System Supervillain, Book 4 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, TheWhiteHat, LuckyDice, GrimDark, DarkAngel, Chiller, MultiMe, Stepford, Dollmaker, Mindtaker, MrRoboto, TitaniumTits, Lolth, InfoGirl, ScoopGirl, HolyBlessing, and DonJuan are in the chat.

SliceNDice: Oh, geez! That was a beautiful kill! Live TV and everything, just took her head clean off! Couldn’t have done better myself!

Chummer: You don’t need to sound so impressed. She was a Senator! This is going to have major repercussions.

ScoopGirl: That’s true. If an assassin can get into the Capitol and kill a Senator in the middle of a speech, then pretty much nowhere is safe. The politicians are in a frenzy, and looking for someone to blame. My sources say that Homeland Security is already launching an investigation to find out how he got in.

HotStuff: They are, yes. And they asked the Squadron Supreme to help out, since we are one of the teams with the most experience facing Iceblade.

Stars: How did he get in, anyways? I mean, the Capitol isn’t as locked down as the Luvre is, but they still have defenses in place, and the guards weren’t sleeping on the job, right?

AngelEyes: Last I heard, major speculation said that he found some way to bypass the energy screens on the ventilation system, which let him get in.

Victory: That is the working theory right now. However, the screens are all stand-alone systems. They’re checking all of them for signs of tampering, but there are a LOT of screens on the building.

HolyBlessing: How sure are they that he got in by bypassing one of the screens?

Victory: 12%.

Chummer: 12%? That’s basically a wild guess, then! What are they even doing?

HotStuff: If it was Iceblade working alone, then that would be higher. However, he’s got that technopath, Web Mistress, now, which changes things. We don’t know her full capabilities.

ScoopGirl: Who is Web Mistress, anyways? I did some digging, but all the information I found was either highly corrupted, or clearly fabricated.

TheWhiteHat: Web Mistress (known as Lolth on these forums) is one of the top 10 most dangerous ‘black hat’ hackers in the world. She doesn’t just go with cybercrime, either. She has a confirmed body count of 150. Possibly more.

TitaniumTits: Hold up, how does a hacker get a kill sheet that long?

InfoGirl: Hack an elevator when a target is inside, disengage the safety protocols, and drop it.

Scholar: Would only work on some types of elevators. Most have a physical emergency brake, that deploys automatically if the car falls too fast. Completely mechanical, which means hacking is not an option.

TheWhiteHat: In 12 separate instances, there were money transfers to local hires, who disabled the hardware safety systems. She then dropped the elevators when her targets were inside.

InfoGirl: So, is Web Mistress a hired assassin, like Iceblade?

Lolth: Oh, no. I did those jobs for free. What Whitey doesn’t tell you is that those kills were all names on the Ecstein customer list.

KoolAidMan: The child molester ring? Well, sounds like community service, if anything. Taking out the trash.

Turbo: Regardless of the circumstances, they should have been arrested and brought to trial if there was evidence of their crimes, not summarily executed by vigilantes. That isn’t how the system works!

ScoopGirl: There were 167 names on that list, as I recall, plus the man himself. She only got 150 of them?

TheWhiteHat: I haven’t been able to prove the other 17 were her. And I don’t know if she has other kills, not related to the list. 150 is the number of confirmed kills.

Lolth: Not that I’m bragging, but the real number is much higher. Not as high as Iceblade’s is, however.

InfoGirl: How high is his body count? There’s a lot of mirky numbers, there.

MultiMe: Mirky, how?

InfoGirl: Well, he operates all over the world, and some people thought to be his victims have just disappeared, with no body being found. Plus, there are guards, bystanders, and others who might get caught in the crossfire.

Chiller: Plus, organized crime outfits don’t exactly report all their losses to the cops. There were a couple times where I needed to make an example, and ended up wiping out entire branches of a syndicate or two. Plus, that little campaign against Doctor Ubuntu. Killed a bunch of people while driving him to ground.

ScoopGirl: No one ever figured out why you did that. You basically tore through his world-wide operation, and razed it to the ground.

Chiller: Oh, that’s simple. He hired me for a job, and then tried to have an assassin kill me instead of paying me. So, I destroyed his entire operation, before killing him. No one has tried to skip out on my bill since then.

ScoopGirl: Overkill, much?

Chiller: Number 37 of the Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries: There is no “overkill.” There is only “open fire” and “reload.”

Dollmaker: So, I take it that the reason for your killing the Senator has to do with your activities in Iowa the night before?

Chiller: Yes. Axis Industries made the mistake of targeting some people under my protection. So, I made an example.

DarkAngel: So, how DID you get into the Capitol, anyways?

Chiller: The Capitol has a very impressive security net. However, there are enough holes in it that I had my pick of ways in. Obviously, I won’t say which one I used this time, since I’d like to have the option available should I need to do it again.

DarkAngel: Seems like it would be easier to attack elsewhere.

Chiller: Certainly. But it wouldn’t send the same message. Killing her on the floor serves notice that there is nowhere that they can go that I cannot touch them if they anger me.

Lolth: Oh, Whitey, you can stop trying to trace the signals. I’ve already guarded against back-tracking.

TheWhiteHat: I’ll never give up. You’re a menace that needs to be stopped, like all you other Black Hats.

Lolth: Shh. You sound like a comic book. Now, I’m going to have to put you in time out.

TheWhiteHat has disconnected.

Scholar: Uh, what did you do?

Lolth: Oh, I just made his computer reformat itself. Anything not backed up to external storage will need to be reloaded from scratch, including the OS.

Scholar: And you can do that, through the forum?

Lolth: Oh, no. I abide by the forum’s rules of not hacking anyone through the link. Whitey skirted the rules, since tracing someone is not the same as intruding on their systems, but I did something else.

Victory: The White Hat is one of the best hackers in the world. How did you do it?

Lolth: Tell you what. Film an adult video with Iceblade, and I’ll tell you.

Victory: NEVER! It isn’t worth that!

Scholar: So, what are your plans now, Iceblade?

Chiller: I don’t have any current plans, honestly. I’ve tested my abilities pretty thoroughly, now, and my last couple paid gigs are enough to let me coast for a bit. Of course, if I take on more jobs, that will get me XP, which I can use to improve things, and shore up some weaknesses I’ve found.

RedHot: You really don’t have to do that, though. In fact, I’d really rather you didn’t. You’re enough of a threat as is.

Chiller: Sorry, no can do. Stagnation is just slow death. Adapt or die.