Amos rubbed his neck, it was starting to ache. He had been w for almost sixteen hours now and the headset he used to experience his virtual boratory had never felt heavier. He pulled it off with a groan and gnced around the b. Three of the b assistants and Da-Som were still there with him, but they were sound asleep. Da-Som snoozing with his head slung back over the back of his chair and the other three crowded around one a one of the tables, their heads resting on the hard surface.

  His lip twitched, a small smile dang across his face. He looked around the stark-white room, Sonya’s preferred ultrafuturistic style, and at the b equipment around him. It was hard to believe, it really was, just how far he’d e in such a short amount of time. He knew his Genius-Level Intellect ability had pyed a signifit role, Teopathy helping as well, of course. But if it hadn’t been for that scary and crazy dy he’d bumped into oreets of New York, he wouldn’t be here.

  He’d probably still be running cell phones for Shark’s crew, still refurbishing them and spoofing their serial o work on a prepaid work. He’d be w out of that godawful shop, still living in the shadow of the aplishments that he’d never be able to reach for. Still w when the day would e that he could seize his future. Still suffering. The smile on his face grew soft as he looked down at his desk and ran his fingers over the keyboard.

  Now I’m w on saving the world, and making some pretty damn good money doing it.

  He chuckled a little and g a small envelope on his desk. It had a top-secret bel on it and the word ‘Sample’ stamped right beh the bel. He touched it and then gnced up at the others, “Oi!” He shouted, filling the small room with his voice. The others jerked awake and turned bleary eyes towards him. He put his hands on his hips and squi the four of them, “The hell are you still doing here? Go home!” He waved his hands at them, “Day off tomorrow for the lot of you, no excuses. I’ll put in your PTO.”

  They looked at one ahere was a bit of relu their faces. He knew how they felt. Every day they were making strides and breakthroughs. ASTA wasn’t just w on munitions and ways to support heroes. It retty closely guarded secret, but Sonya wahe pany to cover a huge number of industries with pandora-based tech as the foundation. They were w on new kinds of cellphones for public use, they were w on monster-core based medie, extiles for the Lucci subsidiary. Appliances, unications, the list went on as far as Sonya’s ambitio.

  Every day was a learning experience, but they needed rest if they were going to keep their momentum up. He could go without sleep lohan most people, his stronger mind had inured him to the strain. But his body still felt it after a while. He tilted his head up in challenge, his own tired faaking a very powerful visage, but he was the boss, so he didn’t care. “Or I could put you all on a weeks leave? How does a vacation sound?” He barked.

  The four of them visibly flinched and quickly began gathering their things. He sat back down in a huff as the three aides hurried out first. Da-Som was the only one remaining. He gave Amos a serious look, “You should get some rest too.”

  Amos waved a hand, “Just looking something over then I’m going home,” He said dismissively. It was te anyway and he didn’t want to walk into the hat usually came out of Sonya’s room around this time. His lips thi the thought and he huffed out another breath, “Go o,” He anded.

  Da-Som sighed and nodded, “Alright, as long as you promise.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I promise,” He said and snatched up the envelope as Da-Som made his way out with a polite goodnight. He ope and pulled out the thick sheet of paper inside. He looked over the stiote that was attached to it, written in Sonya’s looping handwriting. ‘A sample for your analysis. Extension of Broker’. He thought as he read and froze. He blinked and looked down at the dot.

  “Seriously?” He breathed and began to read. It was fairly short and to the point. It was a tract to exge wealth for lifespan. Just like she’d done ba floreh a shake of her hand. This time though, it was tained in this little piece of paper? That’s crazy. He thought, bewildered. I knew she was trying to do this but she’d been failing at it stantly. What ged? He thought as he looked at the signatures at the bottom. There were three spots. One for the tractor. One for Ishtar, made sehat she’d sign it as Ishtar rather than as Sonya. Finally there was oh a name he didn’t reize. Mephisto?

  “Oh yeah…” He murmured, “Didn’t she hire a wyer or something? That was what the florida trip was about, right?”

  He rubbed his , Did it o be notarized or something? He ughed out loud, It’s pretty funny how literal her power is. Maybe I should ask her to be more careful with it, that thing seems to be a little more dangerous thahinks it is. He sighed and put the dot ba the envelope, opening the lht drawer on his desk and then opening a locked hidden partment at the rear of it. There were no handles, keyholes, or keypads. Only someoh teopathy could get in, and only if they knew his eighty-six digit long password.

  He slipped the dot inside along with a few other top secret items before shutting it. “I’ll look at it ter, I’m sure she wants me to see if I figure out exactly what’s going on in the paper now that it’s been ged into a part of her power,” He murmured and pushed himself to his feet, straightening his bcoat and snatg up his messenger bag. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, he was feeling tired again. “That woman is a svedriver sometimes…”

  He ambled out of the b, turning the er and walking towards the elevator. It opened with a thought aepped ihe doors closing behind him. He mentally instructed it to head straight fround level and leaned against the wall, yawning again. “Mm… coffee…” He grumbled.

  That was when he felt the orders for the elevator ge. Someone had called it to the administrative level. Sonya? No, she’s home. Who else is here? He frowned aally checked the in-out logs for the building’s security badges. Besides the security team themselves, there was only oher person on the premises. Matthews. The newly anointed Supervilin, Mephisto. The devil’s advocate himself. He s the overly dramatic choice Sonya had made for her new subordiitle. Welp, Might as well meet this guy.

  With a thought he celed the elevator's and to go down to ground level and it slowed before ging dire, heading up the several floors towards the Administrative level. To be ho, Amos wasn’t expeg much from this guy. Lawyers werely oop of his list of people that he liked. He’d been screwed over by his own defeorney on more than one occasion and it had left a pretty bad taste in his mouth.

  He frowhe memory of standing in a courtroom as his defeorney quite literally talked Amos onto the streets was enough to set his teeth on edge. He sidered just sg the new guy out with the cameras and ging the dire of the elevatain. He sidered shutting the elevator down all together. He sniffed a out a sigh, Sonya wouldn’t appreciate that. He thought, and rubbed his neck, I gotta at least give this guy a ce at least, right? Sonya picked him for a reason and Marta’s good people. He ’t be all bad. He said and then immediately corrected himself, She also recruited Kingshark and Bckrazor as vilins.

  The thought of meeting another Kingshark or Bckrazor in a fined space gave him a little pause, but at this point there wasn’t really any time to rethink his choices. He let out a sigh and crossed his arms as the elevator arrived at the administrative floor. A faint chime annou’s arrival. He took a deep breath and tried to look as tough as possible, it wasn’t easy with the bags under his eyes, but he wasn’t about to let himself make a bad first impression with a guy who went by ‘Mephisto’. A demon.

  That was when the doors opened, and he saw him.

  Amos’ mouth fell open.

  “Oh.”