44 Aftermath

Despite all the cheers that erupted around Helena, she felt as if she were in a silent room.

Everything faded, all the sights, sounds, and even smells of those around her disappearing into nothingness, drifting away, off into darkness as she remembered that very first moment when she had met the one on the screen in front of her.

She had felt a faint tug at her breast, and it had resulted in a wave of anger that had almost turned her eyes red-hot. Yet, the face that had met them was one filled with so much bewilderment, shock, and even fear that it had seemed bewitchingly interesting, at first, and with time, as she had listened to his story, she had found herself pitying him, a bit, but also admiring his hard work and his zeal to excel, and rise from where he was.

She had never known that feeling. She had always been given anything and everything she could ever have wanted, and often, she had wondered whether this had placed her on a pedestal from which she would never be able to see and understand the difficulties of most of those who shared this world with her. It had made her feel detached and aloof, and in fact, that had been one of the reasons she had jumped on this opportunity to head the advertising company that dealt with all sorts of heroes and villains.

Her hope had been that by interacting with them, studying them, understanding them, she might find something that she had been missing, or something that she was searching for even without knowing it herself. At this moment, she was no closer to the answers she hoped to find about her own life…but something deep within her said that one of the best decisions in her life so far was the one that had caused the heroic villain in front of them all to be on the screen at the edge of the room.

The image had frozen to show him standing up after the bow, with a smile that bordered on one that could be called gloating. The engineers and even a few of those she had called kept on shouting and clapping with all their might, blown away by the performance and the twists and turns that had led to the victory.

She finally snapped out of it when her best friend curled her arm around her neck and whispered, "Seriously…where did you find him? And if you're not interested…can I have a go?"

She felt heat rushing into her cheeks, and she coughed, suddenly feeling her throat go dry. To hide whatever she was feeling, she made a noncommittal sound and walked forward, intending to find something, anything that could save her from the situation.

A glancing remark from one of the representatives she had called gave her the idea. The woman was clapping, too, but she was also muttering under her breath, stymied as to how he had accomplished what they had just seen.

All of them had exited the room before so that the spectacle they had witnessed would contain all the shock value that it would possess when placed in front of the public. Even though it was almost perfect on its own, there was some editing to be done so that it could rise to become even more spectacular, and for that, Helena needed to understand everything that had happened.

Already having anticipated that she would need to do something like this, she had tapped one of the engineers to create a showreel that would explain to all those who had left before what had happened in their absence. Just a single look at this man-made him nod and press a key in front of him, and a second later, the projector that was directed at the right-hand wall of the conference room began to show a series of images.

Helena cleared her throat, then frowned as she saw that it didn't work. For a moment, she wanted to just let the celebration continue while she joined in, herself, but then, remembering her duties, she clapped her hands and shouted, "Alright, enough! That was great and all…but we need to make it even greater! Engineer, you have the floor! Everyone who left the room before, listen now to find out what happened, and how our villain was able to create such a plan!"

The clapping and cheers quickly quieted down, and soon, the room was once again silent. The engineer stood up, dressed in a cheap suit especially when compared to all those sitting on the other edge of the room, but when he spoke, everyone forgot what he looked like and focused on what he was saying, and the images that flashed across the screen.

"From the beginning, the villain's motive was to distract or occupy the two heroes so that he could get to the governor. He kept a close watch on the governor's residence, and he was able to spot the workers who brought in the metal sheets. From their size, he guessed that they were for the table, whose dimensions he knew from the video that he edited and used before. The heroes made good plans, but they made no effort to keep their movements secret. That was one of their downfalls."

The screen showed images of boxes that were carried in. The engineer made it sound simple, but Helena knew that making the connection was no easy thing. Many would have missed it�� but the villain didn't.

"Then, it was all about classifying the resources that he had to take care of each hero, in turn. He created the wrecking ball with cloaks, the horse with boots, and the guns with flutes. The way he brainstormed was that he always sat down and thought about how he could use them in different ways, and after writing down about 20 different things for each one, he finalized these items. He also made advertising pitches for each of them which are ready to be used. The walkie-talkie which can output the converted voices of both the heroes is only one of three backup plans that he created, using recordings that were obtained from the confrontation before. If it failed, he also had a plan in which the governor would have died a few seconds before him. He debated heavily on the issue that the walkie-talkie plan would fail if the heroes had taken the precaution to make the vault created by the table soundproof, and made sure that it could only be opened or closed on the command of either of them. The first part of his plan went like clockwork: the hero called Gloria was perfectly separated from the main fight, and then, ordinarily, while Gordon was fighting the people and the hero on the horse, he would have walked up to the table and done his job.

"We know that it didn't happen that way. So, he bided his time and revealed himself at the perfect moment. This shows that he is not only capable of creating plans in an armchair; he can adapt them at will, too, to the changing situations of a battlefield. As for how he disguised himself… It was just simple make-up. The heroes probably didn't think of it because they were looking for only high-tech means of disguise. In the end, the heroes were too far away to do anything. One of them still tried and failed. He killed the governor. And so ended the odyssey."

The engineer sat down with a flourish, finishing his speech with aplomb and smiling to himself due to a job well done. Helena nodded appreciatively and turned to the representatives, ready to hype up what they had seen so that she could strike a few deals there and then.

Everything was going great. In her mind, she had already planned the next few hours out. They would carefully edit each and every thing that they had just seen, and then, in at most a day's time, the end would be broadcasted with an even higher advertising budget. It would be a smash hit, and she was sure of this. After that, all that awaited was to make use of the fame, and propel both her company and Al to heights that he could never have imagined.

Only… right as she was about to speak, she felt a slight prickle in her spine that made her pause. She had only felt it twice before: once when her life had been in danger, and once when she had known that her father was in danger.

She had researched it, and found out that it might be a natural heightening of one's inborn talent brought about by the phenomena of accepting multiple Blessings. It was still being researched, but in a way, it was the evolution of abilities that mankind possessed, but had never been able to use.

She turned to the door, face fraught with nervous tension, and sure enough, a moment later, the baldheaded manager who had left after the end muttering about how there was so much to do burst into the room.

She felt the hammer fall even before she heard it. As he shouted, the entire room fell silent, and the words that he spoke…made all of them stare, agape.

"We have been ordered to cease everything! The Dragon… bought the entire channel! He's bringing in a new team! They will be stopping the live broadcast in a couple of seconds! We got an exclusive contract with them… so we can't do anything! We can't show it anywhere! It's over! It's all over!"