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Working with Criminals

Chapter 1: The Interview

For Taiko

By Draconicon

Nor knew that things were going to get interesting when the battleship pulled up to the Novus Ager harbor. While most citizens were pretty sure that it was part of the military tour that the local navy was putting on, the mule and most of the other supers knew that it didn't fit in with them. Whether it was the wrong flags, the wrong place in the naval formation, or the general state of not-quite ship-shape appearance that it had, there was something about it that kept it from blending in.

Of course, the mule had a slight advantage that the rest of the supers didn't. He knew several people on that ship's crew, though he didn't know why they were visiting Novus Ager again. He just knew that it meant trouble was on the horizon.

So, in his civilian form of Denith, the mule made his way down to the harbor just as the great big battleship took its place at the dock, settling in a few places down from an aircraft carrier. Some of the civilians of the city were going ooh and ahh over the other ships, eager to take their turn to tour them and see what they were like, but him? He only had eyes for the ship with the big guns...

And for the big bear that was walking along the sides of it.

Hello, Olag, he thought, a mix of exasperation, curiosity, annoyance, and genuine happiness filtering through his head all at once. What the hell are you here for this time?

That was the question, and it was a million-dollar question, too, considering who the bear worked for and what had happened the last time that they'd met up. He was pretty sure that there were insurance agents that were still tabulating the total property damage from that particular event. Shaking his head, he walked down to where the gang plank would come down and waited.

Most citizens that showed curiosity in the battleship were keeping their distance, but a few were inching forward. Denith tapped them on the shoulder, shaking his head as they turned to look at him.

"Better to keep your distance."

"Why? It's just part of the tour."

"I think you better stay back. They do have the big guns. Think of them like...like an escort," he said, trying to come up with a good reason.

"So...you don't think they'll let us on?"

"Probably not."

"Damn..."

He had that conversation, or some variant of it, more than a half-dozen times before the gang plank finally was rolled down. Various crew members from the ship came running down the long board, skipping a few steps at the bottom of it before darting toward the city. A general rush of woo-hoos, yays, and general laughter filled the air as the crew of the battleship rushed toward the city, not one of them dressed in the same sharp uniforms that the rest of the navy crew had.

As if I needed any more proof, he thought, shaking his head.

"Hey, little buddy."

Another little thing that evoked a mixed reaction, that phrase. Denith slowly turned around, bumping his nose against a solid wall of white fluff. He always forgot how tall Olag actually was; unlike everyone else, who he could look down at or at least meet in the eye, Olag actually stood over him. Shaking his head, he took a step back from the bare-chested bear, looking up to meet the big guy's eyes.

"For all that 'little buddy' stuff, you didn't really seem too interested in keeping in touch. Were you off somewhere that didn't even have a phone?"

"Kinda; pretty sure ya wouldn't have seen smoke signals from there." The bare-chested polar bear clapped him on the shoulder. "Good to see ya."

"Yeah, you too. So...what are you and your...associates doing here?"

"Heh, still don't like them?"

"I like you. I tolerate them. What are they here for? What is your boss here for?"

"He, uh...kinda came here looking for something he needs."

"Something - like what? What does he want?"

"...You're not gonna like it."

"I didn't really like it last time, either, but we made it work. As long as he's not committing a crime - he's not, is he?"

"Not...exactly. It's a bit more complicated, and I don't really understand how it works myself, so -"

Denith sighed, rubbing his head.

"Olag. Is anyone in Novus Ager going to get hurt?"

"...Not this one."

"What do you mean, not this one? There's only one."

Olag rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced back at the ship. Denith didn't push him. The polar bear had never been great at explaining things, particularly not in regards to himself. That was how they got into the whole 'little buddy' issue in the first place.

Not that it was that big of an issue, really. They'd talked it out, figured out what was going on...realized that it wasn't a great idea to keep a superhero as a sex toy...Realized that Olag wasn't a bad guy, and was just working through some issues. Then there was the whole no-communication problem after the polar bear had left, which made the whole thing feel a bit hollow -

I swear I'm not bitter or anything...Not like he's anything more than a friend or owed me anything or...Okay, maybe I'm a little bitter.

Finally, Olag turned back around.

"Look. Let's find somewhere to sit down, alright?"

"You can't tell me what's going on here?"

"Ports got ears. Captain doesn't want to talk out here."

"...Captain? You mean -"

"Yeah. You're meeting the big guy officially, today."

"...oh boy."

#

They found a café about two miles back from the port, well away from the battleship. Denith would have liked to stop earlier, a couple of blocks away, but Olag insisted that they keep moving. The bear kept looking back, too, and while all of his senses as Nor hadn't picked anything up, the big guy didn't want to stop until they were more than a mile away from the water.

If I didn't know better, I'd call HIM paranoid for this.

But if there was one thing that Olag wasn't, it was paranoid. If anything, the bear was monstrously overconfident about things. Justifiably, in many cases, but still overconfident. To see him actually concerned about something sold the seriousness of the matter better than anything that his old...companion...could have said.

The fact that there was someone waiting for them in the café didn't make it better. He had barely pushed the door open when he spotted a mouse in a red coat and a white mask, the latter pushed up ever so slightly as he sipped at a cup of tea. A jeweled cane leaned against the rodent's thigh, and Denith groaned under his breath. If there was anyone here that would be Olag's boss, it would be this guy.

"Him?" he asked, hoping that the bear would prove him wrong.

"Yep."

"That's...not exactly hiding out, is it?"

"Well, he ain't exactly walking on the streets, either."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see. Come on."

The bare-chested, tight-pantsed bear sat down at the table, and Denith had little choice but to join him. The mule rubbed his forehead as he sat down, muttering to himself, and the mouse still hadn't put down the cup of tea.

"What's this about? We're far enough away now that you can tell me, surely."

"Yeah, uh...that's kinda his job." Olag nodded his head at the mouse. "Captain's orders on this. Besides, ya know how crap I am at explaining things."

He sighed.

The mouse took a solid minute and thirty-seven seconds to finish his tea - Denith counted them very carefully - before putting the cup down on the saucer. He lowered his mask down again, shaking his head as if he was fitting himself to it once more. Then, and only then, did he seem content to speak.

"Denith. Nor. Whichever name you prefer, I have a job for you."

"..."

If there had been one thing that he had not expected, it was that. The idea of anyone offering a superhero a job was weird enough, but someone from the criminal underworld? That was something else.

The mule snorted, shaking his head as he reached to the back of his chair.

"A job. From the Man in Red."

"Heh, that's right. Startling, isn't it?"

"More like absolutely ridiculous. I'm a superhero."

"And I'm a criminal mastermind." The mouse spread his arms. "Match made in heaven."

"Yeah, I'll pass. Was this what you came here for?"

"Mostly."

"Then you can go. As will I." He looked past the mouse at Olag. "Pity you won't be in port long. Try and remember to call this time."

"And if I said that you were not leaving?" the mouse asked.

"Then I'd say that you don't know me."

There was no change in the mask, but there was a slight shift at the mouse's tail. Denith ignored it, and started to get up...

Only to realize that he couldn't. Oh, his legs were trying to move, and his arms were trying to push him up from the chair, but he couldn't actually put together the strength to get out of his own seat. The mule paused, pushing down a bit harder, his eyes narrowing.

No matter how he struggled and squirmed, though, nothing moved. He couldn't get free of the chair, and he couldn't even drag himself forward. It was like some great force was pulling him down as hard as he was trying to pull himself out of it. And when he slowed down, when he stopped pushing as hard, the force weakened.

Denith turned his head back to the mouse.

"What are you doing?"

"You assume this is my doing?" the rodent asked, his voice slightly amused through the vocoder in his mask.

"You're the only one here that I don't recognize. Olag can't do this, and there's only one other super in the room. Their powers are laser eyes, not paralysis."

"Heh. I'm glad that you're observant. Olag told me that you were smart as well as strong."

The mouse lifted his cane, his thumb rubbing along one of the facets to the side. The gem at the tip, a bright pink, seemed to glow as it was touched.

"Your cane?" Denith guessed.

"As a channel, though it's not the source of this particular ability."

"You didn't tell me he could do that, Olag. You didn't say he was a super."

"He ain't. This isn't one of the cape things here."

"Then what is this?"

"Let's call it a gift from a collection of friends, for now." The mouse chuckled, releasing his finger from the gem. Suddenly, the mule could move again. "Now, I want you to stay and listen. If, at the end of this, you feel like you cannot in good conscience do what I ask, then I'm happy to let you go...provided that you submit to a mind-wipe regarding our conversation. I can't have this particular plan go back to anyone outside the city."

"Outside - then this isn't a crime that affects anyone here?"

"Not at all." The mouse paused, holding up a white-gloved hand. "Well...that's not quite accurate, but close enough for our purposes."

"I'm not doing anything that lets you steal or hurt someone in Novus Ager."

"It's not this version of Novus Ager that you have to worry about."

"Olag said something about 'not this one.' What do you mean? There's only one Novus Ager; more than that..."

"Oh, that I'll explain as part of my proposal. Kind of have to, if it's going to make any sense. Are you interested?"

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Oh, I doubt that. I have every reason to believe that you will enjoy this far more than Olag's brief ownership of you, and considering the fact that you are so good-hearted, wanting to see people happy, wanting to make things better..." The mouse must have been smiling, considering the way that he sounded. "Why, I'm sure that you won't be able to resist this particular plan."

"...Yep. Definitely going to regret this."

"But you will listen?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Not particularly. Olag? Would you mind?"

"One sec."

The bear stood up, and as if from nowhere, he pulled a giant great-axe from behind his back. Denith's eyes went about as wide as they could go as Olag lifted it above his head with a roar. Everyone lunged around, staring, but nobody had a chance to move before he slammed it down right in the middle of the café.

In the space of a split-second, the entire room around them was completely frozen. From the floor to the ceiling, to the windows and the door, and everyone and everything in between, everything was completely covered in ice. Coffee was frozen in mid-pour, customers were stuck in handing over coins to the baristas, and the whole room was freezing cold.

Even the other hero was stuck, his eyes open and the beginnings of his laser beams hissing in the cold around them, stuck in stasis.

Denith could hardly believe it, and couldn't bring himself to speak as Olag sat down again.

"Very good, my friend," the masked mouse said. "I see that the upgrades are paying off. Even light is frozen..."

"Yeah, well, we paid enough for it."

"Yes, yes, we did. But good to know for the future."

"Excuse me, but...what the hell just happened?" Denith asked while barely avoiding spluttering. "What did you do to everyone?"

"Merely ensured that there's no one that might overhear the conversation, of course," the mouse said with a chuckle. "They'll be fine. We've merely frozen them in time for now. Hypothermia won't be an issue for at least eight minutes."

"...I...you..."

"Oh, please. It's hardly that different from all the insanity that you supers see on a daily basis."

"No, I think this is quite a bit different. Weapons and magic bears and strange mice..."

"Hmmm, you're right. This is a bit more sci-fi or urban fantasy compared to your usual comic book adventures, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't call it that, but..."

"But it's not inaccurate, is it?" The mouse chuckled, shaking his head. "At any rate, you now have slightly over seven minutes until we have to start thawing people out, so, shall I lay out my proposal, or would you like to keep asking what happened?"

"...Fine. Tell me."

"Gladly. How much do you know about the multi-verse?"

"...Not much, except as a theory."

"Well, then, this will be quite an education for you. Don't worry. I'll be nicer than my teacher was..."

#

It took three of the seven minutes for them to get through the basics of multi-verse theory, the fact that there were different universes where different choices were made, and where different results had come about. There were almost no constants that reached through the entirety of reality, and the further from your own universe you went, the more strange things were compared to what you had come from, or at least, the more unnatural they seemed.

The Man in Red, Olag's boss, had been traveling between them for a while, ever since he had become the Man in Red.

"Part of the Colorful Council, you see," he'd explained, flicking the sleeve of his suit. "Status and color names you."

"So, simple and bright?" Denith had asked.

"...Yes, if you like," the mouse had answered before continuing.

According to the mouse, there was another Novus Ager not too many universes over where things were a little...different. The heroes were more integrated into the city, more of a police force under an over-hero. The whole place was run by them, with heroes having the various civil jobs and titles to run the city, and with the justice system under their control, as well.

The problem was, the city's underground was...slightly more dangerous in this other Novus Ager. Where the heroes had the different supporters that each job demanded - policemen, or civil servants, or lawyers, etc. - the villains were supported by various gangs, people that were more than willing to fight on the side of super-villains in order to see things change. Rather than a couple of minions, or even up to a dozen, every super-villain in this version of Novus Ager had at least sixty people working under them, and some of them had upwards of a few hundred.

It meant that confrontation between a hero and a villain was much more explosive compared to the Novus Ager that they were currently in.

However, that problem led to another problem, one that explained why the Man in Red was a bit more cautious.

"The over-hero that runs that particular Novus Ager has recently taken a lover. And that lover is one of the other Council members."

"You mean there's a criminal dating a hero in that version?" Denith blinked. "That's not so bad, is it?"

"It is when that particular man is as powerful as he is, and when he's taking control of all the heroes himself."

"...Oh."

The mouse nodded as Denith thought the situation through. The idea of a bad guy dating a good guy wasn't that bad, when one got right down to it. There were plenty of people in Novus Ager who were willing to put down the fighting gauntlets in order to have a little fun between their matches, and even he'd done something like that. Admittedly, only with small-time crooks rather than super-villains, but that was something different.

The idea of a super-villain - or at least, super-criminal - taking advantage of a relationship to start taking over a city, though...that was crossing a few lines.

"Thankfully, mind control isn't the Lord in Lavender's particular criminal gift," the Man in Red said, stroking his thumb across the side of his cane. "He's using a perverted little item that he stole from a different universe to keep control over the over-hero in this Novus Ager."

"Is that supposed to be good news? Because that doesn't sound like good news."

"It is, if you think about how it affects things. If you only have to remove an item from the equation, then it means that you can deal with the situation without hurting people. Or at least, not hurting so many."

It was a good point, but there was still one big question, and he didn't have a lot of time to ask it. They were up to five minutes of frozen people popsicle time.

"Why do you need me, then?"

"Because the Lord in Lavender is watching for me." The Man in Red shook his head. "It's almost a challenge, when you come right down to it, heh. He set this up and he made sure that I'd find out that he'd done it. Authoritarian regimes never sit well with me, you know."

"At least there's something good in that criminal heart of yours, but what does that have to do with me?"

"The Nor of that Novus Ager has gone missing."

"..."

"And you, being the Nor of this Novus Ager, can imitate him."

Denith groaned, leaning forward and rubbing his face in his hands. Olag patted his shoulder in sympathy, but it only reminded him of just how deep a mess this was going to be. Not just the whole issue of working with an organization of criminals, but everything else that went with it.

Including imitating another Nor. He doubted that it would be that simple, particularly with everything that the mouse had explained about the multi-verse. That one would probably not only look different, but behave differently, as well. If he could even imitate him, that would be a feat of acting that he didn't think he was capable of.

More to the point, it meant that he would have to leave this Novus Ager behind for who knew how long. He wasn't the key hero here, sure, but that was still ignoring the duties that he had signed up for. His friends would wonder where he had gone, and...

And at the same time, he knew that this was something that needed handling. Now that he knew that there was a whole city out there that was just waiting to fall into complete chaos, maybe even control of someone else, he had to try to help. It was part of the whole hero gig.

"Let's say I agree -"

"I rather hope you do. We're down to about...what, 43 seconds?"

"Let's say I agree to your plan," he said, talking a bit faster. "What is in it for you?"

"I get to say 'Fuck you' to the Lord in Lavender and throw a wrench in plans he's been working on for the last three years. Call me an amateur after that..."

"So, spite, basically."

"Pretty much, yeah. Is that good enough for you?"

"And you're not going to hurt anyone there?"

"This is an in and out operation. Once we get his little toy, then we're going to run as fast as we can. The heroes there will take care of the rest. They won't get him, of course, but they'll make him pay in resources and time and annoyance for what he's done."

"There's something you're not telling me."

"Of course, but that's something that you're going to have to get used to." The mouse cocked his head to the side. "Ten seconds before we reach the danger zone. Are you in or out, Denith?"

"..."

"Six...five...four..."

Time seemed to slow for him as he thought through every possible angle that he could imagine. He knew that there was something wrong with this operation, something that he was going to regret, but it wasn't obvious enough for him to pick out.

More than that, he knew that there was no way in hell that he would be able to turn it down. There were people at risk, people that would be like the ones that he knew in this city. Would he have been able to turn it down if they were in danger? Would he have been willing to work with...

You'd have worked with anyone if it meant keeping people safe.

That was the annoying thing, and he knew that he had little choice. The mouse had manipulated him into a corner.

"Fine. I accept."

"Heh, wooonderful." The mouse stood up. "Release them, then, Olag."

The bear smashed his axe down, the butt of it slamming into the floor and shattering the ice all around them. Everyone broke into the shivers instantly, gasping for breath, but nobody looked like they were harmed.

As the white-masked mouse took him by the arm, Denith let himself be led away. He just hoped that he hadn't done something particularly stupid again.

#

"You want me to what?!"

"Is no need to shout," a tigress grumbled as she tried to push an electrode to his forehead, one that he studiously pushed away. "Allow placement, please."

"No way - no way - am I letting you hack my system again! That's how we got into the whole 'little buddy' problem."

"Told ya he'd be pissed about this, captain," Olag muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

"Come on, you worked it out."

"Yeah, but...it was still stupid. Shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Thank you, Olag," Denith muttered

The mouse grumbled behind his mask, standing a few feet forward of the computer chair that the mule had been sat in. The superhero was still in his civilian state, a simple dark mule in a simple pair of pants and a plain shirt, and all around him were...

Well, anything that one cared to name. There were furred creatures that were like piles of hair that had been granted mobility, there were dark-skinned creatures that looked like skeletons with extra mouths, there were wrinkle-headed humanoids, green-skinned orcs, something that looked disturbingly like a shoggoth, and more that he didn't even have words for. It was like the biggest rag-tag ensemble in the universe, all pulled onto one ship.

And they all deferred to the Man in Red, despite the fact that the mouse was no more than five feet tall and was far shorter than any of them. The mouse's tail whipped around as he looked at Denith through the mask.

"Look. We have a way for you to infiltrate the city, but you have to let us put it into your system."

"You want my help, you let me do it my way. I know Novus Ager -"

"You know your Novus Ager. This one is different."

"It'll be close enough. And knowing what she - let go of my head, let go."

He pushed the tigress's hands away, shaking his head. When it came down to it, he still had Olag to thank for this feline not rooting around in his programming any more than she had. The big bear had asked for him after the whole warehouse looting incident that had gotten him into the group's possession in the first place, and it was only due to Olag's exceedingly clumsy 'hacking' that he had been able to break free in the first place with minimal damage.

He'd gotten rather attached to the bear since then, despite the long absences between his appearances. They'd had...relations...and while that was occasionally awkward, he'd be the first to say that the bear was better than most people thought he was. Emotionally clumsy? Selfish? Not great with his feelings? All true, but that didn't take away that Olag was still a more trusted friend than anyone else in the room.

And the fact that Olag was there was one of the big reasons he hadn't just said 'fuck it' and left by this point.

"Just tell me what this other Nor acts like, and I'll do my best to imitate it."

"Won't work," the tigress muttered.

"I'm not that bad an actor."

"No offense, little buddy, but ya kinda are."

"I'm better than you think. Every superhero has to be better than -"

Clunk. Denith's mouth shut with a click and a clunk as the Man in Red pressed the butt-end of his cane against the mule's chin.

"Denith. You are going to let us do this, and here's why. The Lord in Lavender is a very, very detail-oriented crime lord. He will have files on every single person of interest in this other Novus Ager, as well as files on who they're dating, what they've been doing, and everything else involved in their lives. You can't imitate that. You have to be that.

"Tatyana here has set up a shell for this other version of Nor. It'll program your body to look like him, and it'll give you a set of memories and instincts that'll make you act like him."

"Then why does it have to be me and not some other member of your crew?"

"Because you are Nor," the mouse said. "We have a mostly-complete shell that'll give someone a costume, but if you put the wrong person in the costume, then the costume doesn't mean a damn thing. Why do you think we picked you out of the crowd?"

"Because I'm fool enough to go through with this?"

"That too, but also because we need someone as similar to the other Nor as possible for the memories and patterns to stick. Otherwise, we might as well just put on a skin-suit and see what happens."

"...You have those?"

"Don't ask," Olag muttered. "Just...don't ask."

"The point is, you need this. If you don't want to let us install it, then we'll just mind-wipe you and try something else. But we can't keep wasting time."

"...If I say no, you're going to go to another Nor in another universe, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yep."

"So, sooner or later, you're going to find one of me that'll agree to this."

"Pretty much."

"That's not fair."

"That's the benefit of choice, Denith. So, what'll it be?"

"...Fine."

After all, they were going to get one of him to do it, eventually. It might as well be one that he trusted to get it done properly. Denith leaned back in the chair, letting the tigress - Tatyana - attach the electrodes to the sides of his neck, his temples, his forehead, and along his chest. They were sticky, just sticky enough to make him think that it was going to be a pain in the ass to pull them off later.

Everyone backed up a dozen paces from the chair, and the tigress took her position at a computer terminal twenty feet off. She pulled on a pair of goggles, and then started tapping the keys.

"Initiating systems link in three...two..."

Denith opened his internal systems, bringing down the firewalls that would normally stop a connection. He was pretty sure that they would have been strong enough to stop any normal hacking attempt, but considering what the Man in Red said about wasting time -

"One."

A sudden blast of electricity surged through the different electrodes, slapping into his skin and then through them. The barely-submerged bio-connectors reacted, shooting energy back, and several of the electrodes rippled along his skin, almost like they were going to pop right off.

"Careful! It's...defensive," Denith muttered.

"Few more seconds."

Whatever information the tigress had gleaned from him the first time he'd been 'property,' she must have extrapolated from it in directions he didn't even want to think about. He could 'see' the programs and connection protocols that she was sending down the line in his mind's eye, see them grabbing onto his own connection programs like toothless cells.

Then the programs swelled, wrapping around his own, disconnecting them from his main core. They integrated with the program, becoming a transmitter between his cells, Tatyana's controls, and his own processes deep inside.

Oh...god...

It meant that any command that his internal core sent to his body - to transform, to act, to do anything that was normally 'him' - had to be approved by Tatyana's smothering controls before it could get through to the programs and cells of his body. She had effectively done what nobody else ever had: she'd walled off the safeguards inside.

"Take it out...take it out!" he shouted.

"Can't. Is installed. Has self-destruct every three hours, though; will not be permanent."

"Who ordered...nnngh. Who ordered that?" the mule asked, panting as he turned to the mouse.

"Do you think I had time to think of something like that? No, that was Olag's suggestion. Said it needed to be temporary, and I agreed."

The bear. The bear had said that he needed that safety? His panic attack was only slightly fading as he looked at Olag in shock -

"Shutting down system for remodeling."

And just like that, Nor was out like a light.

The End