Within the Brass Web. by Brian Moon
Chapter 8: Sizing up the competition.
Lord Nemesis sat at his usual workbench. Now littered with the parts of a Lancer’s sniper rifle. Lukas watched as he fiddled with a retractable bayonet to be installed on all of the rifles and was fine tuning the design. He spoke without looking up. He wasn’t being rude, he just didn’t need to be facing you to talk. Especially when he was working on something like this.
“Maiden Justice eh? Why not Justice Maiden? Unless she did not want herself confused with a young girl? Was there anything else… maybe something unusual?” Lord Nemesis looked at the growing list on the chalk board in front of him. At the top was The Statesman and underneath the name was a list of abilities that others had seen him demonstrate. Beside him was a question mark in a circle. Beneath this was the name Vambrace with the names Smythe/Warfield under that with the notation of electric / mechanical strength. It was the only “hero” they knew who was in charge because Nemesis had stolen the design specifications and research from them earlier. Next to this name was written “The Shadow” just like the radio play. No one had discovered who he really was or what name he used, but he had been spotted several times hiding deep in the dark shadows… always watching.
“You mean more unusual that a five foot seven woman beating the snot out of our three best Lieutenants?” Nemesis didn’t respond to Lukas’ sarcasm. “Yes there is something, Jerry said her belt glowed as she fought. Not like luminescence, he said it seemed brighter when she was doing more damage.”
Nemesis pondered this for a moment. “Something has happened to alter the world I think.” He stood and moved over to the black board. Taking up the chalk he tapped it under The Statesman’s name. “They were the first to appear and since then the others have started to crop up.”
“They sir?”
“Yes, we have not encountered the other but there are rumors and whispers coming from the Isles that mirror what we know of The Statesman. There is no name for him that we have heard of. He moves slowly, precisely, very patient, waiting for his plans to work out.”
“Oh really? Sounds very similar to someone I know.” Lukas said. Nemesis laughed at the joke.
“I don’t think this is science we are dealing with. I believe we are experiencing an influx of supernatural or magical energies.”
“Do you want me to… detain one of these heroes so we can ask them ourselves?”
“No we will watch and learn for now. Perhaps it will work with our troops as well as theirs?”
“Any thoughts as to how or why yet?”
“I only have theories at this moment. If it was just one, I would have to say it was a mutation of nature, maybe even the next step in evolution. With the way they are appearing I must think it is something other than evolution. Could it have been a chemical accident that altered them? The shining girdle suggested something as unlikely as magic but not the common slight of hand, but the Old World story type magic. But that is only the first part of the question. The next part is why did it pick these people to develop in, instead of you and I? There are more questions than answers here and unfortunately I do not have the means to study it at this time.”
Lukas stared at the names a bit longer then turned back to the more pressing issue of the jaeger production, especially if human troops were to be limited until the proper recruitment drive. Not to mention he still had to prepare for the directors meeting being held next week. Several of Southern United’s sister companies had extensive military contracts and they needed to formalize the bids and budgets for the rest of the year, now that year-end totals were completed. Some days he wondered if he was more a businessman than general. “Not really that much difference I suppose.” He thought