VT - Chapter 34 : Max Anders - Shitty person, Good Father?! (Patreon)

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Brockton Bay

–Max Anders–

When he was woken up by an incessantly persistent call in the middle of the night, he was pissed beyond measure. Already, handling the bunch of buffoons he had been saddled with, courtesy of his dear old father, had taken its toll on his psyche, even more so than usual because of that bitch that roamed the skies of Brockton Bay, undeterred and unafraid of anything or anyone living in the city below.

Trying to wrangle a bunch of idiot capes with a predisposition to violence over everything else was hard enough at any given time of the year, but to do so while trying to put some sense into their brain that no, this was not some single rogue or cape that they could target and get away with injuring or killing, was quite literally taking everything he had.

Each day, he was dragged into meetings with the capes under his command, as they tried to rile him up, beg him, or outright threaten to withdraw their support, in Krieg’s case. While he had to listen to their absolutely stupid arguments and propositions, his mind had gone to the videos that were still coming out about the way the S9 were killed like dogs, slaughtered down to the last man, leaving behind nothing but traces, and videos of just how they were killed. 

They were dealt with like an afterthought. Everything was clearly planned, and they did not waste a single resource, as they took out one of the most dangerous groups on the continent. 

So, the question remained. If Grand Chariot could deal with the S9, a group known to regularly destroy small towns on their lonesome, leaving behind thousands of bodies, then how would they deal with a gang like theirs?

He had doubts about Krieg’s boasts of Gesellschaft stepping in to deal with them if things truly went out of hand, as he had seen those suits in action. Sure, the woman has not yet demonstrated any appreciable combat ability, but she was not the one who worried him.

It was what would happen after they tried to take her, and that was assuming that they would even win. Who’s to say that they did not have backup in place, in the city itself, just waiting for some fool to get himself killed?

He could definitely see that happening, and he would much rather be amongst the living, thank you very much. Plus, while the people under his command were mostly just idiots, they were still useful idiots. It was thanks to them and his control over them that he had been able to build his fortune and maintain a position of power and respect among his community.

Sure, there had been some bumps here and there; Purity’s departure hurt particularly hard, as did the fact that she took their daughter, but overall, he had been able to do pretty well for himself. Far better than his father, or his sister, would have been able to do, that’s for sure.

Which is why when he was woken up in the middle of the night, despite instructions in place to reduce any activity during the night to as close to zero as possible, he had been ready to tear the person a new one, only to pause as it was Krieg who’d called him. A rarity, as the liaison to Gesellschaft preferred to air out his grievances in private, but not over the phone. Always in person.

Picking it up, “Yes, Krieg, what can I–”

“Max! Get up and out of the city as fast as you can!”

His eyes instantly snapped open as he sat upright, jostling Theo in the process, but his focus was not on his son, but on Krieg’s voice, which was absolutely panicked. Far more so than he had ever heard in Krieg’s voice.

“Max! Listen to me. Everyone’s identities have been leaked. It’s everywhere on the internet. I have just received confirmation from my Thinker contacts. It is Coil. It was part of a self destruct on his part. Someone killed him, and now, Cape identities of the entire E88 have been leaked online.”

His blood ran cold at the price of information, his body freezing in terror as Krieg just told him something that had been the stuff of his nightmares. If his and everyone’s identity was leaked and the Unwritten Rules were broken so thoroughly, then that meant that he was done for. That Medhall was done for. That E88 was done for as well.

The only reason he had been able to bankroll half the stuff of their gang was that he had Medhall as a functionally unlimited cash cow that could be used to generate legitimate revenue to fund all their activities. That is what gave them the money necessary to maintain all their territories without indulging in the protection fee racket that every other gang had to collect to sustain themselves.

Sure, they still collected a token amount, but there was a reason no one was unhappy about paying it. It was minuscule in comparison to the money they had to spend.

His mind ran a mile a minute as he woke Theo up. They had to get out of here. Sure, the apartment building itself was populated with sympathisers to the cause, and it had top tier security, but all of that was enough for Max Anders, not for Kaiser. He had enemies that would not hesitate one bit before bulldozing the entire building and laying waste to the entire block if it meant he could be taken out.

“Theo! Wake up. Come on, we have to leave.” He dragged Theo with him as he walked into their walk-in closet, his hand moving to that one corner, before his power interfaced with it and opened it. It was something he had installed for this eventuality. He had just never expected it to come so suddenly, and without cause.

He cursed the fucker Coil, and also the one who killed him. The question of just how Coil had their identities could be answered later on. If Krieg was so panicked, then it stood to reason that there was no feasible way to deny this as fake news and move on with their lives. There must have been other proof that forced Krieg’s hands.

He just hoped that Gesellschaft would help their organisation. If not, then the E88 were done for. Not him, though. Max Anders had been more than prepared for this eventuality, with multiple avenues of escape and travel to countries with no extradition treaties with the US always ready.

“Dad, what is happening?” Theo asked him, but he ignored the question in favour of punching the correct sequence of code, as the entire walk in closet shuddered before it began descending at a very high speed.

“We have some people who might come and attack us, Theo. Don’t worry, though; we will be safe here until we can safely leave.”

“Okay,” Theo replied quietly as he smiled at the boy before taking out his phone and skewering it with his power. He had no need for that now. 

It cost him a fortune to not just make but also maintain this bunker, but Toyboy was nothing but worth it, especially when personal security was concerned, and he had to build something that was not only easy and quick to get to, but also very hard for anyone to invade. Short of Lung himself ramping up to very high levels, even beyond the level he did when he handily defeated the entire cape roster of the PRT, nothing was going to brute force their way in here.

The moment the bunker doors closed behind him and the energy fields were active, he sighed in relief before walking to the office that had been created here, full of everything he might require in here to maintain contact with the outside world, and more.

If only he had a decade or so, he would have commissioned Toyboy to build that underground railway they had in that personal lair portfolio. Alas, it required multiple Tinkers to do their job properly without interfering with each other, and that cost far more than just building a single bunker, and as such, he had hoped that he would be able to afford that in a few more years.

Dismissing the what-ifs, he rushed to the secured terminal present here and checked the news, as well as the digital forums, as well as the internal E88 alert forum that they had built so that even their junior most member could have a line of contact with the senior most person in the organisation. It was false, of course. None of the capes bothered to even glance at this, save for maybe Krieg, but it helped rile up the masses, so he went along with it.

He slumped in his chair, Theo sitting beside him as he went page after page, filtered through the recent news, and just as he had suspected, the world all over knew who he really was, and most of them were celebrating the news. There was no point even defending this anymore. The whole reason the federal government wasn’t able to track them down, or connect the two personas, was because of their meticulous care when it came to maintaining separation, and the Unwritten Rules. Now, the government won't have a reason to hold back, or justify the way they had conducted their investigation.

He sighed, shook his head, and opened the phone and dialled the one person he cared about the most in the organisation he once led. After all, it was clear that the E88 was done for. Sure, they might still be able to go down fighting and cause a lot of damage to the city and the PRT before being arrested, but that was before they had a member of the Grand Chariot in the city.

The moment Hookwoolf tried to skewer her and failed because she was wearing an incredibly advanced suit of armour, the moment their fates were sealed. Hell, if they surrendered, they might get prison time, but Grand Chariot did not strike him like the type of people who would hold back in the face of known villains.

The phone rang as he called the secured line of comms that he had given Kayden before she’d left him with Asters, and he knew for a fact that while she might be disillusioned with the cause, she was not stupid enough to throw that away. She knew the importance of that, and what it represented in their line of work.

The phone rang a few more times before it turned off. He tried again, only for the entire phone to vibrate and heat up after a few rings, as he looked at it in confusion, eyes narrowing as he tried to find the cause of it, only to recall the features built into this tinkertech phone.

It was capable of outright negating hacks, as long as it did not come from a Tinker.

Looking all around him, he rushed back to the terminal and turned on all the surveillance footage around the building, as well as the city. He had access to most of the cameras in the city, courtesy of a well placed bribe to the Mayor for the contract, and to the company that won the contract, for the backdoor access.

The cameras quickly cycled through views, as he ignored the roots being generated by the 911 operators, as his gaze was currently glued to the silver armour floating up into his penthouse, breaking, or rather, melting the locks with ease, before stepping in.

His hold over the table tightened, as all save for one suit turned on a dime and headed straight to the walk in closet.

As fear gripped his heart, he looked at his son before sighing, and stepping out with a determined face.

He might be a villain, and a scummy one at that, but he was not going to be his father and be a shitty dad as well. Theo deserved better than him, so he was going to damn well make sure that his surrender meant something, atleast to Theo and Aster.

He and Kayden were done for, especially if the 911 reports were anything to go by. The least they could do was secure the future or at least, the safety of his children.

Hopefully, Grand Chariot was a benevolent group, instead of an utterly amoral group that just happened to delete villains every once in a while, as some of his Thinker contacts thought.