The Undersiders ambushed me when I was heading down to the small built in restaurant in search for my umbrella drink.
Well, not literally ambushed me. I mean that would just be silly of them. They had Tattletale, they knew I'd beat them black and blue if they tried that.
No what I meant was Regent and Lisa sat down at my table right as lunch showed up in their civis. It took me half a second to spot Regent as he was in his civi's, which I suppose made him Alec at the time.
"Sup?" I asked as they parked themselves to either side.
"Eh, I'm just the plus one," Alec explained.
"Sorry about last night, time sensitive stuff," Lisa stated at once.
"'s cool" I waved her off as lunch showed up. I'd opted for fish, mostly because I'd never eaten it before. I'd always been curious about the common staple food, but an allergy to it would have had a decent chance killing me if I'd tried.
Exalting had all sorts of nifty side benefits. I planned on enjoying them today.
Alec's nose scrunched as I cut in.
"So we were debating your cut," she started.
"Whatever you think's fair is fine," I waved away, "Only really need a grand or two to get a costume worth a damn, maybe a tent," I had an idea that almost had me giddy for that.
"Are you kidding me?" Alec asked surprised, "You know we walked away from that like kings right?"
"I didn't get everything," Lisa admitted while still having a smug smile to her face, "Kaiser's best efforts aside, Coil was paranoid, I still haven't found half of it."
"Which is more then enough to buy the town hall, tear it down and rebuild it entirely out of nerf," Regent summarized, before pausing and looking over at Tattletale.
"We're not commissioning a giant building made out of nerf," She shot him down at once.
I snorted nearly choking on the bite of fish I had. It was a lot stronger then I expected it to be.
"Should we really be talking like this?" I asked looking around, it didn't look like anyone was listening in and we weren't exactly booming out our voice but-
"No one's listening in," Lisa supplied. "And I really think you should take the money."
Regent looked betrayed, or maybe he was just hamming it up, "But my golden foam dream house!"
She didn't even acknowledge the jibe, "You're planning on waging a one man war on the Empire right? Wars take money."
"Armies take money, wars can be fought on shoestrings depending on your tactics. Why are you trying to convince me to take your money anyway?"
~Uh, why are you against it again? Wasn't the plan to get a whole bunch of money out of this?~
That was before a whole lot of attention was brought down on that money. I was shooting for the hero thing and taking to much ill gotten goods could ruin my public image, and slow down my plan.
"It's only fair," Lisa started, "We'd never have had a chance without you, and you're the one who did the messy bit anyway."
Yeah because a professional thief would care about what's fair. "And because of that I don't mind accepting some spoils as spoils. I think there is a law for that anyway to help encourage independents from slipping all the way to villain hood."
"Wait wait wait, you're going to try and be a hero?" Alec questioned.
I shrugged taking another bite. It was an... odd flavor. Not really what I expected.
"A hero who recruits a bunch of villains to betray their boss so he can assassinate him," he responded.
Again, shrug.
"And you don't think that might not have a little problem meshing?" he questioned.
I swallowed, "It's that or become the new Marquis."
~The new what now?~
A villain who basically forced the other villains to act in line a while back, he was stuck in The Birdcage at the moment and his word was still law in many ways.
~Well that's fairly impressive.~
He did however still end up in The Birdcage.
"And people tell me I think highly of myself." He shorts.
"He's got a point though," Lisa said to me, "Being a hero's pretty limiting. Even as an independent one. You're stuck in the public eye, and if you slip up even once..." she warned.
"Yeah I get it," I set down the fork and looked up at them. "Look, really I get it. And I'm thankful for the kind thoughts and everything, but don't forget which of us here is actually old enough to legally drink," I smirked. "I'll make my own dumbass calls, and charge in like an idiot. I don't need- and forgive how patronizing this sounds, a bunch of teenagers who already have ten times the problems anyone their age should need to deal with trying to look after me."
Lisa flinched.
Alec shrugged, "Whatever. You want to be crazy it's your life," he passed the buck.
I smirked at him, "Ooooh it's not so much that as that I dare to be stupid!"
~No you're pretty crazy~
Well maybe a little.
Regent nodded, "Well that I can respect at least."
"How is that respectable?" Lisa asked switching tracks. "You're masking the issue. Even if you're dead set on being a hero, wouldn't a few underground allies be useful to you?" She questioned eyebrow raised.
I paused, "That honestly... is pretty much exactly what I was looking for yeah. Really I just don't want a bunch of people asking where the hell I got a ton of money out of nowhere."
"So you really do like us!?" Alec questioned hands clapped in front of him and fluttering his eyes as if he didn't know what to say.
Except that he totally did and was just trolling again.
"Then why not hang out with us?" She asked. "Get to know the people you might be working with? I mean you don't need to join the Undersiders officially-"
And there was the hook again.
I shook my head, "Can't do it. Look, I'm going with a different approach then you guys. Again, setting the hero villain divide aside. I'm going to spend a few days learning a new trick or two, then rip right into the Empire directly. You guys are a smash and grab team right? Standing fights and offensive skirmishes like what I plan to wage won't fit your style."
"I don't think he's buying the pitch," Alec commented to Lisa.
"You guys are cool. I mean when things calm down a bit you can go hand me my head in Call of Duty or something but right now there is just too much on the table I need to kick the crap out of," or die trying anyway.
"Well just remember to call in if you need help," She said with a sigh, "I hate owing someone something and it'd annoy me if got yourself killed before I could pay you back."
I rolled my eyes, "I'm not that suicidal. There's a reason I'm shooting for a training montage before I go pick more fights."
"But you're doing that tomorrow," she surmised.
"Yep, today is just... mellow," I replied cutting off another slice and trying my umbrella drink. It was lemony.
"Well if you're going to go training you're going to need supplies," she observed.
I nodded, "Snagging some stuff in the afternoon."
"Sounds like it'd help if someone was there to show you around," She mused aloud.
Alec rolled his eyes, "Seriously?"
I sighed and reaching up rubbed at my forehead, what was it with me and pushy girls trying to become a sister figure? "Okay fine. I give up. I'll go shopping with you after... but I'm not going to your super secret clubhouse or anything," I warned her pointedly.
"Of course not," she replied with a grin.