“The ex-convict lives here, huh?”
Thomas remarked as Senna and himself entered a run down residential community. This place had been a large caravan park at some point in the past before being transitioned into a the residential community it was now as housing demands increased.
Proper infrastructure hadn’t even been built, instead dumping cheap old shipping containers and retrofitting them into living spaces, the tenants further modifying them without regulation and resulting in their current appearance.
The shipping containers where stacked three stories high from what Thomas could see, some places even four high. Multiple containers were sometimes combined into larger living spaces. Run down caravans were also used, either as standalone living spaces or modified as extensions in existing ones.
Power lines cobwebbed between the various containers in a tangled mess, but everyone seemed to have no issues with electricity. The road surface was broken and destroyed, which didn’t do much for drones, but it prevented standard patrol bots or vehicles from being able to easily enter.
Entering the community that had the constant faint odor of sweat and alcohol, Senna scrunched up her nose in disgust. This was a concentrated zone of human depravity that showcased the worst people had to offer.
Thomas led the way as they approached a group of people with large stomachs and covered in tattoos who were sitting around on fold out chairs drinking beer despite it being midday.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for a Hubert Plaid.”
The group saw the duo approaching as a natural matter, but their eyes had been lasciviously glued to Senna and ignored Thomas. Once he spoke to them though, they shifted their attention while one of them spoke in a slight slur.
“Huh? You sink I’m a fucking phone vook? Who the fuck are you?”
The man leaned his posture forward in intimidation and glared menacingly while the others watching in amusement.
Thomas, not dissuaded in the slightest, displayed a photo of Hubert on his phone and asked once again, “This guy here. Have you seen them before?”
“Don’t know ‘em. Gimme some time with the girl, maybe I’ll remember.”
The others all burst out into laughter, whilst Thomas’ grin also grew.
“Senna, would you spend some time with these people? For the greater good.”
Senna snorted and stepped forward, looking down on the man like a piece of filth on her shoe.
“Hahaha, now that’s what I-”
The local didn’t get to finish his sentence before he was suddenly knocked away like a rag doll, his fat body bouncing along the ground and crashing into the side of a shipping container residence with a large drumming sound.
“Huh?” “They want a fucking fight?”
The others, not fully sober themselves, lost their cheerful grins and stood up out of their seats, tossing their beer bottles aside regardless as to whether they still had any contents remaining. One of them was even concealing an illegal gun tucked in the back of his belt.
Poltergeist, a C-rank villain, was currently in control of the residential community Thomas and Senna had entered. He didn’t control this region because he dominated it however, but because he accepted the commission to act on behalf of the villain association, Villain-E, the hidden controller of this area.
His attire was entirely black and emphasized flexibility and silence over defense. It was made from highly compacted carbon nanofibres, which could stop most bullets and had a strong impact dispersion, but had been further enchanted to have active camouflage and presence suppression.
A katana hung on his hip, but his attire hid a large number of smaller bladed weapons, mostly throwing knives. A pair of high caliber pistols were also strapped to the base of his back as a final means when concealment was no longer feasible.
Poltergeist sat in front of a range of monitors that streamed a live feed of the entire community. There were cameras one could see easily when walking through, but these were the camouflage to lower people’s guards against the secret hidden cameras that left no blind spots.
When he saw Thomas and Senna attack the first group, a bunch of F-rank villains who leeched off stronger villains as henchmen, he sneered at what he thought were a pair of newbie heroes here to bring justice to this dark crevice of society.
Poltergeist had a super power called ‘Phase Shift’, and whilst the physical enhancement was not as significant as a combat oriented power, it allowed his to shift the phase of himself into a different spectrum that was separate from the physical world. He could phase through all known physical matter and most magical energies. This power could also be extended to anything or anyone he was in physical contact with at will.
He feared physical fighters the least, and a densely packed area like this housing community only further complimented his superpower.
This changed the moment the facial recognition AI identified them and a giant number of warning signs appeared on the screens.
“What?!! Hazard V, Hazard VI, are you fucking messing with me right now?!”
Poltergeist almost had a heart attack and acted immediately. He wasn’t some naive E or F-rank villain that would try to win with numbers. Against such a threat, one had to be much more careful. He pulled out his phone and accessed the private Villain-E line and immediately spoke.
“This is Poltergeist, I am requesting backup on standby to deal with the threat that has appeared in Residential Community #4522.”
Immediately afterwards, the synthetic female voice of the Villain-E AI, Mordred, responded.
“…Voice pattern recognized, welcome Poltergeist… Tracking location… Assessing threat… Assessment complete. Threat cannot be eliminated. Containment or escape is recommended. Please choose with the suppress the threat or escape.”
Poltergeist feared the cost to even suppress a monster of that Hazard Class, something that would normally take a team of A Rank and B Rank heroes.
“Escape.”
“Accepted. Request issued as A Rank. Offers will be sent to your mobile. Thank you.”
The call was ended abruptly, but this was expected. Poltergeist opened up the secret Villain-E application on his phone and watched as three offers came in.
‘Only two? A Rank requests are really different,’ Poltergeist sighed to himself as a C Rank or D Rank request could have over a hundred offers in response. ‘2.3 million credits…… 1500 contribution points, just to help me escape?! Crazy!!’
Contribution points were something awarded by the organization from completing their commissions and could be used to redeem services or products that couldn’t be bought with money. For comparison, the commission he accepted to overseer this community had a reward of 4 contribution points per week.
He rapidly sent out warning commands to the other villains to hide or not show any hostility before changing into a more subtle attire and departed from his hidden location.
Thomas noticed that the streets were becoming more and more empty as a sense of unease seemed to settle over the area. It was clear that there was a distinct group of people who were avoiding them, while the other residents smelt trouble and also tried steer clear of them.
“Hey now, don’t run away~” Thomas caught someone by the collar before wrapping his arm around his neck as if they were long time friends.
“P-please, I don’t want any trouble.”
“What trouble would you be in? We are just looking for someone. Have you seen this person?”
“Eh, n-no, I haven’t”
“That doesn’t seem like a confident answer. I’m sure you have~”
Senna sighed at this and stated, “Give it up, he’s just afraid.”
Thomas released the man and shrugged with an ‘I’m innocent’ happy-go-lucky expression on his face.
Just as they were continuing a seemingly hopeless search, they ran into another man who finally gave them the answer they were looking for.
“Oh, this is Hubert Plaid? He looks different now, but yes, I know him.”
“Great! Can you tell us where he lives?”
The man ran his fingers through his mid length hair and took on a cautious tone.
“Why are you looking for him?”
“We just want to have a chat about his past.”
“His past?”
Senna was annoyed by Thomas speaking in round about tones and directly interjected, “We are private investigators following up on the case of a missing girl. She was one of his students at the time.”
“Do you think he had something to do with it?”
“He went to prison for the rape of multiple girls a couple years after.”
“So?”
Senna released a faint murderous intent, her gaze piercing directly into the eyes of the man, but he seemed less perturbed than one would have expected. He flinched, but the lack of terror revealed he was far from simple.
“How about you tell us who you are?” Thomas grinned and asked, also picking up on this unexpected reaction.
“I am a security officer in this community. My role is to stop fights and subsequent destruction.”
“You are oddly comfortable with criminals though. Perhaps… you are a registered villain?”
The man who the duo had ‘coincidentally’ run into was Poltergeist. He felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as his danger sense started ringing alarms, nearly instinctively activating his phase shift and escaping from the two.
“This community is filled with ex-convicts, the poor, addicts, or those who are just outcasts. We don’t discriminate here.”
“Fine, fine~ so, will you show us where our dear Hubert lives~”
“Follow me, but you are not to start any conflicts or cause destruction. You will be expected to pay for any medical bills or damages you cause.”
Thomas and Senna followed Poltergeist’s lead as they snaked through the community, eventually reaching a home constructed from two shipping containers on a second floor.
“This is where it is, I will take my leave.”
Poltergeist quickly retreated from the area. He hadn’t accepted either of the offers for escape from either A Rank supervillains, or teams with an A rating, the only ones who would be able to see a request of that rank.
If the community faced destruction and he failed his commission, the penalty of that was still something he could work off, but he prayed that by giving the duo what they wanted while keeping the henchmen away would be enough that the situation doesn’t escalate.
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