181 Interlude: Uppercrust & Dragon

New York, New York, January 10th, 19:20.

Uppercrust is in a good mood, and once again, the cause is a certain investment that he made a year ago, almost to the day.

Lusia Abel.

It amuses him greatly when he sees people discussing her, for they speak of her like she is some raging beast with no thought, simply roaming around and causing chaos, which, in fairness, is something that she does a lot.

But Uppercrust is one of the few people who know just how much more there is to that woman. She takes the stage so that her web of strings can be cast behind everyone's backs while they're too busy looking at what she is doing, instead of everything happening around her.

He won't claim to know the limits of her machinations, nor her end goal, if there even is one, but Uppercrust is convinced that if she wished to conquer the world, that she could do so in ten to fifteen years at his best estimate, then another year before she starts conquering other earths.

Luckily, she is not so materialistic, something his profit margin proves well enough.

He practically robs her with every deal they make, yet she still shakes his hand and accepts it with a smile, something he will admit plays a large part in why he likes her so much.

Greedy people can't truly befriend other greedy people after all.

As a matter of fact, Uppercrust has never even been the one to ask for an unfair deal, she just offers him basically all the money in any of their business ventures.

He'd asked her why once, and her only response was that money is too easy to make for her to care about it. Something that both proves how little she cares for wealth, as well as just how good of a businesswoman she is, that she considers making tens of millions of dollars as a simple task.

Though, whether she actually plans everything out ahead of time or is simply exceedingly talented at snatching opportunities as they come, he does not know.

Take her most recent actions, something that has put her on the global radar as potentially the worst S-Class threat on the planet after the Endbringers.

After all, how could  anyone miss when  a third of Greenland is thrown around like petty toys. From what he knows, it was the result of her fighting some local cape who could control ice, a particularly useful ability when one lives on the second largest ice sheet on the planet.

As a result of their battle, just about every coastal city on the planet has been experiencing flooding from extreme to minor as her fight has caused sea levels to rise by about two metres, with most Northern Atlantic coasts also experiencing high waves, making the situation even worse.

Of course, his own location of New York is among the victims, but they have not faced any troubles thanks to Uppercrust himself. 

He  is after all, a Tinker, his speciality being large scale barriers, something that he has made quite a bit of money off of with commissions, which brings him to why the event has been so profitable.

Every coastal city in Northern America has already ordered barriers from him that can keep the ocean at bay, though the larger locations will obviously put in extra measures instead of putting all their eggs in one basket, but that hardly matters to Uppercrust.

The only issue was that he didn't have enough materials on hand to build so many machines. Luckily, Lusia happened to have a solution seemingly already lined up, once again making him unsure if she plans all of this out ahead of time.

A company called Estrella, one he has known about for a while since they are sponsored by The Elite, but Uppercrust has never had much interaction with them since The Gentleman likes to keep things close to his chest.

How Lusia managed to score a deal with Entourage that she would offer him a contract he does not know, but if the passive-aggressive phone call he had with The Gentleman this morning means anything, then he doubts that she has been making any deals with other members of The Elite.

Entourage is technically a part of The Elite, but she is also not technically a member by herself. So although it's kind of splitting hairs, she hasn't technically broken their contract.

Not that he would even truly mind if she did, since the offer he was given by Estrella was wholly in his favour, and when he asked, he was told that doing so would be more profitable, which means that Lusia is once more letting him make more money than he should at the cost of her own profits.

Of course, opening shop directly in New York would not be the best decision, seeing as it is both already protected and not desperate for work, so Estrella is going to be opening a few factories in a more central location on the East coast instead.

So, Uppercrust is going to be making money hand over fist for then next week or two, with an almost constant supply of extra business with foreign countries that have no solution to the flooding for the next few months.

And the best part? Apparently Lusia didn't kill her opponent, and she says that after six months he'll freeze a bunch of water and replace the ice he tore out of Greenland, returning sea levels back to normal.

In other words, she's decided to use me to scam various governments around the world out of millions upon millions of dollars, and once again, Uppercrust knows that there is a reason that he likes her.

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Brockton Bay, New Jersey, January 11th, 19:30.

"How are things, Colin?" Dragon asks immediately after connecting to his lab's main monitor, her virtual face giving him a worried look.

"The boat graveyard is mostly underwater and half the market is about eighty-percent inaccessible without specialised transport, half the docks are also flooded and though it is high enough to have avoided any real damage, the boardwalk is flooded enough that hardly anyone is going there." 

It's not an exaggeration to say that the majority of Brockton Bay's income comes from tourism, so the boardwalk being empty is certainly not a positive thing.

And Dragon wishes she could do more to help her friend, because even if they haven't known each other for too long, she can tell that he is working himself too hard to create a solution, and she can only spare so much effort helping him when there are dozens of other cities facing the same problems.

"But once I've finished with this, then it should get better," he says, bringing her attention to the blueprints he has hanging up on his walls, studying them with interest even as he explains their use, "with this, I should be able to redirect the headquarters' forcefield to cover the bay enough to solve the flooding, which is actually a lot less trouble with the base already being in the bay."

After looking over his designs, Dragon can see that it should work, with only one issue that she feels the need to point out.

"Your design seems fine, but won't this leave the PHQ undefended?" She asks, feeling it a valid question.

After all, the Protectorate East-North-East's Headquarters, or PHQ, has had it's forcefield surrounding it ever since the oil rig was repurposed as a base.

"Neither the forcefield or the missile defences have ever been used, and I find it unlikely that that will change. Even if it does, I only need to build another generator and then I can simply install another forcefield."

If Dragon was there in person she would have shaken her head at his insistence that he do all the work himself instead of relying on others, but as it is, she simply projects a sigh.

"Colin, you don't have to do everything alone you know? At the very least, you can outsource the simpler work instead of personally doing every step. A company called Estrella has recently decided to open a branch up here, once they get things running, you can get all of the smaller parts from them. Focus your efforts on doing what only you can do, instead of what anyone can do for you."

He only pauses in his work for a moment to listen to her words before getting right back to it without responding. But Dragon knows that he's just processing. He's not the best at socialising, something she honestly finds somewhat endearing.

"What about you." He starts, more a statement than a question, something he seems to realise after the fact, hurriedly correcting himself, "how are things on your end?"

Unfortunately, she doesn't truly have any good news to share, so she decides to just keep things simple instead.

"Well, the flooding is mostly manageable, casualties have been kept low, even if people have been making connections between this and the events of Kyushu."

A terrible thing that, when Kyushu sank. Millions dead and even more not much better off, all because a Leviathan fought with a Dragon called Lung.

"I've been doing my best to keep Tear under surveillance, but she is very difficult to track, so the best I know is that after causing this mess she moved to Lisbon, capital of Portugal and got in a fight with the local Heroes, beating them all despite being outnumbered seventeen-to-one."

Dragon has actually watched that fight, and if she were to just ignore all the context, then she could appreciate just how skilled Miss Abel is. Most parahumans rely on their powers a lot, but Miss Abel bested them without using nearly the full extent of her abilities, showcasing a degree of martial skill that Dragon has only seen matched by combat Thinkers such as Sage.

Thankfully, she spared them all with only a few, non-permanent injuries, though their pride is likely feeling quite wounded. She is not a very polite combatant, and she can be rather creative with her methods of humiliation.

Dragon notices Colin's hands clench at the mention of her combat prowess, probably being reminded of when Lung moved in and fought of the ENE Protectorate singlehandedly.

"Needless to say, but various nations have been discussing banding together to eliminate her, treating her much the same as the Faerie Queen back then, especially Portugal, they are not very happy with her to say the least. However, since she isn't actually hunting people down to kill them like the Faerie Queen was, it's unlikely that people will be scared enough to go through with anything."

And that's without considering the lesson everyone learnt back when they  did try to gang up on the Faerie Queen. The first teams that went after her never returned, until thirty-two had been lost and an actual force was assembled, fifty capes strong.

They ended up retreating, thirteen of them being claimed to the boogeywoman's 'court' and only after that, they simply sent  everything at her, to which she simply surrendered without fighting, allowing herself to be locked in the Birdcage where she still is now.

Comparing Miss Abel to the Faerie Queen is fair, but it's unlikely that she will ever invoke quite the same level of fear.

"I'm not sure where she will be heading next, but I have a small list of powerful parahumans that I believe she is likely to visit. But enough about that, I have an old design that might be able to help speed up your project if you'd like to see it?"

At her suggestion, she swears that she sees Colin almost smile for a moment.

"I would like that," he says, and with a smile of her own, Dragon sends over the relevant files, happy to enjoy a short break with someone who can keep up with her.

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Brockton Bay, New Jersey, January 12th, 19:40.

Danny is depressed. This is something that is clear to him. But knowing doesn't mean he can do anything about it.

He has good reason to be depressed. His wife. His dear Annette.... 

He wishes he knew what to do. His daughter is hurting too, he knows this. But he can't bring himself to do anything about it.

What is he supposed to do? Ask if she is okay? Of course she isn't. And if he asks then she'll tell him, and somehow that seems even worse.

He knows he would break down, and he doesn't want to do that in front of his daughter.

Not anymore than he already has...

Danny knows he's a failure of a father, and that Annette would kick his ass for how he's acting if she could.

But knowing doesn't change things.

It's just one thing after the other.

First, the ferry gets shut down, putting plenty of his boys out of work, and Mayor Christner refuses to actually accept any of his proposals to help revive the docks.

Then his wife. Annette. She- then  that happened, and now the city is flooding. It feels like the world is conspiring against him sometimes.

But then, his phone rings. Well, not  his phone, he doesn't allow any mobile phones in the house, not since Annette. But the landline rings, and though Danny considers simply ignoring it, he eventually drags himself across the living room to where it rests on the wall.

"Hello?" He asks, trying to hide the lethargy from his voice and utterly failing in the process.

"Hello," a prim and proper voice answers, and Danny immediately straightens up, even if they can't see him, because he knows that tone means business, and business means he might be able to get his boys some work, "is this Daniel Hebert, Head of Hiring for the Dockworkers Association?"

Assured now that it is work related, Danny's voice is far less lethargic as he answers, the small embers of hope burning in his chest that  something good might happen.

"I am Emelia Rosewald of Estrella Company. We will be opening a number of factories in the coming days at your location and are looking to hire locally. Would you be willing to discuss a contract?"

For the first time since- for the first time in months, Danny feels a small smile tug at his lips.

"No no, I mean, yes, I would love to. I have plenty of people looking for work." His voice still lacks the same light it had before, but that doesn't hide the excitement present in it.

More and more dockworkers have been forced to join the gangs due to not being able to find any work. Scoring a good enough contract could help all of them, and Danny will do his best to do right by them, as he always has done.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

So, this chapter is what last chapter was supposed to be like, so now I am done with the little cause-effect thing I wanted to show. 

The main point was basically that in a lot of stories the world kinda falls static when the mc is not around, I wanted to show that Lusia's actions have consequences outside of her immediate location and that the world moves on without her input.... even though the events with estrella are thanks to her input, but whatever.

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

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

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