing for him to have right now was the metallic locked suitcase that contained all of the products that he needed to have on sale. If he were careful enough, he could either try to stuff it under his hoodie but walking around with an expensive-looking piece of luggage that had secure locks in a baggy-looking hoodie was just asking to be noticed.

Recalling that he had kept one of the shrink-wrapped plastic bags he wrapped it around the case and tucked it under his arm.

Now he just needed to get a move on back to the shop and enter the basement section from a hidden door in the back. Then his real fight of the day was going to begin. It made him feel slightly nervous every single time but he felt his nerves tingle slightly.

His best friend was already there at the shop dealing with them and she had called and asked for his direct help. At the very least, she was a good friend who was in dire need of direct support, Frank ran his hands over his clothes making sure the baggy hoodie covered him before he began a fast-paced walk back to the shop in a non-direct path.

Being caught with a mask on was nothing if one of the big super villains, corporations found out what he was carrying with him. He’d gotten away with it a few times now and as long as he was careful and that Agent Evie kept her distance this time would work smoothly as well.

He hoped.

***

Benny was having some issues with the clientele at the moment. It was relatively minor though. They weren’t causing trouble but rather showing off like peacocks or fancy colourful birds who wanted to compete about who had the brightest feathers.

It wasn’t related to the females in the room either, some of the young men were dressed in flowing capes with mock fur and pirate boots. They had swiftly separated into small, excited groups once they had entered the converted basement. Several of the more muscle-bound ones had stuck together, they were interested in power over their muscle groups and sheer strength.

The area was brightly lit similar to an auction house with brightly lit grey walls fixed white seating and a large stand on the front for the auctioneer to sell products. Images of heroes and villains in various costumes and poses adorned the walls, a projector ran through static stock footage that Frank had been able to take or purchase.

The rows of seats were covered in plush faux green velvet with gold-painted edges. All in all the room had been specifically designed to give a strong impression of wealth and taste or at least what would pass for it regarding the costumed wannabes.

Reinforced fabriglass glass cases displayed specific items of costume that had been thoughtfully purchased from Shelly’s shop quietly and discreetly by both Frank and his friend.

When they had discussed with her which items would look best for a display, she had pointed out that often people liked to see costumes and parts of them that held more authentic wear and tear. Acid, fire, bullet holes and other types of damage to remnants of costumes that had been previously worn would create a sense of excitement in the watcher.

According to her, they were some of her best sellers when tourists and the like came in to purchase them. To see a cape, boots or a vest filled with bullet holes and even masks that had been partially melted and cracked open filled the imagination of the viewer.

Benny wasn’t a big fan of their appearance of them and had asked if they were fixable while Frank just smiled and asked for them to be delivered discreetly. As long as they weren’t costumes in working order and only pieces, he knew that the temptation would be slightly lessened but only just.

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To get around the temptation of stealing them, he had built a series of laser security systems and stuck a bunch of cameras around it. He also verified the value of the products with Shelly and given that they were mainly from a bunch of low-level supes he doubted that anyone would be interested in either breaking in or trying to steal them during a live auction. Not unless they were desperate or stupid, and he’d have both direct recordings of them as well as alarms.

This was the main reason that Frank had learnt to sell off any new product as fast as possible. As long as it wasn’t in his hands then the temptation from others wouldn’t be there to try and rip him off.

The young people stood around without taking a seat and were excitedly discussing when the gear would be turning up. Benny was presently considering whether to ask them to sit down but thought better of it for now.

She recognised the signs of impatience building in several of the young dressed-up people though. Especially the one who had chosen to harass her earlier with his two friends, the one dressed like a witch and the one in the radiation or baggy hazmat suit.

Keeping her distance, she checked the time on her watch, it seemed like Frank was still running later than expected when she suddenly saw several red lights flashing on the wall above the main podium.

Time for the main event to start and the bidding to begin.

Choosing to raise her voice, Benny cupped both hands around her mouth to call out.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat as the auction will soon begin!’

Several of the larger group decided to immediately take a seat but others were still focused on the enclosed display models of the severely damaged pieces of costume. One of them was the person in the baggy radiation costume who had spread both gloved hands in front and just stuck their mask straight to the fabriglass as though they could breathe in the atmosphere of the object within. She recognised that the items in question were a pair of fine heavy orange gloves.

She recalled that the label on the display shows that they belonged to a low to mid-level superhuman who had called herself Radiator Negator. The name itself didn’t mean much to her but the orange gloves had the symbols for alpha on one and beta on the other.

What a desperate freak. They must be drooling inside that mask of theirs.

Struggling to keep her expression friendly and welcome, she said another reminder. This time she put her hands on her hips giving her body posture a mild position of authority.

‘Please be aware that the auction will be starting shortly. All of your provided identities and means of payment will have been verified before your arrival today. Take your seats now.’

Rather than trying harder to settle the situation, Benny decided to go with the flow. People were similar to sheep or cows in a way. When some moved others would follow of their own accord. Nearly half of the group sat together in their little cliques.

She walked up to the podium at the front of the room and took a standing position next to it. She looked up at the flashing red lights at the front and back towards the now mostly seated crowd who had a hungry look in their eyes.

The ones whose masks or costumes weren’t covering them anyway. She thought that it was good for them to feel excited at the moment. Tension, and desire always built-up bigger spenders in her view anyway.

As she was standing there, a low-level drum and bass beat came through hidden speakers inside the room building up the atmosphere. The red lights ceased and switched to flashing strobes instead as electronic music sounded out and became faster.

A platform from the ceiling lowered with a figure standing there with one arm outstretched and the other holding a shiny-looking briefcase. Benny sighed as she saw the same routine. It had only been a few times now but Frank had said that it highlighted the event and gave him a better sense of identity for the costume-keen crowd.

In this way, he would come across as a broker of illegal materials, mainly genetic samples including blood, containing remnants of superpower usage and occasional physical remains like teeth, ears and hair.

Who knew regenerative powers could be so useful?

Any parts that originally belonged to supes including pieces of physical power such as acid, and ice still contained power. It was unlikely that it would work well when attempted to be bonded with a human form but it had never stopped the desperate and the needy who had money or borrowed it to make efforts. All items collected needed to be processed first into raw samples of DNA for easy delivery and fast access.

The eyes of the crowd now fully seated and sitting upright in their seats showed looks of greed on their faces when they saw the suited man with light blue hair, a smart grey suit, and a blue mask with red tiger stripes.

A rare few of them recognised him from a previous visit that they had made to previously held events.

The lowering of the small platform which was large enough to fit a single person and had four fixed metal bars that lowered it in place before rising back up was accompanied by various light and music effects. Strobe lighting reduced in effect and speed as an announcement came out from the speakers to the waiting crowd of young people seated and eager for the auction and sales process to begin.

The sound of the projected electronic voice was loud enough to partially deafen those in the room but only for a fraction of a second. It was all part of the usual sales hype. Frank on the other hand while riding down the short platform towards the podium was thankful that this morning, he had applied enough deodorant over his body to make sure that he wasn’t going to sweat through his suit.

Not that he ever did, but his nerves felt pretty hard done by.

He preferred to be fully prepared as much as he could for most circumstances, not that he ever could but on the off chance that he did sweat it wouldn’t look good for his image.

Frank was wearing the whole smart-looking light grey suit with a brilliant white shirt with a matching grey suit jacket and polished boots. The blue mask matched the colour of his hair and he kept his posture firm but slightly relaxed.

With one hand held tightly to the securely locked metal briefcase, he had the other outstretched. He slowly moved it across the hall as he looked over them with the mask covering his otherwise impatient face. He’d tried his best to prepare himself for the usual sales routine and this would be the third or fourth time that he’d be running through a similar spiel.

The main difference would be the types of powers that the low-level villains and superheroes had, the names, in particular, he didn’t care for but Frank wasn’t going to show his outright bias for a bunch of idiots running around in costumes causing havoc in his city to show in his eyes. Not with this crowd anyway.

They looked particularly hungry today.

He could see exactly why Benny had called him to get the materials from the secure containment and then move on with it. This session might be one of the last that he would be able to run in this particular location with the appearance of Agent codename Golden soymilk latte today.

Frank knew that he had forgotten something when he had been getting changed though, all evidence of the bags and the containment collection unit had been set to a wipe clean cycle.

He was sure that he hadn’t been recognised by anyone on the way and had thrown off his baggy hoodie and the weighted brown paper package from Shelly in the shop to be dealt with later. The package reminded him of a particular detail he had forgotten to take care of and it still nagged his mind, a scratch that he couldn’t itch but needed to be ignored.

Priorities in order Frank. You need to start taking this seriously. Or they'll riot and turn on us in a heartbeat.