Amelia, Ch 205- Theo
Victoria was really stealing the proverbial show. I'd seen it before, my father was a genius at it, and there was a time when I was younger when he had some hope of grooming me to continue the family business, and had given me a few tips. Even instructed Victor to do the same. Victoria was good at it. Not nearly to the level my father was, of course, and certainly not a match for Victor's stolen talents. But still, she was good.
There just wasn't much her talents could do here, besides look good while doing nothing. The battle occurred elsewhere, and we had no way of knowing where. We left disappointed, if not completely empty handed, to meet with Aceso and Atropos. But a fairly common, if expensive, drug was no kind of evidence.
"So, now that we know we have no leads, what do we do?" Atropos asked, and gave a wary glance at Brain. She and I had been warned that our powers wouldn't shield us from his attack. If it came to fighting him, Aceso was the only weapon we had which might work. It might not even be safe for Taylor's bugs to be in range of this guy. But, for all his power, he was still physically human.
I took advantage of my armor's more or less amorphous shape to look at Aceso covertly. Clarice. She's unfairly beautiful, my traitorous mind told me yet again. As all the other times, I forced myself to remember that she was not real. She was never real. And, as all the other times, it didn't work. It was like telling myself she was dead. How did Zach cope? Oh, right, he didn't have to. She couldn't use this part of her power on him.
I closed my eyes. It's not his fault, I told myself. And he didn't get away unscathed, either.
"Hey, you okay over there?" Victoria asked, tapping on the armor.
"Yeah, sorry," I tried to mean it. "Just lost in thought."
"We're going to stir up a couple hornet nests," Vicky told me. "If your head's not in the game, let us know. We're here for the weekend, we can take a bit of time to make sure things go the best they can go."
"No, I'm fine," I insisted. I wasn't going to slow us down just because of something like this.
"Taking your word for it," she responded. "Okay, so we're still trying to be covert about it. Suggestions?"
"I can show you some of their suspected safehouses," Brain suggested.
"That's certainly an option, any others?"
"Neutral ground," Aceso spoke up. "Every city has two or three of them. Big ones can have lots more. Locations where villains will meet up to discuss major problems, even inviting indie heroes and rogues if the situation's bad enough."
"Would revealing you're in town be considered 'bad enough' for them?" Brain suggested.
"Doubtful," I replied. "They'd rather go to ground and hope we pick off their enemies for them in situations like this. When they ally together, it's for things like a mad bomb tinker blowing up the city one block at a time."
"Our town doesn't have other villains or independents," Brain pointed out. "What would they do under those circumstances?"
"Should still have the neutral locations," I insisted. "Visiting out of towners, friends on the opposite side of the law. Usually the owners of such establishments are well liked by the villains. Even if there's no need to keep them, they'll remain out of sentimentality."
"They're supervillains," Brain scoffed. "They don't strike me as sentimental."
I couldn't help but smirk, fortunately it didn't show through my armor, nor would my tone carry through the echo my power created. "If anything, the criminals are more sentimental than normal people. It's part of the criminal culture. Or, at least, any criminal culture that manage to last. Lunatics like the Teeth and the Fallen play by their own set of rules, of course. But more established criminal groups like Empire Eighty Eight and the Mafia like to pretend they're civil and even cultured. They'll go to absurd lengths to keep that illusion alive."
"Horus is our resident psych expert," Vicky patted my shoulder. "There's a reason I brought him along to the crime scene."
"You have a parahuman psychologist?" Brain asked, sounding more than a little doubtful.
"Of course," Vicky answered. "Why not?
"Just seems odd that you would have powerful parahumans doing mundane careers," he pointed out.
"Blame my mother for that," she dismissed. "She became a fairly successful lawyer in addition to her career as a crime fighter with no secret identity. We have a doctor, a very skilled business executive, even a fashion designer. Just because you're a parahuman doesn't mean you can't have a normal job. In fact, Pantheon encourages it."
"Fascinating," Brain replied. "And how do you plan to locate one of these meeting places?"
"I'm sure there's a place suspected of money laundering that you haven't been able to prove, right?" I asked.
"A few," he admitted. "What do you have in mind?"
....
An 'Authentic Italian' restaraunt owned by the mob, huh? I might have mocked them for playing up the stereotype, but E88's holdings mostly consisted of drug houses and dogfighting rings. Bribing or intimidating enough of the police that they didn't even need to hide it. We of course left Brain behind to return to his bosses. We didn't need the Protectorate here for this. They just didn't know how to think of villains as people.
The greeter's eyes widened. We must have been imposing in our costumes. Vicky and I might have been recognized, we'd been on the news often enough. Aceso probably was, she was a little media darling because she gave them some great sound bites. Atropos, I was certain was identified immediately. The Azrael armor was more well known than most countries. That's what happens when you're an Endslayer, after all.
The man was impressively quick on his feet. "How may I help you?" he asked.
"We're interested in ordering a table," I informed him. With my armor padding my figure and adding a few inches of height, I'm sure I cut an imposing figure. Vicky was letting me take the lead on this one. Criminal culture was something I'd been raised in, and I understood it intuitively. May as well put that understanding to use doing something decent.
"I- I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have any tables available," he lied fluidly. I didn't even need the tech, I could see into the establishment, and the place wasn't much more than half full. Although even that was impressive since it wasn't quite time for Saturday dinner to kick off. It'd be much busier later in the evening. A man with hard eyes watched me from one of the back tables. He's the one, I decided. Not because he was the only crook in the place, but because he was the one who looked confident. He was either a trusted member, or a parahuman. In E88, he would have to be both, but this group may not work the same.
"That's fine," I responded back. "We're willing to wait a while."
The greeter's lips thinned. He had hoped it was a coincidence, now he knew for certain we were there for a reason. "Perhaps it would be easier for you to make a reservation and return later?" he offered. Meanwhile, the scanners in my armor showed that he had hit a button beneath his podium. Some kind of panic button, most likely. They wouldn't attack us, not this openly, but they knew we were here now.
The man inside glanced somewhere I couldn't see a couple seconds later, and then got up and approached us. The social reading tech confirmed what I already knew, he got the permission he needed.
"How's it going?" he asked the greeter smoothly, with the smile of someone who knew he was in charge, and had done this before.
"I was just apologizing to these folks that we weren't ready to receive more guests at the moment," he replied. Also part of the act.
"They can come sit at my table, then," the man offered smoothly. "In fact, put their meal on my tab. Not every day I get to buy lunch for an Endslayer."
Smart ploy, I thought. Something right out of Victor's playbook. Taking food from him would create a subliminal rapport, even though I was aware of the tactic. In addition, accepting a meal from a suspect was basically idiotic, so he'd know how much he had to worry based on whether we accepted. And, for all I knew, his sentiment was genuine. You didn't need to be a good person to have a grudge against the Endbringers.
"That is most generous of you, sir," I answered. "Although we wouldn't want to impose on you and your friends." Of course I intended to accept, but you had to show the initial reluctance, that was just a matter of politeness.
"Nonsense, we'd be happy to have you," he smiled. He knew by my tone that I was accepting. All part of the game. "I'm Angie. Pleasure to meet all of you."
"Horus," I responded as I shook his hand. "This is Atropos, Victoria and Aceso. Apologies for using their costumed names."
"That's fine. I've seen enough capes come and go to understand the score," he smiled broadly as he shook all their hands. He even managed to be charming about it. He stopped at Atropos for an extra moment. "I hope it won't come off as me only doing this for selfish reasons, but would you mind signing an autograph. Y'see, Arianna, my niece, is gay, and it would mean a lot to her. You're one of her heroes." To my surprise, he was telling the truth.
"Oh," Lily hesitated, looking like she wanted to ask us if it was okay. Angie caught on immediately, and it probably didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
"It can wait, of course," he added. "Let's get you fed first. I insist." He led us in and snatched a few menus with the practiced ease of someone who'd done this often. "You can meet my pals, Joel and Brick. Dunno what Brick's real name is. Not sure he does, either."
The men he named weren't especially notable, physically. Big, but not especially so. Barrel shaped, I think was the term. They wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but they had the same eyes that Angie had when he first looked at me. These are men who've killed before, I was certain of it. They were also clearly hangers on, perhaps even a little insecure in their positions as they glanced at our host for cues. They could be relied on to do exactly nothing but what they thought he wanted.
The next few minutes were mostly small talk about the food, of which he was both familiar and passionate. We made our orders, and Angie's companions were content to let him do all of the talking. Eventually we got to the important question. "So, I hope you don't think it's rude of me, may I ask why you're visiting our lovely city?"
"Probably not the best topic over a meal," I replied, feigning hesitation.
"We're big boys," he gave Brick's back a good smack. "I think we can handle it."
"Don't worry about us," Joel agreed.
"It's the murders of the Fallen," I answered with a quieter voice, as if I didn't want the other patrons to hear. In truth, I didn't care that much, more because I knew we had a place that would make it hard for others to listen in, and the wait staff wouldn't dare.
"That's what I figured," Angie nodded. "Is there a reason you came to this restaurant?"
"Lunch," it was a lie neither of us believed, of course, but such was the game. "We're faced with a bit of a problem. We want to get in touch with the local villains, to see if they have any clues as to who might be trying to frame them for this."
"You don't think they're responsible?" he asked. The suit told me he was shocked by that possibility, and really wanted to pump us for more information without making it too obvious that he was. He was also suspicious I was saying all this, of course.
"It's either a setup, or a single lunatic serial killer," I answered. "Possibly an out of town group hoping we'll come in and clear out the locals so they can move in on the suddenly open market. Hard to say for certain this early in the investigation, but that's why only us four are here, for the moment. If we don't get what we need in a couple days, we might have to bring reinforcements. We cannot ignore a serial killer sending us a direct message like this, but it would be a tragedy to let someone manipulate us into giving them what they want by turning this into a major spectacle."
There was more suspicion than relief by my statement, but then I expected there to be. Still, I had achieved what I'd come here to achieve. My message would make it up the command chain, and someone would find a way to contact us. Probably tonight. No more conversation was had on the subject of heroes and villains, as we talked about stuff already public, like the Endbringer battles. The whole time ignoring our suits' alerts that we were being listened to by hidden microphones.
Angie really did go out of his way to charm Atropos, and in the end it earned him an autographed picture signed to his niece, and he promised she'd cherish it. The whole encounter only lasted at most thirty minutes, but it did seem faster than that.
"Hard to believe he's a criminal," Atropos observed as we left with our doggie bags, intended for Riley who of course missed out on the actual meal.
"I know," Vicky agreed.
"Exact opposite for me," I replied. "Everything about him screamed obvious crook. Of course, I grew up around men like that."
"He reminded me a lot of Jack," Riley whispered her agreement through the coms.
That ended any discussion on that subject.
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A/N- One day, I might write a Theo chapter I don't enjoy. This is not that day.