Here we go.


Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 68


Professional rivalry.

That was how Blake tried to imagine it, instead of the burning dislike she felt deep in her chest as the three figures came out of arrivals garbed in heavy red cloaks over black suits with gold scrolling. They were so ostentatious that half the people at the terminal were looking at them. Saphron's cloak, topped with white feathers, framed her smaller face, and highlighted her scowl as she looked over the crowd and then spotted them.

Blake noticed that Pyrrha's cloak had been upgraded a little as well, not having similar gold up and down its sides, but without the feathers that marked Saphron's elevated rank. It looked like someone had earned a promotion. How many anomalies had to die for that, Blake wondered.

"You're here," said Saphron, nodding faintly. "Good."

"Saphron—"

"Associate Director, please. We're here on business."

Unnecessary business born of a constant district of Jaune and the Containments Office. He didn't say that. Complaints were pointless here and would only make them sound like they had something to hide. It was better to cooperate and get them out of their city, preferably before Terra unleashed her slaved anomaly and killed a whole bunch of people.

"I've prepared a pair of hotel rooms for you," said Jaune. "They're a distance from my office, in the nicer part of the city. I don't imagine that will be a problem since we know where this individual is. Do you wish to challenge them immediately, or would you prefer a little preparation?"

"Preparation would be ideal. We have just come from another hunt. There was an anomaly operating within the corn fields of a rural community in Mistral. It was mostly avoiding humans but had been seen a number of times. The people were speaking of aliens and fantastical beasts." Saphron snorted. "It didn't put up much of a fight, but it took us hours to track down."

Blake frowned. "It sounds like it didn't want to fight you."

"Of course. Few anomalies want to face the might of the Fist Office."

That wasn't what she meant, and they all knew it. The anomaly had quite clearly been non-aggressive and doing its best to avoid human detection. It sounded more shy than dangerous, but paranoid yokels had freaked, and then the Fist Office had come down with murder as a first resort and everything else shelved.

"Why choose a hotel far away from your office?" asked Saphron, crossing her arms. "Is there something you do not wish us to see?"

"We're the Containments Office, Associate Director Saphron." Jaune was diplomatic, but also vaguely patronising with how he said it. Blake smiled grimly. "It shouldn't surprise you to learn we have anomalies contained at out office. It wouldn't do for you to barge in with your characteristic methods and cause an incident."

"Watch yourself," said Pyrrha, a hand reaching for her sword. "You are speaking to the future Director of ARC Corp. If she demands entry to your office, you will grant it, and if she demands the destruction of every anomaly within then that is her choice."

"The future is not now," said Blake, brushing her jacket back so Pyrrha could see her gun. "And how our office operates is neither her nor your business."

If Pyrrha made a move toward Timothy…

"Children. Children." Terra sighed and stepped in, bodily stepping between Pyrrha and Blake. "You are both proud agents of ARC Corp. It's about time you acted the part and stopped verbally sparring with one another."

Blake let her jacket close and Pyrrha took her hand away from her weapon. It didn't stop their eyes locking one another's and narrowing.

Saphron and Jaune ignored them.

"We need to discuss sensitive matters soon," said Saphron. "Take us to this hotel and we will talk there. Dealing with this anomaly will be much more complicated than simply arresting the one behind it. We have to contend with the monumental clean-up operation."

Jaune nodded. "I have two taxis waiting for us."

When he paid two taxis to stay, Blake had assumed she and him would be riding in one and the Fist Office in the other, but it turned out that professionalism dictated Jaune and Saphron ride in the first as office directors, while she be squashed against the window of the second, with Terra sitting between her and Pyrrha to prevent sparks flying.

There was no conversation with a witness there in the driver, and that made it much more awkward. Blake could feel Pyrrha's temper even across from Terra, and she was almost certain it was because she'd matched with Jaune through the app. The redhead was taking it very personally, more than Yang had when she matched with her.

Even had Jaune been a normal person, she was sure Pyrrha would have hated him simply because an anomaly told her to love him. She struck Blake as the type to spite herself and the world around her if it meant going against what an anomaly wanted. It was especially ridiculous given that, by all evidence thus far, this wasn't even a sentient anomaly. It didn't care if Pyrrha did or didn't fall in love with Jaune, and it didn't care if Pyrrha hated it.

Jaune had rented them rooms in the same hotel they'd challenged Winter Schnee in, albeit not on the still-destroyed penthouse. They rode the elevator up to one of the two rooms and stepped in. It was larger and more opulent than the Containments Office. It made her wonder why Jaune hadn't rented them a better place since money was no object. He must have liked the poorer look and being in a less noticeable area.

Saphron and Terra set their small cases down while Pyrrha rested hers by the door. She'd received her own key for next door but hadn't left. Probably waiting to be dismissed. Or maybe she didn't trust the two of them around her bosses.

"Let's discuss the situation," said Saphron. "The anomaly has become Reality Class in all but name. However, that distinction is important. Right now, the world desperately wants to know how the app has such a high success rating, and they haven't yet realised the manner is anomalous in nature. This works to our advantage. At this point the app cannot simply be shut down and removed, but it could quite easily be replaced with a more mundane version."

"Won't the sudden drop in success rating be an issue?" asked Blake.

"People are fickle and will soon forget it ever worked properly in the first place. Its early success rating will be attributed to hype, marketing, or self-fulfilling prophecy. They'll get it in their heads it was never 100% accurate, but that gullible influencers online let themselves be tricked into assuming it was. It'll become another fad that fades into obscurity, come and gone like so many others. We expect a core subset of users will remain, but we can simply match them against one another and let them pine after each other."

"And if they obsess like people are now?"

Terra interrupted. "The obsessing and the murders and the broken relationships caused by this are none of our business. They're not anomalous. The anomaly shows a person their perfect match. As far as we can tell, it does not force them to love the person or make them cheat against their current partner, nor go and kill their current partner. That is human weakness."

Easy for her to say when she and Saphron had matched with one another. Blake could see Pyrrha grinding her teeth against one another and smiled under her breath. The other girl's misery was her pleasure.

"Well said." Saphron nodded to her wife. "We will mostly avoid the drama caused by this anomaly and focus on shutting it down. Our goal, running parallel to the Directo himself, is to isolate and arrest the individual making use of it, then interrogate them and search their address. No stone will be left unturned. Any associates of theirs are to be captured as well. We've tracked the financial payments through three different banks to a set address. They obviously think they are clever, relying on VPNs and financial obfuscation to hide themselves, and were we an organisation limited by legal means then we would not have located them. Unfortunately for them, we have the power to demand every confidential record from a bank, and to force the VPN to shut down temporarily, and secretly, its services to a given person."

Saphron turned her scroll around and let them see a picture. It was of a man, and he really did look like the type of basement dweller who would do something like this. He wasn't overweight, but he was quite obviously unfit with a pudgy face and tiny glasses that didn't do him any favours. He was posing beside his computer screen, making a sign with his fingers. There were two other screens in the background along with several empty bottles of high-sugar content soda.

"Darren – XxP4wnzn00bzxX – Lime. Age 32. Lives with his mother."

Colour her surprised.

"Has a membership to six online MMOs and zero real-life activities. Also subscribed to thirty-two different premium adult sites."

"Do we need to know that?" asked Blake.

"All details are pertinent." Saphron glared at her for the interruption. "Mr Lime has, in his alias, produced fourteen different cartoon-based adult games online, and tried to make money from each and every one to repeated failure. He's also apparently had a brief foray into the world of crime and online hacking, before realising it would take more effort than he was prepared to put in. Since then, he's been tracked hacking into webcams, primarily of women, and trying to use them to spy on them getting dressed."

"Ugh."

"Unfortunately for him, those women do not share his proclivity for having their gaming setup in their bedroom, so all he's managed is the insides of offices or quick shots of them walking by fully dressed. Even so, he's uploaded them all to the internet and refers to himself as some kind of hacker extraordinaire. He claims he only releases the edited videos, and that he has access to far more explicit content from the homes of famous models." Saphron flicked her scroll off. "He does not. This is a man who is all hot air."

"If we have that much information, why is your office even needed here? We could handle this ourselves."

"The Director believes you would be too gentle."

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "That would only be a problem if your idea was to do the exact opposite…"

Saphron did not smile. "We will be going in hard. Our goal is not only to arrest Mr Lime, but to do so in a very public manner and spook any as-of-yet unknown backers or other online groups involved with this anomaly. We fear this might be a collaborative online effort involving any number of anonymous individuals. As such, we shall be striking fear into their hearts by confronting them as one of the most terrifying groups on Remnant."

"The Grimm?" asked Blake.

"Worse."

/-/

After a bit of knocking, the door opened and an old woman appeared, looking out at the black-suited men and women on her porch with discomfort and suspicion. "Hello," she said, slowly. "Whatever it is you're selling, I'm not interested—"

"Arabelle Lime," said Saphron, interrupting her. "We are with the VTRO – the Vale Tax and Revenue Office. We are here conducting an investigation into your son. We must ask you to step aside." She held up a warrant, gained from the council with but a snap of her fingers. "Please step aside. One of our agents may want to ask you questions about your son."

"Oh goodness no," she said, covering her mouth with both hands. "Not my son, not my sweet little Darren. He would always pay his taxes on time!" she bit her lip. "If he had a job from which to pay them!"

Blake was not surprised. When Saphron said they would be masquerading as something terrible she'd expected a violent gang or a mafia, or, failing that, some brand of anti-terrorist police. Instead, they were tax inspectors, and Blake found herself unable to really argue with the description. The five of them marched into the home and closed the door behind them.

Terra escorted the mother to a seat and sat her down, then took the one across from her to start asking questions. Or, more specifically, to keep her occupied. Saphron motioned with two fingers for the rest of them to follow, then pointed toward a door on the side of the staircase, leading downward. Blake could tell because of the neon LED lights coming from a strip on the bottom of the door. Probably to look cool or futuristic.

Ignoring the "Do Not Enter" sign on the door, Saphron nudged it open and the four of them stepped down the staircase, lit bright blue by LED lighting on the ceiling and walls. There were posters up and down it, most of them being from various video games. Those changed when they got to the bottom and pictures of girls became more common. Blake noticed one of Pyrrha herself, posed with her spear, but in a way that the camera had caught what might generously have been called a panty-shot if not for the fact Pyrrha had been wearing black shorts under her leather skirt.

The redhead glared at the poster and moved on.

They heard Darren Lime before they saw him. He was tapping away on a keyboard, breathing heavily, and grunting at something. Blake prayed, deep in her soul, that they weren't about to walk in on him taking care of himself and slowed her pave subtly to let everyone else go ahead. Everyone other than Jaune, who had seemingly had the same idea.

At the bottom of the stairs, the basement should have been spacious but was taken up by so much junk. There was a minifridge full of energy drinks and, next to that, there was a plastic-wrapped crate of another sixty-four cans not yet open. On the other side, a pyramid of empty cans was forming, currently ten wide at the base and halfway to construction. There were a couple of flies flitting about the open cans and the dregs of sugar within, and far more by the pile of six or so empty pizza boxes in the corner. A fly zapper buzzed and cracked in the corner of the room, the floor around it littered with dead insects.

The man in question was sat in a tall-backed gaming chair in front of six monitors, three horizontal on a cluttered desk and three above it attached by metal arms. Despite having so many, he was focused on only two, playing a shooting game on one while he chatted with someone online on the second. Saphron tapped her lips for silence.

"-and it's awesome, you know? They get up to the kinkiest shit when I'm watching."

"Yeah? Then when are you going to share that with everyone else?"

"Why would I share? I'm the one who hacked their cams."

"A lot of people are starting to doubt that, you know."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm just telling you what they're saying. Calm your manboobs."

"Fuck you. You're all just jealous." He reached for his can and downed the syrupy soda, then tossed it back over his head. Pyrrha deflected it with her hand and a scowl. "And you're just jealous that I'm going to be the one to tap such a hot babe."

"Yeah, just because you matched with someone as famous as her doesn't mean she'll want you back."

"What's not to want? I'm young, good looking, rich." Darren burped. "And I bet I'd treat her better than all those jocks ever would. Girl like her needs a man who'll treat her right. Needs a man who knows his way around a woman's body."

Blake, Saphron and Pyrrha all grimaced.

"You're living in a fantasy world, man."

"Jealousy from each and every one of you. There's no point losing your mind because I matched with Pyrrha." Next to Blake, the redhead gagged. Blake snorted under her breath. "But tell you what. Once I've got her eating out of my hand, I'll slide you all some nudes to fap over. Maybe even film a video. Just me and her—"

"Enough of this," grumbled Saphron. She strode forward, grasped the back of his chair, and wrenched it toward them. The thing toppled, with the boy on it squealing loudly as he came crashing down on his back.

He looked up, flanked on all sides by them, but his eyes widened on one of them in particular.

"Holy shit, it worked! Ha! You really did match with me!"

Pyrrha snarled out, "In your twisted fantasies!"

"Go out with me!"

"Did I stutter?"

"No. No. You have to go out with me. We matched. It's fate. Don't worry, I'm super rich and super nice. I'm not like those other guys-" He's rolled over and begun to get up, moving for Pyrrha, who dodged back and brought a hand up to defend herself. Darren noticed. "Oh, I get it. Not famous or hot enough for you, right? Girls like you never give guys like me a chance! I bet you only go for some stupid jock like him."

Jaune pointed to himself, wondering where that description came into it. Saphron sighed and kicked the man's legs out from under him, then knelt on his back and brought out a pair of cuffs. "Darren Lime, you are under arrest for tax evasion. You will surrender all assets to our investigation including access to an application you have been illegally making money off."

"You just want the matchmaker app!" he shouted, not inaccurately. That was where his grasp on reality ended. "You just want it to control people – to bring the shadow government into power and step on all the little people. Well, I won't let you! I'm no coward. I'll beat you, and I'll show my future wife just how great I am."

Pyrrha grimaced. "I am not your future wife, and, for your information, even if I'd somehow matched with you, I would refuse. Associate Director, can we knock him out?"

"No." Saphron hauled him to his feet and pushed him toward the staircase. "But I will take him upstairs to interview. The three of you should secure the computers. Make sure to bag everything. We'll be going through them with a fine comb."

"No!" howled Darren. "I don't give permission!"

Saphron hardly cared and pushed him toward the staircase. Before he was forced up, he shouted back, "They're not underage! They're actually over a hundred years old. It's part of the lore! And it's not cheating if we hadn't met yet, Pyrrha! I'd never cheat on you- Ow!"

He stumbled as Saphron gave him a push, forcing him out the basement. Blake waited for him to be gone, and for the door to slam above them, before saying, "It looks like you've got yourself a fan."

"Scum," hissed Pyrrha, moving to his computer. The person on the call had wisely signed off already, and even deleted his connection with Darren. Not that it really mattered. Pyrrha made to sit down, then thought twice and pushed the chair away. She minimised the chat box and then froze.

His desktop behind it was a collage of deepfake nudes of Pyrrha in various poses. Most of them weren't even well made, with obvious differences in skin colour where the head had been attached to the body, or way too much difference in bust size. Still, it wasn't something anyone wanted to find on another's computer.

"I think I'm going to be sick…"

"Let us handle the computer," said Jaune. "You can bag the external hard drives."

Pyrrha stood and moved away, but she didn't think Jaune, or even meet his eye. She might have felt sick at Darren, but she felt worse about Jaune. The fact he wasn't even human – at least in her eyes – made him worse than a perverted freak in their mother's basement. Blake clicked her tongue and patted Jaune's back, giving her own compliments for his kindness. He could at least know someone appreciated it.

Going through the computers was gruelling and rather sickening work. Darren had whole folders dedicated to porn, all meticulously labelled not only by age of the models, but also race – some real, but most fantasy. Elves, monster-girls, and stuff like that.

And I thought Sun and Yang matching with me was awkward. They're saints compared to this…

Given Pyrrha's fame, there was probably a lot of people matching with her. If "perfect match" meant someone who could not only look after you emotionally but financially, then it was possible people who were better off were more likely to become matches. Not because they were particularly good-looking or loving, but because you'd be happier with them on a sheer law of averages. It was easier to be happy when you were filthy rich after all.

The main problem was locating the app, because while he had it downloaded on his device, it was just the commercial version. "I'm not finding the code or the anomaly itself," said Blake. "But he's definitely come into a lot of money recently. His emails are filled with purchases. He's been on a real spending spree."

"He might just be a business partner to the other one in Atlas," said Pyrrha. "But we can't take that risk. We take everything and then take the family. I'd burn this house to the ground if I thought we could get away with it."

"Theres's no need to go that far—"

"On that, we disagree. There is no such thing as too far when it comes to protecting humanity from these things. Only not far enough. Mercy is what leads to the Twilight City. If the first ARC Corp had simply destroyed all their anomalies, then we wouldn't be in this situation. We have tried containment before. It ended in disaster."

"That wasn't containment so much as exploitation," said Jaune. "The first company was milking anomalies for cheap energy and conducting experiments on them. Of course they rebelled. Proper containment needn't be like that. We can keep non-sentient anomalies locked away and give the sentient ones decent accommodations. If they're looked after, then they won't want—"

"Remnant is fortunate you're not Associate Director," interrupted Pyrrha, with a disgusted frown. "You'd lead the world to ruin with your naivety. Or maybe it isn't naivety at all."

Jaune paused. "Are you implying I'm taking advantage of ARC Corp for my own ends?"

"You are an anomaly."

"Oh, fuck—"

"Watch your tone, agent." Jaune's voice was cold. Clipped. "I am a Director of ARC Corp whatever my status, and I have more than enough authority to see you removed. It is not my fault my face showed up on your perfect match." Pyrrha flinched. "Yes, Saphron told me about that. You needn't worry, agent Nikos. I have zero romantic interest in you, and that isn't likely to change. You're just yet another employee who's had a bad experience and let it consume them."

"You—"

"Don't think that makes you special. Everyone who ever works for ARC Corp has an experience like that sooner or later. Blake did too, on her very first like you. We always watch our recruits after that. The strong ones bounce back, and that's how we know they have the fortitude to become skilled agents." His eyes narrowed. "The weak crack under the pressure and let it change them, and agents like that rarely last more than a few years. They let their fear consume them until they become useless. Or worse, until they experience a transformation of their own."

Pyrrha Nikos clenched her fists tightly together.

"Don't worry. If you transform, I'm sure Saphron and Terra will do you the service of brutally murdering you. Whether or not it's still you inside, and whether or not you would still be loyal to and want to help them."

"I wouldn't care. If I turn, I'd want them to kill me."

Jaune smiled lazily. "Good for you. In that case I won't bother speaking up in your defence if that happens. Blake, get that computer unplugged and in a case. We're going to have to move them all out. I'll tell Saphron that we don't think he has it. He must be the coder, the one who made the app, but he doesn't have the anomaly that decides who is matched with who."

"Atlas, then?"

"We hope it's Atlas," said Jaune. "Because if it's not then that means both of these people are patsies used to distribute it while the real person remains hidden. And that would be bad. There's no shortage of mouth breathers who would agree to stand as the face-man for this for free income. Meanwhile, the person behind it – or the anomaly – gets to roam freely online, hidden by chat forums and encrypted messaging."

"We have a problem," called Terra, from the top of the stairs. "He's a nobody."

Blake nodded. "Jaune was just saying the same thing. We can only hope the one in Atlas-"

Terra shook her head. "News in from the Director. His perp folded faster than ours and admitted he was just following instructions from someone online, and that he got to keep the money. The person, tag-name of Matchmaker says he, she – or it – doesn't care about money and just wants to spread love around the world."

Crap.

"It's sentient," said Jaune.

"Looks that way. Sentient, intelligent, and poised to break out into the wider world. This would be the first case of an anomaly that knows it's an anomaly and can speak becoming Reality Class, and that's bad news if it decides to openly say that the anomalous exist."

"What's our next move?"

"Mobilisation. Director Nicholas Arc has sent out orders that this anomaly is to take full priority. Immediate focus is extermination. And we're prepared to pull out some big guns here. Make the world go dark."

Jaune swore.

"Go dark?" asked Blake and Pyrrha as one.

"You both know ARC Corp has a lot of pull," explained Jaune. "You're about to see how much. We're going to cut the internet."

"In Vale?" asked Blake.

"No. Worldwide."


And this, ARC Corp reveal themselves the greatest villains in the world. All those internet outages you've had, every little blip and moment of no connection. It's ARC Corp cutting people off the internet across the globe so they can take down an anomaly.


Next Chapter: 4th September

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