Chapter 305: A Trump Card Defeated
Hero Tower.
On its topmost floor, the office of the highest power in the hero industry was as silent as a tomb.
Chairman Lymtos Kazamir Panemorfi.
He sat behind his massive desk as his wrinkled fingers twisted and clicked a Rubik’s cube. He didn’t look up at his secretary who read through the long reports detailing the chaotic events of the last two days.
"Sir, Vincent used his connections at Ashgate Supermax to have Maya Rivera released..."
The secretary scrolled the report on her tablet.
"From what we’ve gathered, it’s likely going to happen today, give or take a few hours. Worse, Vincent has also scheduled a massive meeting with the press. He intends to tell them the absolute truth about the inner workings of the hero industry, what led to Maya’s arrest, and exactly why there was never a trial."
The chairman didn’t look remotely bothered that a nuclear-level scandal was about to explode in his face. He simply shifted a row on his cube.
"Tch. How unfortunate. I actually thought I had it this time, but it doesn’t seem like it."
The secretary’s jaw chattered anxiously.
His nonchalance annoyed her.
"Sir, I hate how you’re so calm about this! This will destroy the Hero Agency! It gives Sage a massive advantage over us. I’m still terrified as to why Sage hasn’t launched their brand yet and what they’re waiting for. If those meta-chips hit the market right after this scandal, they’ll win over the public instantly and have an entire army of superheroes at their disposal! How can you be so calm?!"
Chairman Lymtos stopped turning the cube.
He glared at her with his one good eye as he adjusted his black eyepatch.
The man didn’t say a single word.
But the secretary was scared to her bones.
She had just foolishly demanded answers from one of the most ruthless, powerful men in the United States and the entire world like he worked for her.
The fact that she was still breathing was a miracle.
"I-, I’m sorry!"
She stammered and her face lost all its color as she began to back away.
"I’m so sorry, Chairman! I disrespected you. I’ll never do it again, I swear I’m sorry!"
The old man merely yawned as he waved a wrinkled hand dismissively.
"Don’t worry about that. Tell me, have you mentioned any of this to Red Knight?"
The secretary shook her head, too terrified to properly form the word no.
Lymtos nodded and returned his Rubik’s cube.
"That’s good. It’s better she doesn’t know about it. That woman can be a major headache sometimes. She doesn’t understand the true danger Nightwatch poses, or how bad it makes us look if one of our top heroes is caught colluding with him."
Taking a shaky, deep breath, the secretary swallowed her fear just enough to speak.
"But sir... uhm... how are we even sure Nightwatch is a bad person th—"
Lymtos glared at her again.
The words died in her throat.
She saw her life flashing before her eyes.
The chairman placed his incomplete cube aside.
"Leave."
One word that made the entire office grow cold.
"I’ll deal with Vincent and Maya myself."
The trembling lady didn’t waste a second. She bowed her head and ran out of the office whilst slamming the double doors behind her.
Now that she was gone, Lymtos pushed his intercom button and spoke in a casual tone.
"Chief of Security. I need a new secretary. The old one is fired. Go ahead and give her a nice trip to wherever... as long as no one ever finds her again. Make sure to do the same for her family. How does that sound?"
[Roger that, sir!]
A quick and doubtless obedience.
Just what the chairman loved.
The moment he took his finger off the intercom, the office doors swung open again.
A stern-faced Rope Girl walked into the room with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
"It seems the Hero Agency has officially gone to shit with all the drama happening. If Vincent goes out there and says whatever truth he wants to say, I’ll be the first to throw you and this useless establishment under the bus. I’m tired of being a hero anyway. It doesn’t pay."
The chairman chuckled softly.
"I didn’t take you as the type that does what she does for money, though."
SLAM!
Rope Girl slammed her palm hard against his desk as her own way of cutting him off.
"You know exactly what I meant! I’ve spent so many years in this damn service, Lymtos. I’ve seen the worst things known to man, and I am overly sick of it. The only reason I even became a hero in the first place was to become your personal puppet. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of killing for you, and I’m tired of acting like Nightwatch is some kind of terrorist when we both know he’s not!"
Lymtos smiled softly and leaned his old, aching back in his leather chair.
"Well, I appreciate the sudden epiphany and all, my dear. But you WILL kill again. Because I need you to silence Maya Rivera and Vincent Lakewood for me."
He didn’t look bothered in the slightest.
He couldn’t even imagine her saying no. He just waited for her to say yes, like the obedient little girl she had always been. Rope Girl had been his perfect killing machine ever since he was a general in the army. That was never going to change, because he was the one who made her exactly who and what she was.
But Rope Girl just stared down at him with disgust.
"Screw you! I’m not doing it."
She turned and headed for the exit.
Chairman Lymtos lifted his voice slightly.
"If you don’t do it, I’ll—"
Rope Girl glared back at him over her shoulder.
"What? You’ll tell the world that I’m a product of Black Stone? Go ahead. I don’t give a damn about that anymore. You’ve used me to kill so many people. My hands are filled with so much blood that I’m utterly disgusted with myself. I know you practically own my life... but I won’t be the life that exists just to snuff out other lives."
She marched right back to his desk, pulled out her official Hero ID card, and threw it in his face.
"I quit."
Chairman Lymtos stared down at the metallic card with so much suppressed anger.
For the first time in decades, he was shocked.
He couldn’t believe it.
She’d actually stood up to him.
...
Meanwhile, across the city.
Scott was relaxing in the driver’s seat of his black Nissan GT-R, which was parked inconspicuously near a massive media building.
Beside him in the passenger seat, Beca’s fluffy fox ears suddenly twitched.
She squeezed her pretty face a little at him.
"What are we even doing here?"
"Well..."
Scott paused as he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel while watching the media building.
"I have to be sure Vincent actually sticks to the final part of our deal. He has to say the truth about everything and release all the evidence to the public."
Beca crossed her arms tightly under her breasts.
"But won’t that kill the Hero Agency? I mean, sure, I’m bummed that the people I work under could be destroyed today. But it’s not like I actually liked working for them, considering all their blatant favoritism. But what I’m trying to say is... you’ve been complaining about Sage Network for weeks, saying how bad it’ll be if they launch. And here you are, practically helping them kill their competition."
Scott let out a heavy sigh and leaned his head back against the headrest.
"It’s not like I have a choice. I can’t let either of them be a thing. But if I have the power to take down the Hero Agency right now, it’s better to do it. It’s an advantage I’ll probably never get again."
Beca pouted slightly and shifted in her seat.
"Do what you have to do. Just remember that there’s a lot of good heroes this will affect. Once the agency falls, they might just defect straight over to Sage, and it’ll be the exact same problem, only much worse."
Scott nodded slowly.
"It’s a risk I’m willing to take."
Beca looked at him with a warm smile.
"Sure."
"Hm?"
Scott’s eyes suddenly drifted over to her. Now that he was actually looking, he noticed the way Beca’s breasts were pushing against her clothes. Her nipples looked like they’d fall off with how hard they were pressed against her white, baggy crop top. She’d paired the top with denim short shorts that fully exposed her sexy thighs that looked like thick cuts of meat.
Maybe it was the winter cold that made her nipples stand like two long bullets.
Beca seems to have quite the cold resistance.
There is a sudden urge to squeeze his face between her hot inner thighs and sniff her.
Being with Beca made him act like an animal.
She does weird things in bed... things he likes.
He tilted his head and smirked.
"You didn’t wear a bra?"
Beca’s cheeks instantly turned a lovely shade of red.
She gave him a coy side-eye, shifting her legs.
"Well... we haven’t exactly done it in a car before..."
She shyly looked away.
"So... yunno..."
Scott’s smile widened.
"Maybe we can fix that right now."
SLAP.
Beca gave his cheek a very light slap.
"Focus! Aren’t you supposed to be checking for a certain Vincent right now?"
Scott let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his messy hair.
"Fair enough."
He was a little irritated. Beca had worn something so sexy just to seduce him, and now that it’d worked perfectly, she suddenly wasn’t in the mood? Then again, she probably just didn’t want to be blamed if they were too busy tearing each other’s clothes off to notice Vincent entering the building.
He sighed again and patted his crotch.
"Stay strong, little Scott."
Beca saw this and rolled her eyes.
"Pssh—sex is not that good..."
But her panties were already a little wet from waiting so long for Scott to notice her skimpy outfit.
Clearly, she’s the shameless one here.
Suddenly, a handsome young man with a masculine face and curly brown hair walked up and stood right in front of Scott’s car. He had a bright smile on his face and wore a long black trench coat over an ash-colored suit.
Scott rolled down his window a fraction, lifting a brow.
"Uhhh... can I help you?"
The young man leaned forward slightly.
"Hey, d’you happen to have a lighter in there? Really need it for a quick smoke."
"Nah, sorry bro..." Scott said.
"Ahh, it’s fine."
The guy replied, waving it off with a chuckle.
"I’ve been trying to quit smoking anyway, so maybe this is just a sign."
Scott nodded awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. Good for you."
"Nice ride you go—"
Suddenly, the guy let out a loud scream as he stumbled backward and almost fell flat on his ass.
Scott blinked, quite startled.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah! I’m fine!"
The guy yelled, frantically dusting off his suit jacket as he looked around wildly.
"It’s just these damn pigeons that keep flying around! I hate those little shits!"
With no other words, the man did an AHEM! and started walking away down the pavement.
Scott forced a tight-lipped smile.
"Weird guy."
But when he looked over at Beca, he realized her entire demeanor had changed. Her body was tense, and she was growling quietly under her breath as her eyes locked onto the departing back of the young man.
Scott gave her a shoulder pat.
"Woah, calm down, Teen Wolf."
He laughed shortly after.
Beca inhaled shakily and let out a cute, high-pitched exhale as she forced herself to relax.
"Sorry... it’s just... that guy smells SO wrong..."
"Huh?"
Before Scott could question it, Beca abruptly toward the main entrance of the media building.
"There! There’s Vincent!"
Scott quickly pushed his window down until it was fully open.
Sure enough, a heavily armored, black SUV had pulled up to the curb. Vincent stepped out, covered by a massive wall of bodyguards in sharp suits, who immediately began leading him toward the doors.
A massive swarm of reporters instantly swallowed them with shoved mics, cameras and phones.
They’re mostly directed at Vincent’s face.
"Mr. Lakewood! What exactly happened to your face?!"
"Is it true you’re releasing classified documents about Ashgate Supermax?!"
"Is this a calculated strategy to give Sage a chance to one-up the Hero Agency?!"
"So there’s really more to Pulsar’s arrest?!"
The questions were like a rapid-fire artillery. The men in black forcefully shielded Vincent, pushing the press back with heavy hands.
"Stay back!"
"No comments until the press conference!"
"Move away from the vehicle!"
They did their jobs perfectly.
Vincent looked terrified to die. He was wearing two separate bulletproof vests under his clothes, and the SUV he arrived in looked heavily modified for combat. He sprinted into the safety of the building under full protection and left the entire press corps standing outside.
Standing in the crowd, Judy Cho let out a sigh.
Like every other reporter, she was disappointed.
She turned to look at her cameraman and raised her mic to address the viewers of Metro Daily.
[It seems we won’t be able to get much out of Vincent Lakewood just yet. But from what we’ve seen, things are bound to get shaky for the Hero Agency very soon. Rest assured, I’ll do my very best to keep you posted the moment the conference begins. The people deserve the truth even if it means harming the Hero Agency!]
Her cameraman nodded approvingly and kept the lens locked on her.
Static...
[WAAAAAHHHHHH!]
A loud, panicked voice exploded via Judy’s earpiece.
It was John Markowski, screaming at the top of his lungs through the comms like usual.
[JUDY! What the hell are you doing?! Stop saying bad things about the Hero Agency on a live broadcast! How many times do I need to warn you that the higher-ups will come straight for my head?!]
Judy rolled her eyes dramatically.
She wasn’t fazed one bit.
"Sure, sure, whatever John."
It was his job as Editor-in-Chief to stop her from doing silly, dangerous things on television, but that didn’t exactly mean she was ever going to stop.
If she wasn’t such a talent, he’d fire her.
[Sigh~ whatever, Cho...]
Then, unexpectedly, the sparkling glass doors of the media building flew open. The chief bodyguard from just a few minutes ago walked out onto the steps.
The press immediately surged forward again with a fresh round off rapid-fire questions.
But as the cameras flashed, everyone froze.
The chief bodyguard looked entirely broken.
His face was pale, and his hands were shaking.
Watching from the GT-R, Scott raised a brow.
"Hm. Still can’t believe Vincent is actually going to do something good for once in his life."
He and Beca continued to watch the whole thing from an unnoticeable distance.
The chief guard stepped up to the microphones that was like a sea of hungry sharks.
"I’m sorry... Mr. Lakewood is dead."
For a split second, there was silence.
Then, a madness erupted.
Cameras flashed wildly, and a hundred different questions were shouted at once.
"HOW?! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?!"
"WAS IT SUICIDE?!"
"YOU HAVE TO TELL US!"
The press didn’t even seem to care about the man’s actual death; they only cared about the whale of a story they were about to publish.
Inside the car, Scott heard the announcement.
He laughed with short breaths in-between.
"W-, What?"
Scott stuttered and his eyes widened in shock as he gripped the steering wheel.
"That’s impossible... we just saw him walk in there! He had so many damn men on him... he’s not dead!"
Beca immediately reached over and grabbed his arm to try and calm him down.
"Scott, wait—"
"No, no, no, he’s not dead!"
He slammed his fists against the steering wheel which made the horn cry out his frustrations.
He couldn’t believe it.
Someone just pulled the rug right out from under him.
Beca saw the look on his face... it was almost as if he’d cry from frustration, so she quickly wrapped her arms and fluffy tail around him to give him the best hug she could.
"It’ll be fine, my love."
