Broker

Sonya stood at the doors to the announcer’s booth as she flicked through her HUD. Another report from Blackrazor with an update on their progress. They were preparing to hit the dungeon boss. As soon as that happened, people were going to notice. She replied with brief instructions to hold off for just a little longer. A good plan is flexible to a little fine tuning on the fly, she thought wryly. 

She took an easy breath into her lungs, savoring it for a moment before letting it go. She needed to focus on what was to come. All the pieces are in place, Sis. The first stage of the plan is ready. It’s time to pull the trigger. It’s so nice of the Pandora Committee to send me just the person I need to tie it off with a pretty bow.

You should get Carla a fruit basket. Ishtar said wryly.

She tells jokes now! Sonya chuckled before letting out a breath. I really need to reward my people more. A luxury cruise ship to stay on is nice, but it’s time for some real gifts. She thought and turned back to the doors of the announcer’s booth. The doors opened and the guards exited, passing her by. She slipped past them and settled back into her seat and crossed her legs. She glanced towards Amos who was looking thoughtful. “What’s on your mind?”

He pursed his lips. “I wonder how War Chest would synchronize with my other abilities if we made it into a merger.”

Sonya sat up. “You want it to be a merger? You? Really?”

He grumbled. “What’s there to be surprised about?” he asked and waved around himself. “Sure, I can build pretty much anything I want for you and take over an entire cruise ship or a building. Let’s be real, though, in a fight I’ll get wasted by a Rare let alone an Epic if they try hard enough. My toys will keep me alive for a while, but I’m no match for the rest of the Inner Circle.”

She watched the look in his eyes. He had been there with her right from the start, one of her closest friends. Their initial relationship hadn’t exactly been great. She had basically kidnapped him and extorted an employment contract out of him. Though, to be fair, she’d done that for pretty much everyone but Marta who worked for her now. Even recruiting Charon had been something between a negotiation and a scam.

Even so, Amos’ loyalty had gone beyond anything she’d ever imagined. After Florence he had thrown himself into working for her. He’d designed her armor, her helmet - every technological trick she had was owed to him. The Carter Radar had saved millions if not billions of lives and had been the foundation of the Heroing Industry. Without it, tracking dungeons and their states was impossible. Amos Carter was indispensable.

I owe you big, buddy, she thought warmly and looked out towards the stands where people were getting up to move around in the break between fights. She ran her thumb down the arm of her chair in thought before looking over at him again. Her thoughts drifted to one of her core abilities. The mysterious Deus Ex Machina. It gave her insight into how abilities worked together and how to merge them. So far she had only really tried to use it for herself and had avoided activating it directly while outside of her warehouse since her initial tests. The instincts that came off the ability were nonsensical and gave her basically nothing to work with as far as its use was concerned.

“I’ll spend some time in the warehouse with DeM,” she said after a long pause. “See if I can’t put something extra special together for you. You deserve it, man. It might take me a bit, though.”

She glanced his way and saw his big eyes sparkling back at her, tears welling in them. She wrinkled her nose and leaned back a bit. “The hell?”

He hopped off the chair and scooted up to her. “You do love me, don’t you, boss?”

Her expression went deadpan. “Idiot, of course I do,” she grunted and rubbed her nose, smirking a little as her face warmed. “Dumbass,” she said and tapped her knuckles against his chest. “I owe you my life, Amos,” she looked up at his face that had suddenly gone serious and smiled. “I wouldn’t be here today without you. The world wouldn’t, to be honest. I bet I could pull some serious world karma for you if I wanted.”

It was his turn to look embarrassed. He cleared his throat and rubbed his neck while shoving a hand in his pocket. “Well, shit. You think so?”

She snorted and shrugged. “Just a guess. Making a worldpact takes either a huge sacrifice or one metric shitload of karma,” she said. “I don’t even know what I’d do for you with it or how it really works. I just kinda ran on instinct and sheer guts when I did it to make Regalia.”

He laughed. “That sounds like you. Recklessly playing with powers you don’t understand and forcing them to do what you want.”

She let out a breath and glanced back at the stadium. It looked like people were starting to come back for the next match. She played with her hair a bit as her thoughts drifted and she looked his way again. “Playing things out like this feels good, right. I think I might be doing a little less of the reckless stuff, going forwards. That didn’t get me anywhere Amos. Not really. It got us through some tough spots, but let’s be real…” she trailed off, “...a lot of it was luck. I need to stack the deck if I want to win going forwards. This isn’t a few months after the flash. The world has adapted.”

He sat back down in his seat and nodded. “I’m glad to finally hear you say that. I was pretty pissed after the whole Seattle thing.”

“I heard. You let Ishtar have it,” Sonya murmured.

“I wanted to confront you about it after the war,” he said quietly. “But after seeing you so in control, so you, the past couple of days I’ve seen you more energetic and just better than even when I met you,” he looked back at her. “I didn’t want to ruin the moment.”

She shrugged. “What can I say? I’m the best.”

He laughed. “You really promise?”

“I promised something similar to Chunhua,” Sonya said. “I don’t mind making it to you too. I won’t ruin myself like that again. But that means I need your help to make sure I don’t have to do anything that crazy.”

He smiled. “It’s a deal, boss,” he said and rubbed his nose awkwardly before clearing his throat. “N-now let’s cut the sappy shit, yeah? We’ve got a tournament to-” he paused and frowned, turning his head to look back at the door leading out of the commenters box. “Visitor coming up.”

She turned and looked back as well. “Let me guess,” she said. “Firth?”

“Firth.” 

–

Leiandra tapped her finger on the rail inside the elevator, glancing towards the two heavily armed ASTA guards. There are more of them today. Did something come up? She frowned at their weapons before glancing towards their belts. A pair of silver cuffs hang from each belt. They looked like ordinary handcuffs and were just about as thick, but she could see the hints of electrical components inside. A new model of suppression cuff? When did she release those?

She wrinkled her nose before shaking her head. I can’t fault her for keeping the best stuff for her people. The least she could do is offer to sell it to the Committee, though.

The elevator chimed, and she hesitated only for a moment before stepping out. She frowned at the woman waiting for her. Sonya Chernovna stood there with that insufferable smug grin on her face. The woman was as irritatingly pretty as ever, her paper-white skin literally sparkled and her white hair seemed to flow just right down her shoulders. She was wearing her usual white suit and pink tie, though she’d switched out for a black shirt beneath it rather than the usual all-white ensemble.

Why the color change?

It was her eyes that were the most arresting, though. The original versions had made her seem inhuman in a way. Uncanny and untouchable. The new ones made her look almost normal despite the ever-present glow. Approachable. Something about that fact made it unsettling, nefarious. She held the woman’s gaze as the doors shut behind her, the guards leaving with the elevator.

“Leiandra,” Sonya purred. “You keep coming to visit me. I’m flattered, but I already have two women in my life.”

I’m starting to wonder if she ever shuts that off or if it’s her default setting, Leiandra thought dryly as she crossed her arms and stepped forward. “Sonya,” Leiandra said, not batting an eye. “We need to talk about the tournament bracket.”

Sonya’s lips curled upwards. “Oh? I’m afraid the bracket is already set in stone. Whatever could be the problem?”

Leiandra’s eye twitched. Playing innocent. “To start things off, you didn’t have to bully Nietz like that.”

Sonya raised her eyebrows. “I’ve agreed to let Hero Nietz try his hand again at the next competition, but he is the reason my workload increased so much. You’ll have to forgive me for being a little petty,” she said with a shrug.

“You aren’t denying it?” Leiandra asked.

“Why should I? I didn’t put any provisions in the rules that said I couldn’t arrange the matches for maximum excitement,” Sonya said.

“This isn’t about excitement,” Leiandra scoffed. “You and I both know what’s going to happen during the match with Sol and Glint.”

Sonya shoved her hands into her pockets and swayed back and forth like a kid who’d just gotten caught with her hands in the cookie jar. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“Glint uses mirrors,” Leiandra said flatly. “Sol is powerful, but it’s very likely that Glint will scoop the win out from beneath him by sheer counter strategy. After that, the finals will feature both Glint and Armory. The twins. First and Second prize include your special sponsorship. You’ll get two young, talented heroes to sponsor who already work well together.”

“That would be the optimal outcome, yes,” Sonya said without blinking. “Well reasoned, Leiandra.”

Leiandra crossed her arms. Sonya was being far too forthcoming about this. It was true that there were no rules that said she couldn’t do what she’d done, but it was still dishonest. That said, dishonesty wasn’t illegal, and Sonya had said it herself that she wasn’t a good person. Still, it seems strange to me that she would intentionally arrange to have Sol get pushed out of an opportunity for the top spot. 

Sonya let out a sigh. “Do you want to come inside, Leiandra? I have a match to watch.”

The Prosecutor considered her for a moment before nodding. She needed to think a little longer; she felt like the reasoning was a bit more obvious than she realized. Sonya smiled and turned away, sauntering back into the room. 

She watched Sonya slip into one of the two main seats in the announcer booth. Carter was already energetically commenting on the next match. She looked back to Sonya, who was reclining with her feet up on the console, a can of soda in her right hand and what looked like a bag of popcorn in her left. Where did she…?

“Want some?” Sonya asked brightly, glancing back at her and extending the bag.

Leiandra gave her a deadpan look before glancing down again at the offered food. She reached out and snatched up a few pieces, earning a smug grin from Sonya. She popped them into her mouth and chewed. Her brows furrowed. “This is good,” Leiandra murmured. It was just popcorn, but it was the freshest and savoriest popcorn she’d ever had. “What brand is it?”

“Ambrosia,” Sonya said playfully and tossed one into the air, catching it in her mouth.

Leiandra rolled her eyes. “Fine, don’t tell me.”

She leaned back in her seat and turned to one of the monitors to watch the current match play itself out. Glint quickly dealt with his opponent, using his mirrors like spinning saw blades to corner them. Leiandra watched him move and thought back to the match with Nietz and Sol. Glint has exceptional versatility with his ability; it’s a shame that it didn’t turn out to be Mythic. He would have done very well as an International.

Leiandra furrowed her brows before pulling out her phone and accessing the Committee database. Most of the files were locked, but basic information was available to her. She did a quick filter search and looked up again at the back of Sonya’s head. There are only four active Mythics in Australia right now since that reckless jackass First Wind went International. That’s a very small amount for such a large nation. 

A roar rose from the crowd down below as the hero facing Glint hopped over a pair of spinning disks only to get caught by a third mirror that slammed into him like a wall. He was sent hurtling from the arena and out of bounds. 

“And that’s it! Glint advances!” Amos shouted.

I’m missing a key piece of information here. It’s somehow related to why Sonya would pick a Heroic over a Mythic. She froze, her eyes going wide. It can’t be.

“Sonya,” she called, and the CEO hopped up, turning around in her seat and looking down at Leiandra with a bright and merry smile.

“Yeeees?” she sing-songed.

Leiandra glanced towards Amos and the microphone. Sonya followed her gaze thoughtfully and cleared her throat, drawing the scientist’s attention. She made a slicing gesture with her hand, and he cut his mic. Leiandra leaned forward. “Be honest with me,” she said flatly. “You know that your grand prize trinket could guarantee a Heroic crossing into Mythic, don’t you? That’s why you are pushing Sol out so he can stay and serve as a hero in his homeland while you raise up either Armory or Glint. He can be the hero First Wind could never be.”

Sonya stared at her for a long time, her eyes actually wide with surprise. She blinked a few times and looked at Amos before looking back. The mischievous CEO’s eyes softened and her smile relaxed. “Sol already has an unparalleled ability. He’ll go far once he gets a handle on it and become one of the greats; I don’t doubt it,” she said. “Someone who can traverse his homeland in an instant with enough training. With what Australia has, isn’t it better that way?”

Sonya hugged the back of the chair and rested her chin on her arm, holding Leiandra’s gaze. “Don’t you remember what I said during the press conference?”

Leiandra’s heart thumped, just once, as the woman she thought was merely out for herself showed a new side. “You said you’d make more like them. The heroes that fought Liberty.”

“I’m going to keep my word,” Sonya said with a chuckle. “Even if I have to be a little sneaky about it.”

Leandra leaned back in her seat with a breath as Sonya sat back down and popped another kernel of popcorn into her mouth. She chewed noisily before speaking again. “You know, Leiandra. You really are a scary lady. I am impressed.” 

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