28 Incredible Dealings

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Betad by morde24, Atrius, Hermes, Priapus, Marethyu, Old Man of the Mountain, TheDonFluffles, Malcolm Tent, Mike, God of Lore and Beans

The Guild of Gamers: The Supervillain

Chapter 23.5: Incredible Dealings

– Jin Yukimura (Prophet at the moment) –

The PRT is undeniably desperate for my upgrades, but at their core, they are still a governmental organisation, and as such they are laughably slow to get anything done. It's no real surprise that they're still working on how they want to approach me and more importantly, what they're willing to offer me in exchange for my services.

They don't want to pay any more than they strictly need to, but nobody has ever needed to put a price on power upgrades before, so they just don't know where to start.

I've been watching these debates in real time, amused that I was in a position to watch them try and build up their negotiation strategy against me, which naturally will give me an advantage against them when the time comes.

This is why it actually caught me off guard when I received a request for a meeting from a PRT hero, long before the PRT themselves were ready to officially approach me.

Elastigirl is a new arrival to Brockton Bay, along with her family. It didn't take much research to learn how the PRT managed to sweep the Incredibles into their organisation.

Much like New Wave, the Incredibles have public identities, and much like Carol they found that heroism doesn't pay that well, aside from sponsorships, which are unreliable thanks to the endless rise and fall of public opinion. A single loss could see years of victories forgotten and sponsorships fading.

Bob Parr (Mr Incredible) was working as an insurance broker of all things, but after his boss refused to let him leave and threatened to fire him if he left work early to stop a villain attack literally one street over, Bob lost his temper and punched his very squishy boss through a wall.

He survived, barely, but Bob found himself tied up in legal troubles and debt for his momentary lapse in control. Naturally, the PRT swooped in and helped them clear up their unfortunate troubles in exchange for the Incredibles joining up while also making it clear that Bob was facing prison time for attacking and almost killing a civilian, prison time which would go away if they signed up.

The PRT is desperate for every Cape they can grab because they are laughably outnumbered by the villains and rogues, even if they count the independent heroes as being on their side. That's what happens when people get superpowers through super-trauma. They're so desperate they'll happily use dirty tactics to forcibly recruit independent heroes, rogues and captured villains, and they do so shamelessly.

Helen Parr is under the PRT's control now, so why exactly does she want to meet with me? Her message even said she wanted to discuss potential power upgrades for her family and has the PRT's permission to negotiate independently.

Ah, that's their game. Helen genuinely wants power upgrades, but the PRT is using her as a sacrifice. They can test her to make sure my upgrades have no side-effects and they can judge the price I ask for to help them work out what it is going to cost them. They get upgraded capes without ever needing to pay for the upgrades themselves and the government does so love saving money.

So they offer up Elastigirl as a willing sacrifice, all while she thinks it's her idea? Honestly, they should consider villainy, they're rather well suited for it, but then, I suppose they already have.

– Helen Parr (Elastigirl) –

Prophet's base of operation was well known, as he barely tried to hide it. She arrived at the Grecian-themed nightclub, giving an appreciative look to the tasteful decor and bustling dance floor. It'd been a while since her clubbing days, but she couldn't deny this was a nice establishment that Prophet had set up.

She didn't get to admire the surroundings for long as one of the bouncers guided her into the back and upstairs, where the man she was here to see waited for her. She was honestly surprised that Prophet was willing to make time to meet with her so quickly, considering how popular he clearly was.

She did briefly wonder about the name as she walked towards his office. The Den of Dionysus, Dionysus being the god who 'gifted' King Midas his power (and his curse). Was it some inside joke between the now estranged brothers, with Prophet claiming to have been responsible for Midas' success?

She didn't know, but then she also couldn't imagine having a villainous sibling. The current PRT theory was that Prophet and Midas were a cluster trigger with all the mess that came with it. Prophet followed his brother here much like how March followed poor Flechette around back in New York.

Entering the office, she paused as she realised he wasn't in his usual cape outfit, the full bodysuit missing as he looked out of the window wearing a fancy suit and a black and silver masquerade mask that failed to cover his lower face. In truth, it reminded her heavily of his brother's outfit, only lacking the golden accents and the mask being more Greek-inspired. Again, an odd choice, but she didn't really understand the relationship between Midas and Prophet.

"The bodysuit is useful, but in truth, I find it far too cumbersome for my day-to-day business," Prophet answered, her question unspoken as he turned to her with a slight smile on his lips. "Also, I can't drink with the full-face mask, and given that my identical twin is running around with most of his face exposed, it wasn't exactly protecting my identity," he continued with a sigh, making her nod in realisation.

Yeah, as little as his new mask covered, it didn't actually give her anything else to work on as she gave him a smile.

"Ah, I hadn't considered that. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, and so quickly at that." Helen replied, taking the seat he gestured to.

He wasn't at his desk, instead standing by the window next to a couch and a comfy chair, gesturing for her to sit on the couch as he took the chair.

"I believe in promptness, and I can't deny I'm a fan of your work. I was surprised to hear that your family had joined the PRT, you've been one of the poster groups for Independent heroes for a long time after all," Prophet explained, making her internally frown slightly even as she smiled at his compliment. "Would you care for a drink?"

"Ah, that would be lovely, thank you. And yes, it wasn't exactly how I saw my life going," Helen admitted, watching him pour her a glass of wine even as she rolled her eyes. Was it a Thinker thing that they were incapable of not showing off?

The wine bottle, turned so she could easily read the label, was her favourite, a very expensive vintage she had only ever tried twice at high-class events. It was hard to get a hold of because the vineyard was destroyed in an Endbringer attack, making it a limited resource.

She didn't comment on it, simply thanking him for the drink she knew had a four-digit price tag at a minimum. Every Thinker she'd ever met had the same urge to show off how much they knew.

"Now, I was mildly surprised to receive your message. I know the PRT are still in the process of working out how exactly they want to approach me for the upgrades they want, and you don't seem like an impatient person, so I have to wonder why you didn't just wait for that deal to be set up?" Prophet asked, taking a sip of his own glass.

"A thinker admitting they don't know everything? Will wonders never cease?" Helen teased, making him chuckle.

"I don't know everything, not yet at least, and in truth, a lot of my research has been focused on the more villainous side of things, so why have you decided to sidestep the bureaucracy and approach me directly?" Prophet asked, making her pause as she took another small sip to gather her thoughts.

"Because I'm not naive enough to think me, or more importantly my family, are on the list of capes the PRT will want upgraded. They've sent out a message to every cape in the PRT to see who wants to be put on the list for potential upgrades when a deal is struck with you, but while I put myself and my family on that list, it could be a very long time until they get around to us, given that they still haven't even approached you," Helen explained.

"Ah, you think they won't put you on the list because you argued so much during their… hmm, let's call it 'recruitment' of your family?" Prophet asked, making her freeze before she laughed and nodded.

"You're not wrong, I like being a hero, but I certainly didn't appreciate their heavy-handed recruitment methods," Helen admitted. If it was just Bob they had forced into their organisation she'd be less annoyed, given that it was his lapse in judgement that put them in this position, but the fact that they'd wanted the kids as well drove her mad and she made her displeasure known to the PRT back in New York. "I'll be blunt, my son and husband are both reckless and enjoy this life far too much. I want them safe, and if I can't keep them out of fights, the least I can do is make sure they are as well equipped for any dangers as possible, so I was hoping for a similar deal to what you have with New Wave."

"You want out of the PRT," Prophet said, his eyebrow raising as her eyes widened. "You want me to use my influence to get your family out of the deal you made with the PRT to avoid Bob's incarceration."

She paused for a second, taking another drink before she smiled.

"I had hoped to work my way up to that, but yes. To be more clear, I want Dash and Violet out of the PRT. The deal for them to join the Wards didn't mention that they'd be transferred to the one city where Wards are frequently drawn into cape fights," Helen admitted, hand tightening around her glass.

"I take it this is about Incredi-boy's recent fight with the ABB?" Prophet asked, making her chuckle despite the serious subject matter, unsurprised he'd seen through her so easily.

"Dash could have died. We've been in this city for a week and Dash has been shot in the leg by an ABB member. He almost bled out and the other Wards weren't even shocked that one of them had gotten so badly hurt. Sure, Dash was reckless, but in any other city a Ward being hurt would have been horrifying. Here it's not even noteworthy," Helen explained. She'd heard about how bad Brockton Bay was compared to the rest of the country, but she'd never realised just how much people undersold it. "Rumour has it you're planning to start your own heroic counter to your brother's League of Villains, and yes, I was hoping to eventually work up to getting your help transferring from the PRT to whatever organisation you form. I imagine New Wave will be a part of it."

"You aren't wrong, I do still plan to make an organisation for Independent heroes and rogues, an alternative to being absorbed by the ever-hungry beast that is the PRT, though I'm still working on getting all the pieces into place, and having the Incredibles would certainly help build its reputation," Prophet admitted, rubbing his chin. "Naturally, if you joined my still unnamed group, keeping the younger capes out of serious fights would be a priority, Dash is only eleven isn't he?"

"He is, and he's already fighting other capes. Bob loves the Cape life, and Dash takes after his father. He's already talking about joining Endbringer attacks as search and rescue, the PRT thinks he'd be able to retrieve downed capes at superspeed with minimal danger to himself," Helen ranted, letting out some of her bottled up emotions. "So while I very much want your upgrades to make them as safe as possible, you're right. What I want most is to get my children out of the hands of the PRT," Helen admitted.

Once they were out, she'd have much more control over where Dash could go and not have to worry about the PRT using Violet to scout gang territory or sending Dash against a fucking Endbringer because they thought it had 'acceptable' risks. She was half-convinced this city had been spoiled by Panacea, because what would have been life-altering injuries anywhere else just got reduced to 'we'll get Panacea to fix it'. Anything short of brain damage or death could be fixed in a few minutes. Maybe her recent vacation would get people to realise the risks, but she doubted it.

The worst part was that Bob encouraged Dash, thrilled to have two heroic children. The first time Dash picked a fight with a villain, Bob had cheered him on, even though Dash could have died. Sure, it was a minor villain back in NYC, but it was her son, who wasn't even in the double-digits at the time, getting into a cape fight.

"But to do so, you'd need to get out of the frankly restrictive contract you were strong-armed into, and as such you need my help," Prophet continued. "I can certainly see your concerns."

Standing up, he walked over to his office desk and pulled out a small folder, returning to his seat as he briefly flicked through it.

"The PRT is never eager to let go of any power they manage to sink their teeth into- it's why I decided to go independent in the first place. You do realise they only permitted you to approach me so they could test you afterwards and make sure that my power doesn't have any side effects? The fear that I'm a second coming of Teacher is a large part of their reticence," Prophet asked, making her nod.

She wasn't naive enough to not realise she was being used as a test dummy.

Prophet went quiet for a moment, skimming through the folder before he closed it and put it on the table between the chair and couch, gesturing to it. Taking the hint, she opened it up and started to read as her eyes widened.

She didn't understand what she was reading at first, financial transitions and some messages that were mostly in code, but as she moved to the next page she felt anger start to burn in her chest.

Prophet had written down his own findings, explaining exactly what she was looking at.

Bob's old boss was taking payments from the local villains to keep Bob busy, timing his shifts to prevent Mr Incredible from showing up at crime scenes. There was even proof that Bob hadn't hurt the little bastard that badly, a villain had arranged for the man to be much more badly hurt while making it look like it was from Bob's punch after he was taken to the hospital, in exchange for a literal fortune. Bob had hurt him, some broken ribs mostly, but most of the damage came later.

"I started looking into this when you messaged me, I like having all the information I need for conversations like this," Prophet explained, making her blink. She had messaged him yesterday evening, less than 24 hours ago.

"This-"

"Unfortunately doesn't help you get out of your contract with the PRT, from what I've gathered it is rather… ironclad, but I have a plan for that," Prophet cut in, making her pause before she thought about it and sighed. He was right, the contract wasn't easily broken without a mountain of repercussions, even if the mess that started this wasn't as clear cut as she'd originally thought. "Needless to say, I am interested in adding your family to my future faction, and I do believe I can arrange for the PRT to let you go, but not just yet. I need you to go back to the PRT with an upgrade so they can test it after all, and I can use this. Have you considered what you're going to tell them? I imagine you aren't going to be eager to inform them that you're trying to wiggle your way out of their hands."

"No, I won't be telling them that. They didn't mind using dirty tactics to get my family under their control, so I see nothing wrong with returning the favour," Helen said bluntly, making him chuckle in agreement. "So what do you plan to do?"

"Firstly, I'm going to leak the truth of what actually happened and do a little more digging into that mess. I still believe I'm missing something, to be perfectly honest. As for the upgrades, you can tell them that I upgraded you for free 'so they could test it' because while that will help soothe their worries, it'll also give them no idea how much upgrades are actually worth," Prophet explained, lips twitching in amusement.

She couldn't tell if he was doing this as part of some scheme or if he just wanted to make things more complicated for the PRT, either way, she didn't exactly disapprove as he placed his hand on hers, something inside her body tingling.

"Quite the impressive power, Mrs Parr. The most obvious upgrade I can think of is to remove your weakness to extreme temperatures, though you also have shapeshifting and size alteration available as potential upgrades. I will say, the weakness removal seems like it will have the shortest 'cooldown' and I intend to be very generous with my upgrades with members of the group I really need to think of a name for," Prophet explained, making her pause for a moment.

Her weaknesses were rather well-known due to the sheer amount of time she'd been a hero, so while being able to shapeshift or alter her size sounded nice, she agreed with him on which upgrade was the best.

"Remove my weakness, please," Helen decided, shuddering with pleasure as he did his magic with her power, altering it.

"Done, I'd recommend testing it but I believe the limits of how cold or hot you can be before it becomes an issue for your power have been massively increased. This isn't an exact science I'm afraid, and to be frank I'm still learning exactly how this particular power works."

"And you can't waste time when your brother is out there upgrading the villains he has at his disposal, not when the League are already frankly running circles around us," Helen agreed, smiling.

"That's the issue with being on the side of angels, you're almost always on the defensive, stuck reacting to the actions of the bad guys. No time to rest because Midas certainly doesn't. He always was a try-hard," Prophet muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Do you mind if I ask you something personal?" Helen asked, making him raise an eyebrow, gesturing to go on. "What is it like fighting your own brother like this?"

"Hm, honestly the answer is probably dumber than you think because this feels entirely too much like when we used to compete over… basically anything when we were younger. As much of a pain he is being, I can't really see him as a true enemy, just a rival," Prophet admitted. "In truth, I hope to beat him well enough to get him to switch sides and join me in the more light-grey area than the dark-grey he enjoys. I'm not a paragon of good after all, and he's on the more benevolent side of villainy. He's too intelligent to have him wasting away in prison, not to mention he'd definitely either escape or take over, and I genuinely think we could do wonders together. Unfortunately, we are both very prideful people, and we both want to prove we're smarter than the other."

"So this is like a game to you?" Helen asked, mildly amused despite herself. If she ever needed more proof that they were brothers, she'd just gotten it.

"A very serious one, perhaps. It's funny, I'm fairly certain that if I'd gone villain, he'd be the one sitting here playing the hero to counter me. We've always been like this, this is just on a much grander scale," Prophet admitted with a self-deprecating laugh.

She wondered if that meant the same for him, if Midas had become a hero, would Prophet have become a villain just to try and beat him? She couldn't deny his words though, Midas' villainy was much less blatantly evil than the likes of Kaiser and Lung.

"Anyway, for now, I want you to play along with the PRT's tests while I lay the groundwork for both my new faction and your extraction from the PRT. We can discuss upgrades for your husband and children at a later date, but I do believe I have some work to do," Prophet said with a slight grin.

"Of course, thank you," Helen said gratefully, giving him a warm smile as he finished off his drink.

"Oh, feel free to take the bottle with you. I'm not one for wine," Prophet said as an afterthought, raising her eyebrow even as she accepted his very generous offer.

Saying their goodbyes, she left the club with a satisfied smile. Prophet might call himself 'light-grey' but he was a golden ray of hope for her getting Dash and Violet out of this chaos, and honesty far nicer than she expected, given what she heard of his meeting with the Director.

Maybe he just really didn't like the PRT?

Out of curiosity, she searched up the price for the bottle she now had in her car, almost choking as she got her answer. Apparently they had become even rarer since she last checked because the only price she could find was in the high five digits. Surely he wouldn't just give that much away just to flex his intelligence?

Wait, was this to show the PRT that money wasn't going to be enough to gain his services? The kind of man who could give away such an expensive gift wasn't the type of man who could be bought with conventional wealth. She wasn't sure, but she'd make sure to mention its value a few times so word got around.

Given what Prophet was doing for her family, it was the least she could do.

Getting a message as she arrived back home, she paused at the contents.

Prophet wanted to know if she'd be willing to model for his agency, much like the female members of New Wave had done. She wasn't exactly shy, but that was a little much for her… but then again, she did owe him, and was it really that bad?

Well, she'd talk to Bob about it first, maybe set some limitations on how much she was willing to reveal, it wasn't like there weren't bikini pictures of her out there on the internet.

Sending a very definitive maybe, she poured herself a glass of extremely expensive wine and smiled. Prophet was far more reasonable than she feared, and it looked like things were going to go better than she had originally hoped.

Yes, working with Prophet was what was best for her family.

– Jin Yukimura (Midas right now) –

Contemplating having her husband killed, I shake my head. I can do better than that, assassination is just so… crass. Both Mr Incredible and Dash are reckless, I can use that. My power that makes people more pliable when they feel indebted to me will have Helen putting a collar around her neck with 'Property of Jin' soon enough.

Her daughter could be a powerful tool. I'm going to steal the ABB's invisible assassin, but I would like an infiltrator for Prophet as well, and Violet seems like she's just asking to be manipulated with how poor her social skills are.

Maybe I should arrange for someone to try and take her down with her old weaknesses to make her even more grateful? Something to consider.

Also, that woman is a few upgrades away from becoming Plastic Man from DC, one of the scariest characters in the Justice League. She can outright get a toonforce upgrade even if it takes several upgrades. She's already powerful and extremely experienced, with my gentle guiding hand she'll become a powerful tool.

Also, she's extremely hot, so Bob might have to go if she turns out to be a little too loyal. It is Elastigirl after all, she's got that Pixar mom body. I think everyone would do the same in my position.

Having her working under me will be a pleasure and a benefit.