System Supervillain, Book 3 Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Capes & Cowls Forum, General Chat)

Message of the Day: Remember, Capes & Cowls is ‘neutral ground’. Keep it civil, and if you try to track someone through our site, it will not end well for you.

Speedy, AngelEyes, Victory, HotStuff, Jester, Aegis, Stars, Emerald, Snowflake, MagicGurl, RedHot, Scholar, Turbo, DontYouWantMeBaby, KoolAidMan, SliceNDice, Destroyer, Inquisitor, Chummer, GrimDark, DarkAngel, Chiller, MultiMe, Stepford, Dollmaker, Mindtaker, MrRoboto, TitaniumTits, Lolth, InfoGirl, ScoopGirl, HolyBlessing, and DonJuan are in the chat.

ScoopGirl: How is the cleanup in Imperial China going?

Victory: As well as it can. The damage to the capital was extensive. This ‘blood rain’, as the locals are calling it, was some kind of highly acidic magical attack. Everything within fourteen kilometers of the Imperial Palace looks as though it suffered fifty years of acid rain in a night.

HotStuff: Power is down throughout the area, since all above-ground power lines have melted. Traffic in and out of the area is difficult, due to roads and subway rails being compromised. Any civilian vehicles that were outdoors during the rain are damaged beyond repair. Even military vehicles are needing to have minor repairs done, mostly to their tires, antennas, and so on.

Victory: The search for survivors is finished. The mystics can detect no more life signs trapped in the rubble and sludge. Final casualty numbers? Two hundred and ten thousand wounded, at least six thousand missing or dead. That’s one percent of the total population of Beijing.

MultiMe: My gods! And this was all caused by one person?

Victory: That is correct. The new Emperor just announced it, but his father, the former Emperor, was assassinated by a former heroine during the Blood Rain.

Dollmaker: Controlled, or free-willed?

Victory: Free-willed, it seems. Though changed. Before, she was known as Moonchild, and had a costume of white and blue, with a red bow. Now, she apparently goes by Bloodmoon, and her costume is red and black, and she has black wings.

HolyBlessing: Moonchild? That was the heroine that had to quit because she got pregnant last year, right?

ScoopGirl: No, she had to quit because she was raped by Jinlong, and her powers came from her being a virgin. When she found out she was pregnant, the Emperor decreed that she would carry the child, to ensure Jinlong’s line endured. Jinlong did not receive any punishment for what he did.

Scholar: So, she found a new power source, and took out her vengeance upon the Emperor, not caring about collateral damage?

HotStuff: It appears so. They’re still looking for exactly what managed to power her up like that.

DontYouWantMeBaby: Speaking of Jinlong, didn’t he get killed earlier in the evening?

Victory: Yes, it appears to be a contract killing, also by Bloodmoon.

Chiller: She was Moonchild when she paid for the killing, and Bloodmoon after.

Scholar: Wait, do you have some information on her transformation?

Chiller: Of course, I do. I was there.

HotStuff: That does not surprise me.

Scholar: So, what happened?

Chiller: A ritual involving the heart of her rapist, the blood of her child, and me getting to enjoy her body. A nice way to finish off my little Asian vacation.

Stars: Vacation? You made several attacks in Japan, Korea, and China!

Chiller: No, I tested my abilities on the Tokyo Rangers, and then made it a working vacation to have some fun and pick up some extra beer money.

Destroyer: Hey, Chiller, who is the hottie you’re supposedly running with?

RedHot: Not me, I promise!

HotStuff: Did you enslave some poor girl again?

Chiller: Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy our time together, HotStuff.

Destroyer: Nah, it wasn’t any of the normal people seen with him. There were a couple cameras that caught him and some woman in costume together, outside a Yakuza boss’s house.

Lolth: How did you find out about that?

Destroyer: What, I can’t have contacts, and people I know?

Chiller: Well, I don’t see the harm in saying that I’ve taken on a partner. The System’s activation, and the changes it has brought about, mean that it is advantageous to have someone that can cover my weak points.

DarkAngel: You did not answer whether or not she was enslaved, though.

Chiller: I have not enslaved her, no. She is a willing partner.

Dollmaker: So, you have some form of actual enslavement or long-term mind control power? You should come have tea with Stepford, Mindtaker, and me sometime. We can compare notes.

Chiller: Hmm. I think that I would prefer some assurances before I met with three mind controllers in person. No offense, understand, but I have no desire to be on the other side of that power.

Stepford: We aren’t brutes like you who take everything we can. Some of us are far more selective.

InfoGirl: Your main gig is providing ‘mail order brides’ that just so happen to be people the ‘husband’ knows!

Stepford: Please. I provide a service, connecting lonely men with lovely women who have been specially prepared to be loving spouses and cater to their every whim.

InfoGirl: You mean they can be controlled by the app you developed and send to the husband’s phone.

Stepford: You say that like it is a bad thing.

Victory: It is. You are robbing those girls of their free will, and condemning them to a life of servitude!

Lolth: I will say that the coding on the app you made is impressive. The firewalls, however, on the control devices? Not so much.

ScoopGirl: Wait, you’re telling me that these ‘Stepford Wives’ can be hacked?

Lolth: Yes, fairly easily, too. All the thought was given to control, and putting in a few safeguards to ensure that they could not be turned against him directly. However, the ability to alter their memories and mood via the app means that they are vulnerable to hacking.

HotStuff: Wait. Even Iceblade didn’t change memories! Sure, I ended up thinking everything was my idea, until someone snapped me out of it, but he didn’t actually change my memories of what happened!

Lolth: Oh, I’m afraid that Stepford’s system does worse than that. It can change ALL the subject’s memories, erasing who they were completely. And permanently.

Stepford: And how would you know any of this, if it were true?

Lolth: Because I’m a technopath, darling. That’s why they call me Web Mistress. You have no secrets from me, if you put them online.

Stepford: You bitch! You best watch your back!

Moderator message: Remember, keep it civil.

Stepford: Gah! Fine. I’ll be the bigger man. But you best hope I don’t catch you alone out in the real world.

Chiller: You should worry more about yourself, Stepford. Making threats against my partner is generally considered to be a career-ending decision.

RedHot: Oh, shit! That means your partner is a technopath? Fuck, nothing is safe!

Mindtaker: Hmm. An ice-based assassin and a technopath. And probably guarded against mental attacks, given that at least one of them has one, and knows the danger. That’s a powerful combination, there. I see what you mean by ‘covering your weaknesses’. I’ll have to recruit helpers, as well, it seems.

TitaniumTits: I do not like where this is going.