I watched Anath place bugs in two more buildings, switching my hideout once, before something required my attention. One of my drones had picked up on a figure climbing out of the skylight of a residential building, making its way onto their roof. On closer look, the figure was dressed in the red and blue garb of the Heroes’ League, which caused my interest to skyrocket.

A hero working as a cat-burglar? Catching and binding them, leaving the hero for the police to find at the scene of a crime, maybe with video of their dealings? If I wanted to position myself as a rebel against a corrupt system, sowing discord would be a worthy endeavor.

Making a rare, snap-decision, I started to move towards the figure, only to realise that the figure was doing the same, moving towards me. In addition, I was now able to figure out just who was traipsing through the night, it was the adorably gullible Voltic, causing me to rethink my assessment, when I talked to her, she had not given me the impression of a corrupt individual, no, she had seemed like an idealistic fool, believing in the righteousness of their cause.

But it gave me another explanation to her behaviour, I had a strong suspicion that her Power included some sort of detection for electromagnetic fields, allowing her to sense my drones if they were too low, or me if I passed close by. The building she was leaving was next to one of the alleys we had used to get here, so it could be that she had sensed me and put on her uniform to go out and fight crime, or something trite like that. If that was the case, welcoming her would be even more important and would require some finesse, to keep our presence secret.

Before, I had assumed that a hero breaking into someone’s house would be reluctant to start a fight but if she was after me, it was another story. For now, my part of things was to delay her long enough for Anath to finish her job and leave, without alerting the gang-members of our presence.

“Anath, finish up, we might have incoming.” I sent over the encrypted channel. She wouldn’t answer, not with emission control in place, but just getting the message would be enough.

Guessing Voltic’s route, I moved to intercept, careful to keep at least one thick concrete wall between us, hoping that the walls would shield me from her perception. There was a dark spot in one of the alleys she would have to move through, close enough to me to get there first and power everything down, which should stop her perception, allowing me to confront her in a space out of sight from the building Anath was bugging. If we fought on their doorstep they would likely add up two and two, getting four.

Shortly after I had stepped into position, I heard the muffled steps of a running body before she passed my hideout. Only using enough power for my voice-distortion and HUD, I stepped forward and spoke up, in a slightly mocking voice. “Now, deary, just where are you running at this time of the night? Shouldn’t young ladies be in bed by now?”

The resulting squeak was quite un-heroic, but she made up for it by throwing a lightning-bolt at my face, before I had time to finish my sentence. Instead of an answer, I just got more lightning, not that it did more than fizzle off my armour and drain into the earth at the levels she was using it right now. But that might change.

“Stop it, you are not accomplishing anything. If you insist on a fight, I will oblige, but I would hate to hurt you.”

The lightning ceased.

“Aren’t you afraid that I blow you up, like I did the scourge?” she asked, her voice of defiance and fear. The fear made me curious.

“Dear, you could not blow up like that if you sat on a firecracker, I can assure you that.” I said, curious why she would believe the propaganda put out by the League.

Unless… They had said that she had been unconscious for some time, a concussion might have messed up her short-term memory. If she, and everyone, believed that she had the ability to blow up with the strength of a small nuclear weapon, the fear in her voice would be relatable.

“What do you remember of the incursion-day? We met that day, do you remember me?” I asked, my curiosity fully awakened.

“I saw that, Battlemaster had footage of us talking.” she said, before her hand swiftly covered her masked face, as if to stop her treacherous mouth from talking more.

“So, you remember nothing? That is rather sad, I enjoyed our conversation that day, maybe we will talk again some time.” I started to turn and walk away, confident that the allure of more knowledge was strong and I had just given her two rather blatant hints that I knew more than she did.

“Wait!” I had not taken more than five steps before she called. “Please, tell me everything you know.” she asked, in a desperate, pleading voice. Luckily, the bright smile on my face was hidden by my mask, even when I turned back to her. Hook, line and sinker.

“Everything I know? That is a rather tall order, would you not agree? I know quite a few things, deary and you need to remember, knowledge is power and power is valuable, why should I make you a gift of it?” I asked, my voice composed. “No, you will have to pay me something and I do not mean money. But knowing you, you would balk at breaking the law, even if it would mean that you remain in fear of your own power.”

I had multiple ideas for her to pay me, some simple, others more devious. Knowledge was a great lure and I was not even forced to turn into a poodle to offer a bargain. The smallest thing I was interested in was at the same time the most important and the one I could most likely get. She had managed to cause an immediate discharge in the energy crystals I was using twice. If that was consistent, her power was doing something I did not understand and wanted to understand, as it would allow me to add nuclear equivalent weapons to my arsenal, without the hassles of handling fissionable material. The process I used in my fusion-reactor did not lend itself to weapons-technique, so I was forced to look elsewhere.

I had toyed with the idea of trying to kidnap her, in order to study her power but I doubted that it would go over well. No, if I wanted to study her, she would have to come to me.

“I… What do you want? I won’t betray the League!” she blurted out. It was obvious that she was fighting with herself, she was desperate for the knowledge I offered, for assurances that she was not a walking nuclear bomb, just waiting to blow up if something unknown happened, as she had no idea what had caused the first explosion. Her sense of duty was warring with itself, a duty to the League but also a duty to her surroundings, to keep them safe. Looking closer, I was able to see dark rings below her eyes, insufficient concealed by either makeup or mask.

“Do not worry, I will not ask you to, but you will have to sacrifice something, think about what you would be willing to sacrifice. But I am not a monster, so I will give you a bit of knowledge for free, for your peace of mind.” I stepped closer to her. On my HUD, I saw that Sophia had left the house she had bugged and was moving to a secure meeting spot.

When I gently raised my armoured hand, Voltic flinched a little, as if afraid of being struck, making me feel a little bad. She did not seem to be the type to go out in a costume and fight crime. I placed the hand on her head and gently stroked it, causing her to relax a little.

“You will not blow up in the next month, you do not have to worry about it, you can sleep soundly in that knowledge. I will leave you an address, you can use it to contact me over the net, if you want to buy information. You can even give it to the League, they will not be able to trace it. But you should remember two things.

One is that, if you do so, I will not tell you the circumstances of the explosion, and I am rather certain that nobody else can do so. You will forever wonder if you accidentally blow up when you have a row with your boyfriend or something similar.

The other is, that I know who you are. If you betray the favour I have shown you, I will consider it personal.”

The second part was partially a bluff, I did not know her identity for sure, but I had seen her leave a residential building and had confidence that Galatea and I could figure her identity out, even if the building turned out to be a bust.

I got a small card out, with a throw-away email address on it, prepared to be untraceable, if it was tried, I would know and it would seem that the address was in the League’s own system. She had gotten a nibble of the carrot and seen the stick. I would hear from her.