Broker

Amos rubbed his neck, it was starting to ache. He had been working for almost sixteen hours now and the headset he used to experience his virtual laboratory had never felt heavier. He pulled it off with a groan and glanced around the lab. Three of the lab assistants and Da-Som were still there with him, but they were sound asleep. Da-Som snoozing with his head slung back over the back of his chair and the other three crowded around one another at one of the tables, their heads resting on the hard surface.

His lip twitched, a small smile dancing across his face. He looked around the stark-white room, Sonya’s preferred ultrafuturistic style, and at the lab equipment around him. It was hard to believe, it really was, just how far he’d come in such a short amount of time. He knew his Genius-Level Intellect ability had played a significant role, Technopathy helping as well, of course. But if it hadn’t been for that scary and crazy lady he’d bumped into on the streets of New York, he wouldn’t be here.

He’d probably still be running cell phones for Shark’s crew, still refurbishing them and spoofing their serial numbers to work on a prepaid network. He’d be working out of that godawful shop, still living in the shadow of the accomplishments that he’d never be able to reach for. Still wondering when the day would come that he could seize his future. Still suffering. The smile on his face grew soft as he looked down at his desk and ran his fingers over the keyboard.

Now I’m working on saving the world, and making some pretty damn good money doing it.

He chuckled a little and glanced at a small envelope on his desk. It had a top-secret label on it and the word ‘Sample’ stamped right beneath the label. He touched it and then glanced up at the others, “Oi!” He shouted, filling the small room with his voice. The others jerked awake and turned bleary eyes towards him. He put his hands on his hips and squinted at the four of them, “The hell are you still doing here? Go home!” He waved his hands at them, “Day off tomorrow for the lot of you, no excuses. I’ll put in your PTO.”

They looked at one another, there was a bit of reluctance on their faces. He knew how they felt. Every day they were making strides and breakthroughs. ASTA wasn’t just working on munitions and ways to support heroes. It was a pretty closely guarded secret, but Sonya wanted the company to cover a huge number of industries with pandora-based tech as the foundation. They were working on new kinds of cellphones for public use, they were working on monster-core based medicine, new textiles for the Lucci subsidiary. Appliances, communications, the list went on as far as Sonya’s ambitions went.

Every day was a learning experience, but they needed rest if they were going to keep their momentum up. He could go without sleep longer than most people, his stronger mind had inured him to the strain. But his body still felt it after a while. He tilted his head up in challenge, his own tired face not making a very powerful visage, but he was the boss, so he didn’t care. “Or I could put you all on a weeks leave? How does a vacation sound?” He barked.

The four of them visibly flinched and quickly began gathering their things. He sat back down in a huff as the three aides hurried out first. Da-Som was the only one remaining. He gave Amos a serious look, “You should get some rest too.”

Amos waved a hand, “Just looking something over then I’m going home,” He said dismissively. It was late anyway and he didn’t want to walk into the noise that usually came out of Sonya’s room around this time. His lips thinned at the thought and he huffed out another breath, “Go on, get,” He commanded.

Da-Som sighed and nodded, “Alright, as long as you promise.”

“Yeah, yeah, I promise,” He said and snatched up the envelope as Da-Som made his way out with a polite goodnight. He opened it and pulled out the thick sheet of paper inside. He looked over the stickynote that was attached to it, written in Sonya’s looping handwriting. ‘A sample for your analysis. Extension of Broker’. He thought as he read and froze. He blinked and looked down at the document.

“Seriously?” He breathed and began to read. It was fairly short and to the point. It was a contract to exchange wealth for lifespan. Just like she’d done back in florence with a shake of her hand. This time though, it was contained in this little piece of paper? That’s crazy. He thought, bewildered. I knew she was trying to do this but she’d been failing at it constantly. What changed? He thought as he looked at the signatures at the bottom. There were three spots. One for the contractor. One for Ishtar, made sense that she’d sign it as Ishtar rather than as Sonya. Finally there was one with a name he didn’t recognize. Mephisto?

“Oh yeah…” He murmured, “Didn’t she hire a lawyer or something? That was what the florida trip was about, right?”

He rubbed his chin, Did it need to be notarized or something? He laughed out loud, It’s pretty funny how literal her power is. Maybe I should ask her to be more careful with it, that thing seems to be a little more dangerous than she thinks it is. He sighed and put the document back in the envelope, opening the lower right drawer on his desk and then opening a locked hidden compartment at the rear of it. There were no handles, keyholes, or keypads. Only someone with technopathy could get in, and only if they knew his eighty-six digit long password.

He slipped the document inside along with a few other top secret items before shutting it. “I’ll look at it later, I’m sure she wants me to see if I can figure out exactly what’s going on in the paper now that it’s been changed into a part of her power,” He murmured and pushed himself to his feet, straightening his labcoat and snatching up his messenger bag. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, he was feeling tired again. “That woman is a slavedriver sometimes…”

He ambled out of the lab, turning the corner and walking towards the elevator. It opened with a thought and he stepped inside, the doors closing behind him. He mentally instructed it to head straight for ground level and leaned against the wall, yawning again. “Mm… coffee…” He grumbled.

That was when he felt the orders for the elevator change. Someone had called it to the administrative level. Sonya? No, she’s home. Who else is here? He frowned and mentally checked the in-out logs for the building’s security badges. Besides the security team themselves, there was only one other person on the premises. Colin Matthews. The newly anointed Supervillain, Mephisto. The devil’s advocate himself. He snorted at the overly dramatic choice Sonya had made for her new subordinates title. Welp, Might as well meet this guy.

With a thought he canceled the elevator's command to go down to ground level and it slowed before changing direction, heading up the several floors towards the Administrative level. To be honest, Amos wasn’t expecting much from this guy. Lawyers weren’t exactly on the top of his list of people that he liked. He’d been screwed over by his own defense attorney on more than one occasion and it had left a pretty bad taste in his mouth.

He frowned, the memory of standing in a courtroom as his defense attorney quite literally talked Amos onto the streets was enough to set his teeth on edge. He considered just scoping the new guy out with the cameras and changing the direction of the elevator again. He considered shutting the elevator down all together. He sniffed and let out a sigh, Sonya wouldn’t appreciate that. He thought, and rubbed his neck, I gotta at least give this guy a chance at least, right? Sonya picked him for a reason and Marta’s good people. He can’t be all bad. He said and then immediately corrected himself, She also recruited Kingshark and Blackrazor as villains.

The thought of meeting another Kingshark or Blackrazor in a confined space gave him a little pause, but at this point there wasn’t really any time to rethink his choices. He let out a sigh and crossed his arms as the elevator arrived at the administrative floor. A faint chime announced it’s arrival. He took a deep breath and tried to look as tough as possible, it wasn’t easy with the bags under his eyes, but he wasn’t about to let himself make a bad first impression with a guy who went by ‘Mephisto’. A demon.

That was when the doors opened, and he saw him.

Amos’ mouth fell open.

“Oh.”