System Supervillain, Chapter 157

Chapter 157 – Aftermath

(Srusk Spaceport, Srusk 3, Srusk System)

White Bear and Venom (still wasn’t going to try and pronounce the Russian names) were waiting for me as I stepped out of the Rhuk’s doors, and onto the spaceport tarmac. The spaceport had certainly changed over the week that had passed since we opened the portal to Earth. The portal was still standing there, off along one wall, trucks full of troops and supplies coming through from Russia, and trucks with people wearing basic clothing and wrapped in blankets going back through.

Turned out, trying to move five million people between worlds required some impressive logistics. There were thirty shuttles and light freighters undamaged by the fighting when I was done claiming the spaceport. On average, they could hold thirty people each, if you were willing to push together. Each shuttle would need to make over 166 thousand trips to safely move the five million people from the Srusk 4 prison to Srusk 3, so they could go through the portal. Each trip (not counting loading and unloading) was roughly an hour. If the shuttles ran non-stop, it would take just over nineteen years for the people to be rescued, and brought back to Earth through the portal. Everyone agreed that this timeline was completely unacceptable, but there was the question of what to do about it.

Fortunately, Lucy had a better idea. She opened a portal in the prison on Srusk 4, and set the other side in the staging area outside the spaceport on Srusk 3. Naked Russians wrapped in blankets walked through the portal, and met their countrymen from the Military Authority who had simple clothes set up and ready in changing areas. Yes, most of the clothes were simple prison clothes or basic training uniforms from military camps, which meant they were far from comfortable, but they covered the rescued people’s bodies, and gave them some dignity back, which was more than what they had before.

Other magic types combined their powers to create more portals, copying Lucy’s homework shamelessly. Not that any of us cared. Everyone simply wanted the former slaves back on Earth in one piece. There would be time for other discussions later.

At any rate, the first three days after the capture had involved ensuring that the prisoners had proper food and medical attention, and at least getting them blankets to cover themselves. Thankfully, the Russian government had prepared disaster relief stores in different staging points around the country. Sure, those stores were more as a precaution against nuclear war or natural disaster, rather than trying to move rescued slaves from another star system back to earth, but blankets were blankets, in the end.

On the other side of the portal to Earth, the former slaves turned refugees were being sorted into a temporary camp near Rostov-on-Don, which was in one of the warmer parts of Russia, near the Sea of Azov. I’m sure that sorting out what happened with them after that was going to be a pain and a half, but it wasn’t my problem. The Russian Military Authority could take care of the Russians. My business was with the Gel-nak.

I looked away from the stream of vehicles hauling people back to Earth, and noticed two people wrapped in blankets standing next to Venom, a woman and a young boy, maybe five years old. I nodded to the group, and said, “Bear, Venom. I see the evacuation of the prisoners is going smoothly.”

“Da,” White Bear said. “Ze portals make it much faster to get ze people from one place to ze other. Unfortunately, it vill be some time before everything is settled, but ze camp in Rostov-on-Don is comfortable enough, especially as it is spring now. There’s a few months to find proper homes for people before ze winter comes.”

I chuckled. “Well, I just finished helping Hoarfrost get set up Srusk 4. The planet is basically one big playground to someone like her, so she’ll be able to move around as she pleases. And getting her attention will be as simple as opening a help ticket through the System interface.” I turned to look at Venom, and the two people standing next to her. “I take it you found some of the people you were looking for, Venom?”

“Yes,” the villainess nodded. “My Mama and Papa were killed by the lizards during the riots. Neither of them were the sort to simply accept things like that. Especially since both of them had powers. But this is Orina, my wife, and Zinon, our son. They were both being held in the prison, and your team rescued them from the Gel-nak.”

The boy was clinging to his mother, clearly still a bit traumatized. Not that I would blame him. However, Orina nodded to me. “You are Iceblade, da? I have heard much of you, mostly from ze television, but some from my Nadia. You are one of ze ‘decent’ villains, as she says. The ones that do it for ze money and ze challenge, like her, da?”

“That’s right,” I nodded. “Though I’ll admit there’s always been a bit of the ‘I do what I want because I can, and no one has been able to stop me yet’ influence, as well. But there are lines I make for myself, and I don’t cross them, until someone else does first. It helps keep things civilized.”

“Hmph,” White Bear snorted. “Like vat you did to ze Vory in Moskva and Murmansk vas civilized?”

I chuckled at that. The leader of the Vory in Moscow had worked with a Vory mad scientist in Murmansk to trap me early in my career, and use me as a test subject. They’d wanted to find a way to graft mutant genes onto normal humans, but, well, only a few truly gifted mad scientists were able to do that. They did accidentally increase my powers, though, which is how I was eventually able to escape. Not that they appreciated how I ‘thanked’ them for the power boost. They were too busy screaming and dying.

“Honestly, I think it was quite civilized of me. After all, there were survivors. The Vory in Murmansk either died or fled, yes, but I didn’t go after their families. As for Moscow? I only targeted the group responsible. Sure, I needed to get a little persuasive with the lieutenant so that he’d give me everything I needed to know, but at least he died in his sleep. For the others? Well, I needed to send a message, to ensure that no one got the bright idea to try something like that again.”

“You impaled twenty-five people on spears of ice, tortured a man before beheading him and putting his head on a spike! And zey still haven’t found the eight vomen who vere at the mansion zat night!”

“Don’t forget stealing over two hundred billion dollars. Oh, and the man’s wife mouthed off at me while I was settling things with the men, so I gave her a taste of what the rest of her life would be. Then her daughter, while daddy looked on, screaming at me. No clue whether any of the women are still alive, honestly. An ‘associate’ of the Vory took them on a nice little boat ride to Japan, where some nice men with tattoos needed exotic women for their brothels.”

White Bear looked like he was about to speak, but I cut him off. “And, in exchange for this brutal lesson, things were very civil between me and different individuals I worked with, until Doctor Ubuntu tried to have me killed, rather than pay me. That time, the lesson was more thorough, to ensure that it would be even longer before someone tried that again. A little bit of extreme violence, properly applied, makes everything so much more civilized in the long run.

“On the other hand, I also provide a carrot, as well as the stick. I am vicious to those who betray me, but to those who keep things civil, I return the favor by speaking the truth, when I speak at all, and keeping to my agreements. I also follow the same guidelines that other capes, on both sides of the law, do, and avoid bringing families into things, when possible. Even if it would be easier to target a super at home, where their children could be used as hostages, the people who do that find that even those on their own side may turn their backs, and look the other way when someone decides to ‘redress’ the issue.”

Venom laughed, and said, “Yes, that kind of enforced consequences ensures that people keep within the rules. It is the same as the Guild and its neutrality.” She paused, and then said, “Stolen Victory and the others had already let everyone out of their cells by the time I got to the prison, but Orina told me what the conditions were like under the Slavetenders. What they were trying to do. What you saved her, and the others, from.”

“The only reason they were in a position where they could be saved is because the men revolted, instead of simply allowing the Gel-nak to do as they pleased. They broke enough equipment and killed enough specialists that the lizards couldn’t go through with their plans, even when the revolt was quashed. Even so, they would have been able to restart things if the Empire wasn’t in the middle of a civil war. A civil war that I am only partly responsible for, by the way. The Emperor made the mistake of leaving all his progeny within reach of the Kez Sisterhood survivors, who, despite being ‘tamed’ by the Emperor when he made them his concubines, seized the opportunity to end his line permanently, leaving the succession in doubt. So, no one had the time or resources to go experimenting on unruly slaves.”

White Bear tried to regain control of the conversation with a sigh. “Perhaps ve should not be talking about zis in front of ze child?”

“N-no. It is all right,” the boy said, softly. “I know vhat ze Gel-nak vere going to do to us. Zey did not hide it. Zey vanted us all to know, even the kids like me, and ze others. Ve vere not people to zem.” He finally looked me in the eye. “But I heard zem, vhen zey saw ze messages you sent zem as you vere fighting. Zey vere scared of you. Just ze mention of you.”

I sighed, and crouched down to be at the kid’s eye level. “And you find yourself wanting to be the monster that scares the other monsters too, right? I’m not going to tell you whether you’re right or wrong. However, I will tell you that trying to do what I do takes a lot of work, and how well you can do it depends a little on your innate abilities, and a lot on how much you’re willing to work for it.

“Your mother, Nadia, will tell you that it takes a lot of work to do what we do, as villains. We not only have to risk our lives, but we also have plenty of people who want to hurt us, or throw us in jail. Which means you have to work hard to be better than the people trying to take you down. The hardest part of that is knowing when to act, and where to draw the line.”

Zinon frowned, “Vere to draw ze line?”

“Yes. It is like what we were talking about earlier, about keeping things civilized. It is one thing to take down a person, a group, or even an entire government that wronged you. However, if you don’t make limits for yourself, if no one else, then you’re going to find more people working against you. Not because they’re fans of the people you are fighting, but because you went too far, and crossed the lines.

“This isn’t something just villains have to deal with, obviously. Heroes have to be seen upholding the law, in both its letter and its intent. A vigilante that starts dragging the families of criminals into their attacks will find people turning on them. As for villains? The ‘respectable’ ones try to keep things within certain boundaries.”

“But vhy?”

“Because there is a difference between an assassin who kills their target, and maybe some guards who are defending that target, and one that uses poison gas on an entire school to kill one teacher. Yes, the heroes will try to catch the assassin that only kills their target, and get them before a judge and put them in jail. However, the one that kills an entire school? They are not going to try and capture them, they’re going to kill them, and anyone they have to go through to get to them.”

White Bear nodded as he rejoined the conversation. “It is like vhen fighting vith other kids your age. Zere is a difference betveen pushing someone, or even punching them, and hitting zem vith a rock. If you pick up ze rock, zen ze other kid vill pick up a rock. Or maybe zey’ll bring a knife, or a gun. But if you only use fists, zen zere is still a fight, and people still get hurt, but it is usually a hurt zat you can heal from, not one zat may see you put in ze hospital, or ze morgue.”

“The Bear is right,” I nodded. “But you are still young. And while everything that happened was horrible, you still have time to decide what kind of life you will live. Will you let the lizards win by letting what they did define you? Or will you work to be your own person, with your own goals? Think about that, kid. Now, why don’t you and your moms head on through the portal? I’m sure your mother Nadia will find someplace for you to live permanently before too long.”

“Well, about that,” Venom said, “I think there’s too many memories for us near Moscow, now. And I do have a winter home in Nakhodka. It might be a good place to start over.” She looked at me, and smiled, “You’re surprisingly good with kids, Iceblade.”

I just shrugged at that. “I’ve have enough of my own that I’ve gotten a bit of practice. Eventually, you learn to hit the highlights and avoid some of the worst things.”