The Prince of Astoria-Chapter 82: LXXXII - The Dark Pattern’s Details

Etienne flopped down on his bed and sat the sheathed katana down on the side of his bed.

He sighed loudly and thought to himself, "Going against the Dark Pattern won’t be very useful for testing my sword skills, but this will be perfect for improving my intelligence gathering. I spent so much time studying people, their expressions and the littlest minutiae of social interactions, but I’ve barely used those skills."

He sat up on the edge of his bed, and stared a bookshelf full of figurines and comic books. He stood up and picked one of them up absentmindedly.

"They are not who I’m worried about anyway," Etienne thought, "I’m still paranoid about the heroes busting down our door and trying to take me in. I know I’m not the strongest, but I wonder where I really rank amongst the heroes."

Etienne thumbed through the books on his shelves, "All in all, Dog Catcher was pretty weak. Senshi Sentinel and I were near the same level until I...awakened. So would that put me near the top forty heroes? I wish I could’ve seen The Gamers fight, that would give me a better idea..."

He groaned and leaned his head against the bookshelf, "What will I do if they send a top twenty hero? Or...someone in the top five? If...if the Sword Saint was sent after me, could I...?"

Gabe knocked on Etienne’s door softly, "Eti, are you awake?"

"Come in," Etienne called out lazily.

Gabe entered the room with a large tablet in his hand. He studied Etienne’s expression before speaking, "I’m surprised you haven’t ran sprinting into your family’s headquarters downtown. You said the only thing stopping you was your weapon."

Etienne walked to a nearby rolling chair and sat down. He turned to Gabe, "I told you, I’m using my head now. Uncle Elliot and Aunt Princessa have some relationship with the Black Company. I need to figure out if that relationship is still active and how close it is. Otherwise I’ll run into the same issue as the capitol, where they demolish me and I don’t have a way to retaliate."

Gabe looked at Etienne, surprised, "Even after your transformation, you don’t think you could handle them?"

Etienne laughed, "Don’t say transformation, it makes me sound like the main character in an anime. And honestly? I could hold my own against Ms. Friendly, Isaac and Dirty Bomb, but I never saw the full extent of the full extent of any of their abilities. They held back in every fight. I have no idea if I could win."

Gabe shook his head and held up his tablet, "That’s not what I came in here to talk about. I found some info on the members of the Dark Pattern, like you asked."

Etienne got up quickly and stood next to Gabe, looking at the tablet.

"You already know about Code Talker, their newest member," Gabe began, "He hasn’t appeared in any streams yet, so I’m not sure if this is the same one you faced. There’s been rumors about multiple Code Talkers..."

Etienne shook his head and waved his hand, "Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that. I’m positive it’s the same one. Call it a gut feeling."

Gabe tapped on the screen, "We’ll have to wait and see for that one. We have even less information on Terminator, you may be the most informed person on him."

Etienne scratched his head, "He’s a guy in European knight armor and a puffer jacket who uses a voice changer to talk and traps to fight."

"Bomb Proof," Gabe swiped on his tablet, "Her real name is suspected to be Rebecca Bandy. Before becoming a streamer, she was a junior quant at a company called Academy."

Etienne glared at him, "A quant? What is that?"

Gabe sighed, "A quantitative analyst. She’s not programmer like her fellow Dark Pattern members, but she’s been analyzing large datasets and learning how to exploit them to her advantage since she was 19. She’s probably responsible for the Dark Pattern’s meteoric rise."

Etienne scratched his head, "So she’s just some nerd? Maybe I should leave the Dark Pattern to the police." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Gabe shook my head, "Don’t make it sound like she’s harmless. While Yorrk discusses computer and coding theory, and Terminator creates things with a 3D printers, Bomb Proof is the heart of the operation. She’s the one spreading that message Terminator was telling you about. Do for self. And she uses her mathematical analysis abilities to make that happen."

Etienne looked at the picture on Gabe’s tablet. A short, chubby woman in a black shirt and blue jeans flexed a suprisingly toned arm around a crowd of people.

"Why is she called Bomb Proof?" Etienne questioned.

"Apparently, she’s fearless. Like, to a dangerous degree," Gabe stated, "Nothing scares her. Bombproof is a term used for horses that never get scared. Despite not having any powers, she beat a ranked hero in hand to hand combat. They were ranked number 170, but still impressive nonetheless.

Etienne looked down at Gabe’s tablet, "And what about Yorrk?"

Gabe tapped a few times on the tablet and brought up a new page, "Yorrk the Machinist. We have the most information on him. He’s been a petty criminal for years, working for various different criminal organizations."

"A career henchman," Etienne commented.

"Each time he reappears, he’s different. He’s in a higher position. In command of more men. He may not be as experienced as the members of the Black Company, but he’s nobody to take lightly. And unlike his teammates, he’s actually a metahuman."

Etienne crossed his arms, "What can he do?"

"He’s a Netizen, like Brian the Brain. He’s stated over and over he can ’talk to computers’. Nobody knows what that exactly means or entails, but he is able to do some interesting things with that ability."

"Netizen?" Etienne thought to himself, "Why are there so many terms associated with meta humans?"

"Who is this astronaut?" Etienne asked, pointing to a picture on the tablet.

"That’s Yorrk," Gabe responded, "And this ’astronaut suit’ is the only picture we have of his criminal days."

Etienne sighed and walked back over to the bookshelf, "Thanks for the info, Gabe. It feels good to not fly in blind for once."

Gabe turned to the exit but stopped before fully leaving. He turned to Etienne with a somber look on his face, "We’re going to be okay, Etienne. We’ve made it through everything else. There’s no need to look so worried."

Etienne nodded slowly, and Gabe exited the room.

"Is it really that obvious?" Etienne thought to himself, "Sorry Gabe. I can’t help but worry, but the real battle hasn’t even started yet."