Chapter 55: (IN)FAMOUS

Chapter 55: (IN)FAMOUS

Nexus orders reparations of $16,000,000 to pay for the damage to infrastructure sustained during The Event, as well as two weeks Drafted to the defense of the wall.

If your debt is not paid within two months, Nexus will confiscate property associated with your super identity to pay it for you.

You are to report to the wall beginning...

“Well...easy come, easy go, I guess,” Perry said, crunching the letter in his fist and tossing it into the trash.

That wasn’t really too much of a problem. He’d furnished about a hundred and fifty suits for Locust already, and after stripping Magneton’s lair, he was pumping out another hundred a day. Some of them still had paint from their previous incarnation as wall-signs.

That meant he’d get his massive payday in about a week, and it would be more than enough to cover the staggering fine from Nexus.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still pissed off at the idiots and Chemestro for getting off scott free despite treating a gang war like a super-soaker fight.

Perry had received a several hour long talk from Mom and Dad about ‘equivalent response’ and how you don’t unleash greater corruption demons all willy nilly if someone looks at you wrong.

The thing NOBODY seemed to understand was that Perry hadn’t been there, and he hadn’t been the one doing the ‘unleashing’. That was what really got under his skin.

How hard is it to understand that I condensed the complicated, difficult to perform and esoteric ritual for summoning a horrifying demon into something that can be loaded into a bazooka and deployed by any random shmuck at the press of a button?...I think I just explained to myself why I’m in trouble.

The terms of Perry’s ‘grounding’ were such: He was under strict orders from his parents to suffer through an interview on Capes Tonight, the talk show that interviewed up and coming capes and broadcast them across the city and beyond.

Amber Hardy was not known to be particularly nice towards the supers she interviewed, which was why this was a punishment.

Perry had called the show the day the chuckleheads had deployed his spell, getting himself a slot six days from then, showing the confirmation email on his phone to the security camera outside his house so he could finally be allowed inside to sleep in his own bed.

So...Perry had four days to come up with a plan to ‘win’ an interview with a hostile host and prove he wasn’t responsible for the attack.

Or... at least, less responsible.

I guess I’d settle for surviving the interview, honestly.

New Quest: Survive the Interview!

Reward: Variable

Which was why Perry had taped episodes of Capes Tonight blasting on every monitor while he worked.

Studying his enemy.

Sometimes a cape could bring in a little example of their work that would help win Amber and the audience over. The Whisperer brought in a tame bunny and had been given softball questions for the rest of the show.

Extrapolating from this, Perry was going to summon something nice and fluffy, to make the interviewer go soft-headed while simultaneously proving that he could make tech that could allow other people without skills or magic to summon.

At this point, it was fairly well understood by the community that Paradox was using magic somehow. What Perry really had to do was keep his proprietary tech under wraps with a mislead that the tech he’d invented harmlessly tapped into the essence of the people using them.

People probably weren’t ready for fully autonomous magitech.

I should start adding some thermite to the spell-discs to slag them if tampered with. Thermite is super cheap! Why didn’t I think of that a long time ago?

Live and learn I guess.

The summoning ritual for summoning Elysian Fluffers wasn’t difficult, it was just tedious, and he had to make a reusable copy and enough of the consumables to use it three times.

Once to test it for himself, one to show it to the producers of the show backstage, and one for Amber.

There was no way they’d let him pull out a steel hockey puck of unknown origin and have Amber press the button on live TV...Unless he let them test it.

So...I should probably make six charges. He would bet money that someone would use it twice or lose a charge or something of that nature.

Perry was going into this conflict armed to the teeth...with divine lap animals.

“So, Paradox,” Heather said, taking on the cadence of the nosy reporter “Why did you decide to attack the mutant slums?”

“I didn’t, some of my stolen tech was used.” Perry said as he worked.

“Stolen? It can only be assumed you sold that tech. All Tinkers who are any good have iron-clad protection on their weapons to prevent other people from using them. You’re obviously lying.” Heather said.

“No, ma’am, I’m just a rookie.”

“So you’re incompetent?”

Heather practiced saying things to box him in, get under his skin or put words in his mouth.

Perry practiced keeping an even temper.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.

***5 days later***

Perry paced the musty backstage of Capes tonight, his heart racing. He’d practiced his ass off, but it had all been in the safety and comfort of his lair. Now he was starting to see how the pressure of location could bear down on you until you snap.

It was dark, unfamiliar, there was a roaring crowd outside:

Perry felt like a gladiator about to go out and get eaten by lions.

“I’m wondering what your agenda was, using Mr. Ex’berzat to attack the mutant slums.”

“Attack? Was someone hurt?” Perry asked. He knew for a fact that no one had been wounded, because the surrounding area had been evacuated beforehand by the warring cowls, and his letter from Nexus hadn’t had any medical or loss-of-life penalties, just infrastructure damage.

Perry had every intention of taking credit for their safety.

“There were millions of dollars in damages to people’s homes and businesses,” Amber said, deflecting herself as she shine a light on the worst part of the event, while ignoring the zero fatalities. “I’d say that hurt pretty bad.”

“Amber, I’m taking personal responsibility to restore, replace and refund anything I can. I know there are some things I can’t replace. Treasured memories and heirlooms, but I’m just grateful that everyone in the area was evacuated beforehand.”

She opened her mouth to speak.

“Furthermore,” Perry interrupted her, not interested in allowing her to divert the subject from where he wanted it to be. “This event made Nexus and the rest of Franklin City aware that summoning demons can be done by non-mages at the press of a button, and they are aware of the danger that presents should other tinkers try to replicate it. I can’t go into any specific details, but let’s just say that I hear they may approach the foremost expert in industrialized magic and make him an offer to develop countermeasures against copycats. Nexus is committed to the safety and prosperity of its citizens, after all.”

***Solaris***

His sandwich dropped out of his hand as he stared at the T.V. screen.

“That little punk!”

***Locust***

“AHAHAHAHAH!” Locust cackled, beating the heels of her combat boots on her hardwood desk as Paradox put Nexus in a tight spot. “He learned that from me!”

“Is that gonna work?” Blink asked, brows furrowed.

“Nah, Solaris will find a way around it. That old bastard is canny. This is a check, not a mate. Paradox just doesn’t have the right leverage to back it up. It was a beautiful move, though.” Locust said, wiping a tear from her eye.

***Metalon***

“Why are you laughing, dad?” Felix asked, glancing up from his work on carefully peeling back the armor plating on Paradox’s suit.

“Because, Paradox just identified a security threat he caused, insinuated that Nexus would do something about it, then offered to sell them the solution. If they don’t take public measures to do something about other Tinkers pulling that kind of malarky, they’ll look really bad. So he basically placed them in the position of paying him money or losing face.”

“Oh,” Tom said from the CAD station, nodding for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t get it.”

***Paradox***

Quest Complete!

Survive the interview!

Reward: 1XP

Bonus: Win the interview. Self-advertise. Put Nexus on the defensive.

Reward: 400XP, increased notoriety.

Perry walked off the adrenaline, his body refusing to accept that the fight was over and not a single punch had been thrown.

“Hey, kid,” Amber Hardy said as she entered the backstage now that the show was over and the audience had been ushered out by the stage crew.

She straightened her suit unconsciously as she approached, eyeing him critically.

“You gave me a good fight out there, young man.” She said, offering her hand.

“I practiced...a lot.” Perry said, shaking it gently.

“You’d be surprised how few people prep. The Elysian fluffers were good. the audience ate it up. Would you be interested in coming back on the show once you’re a little more established? Five or so years from now?”

“No offence, but an interview with you was more nerve-wracking than fighting prawns for the first time.” Perry said.

“I consider it a compliment,” Amber said, her bright white teeth practically glowing in the dim backstage. “And you’ll get used to the spotlight. Comes with the territory. We’ll revisit the offer in a few years. Maybe you’ll feel different then.”

Perry nodded.

“Later kid. Say hi to Hexen for me!” Amber said as she walked off deeper into the backrooms, presumably going to her office to wrap up for the day and begin planning tomorrow’s show.

Perry drew a deep breath and blew it out. The woman was hard on him on camera, but didn’t seem to take it personally at all. That professionalism allowed him to disperse a bit of his nerves as he put the conflict into context. It was a show, and it was over now.

Shortly afterwards, the stage hands guided him to the guest exit. Perry winded down a long series of stairs and hit a steel door, breaking out of the broadcasting building and out onto the street.

Daylight crashed into him along with a wall of sound.

A mob of civilians was screaming and shouting just beyond the velvet ropes and security, waving signs that ranged from death-threats to offers of marriage and everything in between. A wall of chaos blocking his exit.

Perry blinked.

He had no context for how to deal with this.

Nope.

Rather than deal with all that, Perry activated the jets in his shoulders and feet, shooting up into the sky.