Property, Power, & Publicity Stunts

The world had been devastated. The casualties of the event that had transpired in London were near immeasurable. Countless lives lost and uprooted by an nearly unknown entity. Her research and sources say it had been similar to the powers she had faced in Vegas. Despite this unprecedented terror, this was unfortunately an opportunity for the world’s richest. And Vexus jumped on the opportunities. The city had been mostly restored, but there was such a multitude of vacant properties and nothing to bring revenue to the country, the economy was sure to collapse. The government claimed the empty buildings, home, etc and auctioned them off. Having a number of other dealings to attended, she sent an assistant to buy up as much as she could. A billion or so later and with a multitude of new assets acquired Vexus continued on.
She had ‘allowed’ information on her acquisitions to slip out to the public, and the tabloids ran with it. What was the mastermind Vexus up to with the purchase of so much of Landon’s property? Would she cause an economic crisis? Would she use the properties for the benefit of humanity? Most of the internet was trying to speculate different answers.

While at the height of her internet tabloid fame, she held a press conference at her skyscraper in NYC; Le Chateau De Vermillion. Towards the top of the building, she would be found in a lavish meeting room with microphones and video cameras all the like. Dozens of members of the press were seated and lining the room awaiting further information on such aggressive buying spree of properties. The media and news outlets were not the only ones interested. There were hordes of protesters on the streets, conspiracy theorists, and journalists who didn’t make it in or weren’t allowed up to the press conference. There were aspiring heroes who believed in Vexus’ causes, MetaHumans looking for housing and fresh starts. Despite her past, there were people who saw Elena as a positive force of change.

Elena walked towards the podium in a very clean cut suit, hair done up neatly in a French Twist. The murmurs started, cameras flickered, and footage rolled. Vexus raised a hand to quite them all down so she could speak.
”Thank you all for joining us here today. As we are aware, I have made a considerable purchase of a number of abandoned properties in London. But as we can all also expect, I am not the only one to have made purchases across the pond.” a screen flipped on behind her with the names and purchase prices of land from a considerable amount of other individuals from the Americas.
”Now, I doubt these indiduals on this list will be willing to hold conferences on what they plan to do with their new acquisitions. However, I, Elena Vexus, will be plenty transparent. I will be expanding my MetaHuman housing program over seas.”
There was some silence. People on the streets who were watching on their phones looked upwards to the building waiting for more information.
”As we are nearing capacity here at the Chateau, and the success of the program thus far, it will do wonders for the now recovering economy of Great Brittan. These newly renovated living quarters will be first available to residents of England, we will then be going over the waiting list of those who wish to apply for a transfer over to England. There is an entire benefit program and relocation assistance. It will all be outlined when applying for residency.
Thank you all again, my secretary will now take over with any additional questions.” There was an uproar as her secretary struggled to answer more and more questions as Elena was escorted away.

It wouldn’t be Vexus if there wasn’t some kind of underlying motive. Yes, she was expending an incomprehensible amount of money to purchase, renovate, and fill these properties, but having an influential hold on London’s housing market would be crucial. She had to own the properties that she was going to be digging through. Elena had strategically purchased areas she suspected of housing marginal artifacts. Through a technique of scanning for magical signals that she had developed she began to uncover something interesting points across the pond. One artifact she had been particularly searching for was nearly ready to reveal itself. It just needed a little push… Magic of this caliber knew no distance, so there may be some ‘unrest’ in the communities she’ll be rebuilding.
Sacrifices will need to be made… whether for power, property or publicity stunts…

Metahuman housing was many things in this world. Luxurious was not one of them. Of course with the rate that the Metahumans were being thrown out of their homes and onto the streets, there had been no worse time for metahuman families that rented or lived in complexes. This was a perfect lure. A seemingly eccentric woman doing a strange gesture of providing not just housing, but a lavish and comfortable set of housing explicitly for metahumans. The woman single-handedly showed the world where her position was staked in this new-aged war against metahumans.

It was not in the crowd; it was not in sight... but it was there. In the walls, in the vents, peeking and peering. It had learned long ago that maintenance with oils was an essential in order to keep its natural odor from revealing its location. It peered through the vent, watching and listening. The faint rasp as the woman walked on stage. Her suit, her posture, her stride. It learned all it needed to from those alone. A professional black suit, designer's choice with a bright white shirt beneath, a pink lace wrapped around her neck that seemed to reflect in the camera light. Jewlery was on point, platinum silvers embedded with gems matching the tertiary color of the outfit. She was organized, methodical and liberated from the impulses of trying to impress any of her peers. Perhaps she didn't believe she had any peers.

She spoke into the microphones, her tone and conduct suggested she'd done this before. She was an expert at this point, it was like a game. She was dissociated from the reality and painted a beautiful illustration that the media could devour whole. She was Santa Clause delivering a perfectly wrapped present just for them. Before they'd have time to question anything, she'd flip the script and immediately bring suspicion onto others, perfect precision.

She displayed a list of others who had bought massive amounts of property. It recognized two names out of the list. One of which was Zell Atterrius, whom apparently was trying his hand at the properties, others included many different companies and organizations, but the one that stuck out for it was Zell's name. Its claws dug into the vent slightly with mounting frustration. It could appreciate calling out other obvious silent types to the spotlight, a perfect smoke screen. But just as quickly as she approached, she had left. As she walked off the flashes of cameras and the shouts of questions were heard as her secretary came up to answer the questions at hand. Many of the questions had absolutely nothing to do with the housing situation, or the subject the meeting was called for. There were, however, three questions that it hears which it had itself.

"Why is Miss Vexus just NOW becoming interested in helping the metahuman population?" A polite woman asked from one outlet.

"How does Elena going to manage transportation and relocation with a lot of the travel bans on metahumans coming up?" Came another, but then finally there was one more that spoke up. A voice that it recognized.

"Why is she really doing this?" The young woman's voice caused a low rumble, the semblance of whatever chuckle it could muster, the pain in its throat too much to bear. The noise was still loud, but it had died down since she asked that question. "Just this past month, three different, single metahumans with residency here have gone missing from Chateau De Vermillion and she announces to start up housing in a country that is about to be the most strictly regulated country when it comes to metahuman registration and evictions. People who nobody would miss are suddenly disappearing and she wants to set up shop somewhere that these people are a dime a dozen?" Samantha Schierer spoke, her tone lacking accusatory conviction, but more a subtle nod to her inquisitive nature. She wouldn't stop until she had an answer, the secretary could go on the record, or remain silent. Either way, she had taken note of the missing peoples.

Turning its head it shifted, silently crawling through the vent. It shifted weight and slid off the corpse of which it had made itself comfortable upon. A maintenance technician whom had come to investigate the heater had disabled some of the inner workings of the facility. It was careful in how it maimed the poor man, leaving him near a fan and wiping blood upon the blades. It wasn't concerned about setting off any thermal detectors, only perhaps motions ones, but even then the maintenance workers would need to disable such things to work within the vents themselves.

It had a reason for being here. Elena Vexus has been doing such a wonderful job, collecting an impressive amount of metahuman presence here, and the streets flooding with the recently evicted made New York City it's new favorite hunting grounds. Three people in the past month disappeared from this place, so true little Samantha. Yet even she did not know the dozens that vanished, attributed to hate-crimes and metagang violence. Elena Vexus had been escorted away... it was time to make its move.

The room it was looking for was on the middle floor of the magnificent chateau, third one from the back. It housed a young man, barely out of his teenaged years. Simon had a power, a very special power. Simon could focus and accelerate his healing processes. Simon lived alone, worked his job from 3pm to 11pm and was home promptly by midnight. He went out with friends on his days off, but never worked more than three days in a row. Simon was a good man, who had given his spot on the waitlist twice to single mothers and their child. Simon helped others, this much was certain. Today was Simon's day off.

It wanted Simon's help.


It crawled through the vents, quietly before arriving in vent just above the hallway. It could hear the footsteps. It watched as people passed, though it didn't move, breathe or make a single sound. It took not much longer, before it dropped down into the utility closet on the desired floor. Crawling out it hissed as it slammed the access behind it shut. Nobody would expect the sound. It wanted to be quiet. It knew that tonight would be the last one, the last chance.

The previous people who went missing were still part of his little game, he had hoped that they could tell. He wondered if there would be any security, if they told the man, if they even cared. Likely not, but still with people like Samantha poking around, asking things. It forces the hand of people, no matter how busy and above it all they were. It waited five minutes, then opened the door. It knew Simon would be coming back soon, and it wanted to know if Simon was a curious one.

He heard the door open in the distance. He was home from dinner. Perhaps getting ready to go out with friends. After a moment someone walked past the closet, and looked in. The person peered in, looking left and right. They cautiously started to walk in, peeking in every which direction, to see if perhaps someone had been in here.

Yet they couldn't see a thing...

The woman turned around and closed the door, looking around confused as she started to walk back down the hallway towards her room. A loud slamming noise could be heard as the door opened again. She looked back, her heart racing as she started to approach the door again. She was more fun, it would seem. But then her footsteps stopped, and it heard her gasp. Its instincts kicked in. It had almost forgotten that Metahumans had different sensory than other. Perhaps she had a unique vision? Perhaps it was another sensory. Either way, she started to scream.

It stepped from around the door, calmly walking in her direction. She frantically looked at him but backed away, finding her courage to run. Its eyes seemed focused upon her, but its intention was clear as soon as it stopped walking in front of a certain room. Reaching its left hand out it placed it against the beautiful wooden door. The wood began to rapidly splinter, rot and decay at an alarming rate, until the lock and metallic handle dropped to the carpeted floor.

The woman managed to escape with her life...unfortunately, by the time she told anyone it would be too late.

It was only after ___ had returned from his bout from the Atlantis adventure that he realized something had changed. From people talking on the streets, to the breaking news that had been on repeat for days… A great villain had risen to destroy London, and the Heroes unknowingly helped. Well, one really - the idiot blew himself as well as most of the UK’s government, Ha! It was an excellent display of what happens when a buffoon with self-righteous zealotry gets the power to move mountains; a perfect example of the point he’ll hope to get across once he gets the ball rolling.

He would have been happy about the sudden change in power back to the common folk, if not for an heir that managed to survive, and the inevitable power vacuum that would be sure to attract undesirables who would prefer to maintain socioeconomic inequality rather than allow for the formation of something completely new. There was also the fact that the world missed the mark on what Ascendant was, making him a platform for hatred towards meta-humans; a group ___ was only recently made a part of. He knew this was only going to make things harder for him in the long run, but a recent development did give him pause. Vexus was buying up property in London for her metahuman housing project- a good potential out, if he wasn’t naturally skeptical like most people of her antics.

Nothing Vexus has done has ever pinned her on anything definitively illegal, or even unethical… But most people with wealth are wealthy for a reason, and he doubted it was because she was a philanthropist. Nonetheless, ___ knew a few things. He had looked through archives related to the buildings she has purchased, and while most of them don’t appear particularly special or important, some of these locations had reputations of being haunted or were old estates belonging to lords with barely anything to their names but their property and some lost heirlooms. He couldn’t look at all the information at once, so he only managed to scrape the surface of these buildings, but he managed to get a good idea from constructing a sample of buildings she wasn’t buying and found that the chances that these buildings were connected in some way to magic were very high. Which may be important, considering an angel coated the entire city in enough ‘holy’ magic to obliterate it… who knows how the ambient magic could be affected?

This is why ___ is currently running like a maniac with 10 coffees in the Vexus building. He was hoping to get close to Vexus to observe her actions, and to learn from her as indirectly as possible, but he didn’t expect to be this close. Of course, he only saw a glimpse as she walked with multiple attendants coming to her about various projects, practically begging for a fraction of her attention. He was fascinated by her haughty, nonchalant demeanor as she addressed them curtly and sent them away as if they were but mere bugs flying in her face. Can such a personality be respected? He’s unsure if this behavior came about as a result of her success or despite it – it’s been said that those who act like true queens are treated as ones, but he didn’t think he would see the truth in those words as he does now. He might have to emulate such a thing later when he wasn’t working under her, truly inspiring… he has much to learn.

At least, on paper. ___ applied for the company as an intern (an unpaid one) named Leland Oswald, who’s nearly completed degrees in magical studies, microbiology, archeology, and nanotechnology. Leland is supposedly working on a doctoral thesis on the potential uses of nanotech for reconstructing decayed DNA strands in long-extinct plants. His internship, which is part-time- is a way for him to reconnect to the business side of things so that he can figure out how to make his ideas profitable. On paper of course. What he’s really after is the knowledge of some magic. He could go to London on his own, but it would be much more effective to work together with someone else much more experienced. He was going on a hunch, but his hunches aren’t typically wrong.

Which is why Leland is confident he’s going to see her more frequently. Most of the interns here were little more than errand boys scrambling to meet high demands. Hell, he isn’t even the only one handing out coffee to the office workers in the higher levels; there were five of them. There was, however, someone who was in charge of also making sure that Vexus herself had her coffee at specific times of the day. While Vexus was always first to receive coffee, Gerald- as Leland came to learn, carried 5 other cups to hand to her advisors. It was as simple as swapping cup locations so that she would get Tiffany’s coffee (where there were no cameras), which was just a plain black coffee, while Tiffany sips Vexus’ drink, making it undrinkable to her. He’s already heard vicious stories of how she’s fired people over less, especially when they were very apologetic and self-loathing. Poor Gerald is going to get torn apart. Luckily, Leland will happen to have a spare coffee to her exact specifications- six-shot flat white with soy and vanilla. He’s tried some before after learning about it and it’s actually his favorite now. He’ll already be there, give her the coffee (with her name on it), and walk back out.

Of course, it would be no surprise if Vexus suspected him to have been the one to sabotage Gerald, but that’s what Leland was counting on. The world was a lot like a jungle, every one an animal seeking to eat the other and gain the upper hand. It was only the ruthless and cunning who manage to climb to the top, with the meek settling to the bottom as small stepping stones. He suspects such an attitude would allow him to stand out enough for him to be able to show what he was capable of. She just needs to be curious enough to want to figure out who he is. It’ll get his foot in the door, and now he’s just waiting for the door to inevitably open a smidge. He glances as Gerald hands her the wrong coffee as she walks into the Lobby. After she fires the guy and figures out his mistake, She'll bump into Leland, with a second cup with her name on it. Does he regret ruining that man’s future here? Not at all. Sacrifices are the necessary price for power, after all.

“Madam Vexus has always been concerned with he MetaHuman population. This sty scraper is no doubt a fantastic showing of that…”
“Our teams have already been in extensive communications with the foreign affairs committees. We are making progress everyday.”
The last question held her silent for a moment.  She kept eye contact as she formulated a response…

——

Ahead of Vexus there were bodyguards, She strolled powerfully while replying to messages on her personal phone. One individual after another came up next to her, and then trailed away after sharing maybe no more than a sentence of information. She had an assistant next to her who had nearly just as much an air of confidence as Elena did.

“Here are the travel arrangements ma’am.” Her assistant took the papers, and entered something into her phone.
“Madam, our flights are being organized. They will be prepared to depart at our arrival to the airport.” Her assistant murmured to Elena, who gave an approving nod.

“There has been movement on your publicly traded account, shall we-“ they were cut off by her assistant.
“You know this goes to a different department.”
The pace forward continued. Passing the standard infrastructure on this floor, Elena’s face grimaced slightly. There was something in the air. There was an ominous familiarity to it, but she couldn’t quite feel out exactly what might be wrong. Her assistant immediately asked about her well being.
“Have security keep a close eye on the residential floors and have a small relay screen up on your tablet.”
She gave a nod and quickly had Elena’s request fulfilled.

——

“The disappearances of our residents Jesse, Grant, and Emelia have been well documented. The security here is unmatched by any housing establishment in New York City. I do ask, however, that you refrain from bringing your personal feelings on who would or would not be missed into this conference room. Yes, you, next question?”

——

Vexus and er entourage continued through her building where only her body guards and assistant got into an elevator. Waiting on the next floor were more individuals. This setting seemed similar to an office with cubicles.
“Madam, the press conference is concluding. Thankfully, we are already seeing requests for relocation.” Preached her assistant.
“Wonderful. We just need to get things smoothed over with immigration correct?” As Elena continued walked forward, she held out her open hand expecting something as she entered the lobby area of the office floor. A hot beverage was seamlessly placed into her palm.
“Yes, we are nearing completion of the negotiations. We may find more difficulty in repeated trips back and forth which may restrict the number of transplants we can take at a time.”
“Can we create our own airline that has this specific purpose?” there was a slight pause as she sipped her cup of coffee. However the moment the liquid touched her tongue she stopped in her tracks. And just like that, it seemed like the whole world around her stopped simultaneously.

There was a horrid look on her assistant’s face.
“Who the fuck are you?”
The individual who had handed Elena her drink froze and turned slightly, all the color leaving their face.
“Uh I- I’m Ger-“ “I don’t know why I asked, get them out of here.”
Someone came running out of one of the cubicles and had the poor individual sign something on a tablet as tears were welling up in their eyes. Vexus was already walking away, her incorrect coffee disposed of by an anonymous bystander. As her group continued forward, another individual appeared handing Elena another cup of coffee. Initially her bodyguards stopped in front, but Vexus brushed them aside as she took the cup from the random assumed employee. People in the cubicles were peering over at the situation as if this was the most dramatic thing to have ever happened in their simple lives.
She sipped the drink with a satisfied “aaahhh”

“What’s your name?”
Leland Oswald
Vexus put her hand out and her assistant took her phone from her palm and replaced it with the tablet she had. Elena took another sip of her coffee as she immediately absorbed all of the information presented to her. His full application and resume already displayed.
“Ohhh, nanotechnology? the individual nodded.
“Hm… Impressive. Get in line. You’re coming with us.” she handed the tablet back to her assistant and took her phone.
“Did you hire this kid? No? Find out who did. Give them a bonus. Good find.” She sipped her coffee as the small relay in the corner of the tablet her assistant was now holding gave a notification. There was an ongoing break-in on one of the residential floors.
“Dispatch full force security to that floor. Lock down two floors up and two floors under entirely. Enforce presence at every exit. NOTHING leaves the property without my knowledge.” her assistant and bodyguards went on the move immediately. As if from thin air, an almost identical looking assistant came to Elena’s side with the same tablet.
“Take….. she thought for a moment Leland here to my private gate at La Guardia. Uuuhh, medium clearance exists. Standard transports. I will meet you there. I am going to engage this perpetrator personally. I can’t afford to pretend to care about more of my residents ’mysteriously’ disappearing. Bad for business.”
It may have been careless to give this random citizen a tour of her medium clearance secret exits, as well as ‘standard’ transportation in armored vehicles to a unknown-to-the-public gate at an international airport… But there was truly a lot going on all at once. Plus, she hasn’t practiced mind erasure in quite some time, so this would be a good excuse.

——

All residents on every floor locked down by Elena had a maximum security droid accompanying them. On the floor with the disturbance, the same guards held post at every corner, exit, window, and ventilation spot. Vexus’ personal body guard, The General, was closing in on the disturbance. They were to be the first to engage as he awaited his creator’s arrival. He came across a completely decayed door, nothing but the metal handle remained. The General drew one of his supercharged Technomatter blades that illuminated the dark space.
“Whatever menace you may be, surrender yourself immediately. I cannot assure the same kindness come my Master’s arrival…”

Within the darkness there was a soft light, emanating from the blade. The General stood in the main door, the bathroom right off to the side. There in the doorway there was a pool of blood. A man with a normal face stood, the drawn curtains ripped from the wall and worn like a cloak as he stood there. His eyes looked forward in a deadpan expression. He took a step forward, stumbling slightly.

”W-why do I-I…I feel so…” The man was mumbling to himself. He looked down at the pool of blood and a scared look crossed his face at the general. There was a moment of silence, or rather it would have been silence. The General was a highly complex piece of machinery. Where his audio receptors might have been a weakness in some cases, in this one it was a boon. There was a soft frequency one that the human ears couldn’t hear. But at this frequency there was something most unusual, humans' speech patterns.

”You’re so cold. Poor thing. Warm up. It’s okay. Don’t panic. You can always add layers.” The patterns were the same voice, speaking multiple times all at once. Suddenly the voices shifted and the contrary became a new talking point. ”You poor thing, you’re so hot. Have you taken your temperature recently? You should lose some layers.”

The man, Simon dropped the curtain he had wrapped around himself, revealing a rather macabre visage to behold. Poor Simon had no layers to remove left from his torso. Clean, surgical slices around the bicep and neck with the entirety of his flesh peeled away from the torso, leaving only the fatty and blood muscle beneath as he began to fan himself. He looked to the General, his body shaking involuntarily, his eyes glazed over.

”C-can someone…air…” Simon said as he started to wobble while he stood there.

”Simon, He’s come back for your flesh.” The voice was much deeper than the others on the frequency. A look of dread and panic crossed Simon’s face before his eyes began to glow a sick greenish yellow color, he ran forward, trying to attack The General with all of the adrenalin he had. It wouldn’t amount to much, but it was enough to cause a momentary distraction.

As Simon’s first step forward launched the trap, the curtain he had shed began to move on its own accord, rushing past Simon's legs and flying up with an incredible speed. As the general would be forced to contend with the random assault of Simon it would have a curtain that now autonomously began to try and wrap itself around his head. As if that weren’t enough, a new threat emerged from the General's peripheral vision and began using Simon’s animated corpse as a shield. The deformed masked creature came from the bathroom and took hold of the General’s shoulder joints.



”This suit remembers you.” The creature said, though to all others it merely sounded as if it were rasping a terrible death rattle of a breath. The creature gripped right over the area where The General’s arms would normally split, preventing it from taking that course of action. With a rush of strength, it began to pull at The General’s arms. The fresh kill of Simon fueled the creature, the very soul of the poor man becoming another stick upon the pyre of vengeance. The Nightmare then ripped and pulled with his left hand, cleaving The General’s arm entirely off, releasing his grip and throwing the cyborg with a tremendous amount of force.


The creature growled as it realized that the biological components of this adversary were scarce. With the creature’s severed arm in his hand he looked down to it, a sickly green glow from his eyes caused the arms to begin animating upon their own accord, broken from whatever normal signals controlled them. The arms themselves began to emit a frequency, the sound of dozens of helpless people screaming in torment and agony. The creature picked up the arm and began to press the base of the arm into his own shoulder, the metal sinking in with a sickening squelch as a black ichor began to pool down the arm. The creature then let out a low growl.

”A fine addition.” The creature hissed with a sick sense of satisfaction, marveling at his new additional appendage. The General only even being able to hear it due to his acuity to the frequency. The creature would allow all other things he had imbued with his power to fade, returning to lifeless or inanimate objects. He turned and looked to the cyborg, contemplating continuing the fight. Instead, the creature turned and began to walk away, looking at all the lesser “distractions” of a security team as it began to walk towards the nearest window, loud and heavy steps as the creature fixated upon the guardians, almost neglecting the foe he had left behind him, much to his own peril.