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Chapter 201 : Mirror mirror
🕑 Added 2025-01-16 21:13:07 +0000 UTCSadly for James, his captive wasn't quite as informative as he had hoped. He was merely an intermediary for his client to contact those pitiful Supers, if they could even be called that. He didn't know who hired him, the money and instructions being dropped at random points in the city he was informed of via anonymous text messages. Even that took some convincing for him to admit, namely being kindly made aware that James could do to him what he did to Froko, but placing the mark on his insides rather than on his skin.
Thankfully, the man did have a hunch. This wasn't the first time he had been paid to do this sort of thing, and he noted that usually, his targets were new businesses or old ones that were struggling until they developed something new before he was hired to pay others to cause trouble. In other words, his employer was an established company that didn't like competition. That didn't reduce the list of suspects as much as James wished, but it was better than nothing. Particularly since he had a messenger now. After applying a quick touch of infusion in the man's stomach after sliding a tendril down his throat, he let the man go with a reminder not to try this sort of thing again and to inform his mysterious contact if they continued any further Silhouette would stop playing nice.
He just had to hope they understood the message.
_____
Mister Marley was, to put it kindly, extremely infuriated by the sheer incompetency of those hired to disrupt Silhouette's operations. His mood wasn't helped by the call he was receiving, though he couldn't just ignore it. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the CEO of Xenocorp put on his best business as I answered the call, the grinning and punchable face of Blake Black appearing on the screen of his computer. If the Black Bank manager found the decor of Mister Marey's office distasteful, what with the numerous hunting trophies including those of rare or extinct animals, he did not comment on it.
"Investor Black, what a pleasure to you. This is an unexpected call. Is there something you wished to inquire with us that couldn't wait for the next investor reunion?"
The stupid child of nepotism chuckled.
"Ah, Mister Marley. Well, you see, I have come to notice you've been playing rough with a friend of mine."
"Ah, it's merely business. The strong thrive and the weak go bankrupt. Besides, I do not recall anyone in Zalcien becoming an official Black Bank subsidy or partner?"
Ergo, he had no reason to interpose in Xenocorp's handling of Silhouette and Penumbra. Particularly not if their theories of Black stealing Project Null and giving it to this Silhouette to turn into a new weapon industry were true.
"Ah, yes. This is merely a friend looking out for another. But if I may, Mister Marley, you won't get the results you wish if you continue down this path."
"Since Penumbra isn't an official partner whereas I am one of your clients and you are one of our investors, you are not allowed by the laws of your bank to inform Silhouette of what you've discovered. A man of your talents should know best when to respect deals."
"Of course, of course. But I don't doubt Silhouette will figure it out. No, Mister Marley. I'm not worried for Silhouette at all. There is nothing you can do to stop him now."
It was times like these that Mister was thankful for Marley, who was better at keeping a smiling face than him.
"Seriously, did you think sending the bottom of the barrel of the rogue's gallery would be a problem? This is a man who dealt with Runar, a runemaster of renown, in his own home when he had little to no resources. With a booming business, you'd need something more worthwhile to threaten him, nothing you would be willing to pay for or ally with. No, Mister Marley, the one in danger here is you. Silhouette does not take kindly to being attacked. That is how many met their end by now. I would rather you survive though, given some of the results your company brought in recent times. Not to mention the other investors getting nosy following your end would lead to more trouble."
"I believe you are underestimating us, Mr. Black. Xenocorp is one of the best companies in Zalcien. A newcomer like Silhouette and his Penumbra won't get in the way of that. Our greatest projects are already undergoing great developments. Project Thanatos is, according to its creator, well on the way to be considered a complete and successful prototype. A shame about Project Null's loss, though some of our technicians have started to suspect Silhouette might have found some remains of it and is now using them to power his industry. It is within our rights to take them back."
And now, the CEO had laid the bait. If Black was the one who took their most promising project and reused it for his purposes, then he would have to face the consequences. The flaw of dealing with fae powers was that they did not discriminate between the user and others. That fact, combined with the draconian inner rules of the Black Bank, meant that, while he wouldn't have to admit stealing and then giving Project Null away since he hadn't been asked if he was involved outright, Blake would need to inform them of what he knew if not outright help get it back. After all, Project Null was not merely his and Xenocorp's propriety, but also under the ownership of the other investors involved.
Frankly, Mister Marley was being kind. The way he had phrased it, Blake could happily reveal everything he had done without admitting his guilt and involvement, shifting the entire on Silhouette with a few 'I heard' or 'my crows say'. A pettier man would have used wording forcing him to own up to his misdeeds, making him a rulebreaker in the eyes of the Black Bank. And Noir Black didn't tolerate people going against his rules.
The young man's stupid grin quickly washed away the CEO's hopes.
"Ah, a shame indeed. From what my crows could find, Project Null's sacrifice of its life force caused it to slowly deteriorate until it passed in an alleyway, melting away into the sewers. Of course, they couldn't go and find anything down there."
"Ah. But would you know if Silhouette-"
"I do not think Silhouette or one of his employees found the corpse of Project Null if it has one. Neither do I think you will find this corpse in his facilities. Though I will admit, seeing a shadow-themed Transformation Aspect so soon after the loss of your shadow creature is suspicious and I understand why you don't believe in a coincidence."
This time, even with Marley's help, Mister couldn't stop himself from gritting his teeth.
"But truly, from one entrepreneur to another, don't escalate. Not just for the sake of your host, though I would miss Marley if he died. No."
For the first time, Blake wasn't smiling, instead going fully serious as he leaned forward.
"Tell me, Mister, do you remember the demon Sydakors?"
"The ambassador? Wasn't it sealed over a hundred years ago?"
"Yes. Silhouette had an expansion campaign in the Sunken City and freed it. He then went on to kill it. And I do mean kill, not banish. It's permanent.
A shiver went down the human's and the spirit inhabiting him's shared spine.
"You... Are you sure about this information?"
"Of course. The elf in charge of keeping an eye on Sydakors' prison was quite peeved at the matter. Also, Silhouette still has the body. I believe he's holding on to it until he finds someone well-versed in the magical arts he can trust to use it."
"First the Nightsnatcher, now this... He's building up quite a collection of corpses. An eldritch and a demonic body. Perhaps a celestial one is next?"
The spare heir of the Black empire chuckled at the CEO's attempt to sow discord.
"Ah ah, no. Contrary to you and what you think of him, Silhouette isn't into that kind of thing. He collects what he needs and ensures he has no dangerous foe. He wouldn't go out of his way to attack Nanyet. However, if you continue down this path, the same may not be true for you. Again, he is more clever than you give him credit for. He will know who tried to harm him. He may forgive you this time considering the quality of your hired help, but escalate or even merely continue this foolish crusade and he won't be so kind."
"And who are you to order me around? I am still the CEO of this company, I will direct it as I wish. You may be one of our investors, but you are not acting as Investor Black today. You are clearly acting as Blake Black, Silhouette's ally and thus a compromised advisor."
"Of course. Blake Black can merely advise you on the path to take, and I undoubtedly have an interest in protecting Silhouette. But when the next investor reunion comes, Investor Black will notify his fellows of your poor decisions lately, and I have a feeling though they lack my fondness for Silhouette they will share my opinion you are making a mistake antagonizing him. And you won't be able to ignore them. They will choose to protect the Xenocorp projects they are interested in, even if it means removing you. In which case you better hope Investor Hades' tendency to suggest using Project Thanatos to get rid of problems will be ignored once more."
"Goodbye, Blake Black."
Mister Marley didn't give his interlocutor the time to respond before ending the call. He had gone in wanting to play nice, but the brat had gone way too far. Threatening him? He had half a mind to report his behavior to the rest of the Black family. The issue was that they didn't take Zalcien and thus Xenocorp seriously, and he ran the risk of being ignored, which would give the brat even more power over him in the eyes of the locals.
He opened a drawer of his desk and took out a hand mirror. The object wasn't strictly necessary, but both the man and the spirit inhabiting him found it more comfortable to communicate this way.
"This doesn't look good, Mister."
The reflection in the mirror scoffed.
"I can see that, Marley. The brat's right, we don't want him to bring the investors together to oppose us."
"Yet Silhouette's booming business is a threat, even without taking into account our suspicions of his usage of Project Null."
"I just don't get it. The brat is under more contracts than we are, even harsher ones. How? How did he keep his mouth shut?"
"Have you considered that maybe he was genuine?"
"He's a Black. He's a born liar. No, he found a loophole, we just need to figure out what. He might not have given Silhouette Null, but I refuse to believe he doesn't know how he got his hands on it and where it's being kept."
"In any case, we should dial back on our current campaign. He wasn't wrong to say that the ones who were hired to disrupt Silhouette's operations were particularly ineffective. Maybe we could nudge the big three into picking a fight instead?"
"Abrakaboom is still missing, Wicked Witchcraft is too busy fighting for survival. The Empress doesn't care about gadgets and would rather focus on her conquest. We know the Biflora is interested in Silhouette, but it appears he took a step back too. No, they won't act, at least not unless Silhouette does something to catch their attention."
"We could try for the Blood Angels, then."
"As if Marcus would listen to us."
"He owes us a few services. Not to mention, Moonfreeze and Sunburn could knock some sense into him."
"Even then, we have to consider the repercussions. Moving the Angels against Silhouette would be big. They'd need more than their usual thugs to match his group, they would have to send some proper firepower, something that would catch the Union's eye. And why would the Angels act against Silhouette? It's too suspicious, the Heroes would know someone put them up to it - and this time, I'm not sure we could sweep it under the rug."
"Hm... What if... What if Silhouette was the one who killed the Patcher? Would that be a good justification for the Angels going to war?"
"Oh? Go on, Marley."
"Think about it, Mister. Mysterious shadow man arrives in town, kills the Nightsnatcher, who had been plaguing us, and soon after he opens his business another known problem of the city dies?"
"Do you really believe it?"
"I think he's a worthy suspect, but it doesn't matter if he's guilty or not. We just have to plant the idea in Marcus' mind. Sunburn and Moonfreeze will see the ruse but they should be too bored to care and tell him to keep his cool. Since there's a chance the culprit will never be found, making an example out of the best available scapegoat should be tempting."
"But what if he wins?"
"Mister, I will readily admit this Silhouette is better than we gave him credit for. Hell, you were the one underestimating him, all things considered."
"Hey!"
"But, I doubt anyone in Zalcien has what it takes to beat Sunburn if he wants them dead. The only reason we don't have more casualties when he's around is because he's too tired to be murderous, killing isn't efficient and it usually doesn't entertain him."
"You underestimate the Draskian's bloodlust, Marley. A man doesn't survive as nothing more than a head and a spine and some organs without copious amounts of spite keeping him alive. Trust me, I know a thing or two about strong emotions keeping things alive past the points of death. He keeps casualties down because he doesn't want the national Union to take him seriously enough to send proper counterforces."
"Even better. Let us sow discord, give him a reason to hate, or at the very least want Silhouette dead."
"He survived Abrakaboom. He could pose enough of a threat for Sunburn to choose flight over fight when things go wrong."
"He survived Abrakaboom playing around. Not an actual serious fight."
"You're the one underestimating him now."
"No, I am evaluating how dangerous he is. He is weaker than our local major Villains. Our recent attempts have shown he's better than our minor ones. So, if you really don't want to involve the Angels now, our next best bet would be a medium Villain."
"Who do you have in mind?"
"We could try some of Wicked Witchcraft's top mages."
"Again, too busy fending off the Empress."
"Alright, what about that assimilating robot the Union had trouble with recently?"
"G433. Hard to calculate how powerful this bucket of bolts is. Not to mention, from what we could find, it's highly unstable and solitary."
"We could try the Sunken City. Someone down there might want to take over Silhouette's territory."
"It's isolated, from what we could find. Also, too much of a ruckus down there and Doctor Bones might get involved. She already doesn't like us."
"I don't hear you suggesting anything, Mister."
"Because we don't have anything. With the brat announcing himself as Silhouette's ally, the number of people willing to go after him is very low."
"You want to know what I think? I think Blake's words about Silhouette's ability to kill demons disturbed you. You're not thinking rationally."
"Oh, I am. We are dealing with one of the rare entities capable of killing me permanently."
"If we trust Blake's words."
"Why would he lie on that point? We can easily ask our contacts to check if Sydakors' jail has truly been destroyed and what its keeper reported."
"Well, let's do that. Once we receive an answer, we'll figure it out from there, alright?"
"Very well. Just make sure not to get us killed."
"Mister, you're the spirit who can change host if I were to die. I'm the one who should be asking you to be careful. In fact, I am the one usually doing it. This demon business has you shaken."
"Keeping Project Thanatos around is already stressful enough, I didn't need another soul attacker in the city. And we can't get rid of the Project, it is too valuable and successful to get rid of, doubly so with the loss of Null."
"Uh. You know, that does give me an idea."
"Hm?"
"When Project Thanatos is ready and fully completed, it might be a good idea to give it a test run. Since we only plan on selling its future iterations to established contacts on the black market, no one on the right side of the law could ever link us to a monster spontaneously appearing and attacking Penumbra."
"It isn't ready yet."
"No, of course not. But in a year or two, when everything is over? We might be able to send our own soul snatcher against that supposed demon killer."
"Ah... Marley, you may be one of my favorite hosts."
"I do my best. Better keep you too attached to decide to sacrifice me."
"Ah! You've got that right. You're too good to lose. For now."
"Hm. So, we stay low until we can confirm the fate of Sydakors, and unleashing Project Thanatos in a year or two is our last resort?"
"Agreed."
The man and the spirit posing as his reflection smiled at each other. It wasn't joyous and confident enough to be a smirk or a grin, but they were glad to have a plan for now.
Mister Marley put his mirror away. Properly distinguishing his parts was good for self-reflection much as he disliked the pun, but it was better to act as one on the day-to-day. Blake Black may have been an unexpected call, but there always was more work to do.
He may have been a CEO, but he also had to keep an iron grip on his more secret business, and that took actual work - especially since Xenocorps was merely the biggest company in Zalcien, not worth consideration in other parts of the ACS or even the world at large.
Their secret toys would hopefully change that.
Comments
BuilderofNull
It's good to have you back, thanks for writing!
Thomas Beyens
And I'm back! Sorry for the very big delay on this one, I took your advice to take time off for the holidays, and then a dastardly combination of fatigue and ADHD kept my pages blank for too long. I didn't want to pause the public story, so I've lost progress on the backlog, but I'm hoping to claim it all back and more! Thank you to everyone who stuck around even during this period of inactivity. In other news, after many mishaps, it looks like the process to be officially (in the eyes of the governement and thus in such a way to be elligible for help and medicine) diagnosed as autistic and ADHD is making progress once more!
