5.5 Ad Lib Interlude
o0O0o0O0o
Charlie King was working on his case notes for the Williams case. He was pretty satisfied with how it had gone, so far. Full acquittal expected, but then again, that was practically par for the course. He couldn't promise perfect results, and he never had, but he had no problem emphasizing his near one hundred percent success rate either. There was a reason why he was so bloody expensive, and it wasn't his looks!
He tried to restrain himself to only work the cases that passed his personal morals test. If his potential client was best swayed by the argument that they should hire him because they were innocent and he could prove that, then they would get along just fine. If they were more swayed by the argument that he could make sure that they didn't do the time for their crimes, then he politely told them that he was very discriminating in who he took on as clients.
Just about done now. He had a few things left to do yet to finish the case properly, but he was certain that Mr. Williams would be a very satisfied customer. It had been a very messy case of self defense after all, a lesser lawyer would have tried for a confession with a reduced sentence.
He was just getting up from his desk when the Endbringer sirens rang out.
Damn. I had hoped to go to the courtroom one more time today, they'll be closed now.
Except the sirens didn't stop. They kept wailing. Filling his veins with ice. It was local.
Charlie rushed through his mansion to the front hall. He had to catch Oliver before he left for the shelters!
His racing pulse slowed a little when he spotted his bodyguard still preparing to leave. OK, how best to play this?
Convince Oliver to continue protecting me-
-Offer him more money
-Offer him favours, I am quite connected
-Appeal to his long service to me
"Oliver! Surely you aren't just rushing out on me? You've worked for me for more than a decade!"
Oliver looked scared, but mastered himself.
"You know my family comes first Charlie. It's been good working for you, but I've got to look after my own."
Charlie frowned. Try a different track then.
Convince Oliver to protect me for today-
-He can go to his family afterwards
-He won't make it to his family in time anyway
-I could make his life difficult if he left now
"Oliver, I know that your family is in the Belco shelter, but you can find them again once the attack is over. Just protect me during the attack, surely that wouldn't be too hard?"
Oliver looked resolute. "You can't convince me Charlie. I'll see if I can find you again after this mess is over. Goodbye."
A better result, but not what he hoped for. Charlie lamented the fact that his power couldn't supply the words for him, only show him which of the arguments that he thought of that would work best. He was certain that there was some magic combination of words that would convince his bodyguard, but he didn't know them. Oh well, he had given it his best shot.
"Good luck and stay safe, friend. I hope your family is OK." He called out to the retreating back of his long time employee. Now, he had to get himself to the Civic shelter. Fortunately it was quite close.
o0O0o
The seemingly endless screaming in his head was finally over, the Simurgh had apparently left. The problem is that they were now packed in like sardines in the Endbringer shelter. Thousands of panicky people in an underground shelter just barely large enough to hold them.
And trouble was brewing.
"Look, if we just kill some of those rich fuckers, we'll have more food for everyone else."
It was perhaps inevitable that the crowds congregated in to groups of like minded people. When one of the more unhinged members of the crowd had spotted the group of politicians and lawyers wearing the suits they had fled here in, he had spotted his crusade.
Most of the crowd were just watching with wide eyes, but some of those more directly affected by the Simurgh were starting to nod their heads as if the logic made perfect sense.
Charlie frowned to himself. Perhaps he had best step in before this got messy. He was one of those in a suit after all.
He stepped forward, slightly bridging the growing gap between the groups of people and drawing every eye to himself. He focused on the group in front of him, more than a thousand people, and brought up his power.
As he started marshaling his arguments, he was once again thankful that time seemed to slow down when he was in a conversation. The more complex the situation, the slower time crawled by. With this many people, he would have plenty of time to come up with some good arguments.
Convince the crowd to calm down and stick together-
-We have a better chance of surviving once we get out, with more people (203/1211)
-There is plenty enough food to go around, it isn't worth dying over (612/1211)
-The crowd would be in danger of getting caught up in the fighting if some members attacked (140/1211)
-The rich members would be able to damage the food, if they were being attacked (99/1211)
-There were innocent children in both groups that would get killed if fighting broke out (157/1211)
Not for the first time, Charlie wondered how his power knew which argument would best sway the crowd. Especially in circumstances like this, when the most successful argument wasn't the one that swayed the most people directly. Were the ones that would be convinced by the winning argument the ones who were most influential in the crowd, the most passionate, the most imposing? Perhaps, the winning argument was a very close second for many people, while the more intuitive choice would turn more members of the crowd away? In the end it didn't matter, only the fact that the argument did have the best chance of swaying the crowd mattered.
"People! Don't listen to this madman. If anyone in the crowd is killed, we will have less people available for rebuilding. The more people make it out of this alive, the better chance we have of surviving the next month. An extra day's worth of food won't outweigh the cost."
Now he just had to convince the disheveled man in front of him not to wring his neck. But he was good at convincing.
o0O0o
They were finally out of the shelters, and people were slowly making their way home. Oliver would want to stay with his family over in Belco, so Charlie either had to find a new bodyguard or move over to that neighborhood himself. With most of his resources and connections in Civic, he was inclined to stay here. Moving around too much in this sort of environment could just get you killed after all.
He would keep an eye out for a suitable person to convince.
Charlie was in the middle of picking his way through a portion of the town that had seemingly been simply flattened like a house of cards, when a man suddenly appeared in front of him. Ah! He recognized that cheap costume and rough appearance. It was Smash n Grab, a teleporter and local minor villain. If he could snag him, a powered bodyguard would be ideal.
First things first. Upon spotting him, Smash n Grab looked like he was preparing to teleport away again.
Convince Smash n Grab to stay here for the next ten seconds-
-Yell his cape name
-Yell 'wait!'
"Smash n Grab!"
The cape turned, squinting to see if he recognized who was calling. Now Charlie just had to convince him to help. He was looking skittish though, subtlety would be required for this one.
Convince Smash n Grab to help-
-Offer him money
-Tell him I am a cape, offer favours
-Offer to help him with what he needs
OK, next step.
Convince Smash n Grab to help-
-Offer to help him personally
-Offer to help his family
-Offer to help his friends
Now to refine it a little bit.
Convince Smash n Grab to help-
-Offer to help his parents
-Offer to help his brother
-Offer to help his sister
-Offer to help his child
"I can help your sister, I just need some help in return."
Charlie now held his full attention.
"How do you know about my sister?! Who are you?" He looked angry, but at least he wasn't attacking or teleporting away.
Convince Smash n Grab that he can trust me-
-Explain my power and reason for using it
-Give a vague answer
-Pretend to know his sister from somewhere
"I know which argument will best sway people, I knew that offering to help your sister would best convince you, just like I can use my power to help you and your sister. I'm just looking for a bodyguard. I can help you out a lot with my power."
Smash n Grab looked much calmer now, but still doubtful. "How come I've never heard of you if you're a hero?"
No need for his power with this one, the answer was simple enough. He didn't like to rely on his power for everything, lest he forget how to interact with people normally. "I'm not a hero, I'm a lawyer. I use my power to help innocent people go free when they are accused of crimes. I guess it makes me a Rogue. Technically my cape name is Ad Lib if I have to fill out paperwork for it, but I mostly just chose it as a joke. Call me Charlie."
At least Smash n Grab was looking more interested than threatened now. He leaned on the hood of a flattened car.
"Ad Lib? What's that mean? Some lawyer joke?"
"Ad Lib stands for Ad Libitum, when talking about speech, it means making something up on the spot, since that is basically my power."
Charlie was pretty sure that Smash n Grab was hooked, he just needed to get a little closer now.
"Why don't you tell me your name, and bring me to meet your sister, and I can see about helping you out. I'll want to go check if my mansion is still standing, but if it is, I bet it would be a much more comfortable place to stay than wherever you're holed up."
"Ah. I'm Zach. You sure you want to go see my sister? She's not much good with new people."
Charlie was making an educated guess that Zach was in desperate straits, based on his appearance and the fact that he was known for making money by stealing from the till of stores that were closed. Charlie was pretty sure that he would jump at the chance to move to better accommodations.
"Yes. Don't worry, I'm good with people."
Zach seemed to think for a moment, before nodding. "Alright. Let's head to your house first, so we can just teleport there if it's still there."
Charlie just led the way, it was a short walk from where they were, he was already almost home from the shelter when he spotted Smash n Grab.
On the way, he decided to find out about his new potential bodyguard's power. "So you can't just teleport anywhere? You have to have been somewhere first?"
Zach wobbled his hand a bit. "Sort of. I can teleport to anything that I've broken myself, but it makes the thing disappear, so I have to keep breaking things. I usually just rip a playing card in half, see?" He took a pack of cards out of his pocket, then took one out and ripped it in half, before throwing the halves. A second later he teleported to stand where one of the halves had ended up. When he stepped off, it was obvious that both halves of the card had indeed disappeared.
That had some disturbing implications... "So you could break a brick and make a building disappear? Or break a bone and make a person disappear?"
"Nah. It doesn't work on anything living, and it only works on the smallest whole bit of the thing, so if I break a brick only the brick disappears. If it's too big, and not made of smaller things that I can work with, it just won't work at all.
Once they got within sight of his house, Charlie let out a breath of relief that it still looked intact. Leading Zach inside, he tried to sell the idea of staying here with his sister. All the better to protect him after all. Zach seemed pretty impressed with the sort of dwelling an extremely powerful lawyer could afford.
"Wow, yeah, OK. This place is a lot better than the dump where we're staying. I'll go get my sister. He took out his pack of cards again before ripping several and scattering them in the entryway. Then he turned to Charlie.
"I can only teleport with what I can carry and I don't know you that well yet, so I'll be back with my sister."
With that he disappeared, while Charlie went to grab some food. May as well make a good impression.
A few minutes later, Zach reappeared with someone hanging off his back. Ah, the young woman had Down syndrome. He could see why Zach was protective of her.
Convince Zach's sister to trust me-
-Tell her that I'm going to help them
-Tell her that I'm with Zach
-Introduce myself
"Hi, I'm Zach's friend, Charlie."
Once she looked over to Zach for confirmation, her face became a lot less distrustful. "Oh. OK. Hello Charlie."
"It's good to meet you. Welcome to my home. Hopefully we can get along."
Now that he had a bodyguard, he just needed a way to secure a stable supply of food and he would be set for now. He was sure he could whip some people in to shape to get food being distributed a little better.
He just needed to find someone that thought they were in charge and convince them to let him direct a little bit. With Charlie serving as the broker between any disagreeing groups, he was pretty sure that they could find a peaceful arrangement. The sooner they could find a stable peace, the better chance he had of living to a ripe old age. Communications could be difficult, but having a teleporter would help with that.
After making sure his guests were settled in, Charlie started making plans. He would need to build closer ties with Zach to ensure that he stood with him if the going got tough, but he had a cheat sheet for that. After that, well, perhaps scout the neighborhood, see how many of his connections still lived.
Some people might have thought that getting quarantined was the end of the world, but Charlie chose to look on the bright side. His money might be useless now, but his power would let him build up his influence just as well in the new situation.