112 Interlude: Clowning Around

"Kitsune. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon?" The new Director says with a questioning tone.

I suppose his confusion does make some sense. After all, I was only promoted to the leader of this branch of the Protectorate a couple of days ago.

I wasn't originally a true contender for the position, what with Carol already having been reaching for the mantle for a while now, not to mention that Director Balvan never would have considered me for the position.

But with Noah reassigned after the shitshow Tear orchestrated, and the new Director, Selene Castle, not having the same kind of military background as Noah, she was far more willing to consider it, either not understanding or simply not knowing about my past in CI.

That didn't change the fact that Carol already had the position, and I couldn't outright take it from her, or even openly attempt to. After all, the secret to being ambitious is to never let anyone know you're ambitious.

However, after an unfortunate and unexpected 'incident' involving Carol 'accidentally' fatally injuring an innocent civilian, combined with a 'fortunate' encounter where I managed to 'find' and shut down a rather significant drug lab, even winning a 'fight' against two villains, all by myself.

Well, is it any surprise that I got my well deserved promotion? I certainly worked hard for it after all.

But just becoming the leader of one small part of the Protectorate isn't nearly enough. Rising up through the ranks is surprisingly fun. I don't even really care about having the power to be honest, I just enjoy earning it.

Which is why I am here to speak with the Director, despite only having been promoted a couple of days ago.

"Yes, well. I feel that I've settled into my new role well enough already, but I want to do my job to the best of my abilities, and to that end, I was hoping you could assist me in setting up a joint training sort of thing with the Cincinnati Protectorate. Kind of like a sister city thing."

It's not a completely new idea, the New York and Boston Wards are known to do joint training after all, but I'm hoping to do more than just that.

"Hmm, I don't see why not. It might be a good opportunity for our Wards to make some new friends, maybe it will help them to get out of their funk?" She responds, her hand on her chin as she considers it.

"My thoughts exactly," I lie with a cheerful nod, "but I was thinking that we could take it a step further than just letting our Wards train together. I figured that we could perhaps swap Heroes around every now and then. It'll keep the Villains in both cities on their toes, all while allowing us all to have more options available to us."

I don't say it outright, but I know that the moment I mentioned having more options that she immediately thought about Negante's gang, because for 'some reason' we've hardly been able to do anything to stop their growth as they consume the cities underworld.

It's almost as if they know we are coming before we ever do, funny how that works.

That's without even mentioning Famine, or the 'Dollars' as they are now known, that basically serve under the Red Hearts. Teleportation powers are notoriously difficult to deal with, and so far we've had very little luck in stopping Janus.

But none of that is really important. The actual reason for this little cooperation is simply to spread my influence.

The Protectorate is a subordinate organisation to the PRT after all. It's basically impossible to rise past the position of Team Captain.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only Heroes in the Protectorate that could be said to be 'higher' than a Team Captain would be the Triumvirate themselves, who are the founders and leaders of the entire organisation, not to mention each is incredibly powerful in their own right so that's not really a position I can get promoted to.

What I 𝘤𝘢𝘯 do however, is build up connections.

That's how you rise in an organisation like the Protectorate. I just need to know a lot of other Captains, and for them to respect me, hopefully even looking to me for leadership should the need ever arise.

It's a dangerous game to play, but it's fun.

Before long, I have Director Gallio's approval as well as the number of Director Lance on my insistence that I set up all the details myself so that I don't 'bother' Selene.

Now all I need to do is make a good first impression, which means I will need to visit them first, leaving Columbus slightly more vulnerable while I am gone, especially since I will not be leaving alone.

However, I have a 'lucky feeling' that there won't be any Villains causing trouble while I'm gone. The whole idea would probably be scrapped if a bunch of chaos erupted the moment I tried to put it into effect after all.

Now it's just a matter of who to bring.

Obviously, I will be the only adult coming, because I need my fellow Heroes to respect 'me', not 'the Columbus Protectorate. So I just have to decide which Wards I will be taking with me.

And I think I have just the pair in mind. First being Mairon, because he is outgoing and friendly. He'll make a good first impression, increasing their opinion of me by proxy.

Then there will be my ace in the hole, Lag. She was one of the Rogues that got recruited after Tear's game dented our numbers.

Showing the others that I can 'reform' the powered youth into a good Hero will go a long way in raising their opinion of me, especially since I've been making sure to keep Lag's self-esteem low, making her eager to play whatever part is expected of her to the best of her abilities, meaning she will play the perfect part of the reformed Hero.

Later that night, during one of my solo patrols, as I am driving through the streets on my motorcycle, 'looking for crime', I reach into a hidden compartment on the bike, all without moving my head, in order to avoid letting the camera in my mask see anything.

Turning on the 'Clown phone' inside, I carefully reach down and press 'send' on an already pre typed out message.

Now, all that's left to do is to wait.

*****

𝘔𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘭.

Putting my phone down with a sigh, I pick up my fancy class of excessively expensive wine and spend a minute in silence as I mentally complain about unreasonable women making demands of me.

Still, even as I complain, I can't deny the smile growing on my lips as I look over Cincinnati from my spot in a luxury restaurant, forty floors up from the ground.

Truthfully, fancy places like this aren't really my kind of scene, even if I could easily afford it with the money I'm making now that Lusia's convinced me expand my market in the business of information.

However, with the people I'm meeting, fancy, over the top places like this are par for the course really.

A soft pinging sound drags my attention away from the cityscape and back to the empty restaurant, myself and a single server behind a bar being the only people present on the whole floor.

Hence why I have no problem being here, despite being dressed up as the 'Fool', mask and all.

This is Clown business after all, it's only proper.

The elevator opens in the silent room, allowing first a pair of men in suits to exit, both of them the picture of the word 'bodyguard', and both of them visibly armed.

The pistols on their hips honestly lose a lot of their subtlety when both of them are also clearly just holding an AR in their hands. And that's not even mentioning how they're wearing sunglasses indoors.

"How scary,~" I mutter to myself as my eyes move over to the next pair to walk out, each of them individually far more interesting than the two bodyguards, if only for the masks that they wear.

A man and a woman, both of them also wearing suits, though the woman's looks more like a sexy secretary costume, paired with overly fancy golden masquerade masks, they practically radiate wealth.

How utterly unsurprising.

Really, it's only the 'businessman' among them that matters here. The woman is just muscle, being a fairly decent Alexandria package, except that her flight is limited to just a few metres above the ground.

Not that she's exactly necessary to Mr Businessman. I'm not exactly a fighter like Tear is after all. All I have is a handgun, and even then, with my luck the gun will jam the moment I try to shoot it anyway, my only consolation being that their guns will probably also jam.

Raising from my seat as he approaches, I place one hand in a fist over my heart and swing the other out wide as I give him a deep, theatrical bow.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance at least, Mr Campione, as well as an unexpected honour to meet the ever beautiful Conquista."

Conquista, how.. subtle.

It basically translates to 'conquest', so they're really not even bothering to hide that she's basically just a trophy wife that can pick up and throw cars at people that annoy you.

I suppose to the 'champion' goes the spoils I guess.

The opulently dressed man takes a seat opposite me, gesturing for me to return to my own seat as Conquista stands 'intimidatingly' behind him, the two guards doing the same a short distance away.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine Mr Fool, my niece speaks highly of you and your productions, so imagine my surprise when I hear that you of all people are seeking a meeting with me?"

Huh. I wonder how old his niece is? Eh, it shouldn't matter really.

After all, to get the the gory and more.. 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦? Stuff, you have to pass an ingenious test to prove that you are over eighteen.

See, a pop up comes up asking of you're above the age of eighteen, and honestly we're just working on the honour system here.

Still, as I prepare my practiced answer, I let myself smile widely, knowing from Lusia that my tone will match the smile, even if they can't see it through the mask.

"Ahhh, I have a fan?~ How joyous.~ I'd be more than happy to give a signature for your niece if you would like. As for why I am here? Well, I am something of an information broker you see, and I have come across some interesting information as of late and I was wondering... How would you like to make a deal?"

****

"I'm sorry March, but you're just not a good fit with us," the first of the losers starts, only to be followed up by a far less consoling voice.

"What she's trying to say is that you're too damn brutal. We had a good thing going for us before you showed up. The actual Heroes left us for the Ward to deal with, and we could handle them just fine, but your so called 'perfect plans' have only caused them to take the kiddie gloves off! You're too brutal for the PRT to let the Wards face us and we can't beat the fucking Protectorate! Letting you join us was a mistake, get lost."

As the losers start bickering amongst themselves about 'being to hard' on me, all I do is stare at the loser who looks at me with such distain.

Briefly, I think about killing him, but I let the thought pass with ease.

Lusia says that if you really hate someone, that there are better ways to hurt them, and that killing people is a waste. But then again, she's dancing with the Nine right now, so I don't think she's one to talk.

I'm not going to bother of course. I don't truly hate any of them, they were just a means to an end anyway, so I don't care.

Looking at them talking about me as if I'm not here, I see the budding argument for what it is, my power telling me how they're going to react to each others words, and how things will escalate into a big ol' row, but they'll get back together soon enough after cooling down.

But I just don't really care, so I turn around and simply leave, ignoring the way one of them half heartedly calls for me.

I reach my apartment soon enough, bought under a fake name of course, and get changed into some comfy clothes, jumping onto my comfy couch with a sigh of relaxation.

After a moment, I find my eyes drifting to my outfit, hung over the back of a chair as it is, and I find myself wondering to the woman who gifted it to me.

I have no idea what she's doing, but at the very least I'm sure she's enjoying herself. More than I am at least.

Haaah.

I can lie to others all I want, but there's no reason to lie to myself.

...I'm lonely.

I want her to come back, to see her again.

Whatever. With another sigh, I reach out for the remote control, wanting to watch cartoons to make myself feel better.

However, as soon as I click the power button I can feel my lips start twitching in fond annoyance as a blown up image of Lusia's face, caked in clown makeup and with hair dyed red, takes up my entire screen, with some news reporter in the background giving her whole life story.

...When I said I want to see her again, this really isn't what I meant.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

So, this chap was just a brief look into what some of the other Clowns are doing with their time, as well as admittedly being a buffer because I like to have 5 chapters minimum spare and I don't want to get too far ahead before doing the PHO chap, but I can only really start that once I've posted the end of neo columbus

Also, I ate like, half a half kilo bag of uncooked spaghetti as I wrote this chapter. I like the crumpch

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)

Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses