Chapter Nine

(Five months ago)

Anson paced the floor of his office, frowning. He had never been a patient man, although his plan to eliminate Jason had required a certain amount of finesse, planning, and, yes, patience. Anson had calmed himself during that time by thinking about all the money he would receive in exchange for sitting on his hands and waiting.

Although he had received his money, and with it, power and influence, things didn't go exactly to plan.

'Using that Campbell woman had been a mistake, and nearly a fatal one.' He reminded himself. 'Hopefully she's dead by now'.

This time, however, there was no real monetary reward. No goals or ambitions; he had what he wanted. No, what was bothering him was that he had found himself at war.

Luckily, for him, this wasn't a war on the scale of the one three years ago, the threat not as insidious as the Rikti. This was an entirely personal war, the stakes no lower than his life, his power, and his money.

'How did this happen?' He asked himself. 'How is it possible…'

He knew the answer to his own question before he finished the thought. It wasn't surprising, as he'd thought of nearly nothing else in the past two weeks.

'Tucker'.

Despite his best efforts, he knew…knew that Tucker was alive. When he had witnessed the funeral, seven months ago, he had hoped that his 'good friend' Jason Tucker was burning in hell, as surely as the flamethrower he had cast upon him had burned his body. However…

'Damn these reports'. Anson stopped at his desk, and stared at the newspaper headlines that angled up at him.

'Masked Saviour'

'Who is the new Hero?'

'The Phoenix Rises'

All stories reporting the same thing; a new Hero, in grey armour with red flames, and a giant flame emblem on his chest. The media had taken to calling him Phoenix, after one report said he had spoken, and called himself a Phoenix, rising from his own ashes.

'Doesn't take a genius to read much into that.' Anson scowled. 'It's Tucker, and he's rubbing my face in it.'

To make things even worse, all these reports had been filed by a reporter whose credibility that he, Anson himself, had built up out of all proportion.

'By Susan Daniels'.

"Bitch.", Anson growled at the papers, as if she could hear him. Still, payback was nearly at hand. It had taken some careful planning, some manoeuvring of the highest level, but he had done it. Once again, he had planted a spy in Tucker's ranks, and, once again, it was a woman. Although not the woman he had originally intended. Daniels had proven to be as big a disappointment as Campbell, in that regard. No, this spy was perfect.

And, more than anything else? She was 100 loyal.

His desk intercom buzzed.

"Sir? Mr Mayor?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Your 11 o'clock appointment is here."

He grinned. Speak of the devil…

"Good. Send her in."

(A month earlier)

Sarriss sat at the desk in the Supergroup base, watching Jason and Emily embrace.

'He deserves to be happy', she told herself, and sighed, feeling more than slightly jealous. 'It is, after all, the first time they've seen each other in five months.'

After a while, though, (and, according to Sarriss, it felt like long enough. Jason and Emily would have disagreed) she felt enough was enough, and cleared her throat.

"Now that, as they say, the gang's all here, can we get down to brass tacks?"

"Brass tacks?" Susan murmured, looking askance at her friend. Sarriss ignored her, and drummed the fingers of her good hand on the desk.

"We have things to discuss. These two Lovebirds can…catch up later." She glanced up at Sam. "Which reminds me, can you put an audio damper around his quarters? I think they're going to have some….noisy conversations this evening."

"Consider it done."

Sarriss nodded, and chose to ignore Jason and Emily's faces, which had both turned bright red. "Right. Now…Jason, you were saying something about meeting the Leadership Council?"

"Hmm? Oh, right, right." Jason put Emily down on the ground, and, taking her hand, moved back to the table. "We need to start hitting Mitchell where it hurts. What do we know about him?"

"Uhm…" Emily frowned. "Who's Mitchell?"

Sam grinned. "Mike Anson."

"What?"

"It's a….long story." Sue shrugged, and held out her hand. "I'm Susan Daniels."

"Emily Campbell." Emily took the proffered hand, and shook it. "I take it you're the only other sane one here?"

"Not so sane, I'm a journalist."

"Ah. You have my sympathies."

Jason rapped on the table lightly. "Guys…well…ladies. Please, focus?" When he saw he had everyone's attention, he nodded to himself. "Good.

"Now, what we know about Anson…or Mitchell…is that he loves power. He loves fame, and money, but power most of all. Currently, he's the Mayor of the most talked about city in the world; the face of the government that Heroes are sworn to protect. So, how do we take it away from him?"

He looked around. "Any ideas?"

Hours later, they were still no closer to an answer. Everything they came up with led to Jason taking a stand, one on one, against Anson.

"Yes," Jason constantly argued. "But unless we get everything in place first, it'll be me against Mike and his…whatever it is he's doing in the Foundation buildings."

"Giant stompy robots." Sam chipped in, before noticing the look he was getting from Tucker. "What? He could have."

"We don't know what he's got in his buildings, Sam, so unless you can hook into his security network and show us, we're stuck." Jason looked up at Sam expectantly. After a few moments, however, Sam glared down. "What?"

"Haven't you patched us into his cameras yet?"

"No."

"Oh."

"They're running on an independent circuit," Sam shrugged. "I can't see into them any more than I can read your mind."

"Oh." Jason paused, before glancing sideways at Sam.

"No, Jay. I can't read your mind."

"Oh."

Emily sighed. "You know…you might have thought to ask the person in this room who used to work for Mike."

Three sets of eyes slid to Susan, who blinked. "What're you looking at me for? I work for the Paragon Times, not the Mayor's office."

"I meant me." Emily cleared her throat.

"Okay." Sarriss nodded. "So, what exactly does Mitchell….Anson…want?"

"Peace."

I started laughing. I mean, honestly, how could I not?

"I don't think this is a laughing matter, Jay." Emily shot at me.

"You're kidding, right?" I chuckled. "Peace? The guy's tried to kill you, me, and Sarriss. He had you kill Sammy…"

"What?" Sam yelled.

Oh, bugger.

"Oh, calm down, Sam. It was either you or Jason. I made the choice that felt right, and I'd do it again."

I blinked. "You'd kill for me?"

"Yeah." Emily remarked off-handedly. "And you'd kill for me. Can we get back to business?"

I'd kill for her? Well…yeah. Yes, I would. But she doesn't have to know that, does she?

"So," Susan interrupted. "Mayor…Whatever…wants peace? How's he going to achieve it?"

"It's quite simple, really. At least, it was once Jay set him up in the Foundation." Emily put out a hand, and started counting on her fingers. "One: Set up a villain…that'd be me…to take out the 'revered head' of the biggest benevolent agency in the world. Two: Turn the people against said villain…which'd be pretty easy, really. Three: Unite the people under one banner….his. At the end of it, he'd be set as their leader, with his own personal army of followers acting as his police force…militia…call it what you will."

"That'd never work, though." I snorted.

"Worked in the Star Wars prequels, mate." Jay grinned, before returning to glare at Emily, who ignored his stares, and shrugged. "And it's worked this time. Think about it. He killed Mayor Hearten, which provided him the chance he needed to fill her shoes. With him grieving as your friend, he got a sympathy vote, as well as the votes of everyone the Foundation has ever helped…which is pretty much all the city. It was a given he'd win, which altered his plans somewhat."

I nodded. "Okay, so what's his plan now?"

"Well, from what we know about Anson, he isn't that imaginative."

"I can vouch for that." Sarriss nodded, scowling.

"So, if we throw something at him he doesn't expect, he'll probably try to vilify it, and attack it directly, to unite the people once and for all behind him."

"So…" Susan paused. "What do we throw at him?"

"Oh, that's easy." I grinned evilly.

"We give him me."

(A month later)

Anson's spy entered the room, and nodded to her employer.

"So, what've you learned?"

"You're right. Phoenix is Jason Tucker. He's going to start attacking the Foundation…"

" My Foundation. Don't ever forget that."

"Of course." His spy allowed easily. "Your Foundation. I apologise. He's going directly for the source, though. He's going to attack the main building in two weeks time."

Anson stroked his chin, in deep thought. "Two weeks, eh? Well, you're supposed to be smart. How do I turn this to my advantage?"

"Well…I may have happened to…procure something to make the citizens of Paragon hate him. And if they hate him enough…"

"Then he won't be safe." Anson grinned. "I like it. What exactly did you…procure for me?"

Sarriss smiled, and put the object down on his desk, laying it out flat, as if she were presenting a great treasure to a king, or head of state. 'Which' , Anson mused. 'Is pretty close to the truth' .

"Do you think this could be useful?"

"Oh, my dear Ms Groundwalker…it's perfect."

To Be Concluded