Celeste’s hand gripped around the handle of the borrowed pushcart so tightly that even without any super powered strength she worried she was likely to bend the metal soon. To be fair, her robotic hand, currently hidden under a synthetic polymer skin, probably could.
She had this, just like she’d told Terri. There’d just been some… small complications already.
Apparently, despite the Red Rum Pub being known as a place to make deals and exchanges at,1 you weren’t supposed to actually drive up to the front of the pub in a van full of supervillain tech you planned to sell there, on account of the fact that heroes with nothing better to do would stake out this public house looking for leads. She’d only made it a few steps out of her van before a very irate lady with a skull painted on her face and an eyepatch over her left eye had basically shoved her back into her van and directed her to a service entrance for a completely different building a couple blocks away.
“Listen,” the woman known as Banshee Bandida had hissed at her, “you grab a cart over there and follow the red notches on the doors today. And don’t you dare disturb Gary. He’s doing inventory and if he loses track and I have to help before dinner tonight, I will make it your problem.”
She’d passed Celeste a small object that looked like a garage door opener, told her not to press the singular red button on it unless she needed to, and shooed her away before returning inside without explaining much more.
The entrance she was supposed to use ended up being down a very tight alley that Celeste had to drive very carefully down to avoid damaging the van on the way in. Thankfully she’d been able to pull inside a hidden door the device had opened after she fiddled with the buttons while being stuck back there, parking in what looked like a blend between a wine cellar and a warehouse with a very nervous looking ghost floating between the shelves, seeming to pointedly ignore her. She returned the favor.
After that, she’d then had difficulty finding the carts. Apparently someone with half a brain had stashed them behind a stranded box in the middle of the aisles, making them almost impossible to see without going up and down the storage room. Did she mention that for some reason it felt like this room was illuminated by three candles with how dark it was? Because that turned out to be an issue with locating the markings on the doorframe to figure out which of the four doors leading out of there she was supposed to use.
The entire time, Celeste had considered calling out for help, but Banshee had seemed upset and she wasn’t about to distract the ghost that she supposed was called Gary. After stuffing all the equipment she’d brought onto the cart, she’d then been forced to navigate several tunnels with a lot of branches in them, using her phone’s light to check the symbols at each split and on each door she passed. Apparently, there was an entire system to this, because in addition to the red notches she’d been told to look out for, some pathways or doors had green triangles, purple dots, and a series of blue squares next to them.
Celeste had intended to arrive well before the meeting time to practice her sales pitch (though to be honest, she expected anyone with more than three braincells to be wowed by her inventions on their own) and see if she couldn’t squeeze a little bit more out of this deal. Unfortunately, after having to double back once or twice and haul all of this down a labyrinth, she found herself checking the time worried that she’d be late at this rate.
The whole time the tunnel or hallway or whatever it had become didn’t feel like it was getting closer to the pub at all. No, it just kept changing as she went along with no hints as to where she was. Some sections felt like they dipped lower, the cart picking up a little speed as though she were on an incline. A few branches back she was in a reinforced dirt passage which felt like she should be breaking out a pickaxe and start mining for gold, while now she was in what felt like the employee areas of a subway that had been built in the 70s and barely cleaned since then.2 She’d heard snatches of conversation from some of the doors she’d passed, but she couldn’t help feeling like she was out of place down here.
If Celeste didn’t need this sale, she would’ve tried to just phone this Steelstar and reschedule at someplace that didn’t have a fucking labyrinth hidden between it and the service entrance. Checking her phone, the fact that she miraculously still had a signal made that idea awfully tempting to her.
As her pride and desperation warred with that primal part of her brain that was freaking the hell out after being trapped down here, she noticed one of the doors she was passing had that red notch she’d been following. The scientist huffed as she pulled back on the cart and fought its momentum to a standstill so she could open up this door. However, unlike the many she’d been forced to open up and shimmy the cart through previously, this one presented a problem. Namely being locked.
Celeste only had time to frown and begin attempting to open it again before an absolutely ancient speaker set into a panel on the wall crackled to life.
“Starsilk?” the voice questioned her.
“Is this Steelstar?” she asked.
No answer.
“Um, is this-” she began to ask a little louder.
“You need to press the button,” the voice informed her.
There was a small square under the speaker, hints of red plastic buried under the years of its service.
Celeste quickly held it down and spoke at the panel, “Yes, I’m here. Are you Steelstar?”
As a response, the door wheezed open.
The man greeting her was… Well for someone who complained about trust over the phone, she couldn’t believe what he was wearing. An over-sized set of shades and a medical mask covered most of his face. A knit cap covered most of his hair, a few dark brown strands escaping. He had a simple brown jacket on, but had a set of grey gauntlets covering his hands. He was obviously taller than her, as it felt like most of the world unfairly was, but thankfully was in the realm of “normal adult human height” rather than how stupidly tall her roommate was.
“I’ll be honest,” the suspicious man told her, “I’m still work-shopping a new name. I’m thinking of swapping to ‘Tech Crash’. You have what you promised?”
At the mention of the gear she’d brought along, she tensed up. Celeste looked past the doorway and saw a small open room made mostly of concrete, not the expected look of the pub.
Gripping the cart and wondering if she could make it if she ran, she asked, “Aren’t we supposed to be meeting at Red Rum?”
Tech Crash cocked his head and then smacked his forehead with the palm of one of his gauntlets.
“Oh man, you haven’t made a trade here before,” he instantly figured her out. “Please tell me they told you about the panic button.”
She just gripped the cart harder and tensed even further.
“Look,” he quickly held up his hands, shuffling his foot in place to keep the door from closing. “You should have a remote with a red button on it.”
“Please,” he quickly emphasized before she could reach for it, “Please, don’t press that or the ghosts will come down here to murder me. They’ll probably get mad at you too if you’re not in danger so I’d rather appreciate if we keep this civil. I’m hoping this is the start of reoccurring business deal and I’d rather neither of us have to deal with the pub’s haunts putting a stop to that.”
Like any mad scientist, knowing that she had something with a big red button that would murder all her problems helped her relax a little. The villain must have noticed it because he slowly lowered his hands and waved her in while continuing to explain.
“This is technically a bit of the tunnels below the pub which are secretly owned by the Redwinds, the original owners, who let people like us borrow it for deals. If you want to get to the main pub, you should be able to follow some of the white arrows on the ground.”
“I didn’t see any white arrows,” Celeste told him as she pushed the cart inside, slipping a hand into the pocket with the remote, just in case.
The room stretched further back than she’d expected for something underneath a pub, resembling something like a cross between an extremely small underground parking lot and what her hidden warehouse had looked like before she’d filled it full of servers, workbenches, and discount furniture. There were a number of abused mannequins a distance away near some chipped concrete pillars and some scorch marks. It looked like the room was set up to test “purchases” like the one Tech Crash was hoping to make, not just argue out numbers. Celeste began to realize why people would jump through all the ridiculous hoops and risk heroes following them here, as it was difficult to shoot off some lasers or detonate some sonar grenades to prove your gear worked to prospective buyers without immediately attracting attention in most of Victory City.
“Neither did I on the way in,” Tech Crash shrugged. “I think it’s either magic or someone forgot to draw them today. Anyways, is this it?”
Even looking at his ridiculous outfit, her suspicions couldn’t hope to stand against her desire to show off her genius. Celeste nodded excitedly, “Yes! This is everything you asked for, and more.”
Halfway through lifting up a miniaturized laser and the chest plate of power armor, she caught herself and quickly scanned the room.
“Where’s the money?” she narrowed her eyes, slowly turning the laser towards him.
The man huffed and went over to the wall on the opposite side from the mannequins, quickly flipping what looked like a series of light switches in a specific order. A section of the wall flipped open, revealing a small bag. Turning to face her, he quickly counted out several stacks of cash on the floor before stuffing them back into the bag and wandering back over to her.
“Grab one at random,” he offered the bag at her, and she noticed he had a deathgrip on the straps.
Celeste lowered the laser and did so, casually flipped through the block of cash. Everything seemed in order, though the bills making up the stack seemed crisper, like the ones that Terri brought home from some of her bank jobs. Well, nothing the two of them weren’t used to by now. She tossed the brick back into the sack and let him return it to the safe, a small part of her hoping that the sack wasn’t magical or anything. Well, she had the panic button just in case if they didn’t reappear when it was time to settle accounts.
“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got,” Tech Crash returned to her eagerly, looking like a kid eyeing presents on Wintershare morning.
All in all, the hour that followed actually was fairly fun. Celeste got to handle most of the demonstration of the supervillain’s new arsenal on the helpless mannequins while explaining how they worked, and there was nothing like getting to show off the toys you made to a captive audience for a mad scientist. To his credit, Tech Crash actually seemed to have a rudimentary understanding of what she was talking about even.
Reluctantly, she let him handle a few so he could try attaching them to the gauntlets he’d brought. She’d tweaked the design based on how she expected the villain’s tech to be laid out and most of them seemed to actually snugly fit for the purposes of the demonstrations, though obviously they didn’t tug too hard on the cable launchers before he could actually get them screwed in properly.
As they wrapped up testing firing a laser while wearing the jet boots, the villain nodded, “Alright, one last test. I just need to make sure all of this works with the gravitor blasts.”
She rolled her eyes but let him aim what she bet were soft projectile throwers down range at the abused former fashion showcases. He made a fist and pulled a hidden trigger mechanism. To her surprise, a noticeable distortion shot out of a concealed barrel near his wrist. The smaller-than-a-golfball sized orb almost immediately slammed into one of the targets and sent it spinning end over end before clattering to the ground a few feet away.
Before she could respond, he twitched his middle finger against another hidden trigger and the barrel glowed, and she watched as a different target was yanked forward a short distance, toppling over as it did so. Not quite as much distance as when they’d used the cables on their own, but damn if that barrel firing didn’t look like a small scale gravitor generator. As he smugly grinned down at her, she felt the need to point out the elephant in the room.
“Gravitor generators fire beams, not projectiles,"3 she shook her head as she stated the obvious that anyone who even briefly studied the field should know.
To her surprise, the villain didn’t get mad at that, more… grumpy.
“It’s not really a projectile,” Tech Crash protested. “It’s more like the point where the beam is focused.”
“It was clearly a little ball,” the mad scientist stood her ground.
He didn’t respond at first, more concerned with making sure the various attachments seemed to still be in working order after firing the device.
“...It just works different,” he muttered before speaking up. “Looks like everything holds up here.”
Celeste smiled, “Perfect, because I’ve got some more things to show you.”
Her client visibly winced, “Uh, Miss…”
Oh, right, somehow she’d forgotten to actually introduce herself. Dammit, she’d also forgotten to come up with an alias too. Shit, um…
“Celest...ial Scientist,” she felt out the name. She decided that seemed good enough. It stuck with the star theme she and T had decided on when they'd needed to come up with a professional sounding name to go on the contract with Isolated Isotope Labs.
“Right… look, I’m impressed with this so far, especially with how quickly you got it set up,” Tech Crash adjusted the cable launcher on his arm as he bit his lip.
He gestured at the hidden locker, “But that’s all I’ve got right now.”
Shit… she’d brought an entire extra rack of gadgets hoping for more. The scientist had figured “I’ve got the money, no problem” had meant that he’d have a little more in reserve.
“I see…” she let herself say.
This wasn’t the worst outcome. He still had the payment for what he’d ordered, it just meant carting back everything to the van. Through the tunnel. And then not knowing when she’d finally be able to sell it.
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“I mean, I’m planning on coming back extremely soon!” Tech Crash quickly spoke up. “I should be ready for another order within a week! Plus more soon after that!”
Celeste blinked, that was sooner than she’d expected. During the demonstration she’d gotten the impression from the way this man carried himself and the questions he’d asked that the villain clearly wasn’t new to this whole career. Despite the slightly absurd “incognito” outfit and the whole clearly still figuring out a moniker, he seemed the type to have been around for a bit, and so was the type to be a little more… cowardly wasn’t entirely the right word. Cautious? Yes, most villains that managed to stick it out long enough tended to plan jobs out in advance. Not to mention, if she remembered Terri’s stories, a lot of tech villains burned out quick. She’d actually lost a few clients over the years to arrests or just not being able to keep up with the life. Those that chased upgrades and immediately threw themselves into jobs half cocked tended to have their toys broken by heroes when things went south.
“Promises are cheap,” she protectively put an arm over the cart, hoping his desperation was just about setting up a future buy and not forcing her to use the panic button.
Wait, was that even what it did? She’d taken his word for it and the fact that Banshee had warned her against pressing it. She suddenly felt a lot less safe in this room with the extra tech in the cart and a broke villain.
“Okay, look, I’m serious,” he went on, trying to convince her, “I’ve got a plan for the next job, and I’m going to need some upgrades after that one for what I’ve got after that.”
“Alright,” she decided to see what this plan was, a part of her wondering if she needed to keep him talking while another part was figuring out if she should bother working on anything in advance, “then what’s the plan.”
He paused for a moment, clearly unsure if he should continue, before clearly feeling that he had to.
“Okay so, first thing is a simple smash and grab. What I’m buying today should be perfect for a couple of places I’ve been considering for a bit and getting out before any serious heat shows up,” he began to outline things for her. “There’s an exhibit at Reddins Museum as well as a few other scores I’ve sat on which this stuff should do the trick for. What I get from those should be enough to pack on some more tech, hopefully something you could have ready in a week.”
That sounded… promising. Plus his mention of “what he was buying today” at least assured her a little that he wasn’t planning on trying to rob her. Hopefully. She might want to bring Terri to the next one of these though, especially if she brought more than he could afford. No point in letting him get too greedy without having some muscle there along with her from now on.
Celeste risked a nod over to the cart, “I have light shields, sonic blasters, freeze rays, and if you give me some time I can finish out your power armor and add some more enhanced underweave to the whole thing.”
“That’s a good start, but I’d be looking at some anti-hero stuff too. Obviously, I’d get with you for specifics,” he told her.
Celeste froze. Anti-hero tech was typically customized for the hero in question. It was complicated and even with her incredible talents and genius, wasn’t the type of thing you could easily promise would be done in a week. Oh, and when you started to dabble with it, you tended to draw a lot more eyes on your work. Dangerous eyes. Especially if the goal was to kill off a hero.4
Tech Crash noticed her look, “This would be nonlethal stuff. Speed dampeners, psionic feedback projectors, strength sappers, etc. I need some wins that they’ll grumble about, not get me hunted for sport or worse end up as anyone’s arch.”
“That’s worse?”
He tilted his head back and forth, “Honestly, I’m probably looking at ending up on a wanted list before too long, so I think getting pigeonholed and stuck being some team’s reoccurring threat is more of a failure state.”
Obviously, Celeste was used to being around people who were wanted by the law, but there was a casualness to Tech Crash saying he’d be wanted soon enough that gave her pause. Not to mention ending up as a hero team’s archvillain being a “failure state”? Clearly this was leading somewhere and she needed to know where that was in case his schemes dragged her along with them.
“Okay,” Celeste held up her hands, “okay, I need to know what I’m getting into here. It sounds like you’re going to be coming to me for a lot of stuff and want my lab to prioritize you. I’ll even give it to you that it sounds like you’ve got a long term plan here. So I need to know what’s the end goal. You auditioning for the League?”
He snorted, “No, I’ve got no interest in working with them again. Which is why I need to work fast and not get stalled.”
Crash once again chewed over what he was about to say. Celeste was getting some odd vibes from where all this was heading, but wasn’t prepared when he finally blurted it out.
“I’m looking at taking over the world.”
She blinked and then nervously guffawed. Seeing what she could of his expression and how serious it was, she had to swallow twice before she could actually get any words out.
“Seriously?”
He nodded.
The mad scientist looked around at the frankly unimpressive room they were in, all things considered.
“That’s… incredibly ambitious,” she managed to say. She paused, “Wait! Are you trying to get me to build a death ray?!”
“Um, first, I think we just covered the non-lethal part. And-”
Interrupting, Celeste had to point out, “Death rays don’t have to be lethal.”
“Wh- Yes they do, it’s in the name!”
“That’s because Professor Death made the first one,” she explained. “Sure, if you keep someone exposed to them for a good amount of time, then yeah it’s lethal but no one ever does that. They’re an anti-hero superweapon that’s designed to sap strength from anything the ray touches. It dissipates most types of energy from the beam’s affected area.”
“I thought they were just a big beam you stuck on a satellite.”
The damage that NecrOver had done to the categorization of immoral superweapons truly would never end, Celeste thought with a huff.
“The Finale Cannon wasn’t a death ray!” Celeste protested.5
“It had a giant skull on- Whatever. Look, yes, I’m hoping you will help me with a superweapon in the future but obviously that’s at least a few steps away at the moment.”
“How many?”
Tech Crash paused and counted off on his fingers.
“First the initial score slash trial run, then we build rep with a couple hero battles, by that point hopefully get the name ironed out, then we move on to step three and do an actual plot…”
“An actual plot?”
“Probably kidnap the mayor,"6 he shrugged. “Something to solidify the brand so I can bring some minions in. That’s step four. I’m tech based so even if I’m rocking a suit like Jade Guardian or Titan, I’m probably going to need some hired help. Or robots. From there we do a couple of quick jobs before we actually bring in any superweapons. That’s roughly step six I guess. So at least five steps away.”
Celeste wanted to protest against how casually Tech Crash was making out this plan, but honestly it was sounding familiar to some villain stories she knew. Like this sounded almost textbook to some of the old rise-to-fames, like a couple who joined the League once it solidified itself or even some classic mostly solo acts like Death Siren or Volcanomaster. Sure, when you laid it out this way, this felt like it was massively underselling the difficulty but this sounded pretty doable so far. And if this idiot could stay out of jail the entire time, it would also be guaranteed work for her.
“The hard part,” he pointed out, “will be keeping all of this rolling quick enough that the League doesn’t try to step in and take over or recruit me. Thankfully, with everyone else trying to audition with Maniacal’s death, I don’t think they’ll be paying too much attention to people not actively licking their boots.”
Celeste begrudgingly nodded, “So that’s why you’re trying to act right now.”
Tech Crash took a moment before nodding. “It’s also why each of these steps needs to be pulled off quick, so having someone who can keep the projects rolling would be ideal.”
Definitely some guaranteed work, not to mention actually getting some interesting projects. Plus a superweapon to look forward to! What self respecting scientist that was spurned by the idiotic Nottam University for their draconian attendance policy wouldn’t leap at the chance to design something that would put the fear of the gods into a city as great as Victory City? She just had one last thing to make sure of.
“Alright, just got to make sure of one last thing then,” she looked up at his eyes, still covered by those stupid shades, trying to see whatever truth she could pull out of them. “Why do you want to rule the world?”
Tech Crash paused again.
“Partly, because I feel like I have to. If I remain a nobody, I’m going to get stepped on by giants,” he told her, something in his voice letting her know he was avoiding the question. “But honestly?”
His face broke out in a familiar smile that his medical mask couldn't fully cover. Despite barely seeing behind the mask, Celeste recognized it from her roommate. She’d seen it on herself sometimes in her reflection sometimes as well.
“Honestly, I’ve always wanted to take over the world. Mess with everyone for a bit and change some names around. Make the heroes embarrassed for a bit and the League jealous,” the truth dripped from his lips. “Sit in some chairs only the best get to sit in and forever get my name in the history books. I want to see how it feels to hold the world in my hands for however long I get to hold it.”
“Well alright then,” Celeste nodded, satisfied.
He was an idiot alright. One who couldn’t tell a gravitor generator from what to the best of her knowledge must be a hard rift cannon or something similar. One who would be broke as hell after this but still wanted to chase the impossible. One who risked a single slip up, a single hero in the wrong place ending all of this in disaster.
But this would be fun at the very least. And if Celeste let herself be as honest as this fool who just told her he’d always wanted to conquer the world, then she had to admit:
She always did want to build a death ray.
---------------------------------
Alex happily strolled out of the room, leaving Celestial Scientist behind to gather up the rest of the stuff she’d brought. Sure it kind of hurt to see all the other fun goodies she’d brought with her, but what he’d walked away with was fantastic!
Okay, being honest with himself, he had been this close to grovelling for a couple of those light shields and he was fairly sure he saw a portable teleport beacon on that cart that he would literally kill whoever she wanted in exchange for, but it was best not to push things with first meetings like these. Plus, he bet that she had all sorts of safeguards for most of what she’d brought.
Gods, now that he was leaving, he realized how kind of intimidating that had been as a small amount of relief hit him. The shorter mad scientist didn’t look too scary but anyone could be dangerous holding a laser and she’d brought half a dozen with her. And now those were his!
He fought the urge to actually skip of all things along the hallway. He had to watch out for the green triangles marking his path back to the hidden entrance he’d come in through after all. Still he kept sneaking a peek into the bag with all his gear in it, excited to try it out. Meanwhile he mouthed over a couple of practice monologues as “Tech Crash”.
Eh, it was better than Steelstar, but it didn’t feel like the “take over the world” kind of villain name. Of course, he couldn’t quite go with something like “Gravitor Doom” or anything too grandiose to start his new career out with. “Gravitor Doom” didn’t steal from a museum and run away before the heroes showed up or bothered to knock over an armored car. Someone with a name like that had minions do it for them.
Still, he needed something solid by at least Stage Three. You needed something intimidating to go along with a good solid plot after all. Sure, by the point he was getting some minions together he could try to change it, but you attracted better henchmen if they recognized your name and felt like you were going places. Best to test out names during Stage One and Two and try and get something finalized before you got to the big plot.
As Alex was mulling this over, he heard voices ahead around one of the corners. This part of the hallways wasn’t really supposed to be used for making deals or trades below Red Rum, but occasionally some villains would meet up down here for a quick chat when they didn’t want to be seen together.
Given that Alex valued his own privacy down here, he did what any villain would do in a situation like this, and immediately attempted to spy on whoever these voices belonged to. Hey, if they wanted to actually keep their secrets, they should’ve taken it to one of the rooms set aside for that.
He slid up to the corner and slipped his phone from his pocket. Naturally, he’d made sure it wasn’t sending out any signals like any self respecting villain would ensure before heading to a highly monitored villain meet up location, but the camera still worked.7 Angling it and ensuring the light wouldn’t go off, he got the image working and hit record.
A very familiar man in a blue hoodie was chatting with a younger villainess he recognized but couldn’t place for a moment. Vandal Eyes! That was it.
Vandal was dressed in her costume, sort of a punk rocker get up with lots of neon eyes all over it, either as patches on her jacket or printed on the tights running down her legs. Her own eyes were hidden by a ragged blindfold. Something about supes with sight powers really made them love covering their eyes. Alex wasn’t sure if it was an ironic bit of costuming or if their natural vision made it hard to use their powers.
In Vandal’s case, those powers included shooting off a bunch of neon colored eyes all over the place that she could see through like various cameras of her own, as well as the ability to blow them up in small explosions. While Alex hadn’t really worked too much with her on any jobs, she’d been recommended to him as an information broker a lot recently. She was something of a rising star in the underworld, especially for those who didn’t want to pay the League their overinflated prices. With The Broker on the run, she was probably going to see a huge upswing in clients. Hell, if she played her cards right, she might end up becoming the new Broker, though that would require her to do a lot more than just selling intel or casing a place for you.
Currently, she seemed to be in a heated discussion that seemed to be bordering on argument with the man in the hoodie. Why was he so familiar?
From his point up the tunnel, Alex was only catching fragments of the conversation. Something about following someone. Alex was pressed up against the wall and was about to lean further in when he heard a familiar set of squeaking wheels coming up the tunnel. Unfortunately, it seemed that both of them heard it too. Vandal shrugged, turned and without another word just left straight down the tunnel, not really hurrying at all. The man made to follow for a second before shaking his head and heading off only to turn a different direction when he made it to the first turn.
“You’re still here?” Celestial Scientist asked, a bit of nervousness in her voice as she came closer.
“Yeah, there were two people up ahead,” Alex pointed down the hall. “Wanted to make sure they didn’t see me.”
“While you were were spying on them?” she correctly guessed.
He smiled, “Yep.”
“Okay, so who were they?”
Alex held up his phone, putting a foot on her cart as it slipped from her hands when the scientist abandoned it to come snoop.
“One was Vandal Eyes, and the other looks familiar…” he told her. Eh, she was already going to be his partner in crime in a very literal way.
She took a moment to study the video, looking hard at it before realizing something.
“Oh shit, isn’t that Ice Hawk?”
Alex looked down at the recording and yeah, the man wasn’t wearing a chinstrap or sporting a giant pair of wings, but that was definitely Ice Hawk. He looked up to see Celestial’s worried look, and knew exactly what they were both thinking.
What the hell is a hero doing down here of all places meeting with Vandal Eyes?
Hey! Thanks for reading so far! We finally got to a chapter with a death ray mentioned, and it only took close to 40,000 words or so!
I'm especially excited because we're fast approaching a portion of the story I've been eager to write for awhile. It's hard not to give any more details than that so I'll at least leave you all with one little teaser: This is not a story where one's past is easily left behind.
1. The Red Rum Pub’s popularity by villains has actually caused it to go through waves of popularity for both villain meet ups and surveillance by heroes. After its initial popularity in the 50’s, it became too well known, often only frequented by patrons there for the food and drink and casual company, while the Pierside Diner took its place in the criminal underworld. However, several villains returned to using the Pub as a meeting location after the assumption that it was too obvious for anyone to look for them there, leading to it rising in popularity again. This cycle has repeated for quite some time, with the notorious pub remaining a popular spot regardless of its use for illicit dealmaking. Reportedly, it success has to do with the family recipes the four families of ghosts utilize in their cooking, with more than one patron being quoted as saying “even if I wasn’t plotting a heist, I’d probably go for the roast beef alone.”
2. There have been several expansions to the underground train lines of Victory City over its lifetime. This has left several abandoned access tunnels and underground pathways throughout the city. To add to the confusion, several incursions from the Mantle Men further add to the crisscrossed web of tunnels across the city. Given that these tunnels were made with expectation of superpowers in mind, these tunnels seem to have not had a noticeable impact on the stability of the city above them.
3. Gravitor generators actually don’t “fire” a beam. The distortion created by the generator between the generator and the object is an altered gravitational field, allowing for the “attraction” and “repulsion” of the object the beam touches. These devices are usually massive in scale.
4. Anti-super power technology in general is typically considered to be controlled technology, pharmaceuticals, and even arcane practices. As stated, it tends to be most effective when customized to the exact powers a super powered individual has. A speedster empowered by Momentum Power would need a different countermeasure than one wearing boots gifted by Fermeld, the God of Messagers and Heralds, or another with cheetah mutations. This is what makes incarceration of supervillains so expensive and leads to the unspoken prioritization system from Arrestors and hero guilds. Obviously, hero guilds are also extremely opposed to any research which would directly target one of their members, and typically react strongly to any news of someone attempting to develop such countermeasures. It is assumed that the same is true of the League of Domination, though curiously the organization does not seem to prioritize any actions against the Arrestors or containment cell development projects for their members provided that they don’t target the leading council.
5. Often clouding discussion of death rays, NecrOver’s Finale Cannon, despite being designed by a villain with a strong death theme who utilized death rays in the past, was simply large laser device with several focusing irises attached to a satellite that was set to destroy most of Orion City. While the first firing of the device incapacitated Mr. Wonder temporarily, a feat most commonly associated with various high powered death rays over the years, this is all the orbital superweapon shares in common with the standard design popularized by Professor Death.
6. Mayor Cinderoak has been involved in no less than fourteen separate kidnappings in his two terms. Despite this, he has managed to pass most of the legislation that he campaigned on and personally led to several well received reforms of various municipal services throughout his time in office.
7. Due to Sandine vs Orion City, a legal case involving a man proven innocent of charges brought against him due to his jogging route leading him nearby to a villain’s lair, the monitoring of personal electronics’ locations cannot be used as evidence for one’s involvement in illegal activities in areas frequented by villains and the judgment also allowed for establishments that believed they were under unlawful surveillance as part of an attempt to ensnare villains to press charges for violated privacy. The Red Rum Pub and several neighboring establishments have been represented in several lawsuits that have effectively resulted in the area being free of electronic surveillance. This hasn’t stopped some heroes who naturally possess some sensitivity to electronic signals to patrol nearby to this area.
