Chapter 174: 171 Preparing to Make Friends
Driving a freshly stolen car from New York up to Montreal turned out to be a shorter trip than I expected it to be; maybe it's just because I was crossing the border to a different country, but I really thought it would take longer than just a few hours by car.
Alas, I'm hardly going to complain about less time in transit. The only troublesome part was crossing the border, because I kind of forgot that border control exists, but a quick deposit of a hundred grand was enough to waive those concerns away.
In hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with a tenth of what I gave away, but whatever, money hardly matters in the face of convenience.
Now, I don't plan on being in Canada for long, and I'm not even here to fight or kill anyone for once, this is purely a business trip since it was on the way in my holiday plans anyway, so why not right?
See, there's this cape I want to visit, a man known by the name of Heartbreaker. I'm especially interested in him because he, in conjuration with the Divine Angel of the Skies, Simurgh, whom I adore and most definitely will never act against, please don't hurt me.
As I was thinking, the two of them are the main reason why Masters are the most hated and feared classification of all the powers. Simurgh for obvious reasons, and Heartbreaker because he made himself a harem of mind-fucked women that he regularly breeds, and wasn't particularly subtle about it.
Naturally, due to his ability to have anyone he wants, he only chose the finest of women to 'join' his not so little family. The problem with that, for him at least, is that the extremely beautiful women tend to be taken. Generally by rich and or powerful men.
Suffice to say, when a few millionaires and politicians all have their wives taken away from them by the same guy, it puts him in quite the predicament. Due to this, he now treads very lightly and hardly ever shows himself publicly or even takes women anymore.
How lame is that!
I think he should go back to causing a mess by stealing everyone's women.
The idea of a hundred angry husbands turning the country upside-down in search of their lost wives and daughters is incredibly amusing, so I'm going to see if I can't convince him to be a little bit more active once again.
Surely he's grown bored of the women he has right? It's important to keep spicing things up so a relationship doesn't grow stale after all.
Besides, he clearly thinks with his dick, so I could probably use my own body as a bargening chip if need be. Not that I'd let him control me or anything, but the idea of sexually dominating a woman as powerful and fearsome as me should be pretty attractive to him, so I could offer myself for a night as a reward for every time he amuses me.
With the amount of sex he no doubt has, I'd be surprised if it wouldn't be an enjoyable experience anyway. Even if he's the least talented man ever, experience should count for something.
Hence, why I decided to get some protection against Masters of his variety. Though, we did some tests on how susceptable I am to mind-control, which was basically me allowing Riley to fuck with my brain, which most people would probably consider mad considering her past, but I trust her enough not to try anything, and I trust myself enough to be able to stop it.
Either way, she came to a similar conclusion to me, that I probably have something of a natural defence against being Mastered, but we both agreed that you can never be too safe and installed it anyway, with a few modifications, mainly that there is a manual override, something I insisted upon just in case I came across somone who's power could control augmentations or something.
It would be pretty ironic to be Mastered by my own anti-Mastering device.
Pretty funny too though in all honesty, I probably wouldn't even be mad about it.
However, those are thoughts for another time as I have finally arrive at the address I was searching for in Montreal, only to have to double check that it is indeed the right place.
But it seems that I truly haven't gotten lost, and so with a stifled laugh, I hop out of my rental car and happily walk into 'Madame Cont's Sex Store.'
I was expecting a bar or cafe or something, but whatever, this is funnier.
Without pausing in my gait after passing through the front door, I move straight to the counter on the opposite side of the room, where a simple, weirdly plain looking man, a real John Doe, is sitting with his attention focused on his phone.
"Hello, I am apparently looking for kinky sex products? Care to offer a lady some assistance?~" I say, getting John's attention.
"Ah, you're earlier than I was expecting. I thought you'd have seen a butterfly flying around and gotten distracted or something," John says as he puts his phone in his pocket and presses a button under his counter, following which I hear the front door lock shut.
"My my,~ why does everyone have such a low opinion of my attention span?~" I ask with a pout, following after John as he leads me through a back door and into an office room which only has a desk with two monitors on it and the chair behind it, on which he takes a seat.
Rude.
Crossing my arms under my bust, I form a chair of my own out of blood and fashion it to look like his but a little bit fancier, a spiteful act that he clearly picks up on if the widening of his smirk is anything to go by.
"It probably has something to do with Negante's many stories of you getting distracted for weeks at a time, but maybe it's just that we're all horribly rude."
"It must be the latter," I decide with a sage nod of the head, one that John mimics with a wisely muttered agreement.
"But I believe you are not here simply to enjoy conversation. You wanted information on Heartbreaker correct?" John asks, changing the conversation to the important topic.
"Indeed, I have no idea where is besides being in the city, that's the main part, and while I could probably find him by myself, well, what are friends for, right?~"
"Well, first of all, what exactly 𝘥𝘰 you know about Heartbreaker? I need to know what I'm working with here," John says as he types some keys, looking at his monitor instead of me.
What do I know about Heartbreaker?
"Basically nothing.~ Otherwise why would I be here?~ I know he's the Master everyone thinks about when they think Master and I know the dude fucks.~ ...That's about it.~" There must have been something on my face, because John gives me an awfully confused look for a moment.
"And you wonder why we think little of your attention span," he mutters to himself, and I choose to pretend I didn't hear it, respecting his right to mutter about me in the privacy of his own breath before speaking at a normal voice a moment later, "well, I guess I'll start with the basics then."
Spinning one of his monitors around, he shows me a grainy photo of a tall, almost lanky man if not for the admittedly aesthetic muscles decorating his shirtless body, with long black hair that reaches his mid-back and a scruffy beard.
His looks, combined with his languid posture as he is pictured walking down a street with a bombshell beauty in each arm, the dude practically 𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘴 sexuality to the point that I'm pretty confident he could probably pick up just about any woman in any bar without resorting to his powers.
Unless of course he's used them as a crutch for so long that his social skills are pathetic, but I suppose I'll see about that later.
Speaking of his companions though, I ignore the two women, as the only thing important about them is likely to be their beauty, and instead I focus on the pair of children walking ahead of him.
Obviously I can't smell them through a photo, but even without that it's clear to me that they're capes. No human would have that kind of posture at that age, so the only options are that they are batshit insane, or parahumans.
Then again, sometimes there's not really much of a difference. Billy is literally a schitzo.
"The guy in the middle is Heartbreaker," John says as if it isn't obvious, but going by his smirk he's doing that on purpose, "and the two in front of him are a pair of his kids, both capes."
Giving John a look, I wait for him to get the the point, which he does in short order.
"One thing you have to understand about Heartbreaker is that he is effectively a gang lord without a gang," he says, as if paradoxes just don't exist in his mind, "because while he doesn't technically hold any territory or have any gangbangers working for him or anything like that, it's something of an open secret that he rules Montreal's underworld anyway, either by controlling the gang lords or through deals, like letting people buy a night with one of his harem for instance, he really doesn't care about them, cuz he's a bit of a dick. Though, his thralls and kids are collectively known as the Heartbroken, so I guess you could call them a gang if you wanted to."
The dude can turn people into his slaves by glaring at them for a bit, obviously he's in control of wherever he chooses to live, and he's not even possessive, which is neat. You shouldn't horde all the fun to yourself, sharing is caring.
"The guy takes control of any woman that strikes his fancy to add to his harem, but only the fools believe that that's all he does. Heartbreaker has spies basically everywhere, and though the PRT, police, Guild, gangs or whatever regularly try to ferret out his plants, there are literally no traces for them to find, so it's kind of a moot point, especially since he can just take someone else if he loses a pawn."
Makes sense. Information is power, and knowing your opponent's moves before they do is always a handy tool.
"He also doesn't exclusively take women, despite what a lot of people believe, so he's basically got a small army of incredibly well trained body guards spread out through the city. He could effectively snap his fingers and start a city wide riot and the only reason he doesn't have a kill order on his head is because the PRT is worried that doing so would attract a bunch of vigilantes who'll only make the situation worse. Either by way of collateral damage, joining his thrall or just making him act upon the army of hostages he has available to him at all times. Hundreds of women and some men, all ready to end their lives if he asked them to."
Honestly this kind of sounds like how celebrities get treated over in Aleph. Most of the data that gets sent between worlds is movies and stuff, since all our planet's media is focused on positivity and distracting people from how humanity is probably fucked if no one deals with the Endbringer situation.
But I've still heard that in Aleph musicians and actors have some seriously devoted fanbases, like, people fainting after shaking hands kind of devoted. I would genuinely bet my life that you wouldn't be able to find ten people on this planet that care that much about some pointless celebrity shit. We kind of have more important things to focus on on this side of the multiverse.
"As for Heartbreaker himself, he tends to stay in one of his harem's homes until someone catches wind of it then he finds another hot rich woman and does the same, moving about and sending his kids or thralls out for errands instead of going out himself. He's basically put himself in a position where taking him out would come with incredibly heavy consequences, but waiting to do so only makes those consequences grow over time. It's quite the dilemma for the good guys."
Despite his pitying words, John doesn't much sound like he cares about the woes of the good guys. Oh well.
"As of now, he has thirteen kids, with another on the way. Eight of them have tiggered so far, but give the others a few years and he'll have a dozen capes in his 'little' family, another decade and he'll have a small army in the making, provided he survives that long while still being able to keep it up."
The idea of one dude siring an army of super-babies is pretty funny. Though I'm starting to think I underestimated just how much this dude fucks.
"Though, out of all of them, I only see Heartbreaker and his second eldest as being anything close to a credible threat to you, but that's only if you can actually be Mastered, which I doubt considering you're here?"
"Obviously I'm not 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 stupid," I say with a roll of my eyes, and John waves his hands placatingly, even though I clearly wasn't upset.
"Well, I'm sure you know Heartbreaker, but his power is line of sight emotional manipulation, the effect being more or less permanent. And from order of youngest to eldest, there is Aroa, she's seven. She can blast people into masochism basically. Then there's Samuel, ten and a Thinker, he can sense emotions and is really good at torturing people, probably some mental weak point kind of Thinker power."
I almost miss the description of the second kid, too focused on the applications of a masochism blaster. That could be 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 fun in the right situation.
...I wonder if it'd work on an Endbringer? Except for the Simurgh of course! I'd never do anything to you! Promise! Moving on swiftly.
"Then there's Chastity, eleven, she can sense people nearby and effectively win a fight by touching you. I'm not sure of the exact details, but I don't think it'd work on you since it's psychological and you're completely batshit fucking insane."
I would have called him rude if I didn't acknowledge that it is simply a true statement... Still could have worded it nice though, I prefer 'mentally exotic.' that sounds better.
"After her is Jean-Paul, he's twelve and you know he's special cuz he's got two names, and what makes him special is that unlike his family of psychopaths, he's more of a sociopath. He can manipulate nerves, causing twitches and the like, but with a bit of time and effort he can completely take control of someone's body. His power will probably work on you, but I don't doubt you could kill him before he could take control, or just get out of it somehow anyway."
John seems to have a lot of faith in my abilities, I'm flattered. Unless he's only saying it because he knows I like flattery, in which case I am still flattered. I don't care why I get compliments, I just like to hear them.
"After him is Nicholas, fifteen he makes people really scared. Then there's Guillaume, sixteen, who can see through the eyes of anyone he touches, as well as blind them if he wants. With his power he could pretty much do what I do with mine, but I doubt that'll happen considering his circumstances."
He says that, but I doubt seeing through people's eyes would be quite as effective, both from the lack of control and the lack of other senses. Can't hear through eyes after all.
...There's probably a parahuman out there that can hear through eyeballs.
"Then, in an effort to save the best for last, there is the eldest at 18, Valentina. She can move any hostility directed to her onto anyone else in her line of sight, making allies enemies and such. She's also really funny but in like a completely unintentional kind of way. Like, she takes things super seriously and never jokes, but it's funny to watch anyway."
I look forward to meeting her then, funny people are always enjoyable to meet.
"Now, drum roll please!" John exclaims and I don't hesitate to do so, "the final member is probably the most powerful, even better than her father in most ways. Cherie Vasil, recently turned seventeen and has not only the ability to sense emotions on a city-wide scale, but she can also control emotions like her father, only she doesn't need to see them, just be close enough. And by close enough I mean about half a block, though her effects aren't permanent like her father's are."
Dang, I can see why he'd say she's the biggest threat, just the city wide sensing range is enough of a decent power by itself, and the human brain is pretty malleable, so she could probably create some pretty permanent effects with little trouble.
Emotional dependency isn't exactly a difficult thing to induce in someone, I was doing that back when I was a kid with that one girl, whatever her name was. But with the benefit of literal emotion controlling, doing so would be a breeze.
Maaan, I wish I got a Master power like that. Don't get me wrong, being a super strong monster thing that I am is pretty fucking awesome and I love it, especially since you can't exactly fight such intense and fun fights with a Master power.
But I still think I'd have had more fun as a Master. Emotions just have so many more options compared to fighting, and hardly anyone is even an interesting fight anymore.
...Maybe I could convince Billy to let Cherie kill him, and maybe some other people too, and then kill the resulting Butcher and take all the powers?
Nah, as attractive as the idea of having all the powers is, I think four voices in my head is probably a hard limit for what I'd be willing to accept.
"And that's pretty much everything important that you'd care about, I've also just texted you his address too." John's voice pulls me out of my thoughts and brings forth a question that has been slowly growing in my mind.
"Y'know, not that I doubt your abilities as an info broker, but considering his abilities, how the fuck do you know all of this?" I ask, feeling that it is an entirely justifiable question, only to be stunned by his casual response.
"Oh, he has one of my clones under his thrall," he says with complete ease, as if simply talking about the weather.
"And that doesn't... y'know..." I vaguely ask, gesturing wildly to get my point across, but he just laughs.
"Lusia, I'm literally a hive-mind. He can mindfuck my bodies all he wants, it hardly matters to me. Like, sure, that 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 is completely loyal to Heartbreaker, it's brain wired to serve and worship him, but I have plenty of brains to spare, all working in tandem. I honestly couldn't care less if I have to shut one off them off from the rest, it hardly impacts my ability to think."
Huh, didn't think about that.
"Well then, I guess all that's left is to go meet the man of the hour, any recommendations for what I should wear?~ I want to make a good first impression.~"
"Just think stripper and go a little bit sluttier than that and you'll have his 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 attention," John says with a laugh.
"Ahh, I see,~" I say with a sagely nod, "I can probably find a nun outfit somewhere around here."
John gives me an odd look before bursting out laughing, and I join him a moment later.
This is why it's good to share and make friends. Life gets boring if you horde everything to yourself.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
3.3k chapter cuz a lot of it was exposition.
Also, has anyone actually noticed that I made Lusia dislike hoarders that don't rely on anyone for anything purely to insult my other Mc Hanabira?
Cuz if you remember his edgy first chapter, he talks about how he doesn't want to share his power, and how he likes to play games alone so he doesn't have to share exp.
Well, if it wasn't obvious enough already, aside for their general lack of morals, I made Lusia to be both incredibly similar to Hanabira but also a complete opposite. They're like oil and water, they look similar from a distance but are really nothing alike.
Like with the video game analogy, Hana would want all the exp and loot for himself, while Lusia would probably play support and build heavy into CC while building up a part full of damage dealers so she can fuck the enemy into immobilisation and her party can one-shot them. She would find the idea of hoarding exp or being selfish about loot to be insulting on principle, because what's the point in having fun you're doing so alone?
(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!
pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)
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