“Oh god, Harrison. I’m not going to use it. Well, I mean I was planning on shooting it at Wayne as a grand unveiling of the thing. If he was stupid enough not to dodge it might singe his hair,” Syx rolled his eyes, “It will make a big boom and be otherwise underwhelming as it destroys something uselessly abandoned that the city refuses to demolish even though it should. But even if I was going to use it elsewhere, it orbits the Earth,” he waved his hands above his head, “I could hardly ever use the stupid thing. It’s for the show. Like the giant robots and taking over the broadcasts. To prove that I can.”
He jabbed a finger onto the table, “Most of the sheeple of this city will laugh at the grand show of the thing and forget that any of it still exists or that I could remake it after Wayne tosses me back in jail… but the people that matter? The would-be heroes? The villain leagues? They know. They remember. And next time one of those assholes comes knocking around my Lair, they do so with respect or they kicked in the teeth for being an idiot.”
“None of this is for the sheeple. They’re the heroes and cops problems,” the villain steepled his fingers, he’d gotten too worked up to realize he should have just shut up but frankly he rarely had anyone to explain himself to or who’s opinion mattered to him, “The ones I care about are the ones that don’t stay in jail. That never get caught. That the laws never stick to. The underworld Harrison,” he sighed, “Not that I recognize it anymore in this version of Metrocity.”
Harrison’s brow furrowed even more. Part of him was relieved that Syx wasn’t planning on using an orbital death weapon to shoot innocent civilians. Maybe he should apologize for making an erroneous assumption? But the other part was somewhat thrown off guard by Syx’s rant. And it certainly was a rant. It was also something that Harrison still struggled to understand.
“I probably shouldn’t ask this,” he sighed. “I probably don’t want to know. But…..” He didn’t finish the sentence. If he was going to have this man in his life, in his son’s life, he needed to know. He needed to know exactly who he was falling in love with. “What exactly do you do? In this underworld? Besides hire ex cons. What are you hiring them for?”
Syx frowned softly and picked up his drink, sipping it and closing his eyes as he enjoyed the taste. He let himself get far too worked up over this sort of thing.
“Lots of things… most of the places I own are in the ghettos and run down neighborhoods. Low rent housing, corner stores, food banks, shelters… that sort of thing. Usually built on the site of a recently destroyed building as part of the city’s Disaster Repair Plan. Somehow the money and the blueprints just magically appear while I’m conveniently behind bars,” he fluttered his lashes innocently.
“Honestly, my Uncles run the vast majority of it. I’m just the face. If you ever walk into a shop that has my signature in the window or graffiti on the walls, it’s mine. Under my protection. Which basically just means that if someone robs it then either me or one of my Uncles pays them a visit and lets them know why they shouldn’t do that again.”
He held up a hand, “No it’s not a protection racket. The only thing I get out of it, especially when it started, was just people willing to actually sell to me and Minion. By the way, Nancy down near Evil Lair, she has an amazing butcher shop. Top quality from local farmers. She deals in other things too, but that’s where Minion buys all our meat and fish. Just never cross her, she’s mean with a butcher knife,” Syx laughed, though he blatantly realized gallows humor might not be best, “And uh… welcome to my inner circle? Only Anna and the Blues know all this… and now you.”
RP backup 