Chương 64: Courtly Diplomacy

Lyn checked her phone on the way back to the bus while she intertwined her fingers with Alex, enjoying the passing observation that they were about the same height when she was in this body. He was currently explaining once again that the airbrush on his desk wasn't for painting tiny fantasy miniatures like she continued to purposefully insinuate. Mostly for fun, since she was only a little disappointed that probably meant that he wasn't as into Swordworld as she'd been.

She'd been looking forward to proving Celeste wrong about how she was never going to use those stacks of supplemental books she'd bought. On the other hand, that probably meant she was safe from him accidentally discovering that she was now walking around as her old OC thanks to fey bullshit. Her cringy secret was still safe.

Anyways, it was fun to lightly tease him when he'd brought up undercoating his armor – apparently because he thought a matte finish looked too plain – by hinting that his tips for making his gear look more realistic by intentionally increasing the contrast was totally a thing that people who painted elves and goblins did.

He'd been ranting for a solid ten minutes into this walk now and seemed unbothered as she pulled out her phone, which was good since she'd basically thrown it on silent since before the job last night. What had greeted her when she glanced down at her texts was a hoard of notifications over unread messages. Lyn didn't have a massive contact list and almost everyone on it was listed by a moniker. Not exactly "close" friends.

Regardless, it seemed like half the people in her phone who were still active in the business had sent her some form of congratulations about the job. A lot of C-listers and other randos she'd palled around with for a job or two. That said, almost fourteen members of the almost inappropriately named Evil Eight had bothered to reach out. ¹ Leckter had sent over a bad joke and some stupid memes. Wither Wasp had sent a text full to the brim with emojis both about her speech and begging to be introduced to Menace.

Even Mystic Mantis had thrown her a backhanded compliment on managing to nail Ned with her super-move. Her eyes widened as she scrolled down and saw Sir Squid, the Cephalopod Socialite, had even sent her a two word text: Good Work. Well, either he was free of the alien parasite or it had finally figured out how to use a phone. Reading through them all, a grin broke out on her face as she took in the small community of villains on her screen.

"I take it you got good news?" Alex asked, letting the previous topic drift away.

"Just a lot of old coworkers enjoying last night's show," she flashed the screen his way.

"Honestly, I didn't think half of these people remembered I existed."

"Welcome to the big leagues," Alex spread his arms with a laugh as the two continued walking, letting her scroll in silence for a little longer. More than a few of them were begging for a team up or vowing to overshadow her, but for the most part the multitudes of texts were just villains enjoying seeing one of their own manage to show up both the League and the heroes. However, towards the end of the list was a message from an unknown number.

Her finger trembled as she opened it up, noting that it had been sent almost immediately after she'd escaped last night. She didn't realize she'd stopped walking until Alex spoke up, a short distance now wedged between the two of them.

"Everything alright?" he asked her. The mystery sender was none other than Scarlet. Their message was almost innocuous. A similar amount of platitudes and congratulations thrown her way. But then came the hook, almost more blatant than a few of those desperate texts above theirs which had tried to ply her for a job.

"I was wondering if you'd passed along my details to the friend you mentioned last time," the message read.

"Obviously, you can see the value of my work, and I would love to assist your companion with whatever magical issue he's having." Her eyes met Alex's and that desire to grab him and run returned. The need to spirit him away back to the lab and sequester him there. To protect him. To keep him wrapped within her web and safe from- She shook her head, "Sorry, just a few people being a little too pushy." Lyn put the phone away as her mind picked over the message, barely acknowledging her boyfriend's worried look.

Her thoughts were racing as she strode forward quickly." whatever magical issue he's having." Her brain replayed the last conversation between the two of them, as she tied to pick it apart to see if she remembered mentioning her friend was a "he". It was hard, especially with Scarlet's own little identity scrambling, but something in the pit of her stomach told her that she hadn't.

Even if she had, this whole thing was the magician being incredibly pushy, which was more than enough reason to justify it setting off all kinds of warning bells. Her own history with Scarlet aside, the message just oozed with opportunism. Considering that timing, mere minutes after her victory, it felt as though the sorcerer was hovering over her shoulder, waiting for an opportunity to strike. But for what? She glanced back at Alex, his face still clearly showing his concern.

"It's-" she started to say.

"En garde!" a voice shouted just a few feet away from her. One of the spider legs, an upper one that she'd intentionally let rest over her shoulders, lashed out instinctively and connected with someone standing behind her on what had previously been an empty sidewalk. Whoever they were, they went flying across the barren street with ease before slamming into the wall of the building on the opposite side, cracking the bare brickwork.

"Shit!" Lyn and Alex exclaimed a the same time, rushing over to the figure as they slumped to the ground. She slowed as she approached, noticing the bright colors scattered against drab brown greys, her mind instantly clocking the person she'd just sent flying as a cape of some type. A second glance didn't completely dispel that first impression but it left some doubts on that initial judgment. They appeared to be a man wearing a ridiculous fur coat, complete with a large fuzzy collar.

The material of the outfit was decorated with a sort of speckled pattern that exploded into splotches of vibrant red and orange colors halfway through. Their head seemed mostly human – even if their skin was a pale off-white with a little tinge of red in the shadows – but the shape of it felt… oddly sharp. These sharp features contrasted against the massive fuzzy eyebrows and fluffy cream colored hair which matched the over-sized fluff around their neck.

When they began to rouse, their eyes flickered open to reveal two orbs of almost solid black. Looking closer, Lyn noted, that despite their eyes being lidded like your average homa, ² they were actually compound structures similar to most insects. A clearer picture formed, especially as Lyn's eyes traced down the man's clothing a second time and it resembled familiar wings now that the eyes gave her a point of reference. A moth. More specifically a cecropia moth.

Her brain did a quick check for any capes themed after that insect in this area, but she was drawing a blank. Moth-themed capes were something of a rarity in general and she'd always been an insect gal, so she figured she'd recognize someone who leaned into that theme. While she was busy trying to figure out who he was, the mystery man sneered up at her.

"I would expect nothing less from the successor to the duplicitous Queen Tharaxia! Striking without announcing yourself back! This is how you greet a knight of the Courts upon first meeting him? My king was right to send me to take the weight of your measure! I shall return this injustice with-" Alex, who had gotten closer when she'd hung back to get a read on the fallen man, kicked the fey in the ribs, cutting him off with a yelp.

Despite the man's angry words at her, the sudden violence still surprised Lyn and she called out to Alex, "Hey!"

"He literally just jumped you in the street and was about to threaten you again," her boyfriend pointed out, delivering another kick which caused the fey to curl up and shield himself with a pathetic cry.

"Isn't he one of the fairy assassins?""'Fairy?!'" the moth fey was aghast.

"You lay falsehoods upon my name and accuse me of claiming above my station, you blackguard! Nor am I an assassin! I am a proud and noble knight of-" Alex cocked an arm back causing the man to cringe backwards in fear. The villainess was about to intervene when she almost tripped over the fucking sword the man had dropped when she'd sent him flying, and she began to realize what had happened.

Apparently, his battle cry had been less cordial than he was letting on right now so she found herself a little more amenable to her partner's approach to handling this.

"You're here because of the whole thing fey monarchy thing, right?" Lyn bent down and examined the dropped weapon without touching it. The blade was iridescent and engraved with a depiction of a moth fluttering towards a round circle far above it. Sun or moon, probably. To her surprise, the decorative details appeared to move. The metal flowed like liquid to allow the tiny insect to flap its wings in vain as it attempted to ascend up the sword, not actually getting any closer.

Her would-be-assailant eyed Alex suspiciously, who still had his arm raised for a punch as he spoke, "Yes, I was sent by my glorious king, Dustarial von Flapflap, to ascertain what new evils rose in the Court of Inverse Light, as is his duty to the Springtime Queen and all fey of proper nature." Alex looked back at her, mouthing "Flapflap" for a moment before shaking his head. Putting aside the name, he addressed her, "I kind of got the impression from what you told me that you'd be dealing with dark fey politics?

At least for a bit? This kind of feels like our usual thing, just with… this instead of capes."

"I did too?" Lyn shrugged as she stood up, leaving the weapon lying in the middle of the road.

"But Tharaxialee didn't really specify I guess." She turned back to the moth man who was trying to stand up, "So you're a light fey then?" She wasn't clear on the terminology since pretty much all her knowledge about these particular outsiders came from fantasy media. It struck her as odd that people were still making stories about them, but from what Tharaxialee had implied, it seemed like wherever the fey lived was harder to get to than hell or even other dimensions.

³ The so-called-knight scoffed, earning another kick to the ribs from Alex. After he finished wheezing, he corrected her, "Light and dark are mortal concepts which fail to capture the true essence of our kind. While you are obviously a woman of foul nature, you should at least – ARGH! WAIT! HOLD! HOLD!" Alex hadn't taken kindly to the insult, reeling back for another strike. The foppish fey cowered, holding up his arms to protect himself.

"I apologize! What I meant to say was that you are obviously newly privy to our Courts. T'would be the honorable thing to correct such easy misunderstandings!" he shuffled back from Alex along the building's outer wall, trying to get a little more distance from her boyfriend's fists.

"Though there is some truth to such a notion! Broadly, your kingdom and the great Court it belongs to would see affinity with the Night and Winters and be seen as opposed to the realms aligned to Light and Summers." Lyn scratched her chin, not really seeing a difference, "O... kay… Would've thought moths would be in a different camp, but I guess I don't know fey that well. So you're working for the Spring Queen?" The man's face went red, "Well… I mean-! That is to say- Not… directly…

We are agents of the Light in the Dark who act in accordance to Her will! Obviously, propriety would forbid Her direct involvement in the affairs of the Court of Inverse Light or others in alignment to Night and Winters."

"Wait!" Alex laughed.

"You are dark fey?"

"I just said-!" Alex didn't even bother feigning a wind up to another strike. He just took a half step forward. The fey's mouth clamped shut and he nodded quickly, "King Dustarial von Flapflap officially belongs to the Court of Inverse Night, yes, that's true. But our true allegiances are plain to see! We possess true nobility while the rest of you are cruel despots who forgo the rites of honor!

Dishonorable tricksters and underhanded sneaks who-""I might not know fey," Lyn interrupted, her eyebrows knitting together into a glare, "but I know enough Fracian to know that 'En garde' means the fight is on. And you shouted that while my back was turned." The fey's blush deepened. His coat fluttered at the edges like flapping wings as he turned his head away, "… You're still supposed to accept the challenge before striking back."

"What challenge?" Lyn demanded.

"You just shouted and pointed a sword at me while I wasn't looking! Alex is right, that's basically jumping someone."

"I-I-" the warrior struggled to defend himself, scooting further along the wall as he struggled for words, coming to rest underneath the windowsill of an empty shop while Alex stomped along after. His eye glanced around, as though hoping for someone else to come to his defense. The street remained abandoned. If any potential onlookers watched from nearby windows, they seemed content to leave the man to his just desserts.

"Okay, so we've established you're just as underhanded as the rest of the dark fey. Cool," Lyn rolled her eyes.

"What did you even want?"

"I… was sent here to evaluate your character," the fey said, clearly reeling over the comparison she'd just made.

"My lord also bid me to challenge you to a duel should you prove our worst fears true and be a true scion of Queen Tharaxia, if not by brood than by bearing." At that, Lyn scooped up the sword near her feet, testing the weight in her hands, "Okay, so what do I win?"

"Win?!" She turned the weapon over in her hand, pretending not to keep him in her peripheral vision at all times, "Yeah, I won the duel, right?"

"That- I- That was no duel! You attacked me without warning!" Alex jumped to her defense, "We just established that you began the fight out of nowhere. You surprised her. She then surprised you. She won that fight." Lyn beamed, "Yep, you set the rules by leaping out while my back was turned. Given that you dropped this, that means I win, right? That's like a knight thing, I think." ⁴ The fey's mouth flapped as he looked between Alex and her for several seconds in stunned silence.

Then he finally spoke, "I'm not defeated yet! I-" He tried to stand. Alex didn't have to do anything this time. Lyn simply flicked her hand out and a blob of webbing exploded against him, pinning him to the wall. The moth man, barely an inch further up the wall, glanced down at his silk restraints for a moment before going slack and slumping back down.

"Okay, now you're done," Lyn shrugged once more, enjoying herself.

"So what do I win?"

"That… is supposed to be decided before the duel…" he said despondently.

"Well, since you failed to do things properly, then I guess we need to do it now," she grinned down at him. Before the defeated knight could answer, a bellowing chortle split the air, causing all of them to jump. Lyn searched for the origin of the noise only to notice something in the large window right above the trapped fey. A rotund figure clapped his hands from beyond the glass.

Lyn instantly recognized that this was yet another mirror trick like Tharaxialee had been pulling on her given that the large figure seemed to be seated in some sort of darkened throne room rather than an abandoned store that desperately needed a good dusting. He looked nothing like the other fey. While that one had a passing resemblance to most homa, the seated figure was almost cartoonish in his proportions.

His dusky white face looked like someone had stretched it twice as wide as a normal person's and squished it from the top, then adorned it with a ridiculous mustache resembling a pair of combs. No… antennae? His massive head sat atop a lopsided round body with no visible neck to connect it there. Comically short arms and legs jutted out of the black and white striped suit he wore.

What looked like a pair of large wings were draped behind him like an over-sized cape, but Lyn could hardly make out details or color in the pale light illuminating him, making it difficult to tell. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

His eyes, which looked like someone had simply drawn two dots on his face and called it a day, met Lyn's and a cordial smile poked out from beneath his massive facial hair, "Ah, but we expected such underhandedness and foul methods from the Spider's successor! Oh, didn't we? Alas, but our champion was ill prepared for such things! And thus we were too! Oh, for shame upon our house and court!"

"Shame!" a chorus repeated his words. Startled, Lyn saw hundreds of shadows shudder around the man. She knew immediately that this was going to be tiring.

"King Dustarial von…" she sighed, "Flapflap, I presume?" The creature clutched at his chest, "Oh, only should my house survive its ravages, but I could I hope to be named as such. Alas, those that seek the truest light so oft find themselves flying too close to the flames! To find myself at the mercy of such a newcomer to the courtly games speaks to the dishonor I have wrought!"

Lyn didn't bother to listen to which part of that statement the other voices would repeat and instead exchanged a tired look with Alex, who also seemed to share her impressions on King Flapflap here. A look that just about said "I thought your new enemies would be cooler." Yeah… me too… Well, at the very least, from what little she could see of his room, he was at least loaded. Time to do what she did best as a villain and make off like a bandit.

"Yeah… Uh, so…" she held up the sword she'd taken between her hands, "I guess this is the part where you listen to my demands?"

"That is the cruel fate that awaits those of us that dare to challenge your horrid darkness," the king shook his head mournfully.

"What shall you have by victor's right? My head? My subjects? My firstborn?" Lyn's mouth stopped working as she tried to puzzle out if this was a bit or not. She shook her head, "Look, I'm not… I don't know how fairy rules work with this-""Fairy?!" the king shot to his feet, spreading beautiful black and blue wings that caught the fading light with a gleam.

"Oh, you attempt to charm me, you fiend?! To play to my heart's desire?! Oh that you might know my innermost secrets, to be so gloriously incandescent upon the wings of gossamer light! Villain, I name you, for your spies must lurk in the shadows of my soul that I had tried so hard to fill with abundant luminescence!" He jabbed a finger her way as he prattled on, waggling it throughout his monologue like he was conducting an orchestra. Lyn pinched the bridge of her nose, "I… Yeah, sure, I'm a villain. Literally.

Doing that for a living for like ten years now." The king gasped, "A villain that admits truth?! From the court of the foul spider no less?! Oh what madness have we found ourselves in by walking the road of Night? Where mortals now reign on the thrones of the Courts and espy on our glorious kingdom?"

"I'm not-" Lyn took a deep breath and looked over at Alex for help. He just shrugged back at her. She was about to say more when she felt a familiar presence settle over her.

"Lee, what do you want?" she asked aloud, moving up along the sidewalk towards the window. In response, half of the glass rippled. The side of the throne room beyond it seemed to melt into the churning void she'd last seen her courtiers in. At least it looked sort of the same. A large amount of the deep black was empty, with only a few shifting spider-like shapes standing among the darkness in the window.

Where the scene met King Dustarial's throne room, the world seemed to shift and blur in a way that made her eyes hurt to look at.

"... I do not like that name, mistress," the tallest of the figures now visible muttered before jumping when Lyn swept her eyes her way.

"Apologies, my lady! We observed your victory against this champion. We offer our help now."

"First your vassal assails my trusted knight, and now your court intrudes uninvi-" the king sputtered.

"Boy. Friend," Lyn slammed a fist into the top of the window frame causing it to crack.

"Do you understand?" The king's wings folded as he stepped back and swallowed, "Uh, yes, sorry." Lyn turned her attention back to Tharaxialee, who herself looked over at Alex.

"Lord Menace," she bowed deeply, as though addressing actual royalty, surprising both villains. Then she returned her attention to Lyn, "You should take everything, mistress. Your right. For future conquests."

"Everything?!" the king exclaimed.

"You would feed us to your courtiers to sate your vile-""Shut. Up." Lyn snapped, getting tired of Dustarial's exaggerated reactions to everything. The man leapt behind his throne and actually cowered there – shaking and everything – allowing her to return her attention to the spider monster.

"Explain what that means." Tharaxialee clicked her mandibles, "His court below ours. His servants gather strength for us. Make serving you easier. We can help your conso-" She froze and looked away, "Help the Lord Paramour."

"Why the fuck can you people not say boyfriend?" Lyn muttered, looking over at the man in question apologetically. Alex shrugged, "Eh, I have to get used to people calling me Lord these days anyways." She almost snorted at that, which would've ruined all of the work she'd put into this. Getting herself under control, she returned her attention to her spider subordinate, "So we're demoting him to Duke Dustarial and having him farm up whatever it is you guys need to jump out of the mirror?"

"I- Hm…" the fey in question rubbed his moustache thoughtfully.

"Duke Dustarial… Duke. Duuuuuuke…" He played with the word for a bit, clearly amused by it from his chuckles. His amusement clearly wasn't winning him any love from Tharaxialee judging from her clipped tone, "Yes. First conquest of fey. Good for queendom." The captured knight that Lyn had honestly forgotten about huffed from his spot by her knees, "The indignity! To debase our pride-!"

"Then it is agreed!" the newly minted Duke Dustarial clapped. The other moth fey's shoulders slumped. It was almost remarkable just how much they'd kept finding new limits to how defeated one man could be. His former king gave a flourishing bow, "We swear our fealty to you, oh terrible Princess Terrorantuala! Until the day we can cast off our shackles and cast you down!" Lyn flashed a saccharine smile, "If you betray me, I will rip your wings off and feed them to Axia here."

The duke leapt back behind his throne once more and a whimper escaped his knight. A thoughtful hum came from Tharaxialee as she considered the latest attempt at shortening her name. It was hard to get a read on her with her inhuman face, but it didn't seem like she hated it that much.

"As for you," Lyn addressed the spider spirit.

"I'm granting you authority over the Duke. Try anything…" Tharaxialee yelped and nodded, "Yes, mistress! Your will! Our Command!" She actually saluted while the others around her shuffled backwards, attempting not to be seen. The mirror rippled and both scenes vanished, replaced with the musty interior of the forgotten store. Lyn glanced down at the remaining fey at her feet, who avoided direct eye contact with her.

She smiled and lowered herself down to face level with him, one of the legs on her back uncoiling and reaching out to pluck at where her web met the wall.

"Looks like you work for me now," she said, tapping him on the chin.

"... Of course, Princess," he grimaced. Good enough. Her spider limb yanked on the threads and they came undone with surprising ease, no longer sticking to the despondent knight as though they simply chose to release him at her command. Maybe that was how they worked? This body was made by magic rather than an absurdly large gene-altering machine, so perhaps these particular webs were magical as well? Something to figure out later. For now, she flipped the sword around and passed it to him.

Reluctantly, the knight accepted it, but made no move to stand.

"You are dismissed," she told him with a cold edge to her voice as she stood up herself. That seemed to do the trick, as he leapt to his feet, stiffly saluted her in some odd way that probably was formal to the otherworlder, and then rushed away towards the nearest alleyway with alarming speed. Lyn dusted herself off and turned to see her boyfriend giving her a shit-eating grin.

"So… Princess?"

"Shut up, that means I outrank you," she huffed.

"Anyways, let's get home before any more of them show up." He laughed at that, but kept suggesting ideas for crowns on the bus ride back. Lyn had the distinct impression that this was payback for a couple of her ideas on capes from last night. When she voiced as such, Alex pretended to deny it.

Strangely enough, the odd quiet was what woke Ikor up. He'd been stuck in one of the many makeshift lodgings the League was dumping anyone who didn't directly report to one of the bigwigs in for weeks now and had gotten used to all the noise of supervillains and henchmen coming and going at all hours. So not hearing half that amount of noise tripped something in his jellified brain. He slumped out of bed into a puddle which pooled into his discarded clothing nearby.

Once enough of him was in place, he immediately shot up into a bipedal form that was fully dressed and began to take off down the hall, carefully eyeing his surroundings as he went. The place was hastily converted from a medical office – maybe a dentistry or vet place since it didn't look like a real hospital – so the place was organized but still felt a little too cramped and economic with its floorplan.

Not to mention a lot of the rooms lacked a real door, letting him look inside or around whatever barrier someone had thrown up for an attempt at privacy. More than a few of the rooms he passed were empty now, the cheap mattresses the League had thrown in them now bare and abandoned, though a couple still had an occupant or two.

He eyed a few of the sleepers and wondered if he should shake them awake to find out more, but figured that was a good way to start a fight so he opted to head to the floor below to find someone else to bug. He exited to an open veranda since the League hadn't bothered to find a fully indoor place to stash the bodies it wanted to throw at this city's heroes, glancing around for any nosy busybodies looking this way, cape or not.

Waste of a good habit, since there were no good lines of sight on this particular building lost in the middle of fucking gods-knows-where in this city. Ikor bet the reason it was empty in the first place was probably because no one could find the damn place. You had to basically weave through a bunch of cheap apartments and subway overhangs to even see the edge of the warehouse sitting in front of the damn place. They weren't even close to the docks.

No doubt the locals found somewhere better to shop or get their teeth patched up or hit the gym or whatever this place did and everyone just moved on out. Rent could only be so low if you didn't have anyone swinging by. Ikor glanced into the mess hall, still not sure what the place had been before they'd stuffed long tables in there and rolled in some stoves and shit.

Place stank to hell now with everything they'd cooked in there, to the point that the suite next door – which they'd thrown couches in and dragged a few TV's in to make a lounge – was also beginning to smell just like it. He failed to see anyone prepping food or snacking on something they'd grabbed, which was odd.

Even though the League had been taking a beating for the past week, it was rare that no one was chowing down before or after one of the many busywork jobs Seer or one of the others had them running around doing. The slime man sauntered past the door, and was relieved to hear some sounds coming from the lounge. He strolled inside without hesitation.

A couple of capes had beef with each other and would probably check to see that their rivals weren't inside first, but Ikor managed to avoid most of the real bullshit these days, which let him go where he wanted. You had to learn which grudges were worth it if you wanted an ounce of peace in this organization. He spotted Zeal and Prime Ape off in one corner, both looking battered and glaring at anyone who dared glance their way.

More than one villain was returning the favor, an unspoken animosity in the air at the moment which made most of them ignore Ikor's entrance. Despite running a shitton of missions as a team, the two weren't actually friends. At least not the type who sat together between jobs. The League just seemed to think Ms. Crazyshorts and Gorrilla Dipshit worked well together. So them palling around was already kind of weird.

Weirder still was the fact that Chariot and Ghostlight were clustered on the chairs nearby those two as well, also catching the stink eye from other villains. Mercifully Breakneck, who tended to get looped in with Zeal and Ape, was nowhere to be seen at the moment. The speedster was shit at reading social situations and probably would've kicked off a fight by now.

Ikor knew straight away that whatever shit was going on over there was something to avoid, so he plopped on down next to Bone Saw, who was watching a cooking show by himself. The doc sighed, "I'm on my break, Ikor. Leave me alone."

"Sure," Ikor shrugged.

"Just tell me what the fuck is happening first." A set of commercials came on, preventing Bone Saw from having a good excuse to ignore him. He huffed and leaned back into the couch, "They're pulling most of us out. No details but it looks like it's anyone related to Oni, Arex, or Ax."

"Why the fuck are you here then?" Unless you directly reported to any of the council members, or worked in the spy division or Overlab, it was common knowledge that no one actually "belonged" to anyone in the League. That didn't stop people from forming their own little power structures which tended to get looped under larger umbrellas.

While you had guys like Oni who had a mass of monsters all following him around that clearly worked only for him, folks like Axgrinder and Arex had a bunch of hanger-ons that got their own little fan clubs. The fleshshaper in the skeleton costume had tried to aim for a spot underneath Life Tyrant, but fate had kicked his nuts when a few meatheads who liked the big dinosaur guy saw his potential and pressured him into joining up with them.

Anyone with actual pull in the organization could yank him as they saw fit, but apparently Arex had noticed him and really enjoyed the skeleton theme going on during a fossil heist or something. Arex only had like half a dozen guys who worked directly for him, but the big man felt the need to keep looping in Saw's group into a lot of his jobs. For all intents and purposes, the doc worked for the scary saurian shapeshifter.

Bone Saw fixed him with a tired look, "Seer has me patching up all you idiots and didn't bother to bring her own doc, so I'm here for now." Ikor created a finger on the end of his limb and hooked it over at the group in the corner, "Anything to do with them?" Saw shook his head, "Probably not, but they had the biggest fuck up from last night. Some nobody villain fought ArachNed and then showed them up. Shit luck that a couple hours later, everyone's being scrambled around and no one's telling us jack.

Now piss off, I need to see how Debrah's gonna shit the bed with this caramel tart." Ikor backed off, letting the bonehead have his quiet time. He glanced back at the brewing storm in the back and opted to just fuck out of here rather than kick off a fight right near the only League doc in the city on the off chance things got even worse around here. He exited to the veranda and looked over the railing at the pitiful front parking lot that was too small for even this place.

He started making a plan for the day, figuring he'd find something to do before anyone remembered he existed and tossed him alongside a couple of disposable pawns to keep poking at the heroes.

"Hey, Ikor!" some idiot called out to him. He didn't recognize the voice, but they seemed too happy to be anyone he knew. He glanced over his shoulder to figure out who this dickhead was. The guy looked like your average League cape, thick arms, dark costume with red lenses in the eyes cause he's trying too hard, and chains on his fucking arms for some reason. Guy looked like he listened to Axgrinder's shitty podcast judging from that sloppy stubble and the notches he'd painted onto his costume's shoulder.

Textbook definition of trying too damn hard.

"Name's Hopebreaker," dipshit said, voice too deep to be the kind of brat that names himself something like that. Especially since he clearly was slumming in the muck with the rest of them here rather than sitting in a penthouse licking council boots directly.

"Heard you're the veteran around here." He extended a hand to shake. Ikor shrugged and took it, purposefully leaving a viscous trail after they parted just to fuck with Hopebreaker. The man didn't bother to hide the look he gave his hand before wiping it on his pants. Ikor had to keep himself from laughing when he saw how many fucking pouches the fucker had strapped to his legs.

"There's some others who haven't gotten their dumb asses killed yet around here," Ikor brushed off the man's attempt to butter him up or whatever he was doing, noticing a couple other villains scuttling forward from the stairwell, watching the whole thing. Ah fuck, little Hopebreaker here apparently was already hard at work at trying to fit himself in a little hierarchy and got himself a following already. Was this an attempt to cozy up to a boss and see if he couldn't earn brownie points?

Hopebreaker followed his gaze and glanced back with a laugh, "Yeah, that's just my crew. All supes, no minions. We got orders to head out and mess up a lab delivery on the south side in a couple hours. Gonna add in a little bit of 'bonus work' for some spare cash as well. Wanted to see if you'd like to join in?" So Seer was still chucking fuckers all over the place even while they were shuffling everyone around?

Of course little pissants like Hopebreaker thought they were getting important missions rather than just keeping the heroes on their toes while the real plans were being hatched elsewhere. Still, something in the guy's tone when he mentioned his team was all supes rubbed Ikor the wrong way. Like he was way too fucking proud for some reason. Those kind of rookies were trouble for all sorts of reasons, even if Ikor thought half the un-enhanced civvies he met were airhead trash that deserved whatever happened to them.

He was about to tell the man to fuck off when his comms went off. Seer's voice was crisp and clear despite how shit the reception around here could be, "Ikor, I need a trace on a lead. Sewer work." Literal shit job. Fuck.

"Got it," he said, holding back a sigh. Seer didn't hang up, "I need this done right. And quietly." She stressed that last part, making him pause before replying, "Alright, send the details over."

"They're on your bunk. Destroy after reading," with that she finally cut the line. He turned to the waiting mob of dipshits, "Sorry, got my own job to run. Have fun." Something crossed Hopebreaker's face that Ikor instinctively felt the need to beat out of the brat, but the man smartly chose to simply smile and nod before leaving. Ikor watched him go, making a mental note of the encounter for later before trudging back upstairs.

As the blind bitch had said, there was a letter resting on the shitty mattress which he quickly snatched by stretching his arm across the room. He scanned the page and blinked in surprise. The job seemed simple. A few infiltrations using his unique abilities. And the targets didn't seem all that impressive at first glance.

But he'd been working with the top dogs for awhile now and had a pretty good finger on the pulse of what shit they got up to, be it the fucks on the council or the people they let swing their dicks around like they owned the place. And this kind of job was the kind of thing that they did right before the blood started to flow.