System Supervillain, Chapter 135

So, last week's chapter continues to be hidden, because some idiot at Patreon thinks there's a 'Teen Safety' problem with it. Which is bullshit, since there was only talking. But here's this week's chapter. No teens in it at all.

Chapter 135 – Meeting

(Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, Roosevelt Island, New York)

Murwi straightened her costume as she waited in the middle of the park, glancing over the water to the United Nations Headquarters building. She hadn’t worn the suit since being named Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the UN, because as Panashe Carne she was not a heroine, not the Warrior that her ‘hero name’ proclaimed her as. She was a diplomat, a builder of bridges between peoples. Even more so since she was named Secretary-General of the United Nations.

But this meeting demanded she bring out the old costume, and her old name. Everyone understood that the world had changed with the Gel-nak invasion. This was not the time for careful diplomacy and wrangling over the wordings of treaties and trade deals. This was not the time for internal bickering between nations. There was a threat out there, which hung over the entire world. A leader was needed, now. A Warrior was needed.

But the old animosities could not be set aside, and ignored, not for long. If someone were to pick up the mantle and lead, it would have to be someone who was not part of the old powers, someone who could stand apart, if need be, so that neither side thought the other favored over them. It needed to be someone with the respect of the people and governments involved. She had proven herself, first as a heroine, and then as a diplomat. More importantly, she was not from one of the major powers. She was the perfect choice for a figurehead to rally around. And so, Murwi would answer the call. Because that is what was needed.

That was not the only reason she brought out the costume, of course, or even the main one. It was just the one that she could tell the press, who were gathered far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to hear, but could still get images with their telescopic lenses. No, the main reason she had her full costume, including her enchanted spear, was the same reason she’d invited the New York Knights to the meeting, a healthy blend of respect and fear for the one she was meeting.

Oh, she knew she had no need to fear Iceblade, personally. He wasn’t a mad dog who went around snapping at everyone who got close. But she also knew that he had passive powers that affected women just from being around him, and she could not allow herself to fall under his influence. The protections in her costume would help keep his will draining and mind controlling powers from working on her, letting her focus on the meeting.

As for respect? Well, Zimbabwe was one of many countries that had suffered under Doctor Ubuntu’s network of biological and technological horrors. The Doctor had wormed his way too deeply into the heart of the African continent. Even if heroes wanted to cast him out, if they moved too quickly, or too openly, his resources from other areas would move, and attack the people the people they were trying to protect. More than one village had been destroyed by Ubuntu punishing a hero that way.

Iceblade had been able to do something that she could not. Not because he was more powerful than she was. In fact, before the System, she would have argued that they were roughly equal in terms of raw power. No, he was able to do what she couldn’t because Ubuntu’s normal tricks of threatening friends and loved ones did not work on Iceblade. Until he formed Devastation, he had no known connections. No vulnerable people to be taken hostage or put at risk.

On the other hand, from Iceblade’s point of view, Ubuntu had nothing but vulnerabilities. Every warehouse, operation, informant, and bribed official needed to be protected, and every failure shook the confidence of the rest of the organization. Every attack on Ubuntu’s forces had driven them further and further into a corner. A worldwide operation destroyed to the last by the time he had tracked the Doctor to his secret lab in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As a hero, Murwi could not agree with Iceblade’s actions, or his methods. The systematic slaughter of everyone under Ubuntu’s banner was not something that heroes could endorse, after all. Not officially. However, she was not so dogmatic or foolish to ignore how much his actions had helped her homeland, and the rest of the continent.

She took a breath as she checked the time on the HUD in her mask. Two minutes. The temporary network she’d been patched into with the New York Knights showed their locations, most of them stationed on the edges of the little grassy area where she stood. She did not need to turn to know that Silver Knight and Mechana were behind her, in their mech suits.

“Are you sure about this, ma’am? There’s no reason for you to meet personally with that bastard.”

Mechana’s voice was laced with bitterness, obvious even through the slight distortion of her battlesuit’s speakers. Murwi knew the woman had her past encounters with Iceblade, like the rest of the Knights. But she also knew that Mechana didn’t let her feelings cloud her judgement. Most of the time.

“Yes, I am sure. And while there is no need for the Secretary-General to personally meet with the villain and discuss purchasing the ships in orbit, as Murwi I do desire to meet the slayer of Doctor Ubuntu. That man was a menace for far too long, and Iceblade did what heroes like I could not.”

Silver Knight nodded slightly in his power armor. “There is a reason why many heroes tend to look the other way on some of the vigilantes in the world, unless they get out of hand. We are symbols and protectors to those we defend. This gives us greater leeway, and the ability to act openly, giving us more options than some. However, symbols must act in a way that is worthy of their fame, and protectors cannot risk those under their protection. Vigilantes, and those villains with a grudge, do not have the same benefits, but they also lack our restrictions.”

Their conversation was cut short by a flickering in the air. It looked like an image flickering in and out of existence, before it solidified into Iceblade, himself, with Bloodmoon and Web Mistress by his side. Just as agreed. Three on each side, ignoring the other supers ringing the grassy lawn.

The icy villain nodded to her, before his gaze turned to the two heroes behind her. “Secretary-General, Mechana, Silver Knight. I’m sure you know of Bloodmoon and Web Mistress?” There were respectful (or mostly respectful) nods all around, and he continued. “I must say this is a pleasant surprise. I admit that I was expecting to get contacted eventually, but I did not expect Murwi herself to reach out to me through the Guild. Secretary-Generals aren’t supposed to consort with wicked villains like me, after all.”

“Please,” Murwi said, holding up the hand not clutching her spear. “Just as you go by Iceblade when wearing the costume, call me Murwi while I wear mine, not my title. It is part of the polite fiction that allows the world of supers to remain civilized, after all. That separation between our lives.”

“Of course,” Iceblade said, gamely. “Then I can assume that the heroine Murwi has been granted authority by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to negotiate on her behalf?”

“Indeed, that is the situation. After all, the Secretary-General could not meet directly with an international supervillain without creating dangerous precedents, or inviting unwise speculation.”

“I understand completely. So that we’re all on the same page, I will say that, as of this moment, the current tally of ships in my possession is five destroyers, four cruisers, one battleship, and a carrier with half its original complement of strike craft. Some are more badly damaged than others, due to the unfortunate necessity of clearing out all the Gel-nak room to room, but that doesn’t matter so much due to the pervasive implementation of the Uprising Controls. According to the Mechanics, making the ships safe would require stripping them down practically to the frames, and building back up.”

Murwi nodded. “I believe most of us figured that would be the case, once you made your announcement about the Uprising Controls. You wouldn’t have said that over an open line if they could be easily taken offline. Not until the entire fleet was disabled, at least.”

Iceblade chuckled. “Yes, though the extent they were hardwired into everything surprised even me. And considering the behavioral locks written into the Gel-nak genetic code, whoever made those controls necessary must have been either stupendously incompetent as a leader, or mind-breakingly paranoid. Probably both. It takes a great deal for Gel-nak warriors or workers to go against the commands of a Leader, much less the Emperor.”

“Really? It is that bad?”

“Truly, it is. You can see it in the System logs for their race. Read-only sections, of course. Part of ‘ordering’ their species gave rise to the castes, and made it incredibly difficult for lower castes to disobey. And they put the same kind of controls into the other species they ‘ordered’, forcing them to be dependent on the Gel-nak.”

Murwi frowned. The very idea of ‘ordering’ races to be perfectly willing slaves made her sick. “That is the procedure you say that they were going to try to do to humans, right? What about the bioweapon labs on the carrier?”

“Pyra melted the rooms to slag, Titania laser-washed the slag, and then Serafina purified everything against disease or poisons. And Web Mistress hit the records so hard that not even she could recover the files, and she hit them ten more times, just to be sure.” Mechana shifted, which drew Iceblade’s eye. “Come now, Mechana. You should know that I value precision over rampant destruction. Bioweapons are inherently imprecise. If they are too ‘locked’, they become useless once a vaccine is found, and otherwise they will likely mutate or break containment, and then you need to purge entire areas to halt the spread.”

”Unfortunately, he’s right, Mechana,” Silver Knight said. “Even the Guild treads carefully when it comes to bioweapon research. It is easier to get nuclear weapons from them than samples of deadly diseases, unless you’re willing to submit to monitoring to ensure you are working on vaccines or cures, rather than weapons research.”

Murwi turned to look at the scientist in power armor. “Really? Doesn’t that void their neutrality?”

“No,” Iceblade said, firmly. “They apply the same rules to everyone, on both sides, so they are still neutral. There are ‘heroes’ who have had the brilliant idea to make a virus that will pacify troublesome people, or remove the ‘violence genes’ from populations. Just like there are villains who try and create zombie plagues and tailored viruses to wipe out a certain group of people. Or even just some greedy bastard wanting to engineer a virus so that they can sell the cure. The Guild refuses to aid those types, on either side, because it is bad for business. So bad, in fact, that some of the jobs they offer supers to help pay down their debts involves ‘sanctioning’ those who cross the line.”

Silver Knight nodded. “It is bad for their business. Worse for everyone else affected, of course, but the Guild cares primarily about their business, at the end of the day. It is part of what makes them predictable, and reliable, where organizations with a more ‘righteous’ or ‘zealous’ outlook can be twisted into seeing the ends justifying the means, or ‘deus vult’.”

Murwi took a breath, and said, “We’re getting off topic. So, how many of the ships are you willing to sell, Iceblade, and what do you want for them?”

“All of them, in fact. I have the Mechanics making me something special, so I don’t need ships that would require hundreds of crew to be in fighting form. As for the cost, $5 billion for the lot of them. That will cover the cost of my new ship from the Guild, and, considering the leaps and bounds Earth’s technology is going to grow thanks to this, I’d say it is a cheap enough price.”

Murwi managed to keep her surprise from showing, but it was a close thing. She could see from the way that Silver Knight and Mechana moved that they shared her feelings, at least somewhat. “That is surprisingly reasonable. More than I hoped, but less than I feared. You have a reputation for driving a harder bargain than that.”

Iceblade shrugged. “It is simple, really. Earth is where I keep my stuff, and it is where my kids are. I’m already planning on going on a bit of a tour to ensure the Gel-nak understand the message I gave them when I killed their Emperor, but this was not their only fleet. There’s a chance that someone will get it in their head that making an example of the ‘upstart primates’ that embarrassed the Empire might be a great way for them to get the big seat next. If that happens, I would rather Earth be able to fend for itself, instead of relying on supervillains to do the killing for them. Especially since they won’t be ignoring the potential of supers next time.”

Murwi chuckled, and nodded. “That sounds more like the villain I was expecting from the reports. I will bring your offer to the Secretary-General, and the Security Council. I have a feeling that people will argue very loudly for a bit, before agreeing, especially once the military advisors get a chance to speak about the costs of not being ready the next time the Gel-nak show up.”