She found that pretty quickly with a sear her phone. Jonathan Adders was the president of the family-owarhaus Furniture brand, high end and very prestigious furniture for the elite. It made sense why Nick was here, siarhaus’ headquarters was in town. She set her phone down and g him but he was so focused oing where they o go that he paid her little mind. She looked down at her hand, he’d shaken it without a sed thought and had given her yet another product for her warehouse shelf.
The real question now was how to make use of her products.
She experimentally drew on Heroic Strength a it surge momentarily through her muscles. She tried drawing on Light Step at the same time but didn’t feel anything.
So I only use o a time. Fair. Maybe that’ll improve over time. Other powers seemed to grow, though I never was able to figure out how to improve on my eyes more than a little in the past.
She put away Heroic Strength and tried on Light Step. She tried tapping her foot oerior of the car and found that it didn’t make a sound. It was a low-grade stealth ability, then. Something in the same realm as her eyes.
Still, it’s useful.
“Here we are,” Nick said, drawing her out of her thoughts as she looked up at the office building and headquarters of Starhaus Furniture.
“Your father’s here?” She asked, incredulous.
“We have a private medical facility set up for him,” Nick said and got out of the car, hurrying around to open the door for her. She made a face but let him do it, o be rude. She got out of the car and followed him inside, passing a security checkpoint quickly with Nick’s insistence. Soon they were on aor and he was looking nervous.
“I ’t make promises,” Sonya said when he looked her way, “I’m sorry, but all this just happened a day ago, I know you’re excited but you should temper your expectations a little. Who knows what my limits are?”
He defted a little but nodded, “R-right.”
The doors opened and they soon arrived at an innocuous looking door. The only thing secure about it was the pair of cameras above it. She gnced down the hall and spotted a door positioned so that if anyone unwele otted on the cameras, the guards could be there in a heartbeat without drawing attention to the room itself. Security used intelligently rather than with brute force, she liked this Jonathan guy’s style.
They entered what looked very much like a private hospital room, the entire space was meticulously and every surface shone a little bit with careful polishing, the sunlight outside refleg ohe lights were out above, giving the room a fortable glow. Ahead of them she could see the shape of feet underh a quilt and sheets at the end of a hospital bed. It was otherwise cealed by a curtain pulled around one side. Nick hurried around the curtain and she could hear him talking to someone in a low voice. She heard a deep, barking ugh and then Nick came back around looking worried.
“He’s willing to try anything,” Nick said, tugging at his colr, “But he’s not happy.”
Sonya looked him in the eyes and then g the door, she would really rather not demonstrate her abilities again in front of him even if he had seen them before. Especially sihis portunity to test out another Broker ability. That’s what she figured she’d call it. She gestured to the door, “Let me talk to him privately, Nick,” Sonya said, “I’m sure he doesn’t want to make a deal about his health in front of you.”
Nick blinked, his eyes lighting up a little, he nodded with all the e he could muster and walked to the door. Sonya watched him go and shook her head, he’d left a powered person aloh someone he cared about. Iure, that was suicide. Now, though, in this early time, no one knew aer. Sonya let out a wistful sigh and walked around the curtain, stopping at the foot of the bed to look the old man in the eyes. He stared baflingly.
“You’re a bit creepy,” The old man grunted. He looked to be in his mid seventies, his body emaciated and worn down by his dition. Numerous maes were attached to him and his white hair was thinning on his head. Even so, his eyes were like steel.
She smiled, “So I’ve been told,” She said, walking around to stao him, “o meet you Mister Adders.”
“Jonathan is fine, you’re some kind of healer, right? I saw the news about you weird folk showing up yesterday, my son showed me his fire. Damn near gave me another heart attack,” He grunted, gripping his quilt. His eyes were firm, but there was fear there. Sonya’d seen it enough iure to know it immediately.
“I’m not here doing this for free,” Sonya said ftly, “Your son practically stalked me to ask me for help.”
Jonathan grunted out a ugh, “Of course he did, what do you want?”
“He’s not listening, so what are you willing to give? Payment on my success, of course,” Sonya offered, she wasn’t sure if she had to be holding the guy's hand to broker the deal, but her instincts said no. They just had to shake after agreeing.
“I’ve spent almost a million dolrs on finding a solution,” He groused, “I’ll pay you the same.”
A million dolrs, just like that, she forced her faairal and ined her head. “That makes sense, however if this works, it’ll be fairly instant.”
He narrowed his eyes and smirked, “Two Million, I like you.”
Soended her hand, “It’s a deal,” She said smoothly and he reached out to csp hands with hers. In an instant she felt the e with him and the tent potential hidden ihe ability that didn’t awaken with Pandora’s Light, the ability that would be locked forever unless she gave it to him. Appraise.
She had to force her faain even as she reeled from that acquisition. The Gift of Youth? She could give someone youth? She swallowed and turned her attention to the broker option, but found additional text.
Broker Deal, she thought and words began to appear.
So if I have the produ stock, I don’t even have to actually draw on it, I just use it as part of the Brokered Deal. She thought, restraining the smile creeping on her face. With this she would have money, more than enough to be fortable. But that wasn’t enough for her, not by a long shot. No. She o fix this rotten world and make sure that the absurdities that had happehe st go around never e to pass. With this, I do it with this.
Proceed.
Her phone chimed in her pocket just as green light began to fill the room. It bzed brightly for a moment before fading. The old ma out a ragged, coughing breath before taking another, his body stiffening and his eyes opening wide in wonder.
“I breathe,” He gasped and with some effort sat up, “I move! Even my jaw…” He trailed off and looked at Sonya with wide eyes, “You-”
“Just as was agreed, Mister Adders, nothing more, nothing less,” She tried to sound as fident as possible, even as her heart raced. It really works! It’s incredible! Now take the bait!
He visibly rexed, “Nothing more?” His eyes narrowed. “What more could there be?”
This time she couldn’t restrain her grin any longer, she held out her hand to him.
“Another deal, then?”
–
Sonya examined her phohoughtfully as Jonathan stretched o her, he bent over a few times, toug his toes and ched his fists, marveling at himself in the refle in the window. It looks like the deal not only worked, but somehow it automatically took the money from the Adders and deposited it into my at. What ’t the Broker power do? She gnced his way auro face her with a brilliant smile. Gone was the withered husk of a man that had been nguishing in his bed. Instead, there stood a youthful man in his te thirties, dark brown hair and a smooth plexion. He looked very much like his son.
“You could have charged more,” He said with wonder. “There are people who would pay billions for this.”
“I could have,” Sonya agreed, still drunk on the moment, “But I’d ried it before. sider it a guinea pig dist.”
He barked out a ugh, “Reasooo! You wouldn’t happen to have a Mister ovna, would you? My son’s avaible!”
Sonya raised her eyebrows and ughed, “I’m afraid he’s not my type,” She admitted with an apologetic wave of her hands, “Thank you though.”
His expression rexed and then grew serious, “I assume you wao keep the nature of what happened here a secret? It’s why you had my son leave.”
Sonya gnced out the window, catg the glow of her eyes in the refle, “I pn to keep a low profile for a while, build a small tele, I think,” Sonya said, “I’m not sure how far I push my gift, if I could make someone even younger. It’s only been a day since all this happened and already I’m making money off of it. I have a feeling bad things are ing for all of us, and I want to be prepared.”
“The monsters I heard about?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes,” Sonya said.
“If anything happens, my family call on you again?” He asked.
Sonya sidered it and then ined her head. Let's try something out, she thought aended her hand. “I will provide my healing to the Adders family in exge for your silen the matter of my abilities and identity, Mister Adders.”
He took her hand.
Proceed.
There was a sudden buzz of energy betweewo of them and then, nothing. Even so she could feel that the deal had been struck. If at any time Jonathan called oo heal his family, she would be required to uphold her end of the bargain. She wasn’t sure what the sequences would be, but she knew how it would affect him. He would choke on his words, just like she would choke on her lies. She would have to offer a simir deal to Nick too, just to make sure her bases were covered.
The now young Jonathan Adders looked down at his hand and marveled, he looked up at her as realization dawned in his eyes. She smiled at him and winked, “Till ime, Mister Adders. Hopefully iure I will have more services to provide you.”
She stepped out of the room with a heavy sigh after that, she was exhausted, using her abilities like that had been more draining than she had anticipated and she o sleep something fierce. The memory of her destroyed apartment loomed up in her head and she groaned, she was going to have to crash at a hotel.
“Is he okay?” Nick burst out, jumping to his feet from a chair in the hall outside, startling her.
She rounded on him, wide eyed for a moment, before letting out a sigh, “He needs a few moments, but it was a success,” She said, pg a hand on his shoulder, “Wait until I leave, if you don’t mind.”
He looked at her incredulously but nodded, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t tha,” Sonya said and held out her hand, “We o talk.”
–
Nick watched her go, looking down at his hand, the door to the elevator opening and closing with her departure. He could still feel that straingliion. It was eerie. What had she done just now, to him? She’d told him that she o make a deal with him ing her identity and powers, that he couldn’t speak a word about her to anyone. He’d readily agreed and then there through his entire body, he felt a tightness around his throat that faded almost as soon as it had e. Was her power really just healing?
He shook his head and hurried to the door, throwing it open and almost falling on his face as he saw his father. He looked like he’d jumped out of an old family photo.
“Dad?” Nick breathed.
“Nichos,” Jonathan Adders said firmly, “We must never, ever, cross that woman.”