Mutation 1.04

I could feel the walls closing in on me as the mob drew closer. I was left crouching underneath a table, breathing with panic while surrounded by all sides. I felt completely and utterly trapped.

And yet, strangely, I had never felt stronger.

I could see my bugs so clearly like they were all chess pieces on some immensely giant board. There were millions of them, yet I could keep track of every single one. Every single bug in a four block radius twitched and moved with perfect coordination.

The mob was tearing their way through. With a triumphant roar from the crowd, Kaiser's metal spikes tore through the honeycomb, breaking the cocoon enough for the thugs to rush in. The skinheads were screaming like barbarian invaders as they charged into the lair with guns and baseball bats.

Horror movie tactics, I recalled Lisa mentioning.

Let's give them something to be scared about.

First, hinder their movements. A group of spiders flanking the breach pulled their webs taut, forming a silk tripwire just at ankle height. The thugs at the front stumbled, only for the ones behind to fall to the ground as well. In the dark and cramped space, the men ran into each other and toppled with ease.

Then, catch them off guard. A swarm of flies burst from the ceiling, charging madly into the crowd. They were just flies, nothing dangerous, but enough to send the men to panic.

Kaiser didn't twitch – he was clad in skin-tight metal armour such that not even an insect could touch his bare skin, using his power to allow him to move at the joints. Without pause, he ordered four men around to throw their Molotov cocktails that they had been keeping in reserve.

Now for the game changer. With a simple thought, my spiders released the support threads on precise parts of the outer cocoon, letting the heavy silk drop to reveal the bare honeycomb. With a roar, heavy silk sheets were suddenly dropped onto the crowd, and as soon as the Molotov cocktails flung through the air, there was a mass of flies and moths there to redirect the flaming bottles, knocking them straight into the exposed honeycomb.

The explosive beehives were scattered around the honeycomb on the outside. The bees stored the unstable nitro-glycerine in a mucus wax, forming what was essentially a layer of dynamite around my cocoon. Extremely pure and high yield dynamite. The wax was quite resistant, but as the wax started to melt away…

The charges were shaped outwards for maximum effect. Honestly, I hadn't quite been sure what sort of explosion to expect. I figured even just a flash to cause enough a distraction would be enough.

In a second, I realised how wrong I was.

I had massively underestimated just how powerful all of those explosives really were.

The cocoon exploded. Even with all the blast going outwards, and a firm layer of reinforced spider silk and honeycomb protecting me, the shockwave still sent my head spinning. It felt like my teeth was going to shatter as suddenly my living quarters were pulverised by the blast of air.

I had intended to be in my escape tunnels when that went off, I thought weakly.

Outside it was so, so much worse.

Fenja and Menja were the biggest targets, they took the full blast. The force was enough to send the giant sisters physically lifting off the ground and flying backwards. One of them was sent hurling backwards and splashing violently straight into the murky dock water.

The Empire Eighty-Eight was sent reeling. The flames and most of the blast went upwards, but the shockwave was still devastating. The sound alone was enough to shatter eardrums. In an instant, there were dozens of men suffering severe concussion, while others were sent knocked backwards, lifting off the ground with pure force of impact.

Kaiser, still by the front of the entrance, was the only one still standing up thanks to that metal suit of his. Still, he stood like statue, as that suit held him firm.

I was gasping for breath as the smoke went everywhere. My head was spinning, but my powers forced me to focus. While everyone was still reeling, I needed the final phase of the plan:

Release hell.

My cocoon was split open. In an instant, every single bug I had was unleashed. For the Empire Eighty-Eight, the tidal wave of black roaring towards them was something like out of an apocalypse movie.

No time to be soft. A couple of thugs tried throwing cans of bug spray. They might as well have been trying to use sponges to soak up the ocean.

In my mind's eye, it was like cavalry charge. I had the disposable bugs, the flies, the moths, at the front of the wave, but then there were heavy duty ones close behind. The hornets and bees went ahead straight for the capes, leaving the thugs to mopped up by the giant beetles and centipedes. I kept the spiders and the scorpions towards the back in reserve, while suddenly from the other side of the battlefield, armies of ants burst out of the sewers to cut off any escape.

The Empire Eighty-Eight was slow to react. One of the sisters, Fenja, I think, recovered upwards and raised her shield as if to squash the ocean of bugs, but then her leg twitched and she stumbled backwards, crashing onto her own men.

I glanced just to see Regent at the far side of the street, using his power to make her trip. I only saw him for a second before Grue's darkness made a chunk of the battlefield disappear. The Undersiders joined the battle from the rear.

It was complete pandemonium. I could feel men thrashing and roaring with panic as they struggled and failed to fight off giant centipedes wrapping around them. There were screams that sounded like men were being flayed alive. Too many screams, in fact, and too loud.

I realised quickly that that was Tattletale's work – she had set up a large scale surround sound system around my warehouses, and she must be blasting continuous pre-recorded screams cut from horror movies at deafening levels. The screams increased the confusion and chaos tenfold.

Overall, if I had to imagine a scene of complete and utter horror and devastation, it wouldn't have even came close to what was happening outside.

Men were running for their lives. Patches of darkness were separating the gang, forcing them to panic as the insects cut them off. Nobody knew what to do and they were all running scared.

I needed to move, I realised suddenly. There was a very limited window of opportunity here. The panic could only last for so long. As soon as they got organised again, I'd be in trouble.

Kaiser had wanted to cut me off from escaping, by surrounding me with numbers. I had to make that plan backfire – right now his capes were just too spread out to come to his help.

I ran through the tally quickly in my head – Fenja and Menja were down, Rune was being swarmed by insects. Night and Fog were at the opposite side of the warehouse so they'd be slow to react, while Stormtiger and Cricket were in the tunnels and wouldn't get here in time. Victor was on the opposite building with a sniper rifle to try and cut me down, but blind by the bugs, and Othala was with him in reserve. Krieg was trying to secure the perimeter, and I wasn't so sure about Alabaster, but I could handle that.

The key bit was that, right now, Kaiser was standing in front of my warehouse, totally alone while the rest of his men ran for their lives amidst a swarm of insects.

I can take him, I thought firmly, pulling myself off the ground. I need to take him.

At once, my bugs shifted and swarmed Kaiser as a singular mass. I had been hoping for any sort of gap in his armour I could fit a poisonous spider through, but there was none, not even for his eyes. I wondered briefly how he could possibly see, but then I realised that he must have sealed up the eye sockets on his helmet as soon as the swarm hit him.

Bugs were left biting uselessly at metal. I couldn't break the armour. Then I could make him suffocate in there, I thought firmly, piling up the bugs even more until he disappeared under the solid mass of insects.

But I had to move. I was totally vulnerable now and the last thing I wanted was to face another cape directly. I gathered up every single bug I had left to flank me, as I charged out of the warehouse as fast as possible.

With a thought, dozens of large circular objects rose up behind me, supported by nets of web and swarms of bees. The bees shot forward like bomber planes, and there were explosions that cleared my path through the remaining E88.

Explosive beehives, I thought with satisfaction, as I charged through the door and sprinted for it. The beehives spiraled around me, shooting towards any cluster of men that even tried to stop me.

One man tried to raise a shotgun towards me, but was left screaming as a giant centipede wrapped itself around his torso and tried to crawl down his throat.

The damage was more psychological than physical, I thought to myself as I ran. I hope.

Suddenly, a solid metal dumpster slammed towards me towards me at breakneck speed, and I barely managed to dive out of the war, even with insects giving early warning. I glimpsed Rune flying above me, with cars and debris circling around her as she tried to fight of the swarm of wasps and hornets chasing after her. Sabrina the teenage Nazi sent a car slamming towards me, but I dived out the way and replied with a black smokescreen of flies that hid my movements as I ran.

The Empire Eighty-Eight was in no position to stop me. I sensed Fog approaching quickly, slaughtering bugs as he went, but in the chaos I managed to slip away. Next to him, there was Night, pacing around the battlefield as she tried to find some enemy to engage. I wanted to be well away from both of them before they had the chance.

I reached the edge of an alleyway leading away from my warehouse, when suddenly I felt my insects die behind me. I dropped to the floor instinctively, just as metal blades spun furiously to where my head had been.

Damn it! Kaiser managed to shrug of the pile of insects long enough to notice me.

Through the eyes of the swarm, I suddenly sensed Kaiser lashing metal nets like giant fly swatters around him, and generating metal spears that lunged straight for me. He morphed his metal helmet just long enough to give him a glimpse of where I was at, and then closed the eyeholes again before any bugs could get to his eyes.

There wasn't even time to curse as I jumped to my feet and bolted for my life. I formed five bug decoys behind me to distract him, but Kaiser's metal blades cut through all of in an instant.

I could run for my life, moving away from the rest of the fighting as heavy metal footsteps chased after me. I needed to get away from Kaiser, but the man was persistent.

Vaguely, I remembered the last time I saw Kaiser fight, during the combined assault against the ABB, when he had cut through the gang members viciously and tore chunks of flesh out with ease. My heart was pounding like a drum as I realised he was still chasing after me.

I sent bugs charging at him, to slow him down or even just obscure his vision, but he kept on coming. I turned the corner and sprinted down the alleyway, but suddenly a barricade of metal thorns burst from the ground. I could feel the metal blades collide against my suit. Thankfully it didn't penetrate the silk, but the impact felt like a punch to the gut.

I couldn't even see Kaiser under the swarm of bugs, but he didn't stop lashing out with metal spikes and barbed edges that sprouted across the walls like deadly thorns. I had to dive into a corner as a metal barb came inches away from my face.

How can he see me? I thought with pure panic, before I realised. Kaiser couldn't see a thing – he was trapped in a metal suit to keep the bugs out. He was just lashing out blindly with his power, but the alley was narrow enough that he still stood a pretty good chance at skewering me.

Kaiser stepped closer, summoning more and more thorns. I gasped as the thorns crept closer, pulling myself into the corner. There was nowhere to run, and Kaiser, even blind, was methodically cutting down the amount space I could hide in…

The idea came quickly. Gathering up my swarm, I spoke through my bugs and generated my voice directly behind Kaiser. "What's the matter, metal boy?" My bugs taunted loudly. "You look a bit annoyed."

At once Kaiser spun around and lashed out with metal blades directly behind him. I sighed in relief as he turned away from me. He didn't know that I could speak through the swarm. If he heard my voice behind him, then he would think I was behind and it would buy me time.

I could see Kaiser hesitating, unsure. The metal blades spread out, trying to cut off escape from both ends of the alley, while the barbs slashed blindly. Mentally, he must be trying to picture absolutely every place I could be hiding.

I needed to lure him away. Let him think I already escaped. "Is this about that shower incident?" I taunted, moving my voice gradually further away. "Oh, or it's about the head lice? In fact tell me, how are those bed bugs feeling?"

He followed the sound, lunging with metal spears that appeared at will. I breathed a sigh of relief with every step he took, as I carefully pulled myself off the ground and tried to think of someway of escaping. The metal barbs blocking my path were absolutely lethal, but maybe I could climb over –

At once, Kaiser stopped. He hesitated, and then turned around and summoned a thorn of metal barbs barely five feet away from me. I had to gasp as I was once again forced back against the wall.

Damn it! I cursed. Does he have some sort of sensing power too? Or did he just realise that my taunts were a bit too obvious? He might have realised there was a possibility that I could speak through bugs, and I was trying to play him.

He's a smart bastard, I'll give him that.

We were trapped in a narrow alley, barely five metres across. No way out, walls too high to climb. The air was so dense with bugs that he wouldn't be able to see me even without the metal armour, while I couldn't hurt him so long as he was covered in metal. I couldn't escape either with his metal barbs blocking the way.

We were trapped – with him slashing blindly while I hid uselessly.

My mind reeled and my heart pounded. Any moment now, he might get lucky and skewer me with a metal spike. There were only so many places I could be hiding. It was like the most intense, life-or-death game of battleship.

But… I thought suddenly, as I thought about it from his position, things weren't so good for him either. How long had he been trapped in that metal suit? How much oxygen was left in that suit anyways? My bugs were all over him – I knew there wasn't an air gap. All I needed was one small gap to get something poisonous to his skin, and I could have him.

Kaiser had no way of knowing for sure whether I was still trapped in the alley, or if I was already dead. As soon as he released that metal armour, I would have him. I had hornets ready in all positions to shove down his throat at a moment's notice.

But what if Kaiser's reinforcements found us before then? Who would get here first, the Undersiders or the Empire Eighty-Eight?

I was all out of the explosive beehives, but, even if I wasn't, Kaiser's suit had protected him the last time, and there was no reason to think it would be any different this time. The more I looked, I realised that Kaiser's armour must be at least an inch thick – it made his body look stocky even without the swarm of bugs covering him. It was like he was wearing a tank's armour plating that moved with his skin – no wonder I couldn't hurt him…

Another barb came too close for comfort. I gulped in panic.

Was that my play? Just wait until Kaiser was forced to relent or suffocate? What if he used those bug swatters again to try and get even a gulp of fresh air? How long could this last?

I was gasping for breath now. Every second was one that might kill me.

There was so much chaos it was hard to tell how the rest of the battle was going. Hell, it was hard to tell if there even was a battle. The Undersiders were proving enough of a distraction that the capes were rushing past Kaiser and I in the alley to try and join the fight (or even the find the fight thanks to Grue's darkness), and my bugs were still hounding everyone present.

Still, the Undersiders' advantage would wear off shortly as the big hitters managed to recover, and if I wasn't out of this alley by the time the Undersiders had to retreat…

I summoned the biggest insects I had to come towards me, spiders in particular. I needed some sort of spider silk net to let me climb up out of the alley.

How many bees and beetles would it take to bodily lift me into the air? I wondered.

Kaiser took another step towards me, and I heard a clank. My eyes widened.

Right underneath Kaiser's feet, there was a manhole cover. Leading straight into the sewers, I realised. Instantly, I redirected whatever bugs I had below ground to try and come towards me. If I could only reach the manhole cover then I had a way out…

I watched with bated breath as slowly Kaiser took another step forward. My hands were shaking as I crept towards him, crawling on my belly across the ground to avoid the barbs as I tried to reach the manhole. I had my knife in hand to peel it open…

I was barely three foot away. Kaiser was standing right next to me, but stumbling in the dark. Every step he took was absolutely nerve-wracking…

My knife reached the edge metal plate, gingerly levering it up like a crowbar. The relief flooded my system.

I was still feeling relief right up until the moment the metal cover clanked loudly against the pavement. Kaiser span around instantly with the noise.

There wasn't even time for me to scream as I felt the metal spike burst underneath me, stabbing straight into my stomach.

"Got you." Kaiser's voice reverberated from inside his metal suit. The two words were absolutely terrifyingly cold.

My costume held against the spike, but the force felt like it was about to break my spine. I was sent knocking upwards off the ground, unable to breathe. The pain shot through my body, but the next thing I knew, there was an iron hand gripping at my throat.

Kaiser was on top of me, pinning me to the ground, while his hand was at my throat. It felt like a there was a steel girder choking me to death.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't move.

I tried to thrash, but he didn't even seem to notice. His metal armour must have weighted a ton.

Even over the sound of blood rushing through my brains, I could still hear his grinding voice. "You have caused me a lot of trouble," he muttered coldly, the viciousness seeping through each syllable.

My brain screamed for oxygen. I couldn't think. My body convulsed. Around me, the insects roared in frenzy, but… but….

Too much. Need. Air.

I tried to scream. Couldn't.

I could feel him choking the life out of me.

The convulsions became weaker, more sporadic.

The last mental image I had was how a spider's body would twitch for a bit even after you stamped on it…

I felt my sight darken. My body went numb…

"Guess you're not so tough in a fair fight," Kaiser snarled. I only briefly glimpsed a black shape skittering on the roof behind him. Everything went black.

…and then suddenly I was watching the fight straight through the eyes of a thousand bugs.

I couldn't feel my body anymore, but I didn't care.

In an instant, I wasn't controlling the swarm anymore.

I was the swarm.

"And how would you know?" The swarm roared, the words echoing around the alley. A pure bulk of insects hit Kaiser like a truck dropping out of the air. The bugs at the front of swarm were crushed under pressure of the ones behind, but the pure mass was enough to throw Kaiser off-balance.

In an instant, Kaiser's body convulsed as a large shape dropped straight onto his metal helmet, legs wrapping around his head.

The monstrous spider tightened around Kaiser's skull, hugging his face as unnaturally large fangs jabbed straight towards where Kaiser's eyes would be on the metal skull. For a moment, the fangs bounced off the metal plate, but then, slowly, they started to pierce through.

I could hear Kaiser's screams reverberating like a bell in his armour as he left was staring at monstrously large fangs jabbing barely centimetre away from his eyeball.

The giant spider, hyped up on growth hormones and muscle enhancements, had teeth strong enough to pierce through metal.

Maybe not so useless after all, I thought with shock.

Kaiser lashed out with his arms, barely able to throw the monster of a spider off his head, but then he was hit by a dozen of the spider's brood. The mutant spiders leapt onto Kaiser ruthlessly, even despite a dozen metal barbs skewering many of them.

The weight alone forced Kaiser to stumble backwards.

My body jerked into life and suddenly I could feel my heart racing again.

I gasped with relief as I felt the life rush back into my body. I was gasping for breath, my lungs still screaming in pain. Everything was screaming in pain, but my powers were working on autopilot. Without even thinking about, a whole swarm of mutant insects slammed into Kaiser with a renewed assault.

Kaiser lashed out madly, falling into panic as he suddenly felt spider fangs and giant hornet barbs grinding dangerously against his metal armour. He skewered the giant bugs one by one, but I was already bringing more and more in.

He was left slashing blindly at horde of insects, all the while he didn't even notice the silk being threaded around him. I had large spiders circling him, while smaller ones crawled around the barbs covering his armour, all of them threading as much silk as possible.

Within thirty seconds, Kaiser was entangled by the net of super strong silk, thick white threads latching around the metal spikes and becoming more and more cocooned with every barb.

I was still gasping for air, nursing my bruised throat, but my vision cleared just enough as I saw Kaiser being enveloped by so many bugs, all of them taking position.

Without even realising I had a plan, I gave the order for the spiders to start pulling.

At once, every spider gripped their thread and tugged.

The first lurch was barely noticeable for Kaiser. Then, more and more insects took formation, applying steady pressure, and Kaiser started to stagger. Nets were still forming, while giant hornets gripped the threads and started to pull as well. A whole swarm of insects buzzed and skittered as it started pulling him backwards.

It was only when Kaiser's body began to topple backwards that he must have realised how much trouble he was in.

Barbs of metal attempted to cut the silk, but by now I had spiders repairing it faster than he could damage it. For every bug that died in the onslaught of metal, I had a dozen more take its place. Kaiser sprouted metal poles from the ground to try and hold onto, but then there were giant centipedes and beetles attempting to physically push his footing away.

I could see the tension in the silk threads as they were pulled taut. I could see Kaiser's body shaking unsteadily. For a second, nothing happened and Kaiser managed to resist the bugs dragging him away.

But then I stood up, approached him, and hacked at Kaiser's metal helmet repeatedly using my knife. The crown of metal barbs sparked as Kaiser went toppling downwards.

As soon as Kaiser lost his footing, he lost all hope as the spiders enveloped him and dragged him bodily across the ground.

Kaiser was screaming madly as the bugs pulled him straight into the open manhole cover and let him drop into the sewers. He hit the bottom of sewers with a dull clank, and then suddenly there was a horde of giant spiders skittering into the sewers after him.

I was left standing in the alley, still panting weakly, as I cradled my raw throat. I hesitated for a second, before clambering into the sewer as well.

xxxxxxxxxxx

When Kaiser regained consciousness, he was hanging, upside down, directly over the central drain in the Brockton Bay water treatment plant. His whole body was wrapped up tightly in a silk cocoon that hung from the ceiling, suspending him over a fifty foot drop into pitch black water.

I could tell the moment he woke up because his screams were even louder than that of the waterfall surrounding him. He tried to thrash and struggle, but the cocoon was so tight he could barely move.

About three minutes later, he stopped thrashing because he realised what would happen if he actually managed to escape from the silk. It was a long way down.

It had taken us nearly three hours to peel Kaiser from his metal suit, and another two to drag him to the water treatment plant and for my spiders to build the cocoon. We were lucky that we had enough sedatives. Still, when I heard that tremble of pure and utter fear in his voice, I knew it was worth it.

According to Tattletale's power, Kaiser relied on solid surfaces from which to generate his metal. When he was suspended in the cocoon, he was left absolutely helpless.

No armour, no pretence, no power left.

For a man like Kaiser, a man that lived to be in control, that must be the worst possible fate.

I could hear his frenzied panting and gasping as he realised how much trouble he was really in. I stood on the gangway over the waterfall, watching him quietly for about ten minutes.

"Skitter!" Kaiser screamed finally, struggling to even breathe properly through panic. "Skitter! I know you're there! Answer me damn it!"

I paused for about thirty painful seconds. "I'm here," I replied, my voice still hoarse after being strangled.

Kaiser gulped. "You don't want to do this!" He screamed. "We can come to some arrangement! Let me out of here!"

I didn't reply. I let the silence sink in a little bit more. His voice became even more desperate. "My men will be looking for me!" He roared. "You don't want a war like that. Release me now before it's too late!"

Still, I didn't reply. I needed time to think. The lack of a response was like torture to him. "If anything happens to me!" He said threateningly. "The Geselleschaft will demand blood! There will be retribution!"

No response. I could hear him gulp. "You can't kill me!" He said, his voice almost pleadingly. "You can't…"

I thought about replying, but decided against it. The minutes ticked by slowly.

Kaiser's cocoon squirmed. "Please…" he muttered, barely even audible over the sound of the water. "…Don't do this… Please… I have a son… and a daughter…"

"I know," I said eventually, slowly reaching a conclusion. "And they'll both be better off without you."

With that, I turned and walked away. My footsteps on the metal walkway echoed in the chamber. Kaiser tried to twist his head, squinting through the darkness.

"No!" Kaiser roared. "No! Don't kill me, you can't!"

I sighed. "I'm not going to kill you," I shouted back. Although you might wish that I had, I added to myself.

There was a figure waiting patiently at the end of the walkway, a smirk on his face. "He's all yours," I murmured simply. I was too tired to care anymore. I thought long and hard about objecting, but eventually I just figured that Kaiser wasn't worth it.

"Thank you," Regent replied cheerfully, strolling down the walkway. He grinned brightly as he approached Kaiser. I had never seen a smile so frightening.

"Hello there K-man!" Regent said happily. "How's it hanging?"

xxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning, I watched through my bugs as Kaiser strolled into his office, greeted his secretary pleasantly, and then sat down at his desk.

Both Victor and Menja came to see how he was. Kaiser explained, disappointedly, how he tried to chase after the Undersiders but lost them in the sewers. Then, he said that they had to consolidate their forces if they wanted to win this war, and he ordered Victor to bring him a full report about the Empire's remaining operations.

After that, Kaiser walked back into his office and locked the door. He sat down at his computer and stared at the screen. It took him a few attempts to get the password.

I watched all of this while sitting in a café next to Lisa and Alec. Alec hadn't stopped smirking all day. Lisa provided Alec with a set of instructions, and Kaiser did them.

Firstly, bank accounts. With a bit of aid from Lisa's power, we provided the passwords and helped fill in the details, while Kaiser logged into the Empire Eighty-Eight accounts and started moving money around. Then, he phoned up his accountants and told them to move all of his off-shore accounts too.

All of Kaiser's stock, property ownerships, and business contracts were similarly transferred.

After that, Kaiser contacted his friends in the Geselleschaft and requested quite a large loan. Then, he contacted his white supremacist friends across the country and requested a few more loans. He phoned up his business advisor and requested a loan from the bank.

It took nearly six hours, but Kaiser worked his way through. He even dipped into the pay checks and pension funds of the Empire Eighty-Eight and all their subsidiary companies.

Then, Kaiser took a trip down to the bank and cleared out his safety deposit boxes, and all of his private finances. All private bank statements and important legal documents went into the same duffel bags. He dropped everything at our table, smiled, and then walked away without a word.

Alec burst out laughing around about that time.

By that time, the day was already winding down. As Kaiser worked through Lisa's list, eventually it reached the point where he made a copy of the contents of his hard drive, and emailed it all to the PRT.

He also sent a few emails to local and national news outlets, detailing both his secret identity and the identity of all of his subordinates, along with a complete list of all his crimes to date.

Likewise, all of the activities of the Geselleschaft, all of the private mercenaries and assassins he had ever used, all his business contacts – in fact, pretty much every illegal thing he had ever done, heard about or been associated with and then some – it was all posted online.

It took only five minutes for his phone to start ringing quite urgently. Kaiser ignored all the calls.

He did, however, make a few calls of his own. He phoned up all of his neo-Nazi friends and admitted that he fucked their wives.

I kicked Alec firmly under the table at that one, but Alec just smirked.

By the end of it, in the span of a few hours, Kaiser had just become the most wanted, hated man in the criminal underground. He had just embezzled a huge sum of money from the Geselleschaft and then completely compromised a large portion of their terrorist operations. There would be men in Europe having fits and running around scared as soon as the information filtered through to the relevant authorities.

Even if he couldn't move even twitch his face, I would have sworn that there were tears rolling down his cheeks as he turned the lights off and locked up the office for the night.

I just watched a man give away his whole Empire – absolutely everything he had spent his life working for, burn every bridge, forced to helplessly watch as everything he ever treasured was thrown away.

The entire house of cards was knocked down and then set alight.

I almost felt sorry for Kaiser. Almost.

I still wasn't sure which would have been the kinder option – this, or simply murdering him.

Instead, Alec forced Kaiser's body to walk into the bathroom, and stare firmly into the mirror. Kaiser generated a metal knife, and then held the blade millimetres away from his eyeball, unable to flinch. Kaiser's eyes had the glaze of that of a dead man.

"You know what's going to happen now," Kaiser said slowly, speaking to his reflection even though the words weren't his own. "You've been marked. You've got nothing left. No money, no power, no Empire. Your enemies will try to kill you. Your 'friends' will try to kill you harder."

He was definitely crying, I thought softly. Even if Kaiser was unable to whimper, he was still crying. "We will try to kill you," Regent continued, speaking through Kaiser's voice. "If you ever set foot in Brockton Bay again, I'll know about it, and I'll make you kill yourself."

There was a pause. "In fact, scratch that," Regent continued. "I won't kill you. Instead, I'll just use you. Like this, forever. Do you understand? You can nod or shake your head."

With a gulp, Kaiser nodded slowly. "Good," Regent continued, speaking through Kaiser's mouth again. "Now, then you've only got one chance here if you want to live. You disappear, right now, tonight, forever. Nobody ever sees your face, nobody ever hears your name. You don't talk anyone, you are never noticed again. We both know that, after tonight, the whole world will try to kill you."

Kaiser's lips twisted upwards into a smile. "Enjoy the rest of your life," Regent said in a farewell. Kaiser's body lurched, and suddenly he was trembling again. I watched as Regent's control disappeared, and Kaiser slowly crumpled to the ground.

The sight of a man that had literally lost absolutely everything… it was so disheartening that I had to tear myself away from looking.

I had told myself that I refused to feel sorry for Kaiser, but I still couldn't help feeling a little twinge of pity.

I forced myself back to the café, and I scowled as I watched Alec drinking his soda cheerfully.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" I muttered coldly, nose wrinkling in disgust.

"Little bit," Alec admitted with a shameless grin.

"You just ruined a man's life in the worst possible way and sentenced him to die."

"Yep." Alec shrugged. "But on the bright side, we're now all millionaires and we own this city."