Broker-Chapter 255

Sonya and Nietz stared one another down as the Representative shifted back a few paces, looking between them. Sonya ignored the idiot, her focus on the young hero. He certainly has balls, she thought. She was surprised by the lengths the guy was willing to go to help someone he considered a friend. There was no doubt in her mind that the person was Locke, though she was a bit surprised that she needed any help at all. It seemed to her that it was fairly cut and dry as to who was truly at fault in the whole scenario.

Unless the representatives decided to try to throw the poor girl under the bus, she reasoned.

To Sonya’s estimations, what had happened back at The Hague likely traumatized the young hero. Even if she had obeyed the commands of the wayward representatives, it had been under a form of duress, so she couldn’t hold it against her. All she had done, technically, was put a hand on Cass, who had been willing to submit to such questioning in the moment. The representatives had chosen to take things too far. She tilted her head to the right. But they want to push some of the blame off on a light-touched in hopes of easing their own problems.

She sighed. I should have expected this.

“Very-”

“Now just one moment!” Sowards cut in, finally putting a bit of force behind his quivering voice.

Sonya blinked and turned to him, dumbstruck. Is this guy suicidal?

“I can’t condone this,” Sowards barked, pointing his finger at Nietz. “This event was scheduled for the heroes of Australia and at most, the heroes in neighboring countries. Anton Hosk is Polish! If he wants to participate in one of your competitions, he can do it at the European one!”

Sonya kept staring at him. This guy is actually digging his own grave, right in front of me. Where’s his shovel? Did he bring it?

“While this may be a private competition, it is being held at the permission and blessing of the Australian government. This is exactly one of our concerns about you, Miss Chernovna. You throw your weight around too willfully!” he rambled on. Where he suddenly got his courage from, Sonya wasn’t sure.

Oh… he brought an excavator! Sonya realized. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

He turned to Sonya, huffing out a breath and crossing his arms before meeting her eyes. He froze. Going a little pale beneath her stare. She just smiled at him. “So you’re making the rules for my competition now, Mister Sowards? Is that how it is? I didn’t know!” she laughed and clapped the side of her head. “When did the memo go out? I must have missed it!”

He wilted a little. “Miss Chernovna, please be reasonable.”

“Reasonable!” Sonya barked out a laugh and turned to Marta who was still standing there. She’d gone very still but her face was still placid and calm. Sonya jerked her thumb towards Sowards and threw up her hands. “I must be misunderstanding what the word reasonable means. Maybe he can explain it to us?” she suggested before her eyes widened and she slapped her fist to her palm. “Oh, I know!”

Marta inclined her head. “Please, do enlighten me, ma’am.”

“Well first, how about we have a nice cozy meeting in one of the offices here? We could get some refreshments delivered by Hero Nietz here! I do hope he comes back!” Sonya started.

Sowards winced.

Sonya held up a finger. “Then while we wait, we can talk a little about how words work! Though, maybe we should make sure to get everything clearly from him. Do you have any ideas?”

Sowards took a step back.

Marta inclined her head. “Perhaps there’s someone out there with an ability that can help Mister Sowards explain the word ‘reasonable’ to us in a clear way, Mistress. Unfiltered and honest, of course.”

Sowards shrank.

Sonya turned to Sowards with a huge smile. “What do you think, Representative? Doesn’t that sound like a fun time?” she asked brightly. “A lively language debate!”

He pulled at his collar. “Puh-perhaps I was a bit hasty, Miss Chernovna,” he said quickly. “I’d like to withdraw my previous statement and encourage the young man to of course participate. I’ll even smooth things over with the Australian authority as a gesture to hopefully ease some tension after that… erm… incident at The Hague,” he said.

She brightened. “It’s certainly a gesture!” she said. “You can go ahead and throw in accommodations for the young man and I want a pair of executive transport helicopters as well.”

“T-to borrow?” he asked, sweat beading on his temple as a vein pulsed.

Her expression fell a little. “We’ll see.”

He cleared his throat. “R-right, of course!” he said hurriedly before turning to Nietz and giving him a half nod. “Good luck on the competition, young man,” he added before hurrying towards the door.

“Mister Sowards,” Sonya said, her tone icy as she looked out the window. Amos’ team was setting panels of pale-white metal atop the grass now and installing some kind of equipment along the rim.

He paused at the door. “Yes, Miss Chernovna?”

“I’ll have Colin formally codify the rules of the competition tonight. I hope there won’t be any concerns or protests,” she said.

“I-I’ll let my superiors know!” he stammered and hurried out the door past a gobsmacked Nietz.

Animal, she snarled inwardly before turning back to Nietz with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I just used capital on you, Nietz. You implied you’d be willing to try again at the other rounds if you don’t succeed here. I’m telling you that if you don’t place in at least the top half of the bracket for this first round, I will personally contact Chairwoman Mint and ask her to have you brought back. This isn’t negotiable.”

He returned her stare and tried to steel himself. She watched his shoulders square a little as he worked up his courage. He truly has spine. I kind of want to give him a sponsorship now and cut out the middle-man, but it’ll be interesting to see how far he goes. Is he really doing this just for a friend? Going that far, it’s hard to believe.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He shot his hand out for her to shake. “I won’t let you down, ma’am.”

She raised her eyebrows and took his hand. “Good luck tomorrow, hero.”

Analyze.

<ERROR! Target is immune to abilities that attempt to duplicate or copy their ability. Target’s ability must be willingly surrendered or analyzed.>

Oh ho ho ho! What is this?!

She pulled her hand away and rested it on her hip with an easy smile as he nodded to her and saw himself out. She watched his back for several moments before looking down at her hand and flexing her fingers. Marta leaned in next to her. “What is it?”

“He’s immune, like Otis,” Sonya said thoughtfully. “No, that’s not right. Otis was simply ‘Immune’. Nietz was immune to abilities that copy or duplicate his ability.”

Marta whistled and looked at the door appreciatively. “His ability is on the Pandora Committee record.”

Sonya nodded. “Have Amos do some digging when he has time. That boy is now officially on my radar.”

–

Sonya sipped at a can of soda through a straw as she looked out the window of the helicopter that Representative Sowards had so kindly donated to her for her use. She’d have to give it a new paint job at some point and let Amos play with it, but it would do for now. She smirked and tilted her sunglasses down as the helicopter began its approach of the stadium.

Crowds had already gathered around the stadium. News crews, and anyone who could get a ticket was already pouring into the seats. Sonya wanted to turn this into a spectacle with as many witnesses as possible. It would be the same for the other events around the world. Heroes from guilds would be in attendance, and their guildmasters wouldn’t want to miss it either. Tons of powerful heroes showing up instead of being out on patrol.

Of course, they’ll have to make a choice between guarding the local dungeons from my villains too. They won’t have time to protect an isolated dungeon like the Lake Eyre dungeon, she thought. No one will be able to say I wasn’t here, especially with me providing commentary. Now all I have to do is give the signal and wait for the good news from Blackrazor and the others.

You could have me do the commentary, Ishtar pointed out.

And miss a chance to proctor my own fighting tournament? Marta would kill me for throwing this chance out! Sonya thought. I’ll dip during the next one in China. I’ve got extra business there anyway.

Very well, Ishtar chuckled and slipped back into her ability. Sonya watched the stands continue to fill with satisfaction. “It looks great, Amos,” she said as she swept her gaze over the arena he’d built in less than a day.

Amos didn’t immediately respond and she turned to look at him; he was barely containing his laughter, his face turning red.

She grinned and nodded at the helicopter around them. “You like it?”

He couldn’t contain it any longer, he burst into uproarious laughter and kicked his feet. “You are a fucking crazy person!” he howled, doubling over and holding himself. “Two multi-million dollar helicopters! What is wrong with you?”

His laughter was infectious. “You should have seen his face! I swear he was going to shit himself right then and there!”

“The man does look like he’s in dire need of a laxative. I kept calling him Representative Stool in my head,” Marta chimed in from across from them.

The two of them blinked and looked at Marta in shock. She stared back at them. Silence held for a few seconds as all three of them squeezed their mouths shut and tried, really tried, to stop themselves. Then they all broke down into teary-eyed laughter kicking and howling in the back of the helicopter as the carefully masked zombie pilot brought them in for a landing. When they finally caught their breath, the helicopter had stopped.

“You’re not done with him yet, are you?” Amos asked as the warning chime rang, telling them that it wasn’t safe to disembark just yet.

“Hell no!” Sonya laughed. “I’m going to bleed him dry and leave his corpse for the rats.”

“Good,” he said seriously. “Nobody touches the Young Miss and gets away with it. Do they not get that because you adopted her, she's the heir to ASTA as well? Heck, it wouldn’t be a leap to say she’s the Chairwoman’s family too.”

Sonya pursed her lips. “Oh, right.”

Amos and Marta squinted at her. “Did… that not occur to you, ma’am?” Marta asked.

“She seriously didn’t think about that?” Amos added.

Sonya threw up her hands. “I can’t think of everything! At least I remembered to notify Bluestar and Evergreen last night or they would have killed me over what’s coming up!”

“You thought of fleecing Representative Stool for two helicopters,” Amos said as the pilot stepped out of the helicopter and hurried around to open it up. Its helmet covered its disfigured features as the crowd outside roared even above the sound of the vehicles engines. Sonya crossed her arms and pouted.

“Representative Stool really picked well though. Gotta give him some credit. He could have gone with something cheap,” Marta added with a serious nod while the door opened and the pilot held out a hand for Sonya to take. She took it and slipped out with Amos and Marta behind her. The pilot inclined his head once and hurried back to the cockpit as Sonya took it all in.

They were standing on the central ring, a raised platform made entirely out of training room materials to protect the ground from damage. It wouldn’t hold up from an all out strike from a Mythic or powerful Heroic, but it was sufficient for something like this. Beyond it, the rest of the stadium’s field was covered in thinner sheets of the material to block stray attacks. Around the outer edge of the reinforced battlefield were dozens of obelisk-like pylons installed at various intervals. Amos’ spherical drones floated through the air, some with cameras and others seemingly unadorned.

Sonya looked up at the crowd. Over forty thousand people gathered to watch young heroes compete for a chance to have her sponsor them. The feeling of power was a little overwhelming, even with all her abilities.

Her hair whipped around her head, her tie flapping in the wind kicked up by the helicopter as it started to rise back into the air as the crowd grew louder and louder. She gestured to Amos, and he handed her an earpiece that she slipped on and pulled the tiny microphone out to her jaw. She turned and looked up to watch the helicopter leave before striding out to the center of the arena and threw her arms open wide.

“Hello Sydney!”

The response was deafening. It was the first time she had to tune down her own senses; fortunately she could, perks of a mostly cybernetic body. Even so, she felt the vibration of it in her bones.

“Welcome to the Sydney Arena! I hope you didn’t come to see a football match! We’ve got something a bit different planned!” she laughed as Amos and Marta took their positions on either side of her. “Today, you will get to see for yourselves just the kinds of powers and amazing feats these young heroes are capable of! Heroes that have taken that mantle to protect you in this world that has changed so very much.”

She grinned and raised a hand, snapping her fingers.

The unadorned drones spread out at Amos’ command and projections blasted out of them. Holography brought screens to life at every corner of the stadium to give those up high a better view of the action. Across the screens words appeared…

“This is the first ASTA Sponsorship Competition!”

The crowd roared again and she basked in it, grinning ear to ear as she turned in a circle and raised her hands to the crowd, urging them into a near frenzy before bringing her hands back down. “Now, you all know that there’s sponsorships on the line here. But it’s more than that!”

She held up three fingers. “Third place in this competition is a lump sum sponsorship award of one million dollars,” she said before lowering a finger. “Second place is one of the special sponsorships I’ve offered.”

She lowered the last finger and looked directly into the drone hovering over her face so she could meet the eyes of everyone present. “First place is a special sponsorship and a very special prize that I’ve been keeping under wraps. For that, I’ll be needing the help of the lovely Handmaiden and the incomparable Doctor Amos Carter.”

The crowd went quiet as Sonya stepped back a few paces and connected to her technopathy, sending out the go signal to the dungeon team.