It was a Wednesday, approximately one week after Benjamin had obtained the Obsidian Towers. He arrived at work by 09:00 in the morning, parking his Mclaren outside, jingling his keys, and walking past Cara the Caretaker. She opened the bulletproof and SWAT-proof doors, allowing him into the ground floor, and taking him up the elevator to the 11th floor. The floors were still as empty as ever. Amber had said something about subletting them to other startups but she had been swamped lately with the takeover of MedHill. Apparently, we needed to hire some high-class lawyers to take care of the mounting litigation too, and it was part of what she would present to me today, remembered Benjamin. The shareholders had all sent their deposits, and their company account was swimming in an excess of 100 million dollars too. So the new board members for IVY CORP were already being formed. Benjamin hoped being a CEO wouldn't be too complicated; because all these rich whales would now be looking
Benjamin could see the BLACK company building from here, although it was several leagues away, there was one particular detail extremely hard to miss. Huge blocks of letters on top of the Tower Roof, spelling out: BLACK INC. "You see that?" he asked Amber. "What about it?" "I want one" answered Benjamin. "I don't understand. Don't we already have this ridiculously sized building?" Amber reminded. "Not that, Silly. The lettering. The sign." "You want Black signs?" "Mm-hmm." "When we haven't even formed our board members yet?" she asked. "I thought we were doing that already" "I'm doing that. And a million other things." complained Amber. "Well, let's hire more people, so you can focus on getting me that sign," said Benjamin, tapping her on the back. She yelped a little but adjusted her glasses to respond. "Apparently, it's a little hard finding good help nowadays," she replied. "Nobody wants to do hard work" "Are you sure it's not because you set the wages too low? " "The
A picture of what seemed to be a rocket site was on the screen. The Major Headline below: "CEO OF MOONSHOT INDUSTRIES COLLAPSED" Amber held her hands close to her mouth.Benjamin studied the TV gratuitously. “Collapsed?” he started. “From what?”“I don’t know. I tried reaching his office throughout the day, but there’s been no response from any of his team.” Said Amber, very concerned.“Was it an underlying health issue, or not?”“I have no idea, Benjamin!” cried Amber. Benjamin rose from his desk, reaching for one of the new jean jackets that Giordano had shipped out to him, wore it one carelessly, and began walking briskly.“Let’s go.” He said.“Where?” asked Amber following after him.“To MoonShot Industries, where else?”“But he’s not going to be there anymore. He’s probably at some hospital.”“Well then, we have to get there and ask.” Amber’s eyes illuminated at his brute-force approach.“You feel so strongly about it” she noted.“Of course, I’m upset about it, Amber! Kirkland is
“This is impossible,” remarked Naomi, frustrated. Benjamin was twitching to mow through everybody here and just get inside as quickly as possible. But it had to happen naturally so as not to arouse any suspicion. In the meantime, it looked like these people were the staff of MoonShot Industries, then were they hovering as flies outside?You would’ve thought that Kirkland had died or something. Benjamin looked again to find that Naomi was now near one of the abstract statues outside; a marriage of many cuboids, prisms, and pyramids into a single shape, standing on a square plinth, made entirely of glass.He approached to find that she was hovering over a young woman, who had buried her face in her locked hands, sitting on the plinth. “Benjamin,” said Amber “this is Nicole. Apparently, she’s Kirkland’s secretary. Benjamin couldn’t decide if she was beautiful or not, seeing as her makeup was drowned in tears and her expression of a droopy maid.“Nicole, can you tell us anything about wha
It first formed in his head, when he almost decided to use the weapon in signing a few documents Amber had brought before and stopped himself immediately. If he could make the same mistake, even after seeing what it did to him, surely could his enemy with a system, Kirkland.But Kirkland, was out of his reach, out of his world, wasn’t he? He was a User with many more abilities than Benjamin, and would sniff out any backhanded methods at an attack, right? Not so much. Benjamin first tested the viability of his plan, days ago, by asking Amber for the address to MoonShot.After getting to the location, he visited the high-rise building in a cap and Jean disguise, waiting outside, but far away from the entrance, checking the times Kirkland usually arrived at work. Some guards had spotted him easily of course, but that was easily sorted out by [Bow Down To Me]. However, he realized now that the guards might have just left him be if she showed the black alliance card.It was always a trick
“Unlock it” he instructed.“At once, Master.”[Notice: CopyCat Level 1 Unlocked!][Notice: CopyCat Active. Select Target: Full Name]“CopyCat has three requirements for the target user to copy off: 1. You must know their Legal Full Name. 2. You must know what they look like and picture it. 3. You must have spent a minimum of 7 hours with the target.” stated PAYTON. [Notice: CopyCat Active, Select Target. Full Name.]“Full Name: Amber Stone” replied Benjamin, and a picture of Amber popped up on the system screen. [Notice: Target Acquired. Amber Stone. Copy Trait?”]“Some traits are more restricted in copying than others. Currently, only non-verbal traits are available” replied PAYTON. Non-verbal traits imply the existence of verbal traits, thought Benjamin. That means that at some point, I may be able to copy the voices. Is that truly possible?“Copy Trait: HandWriting” replied Benjamin.[Notice: HandWriting. Copied.]At first, nothing seemed to have changed, but Benjamin, so
“Hey, what are you guys doing here?!” boomed a voice Benjamin didn’t recognize. A young male, looking to be not about 3 or 4 years older than Benjamin, stepped into the office. He looked at Benjamin, and went: “What are you doing here? This is a crime scene!” And then turned back to the officers. “Can someone explain to me what a civilian is doing here? Have you all lost your minds?!!”Although he was barking at the officers, the man was wearing plain clothes rather than a standard navy blue police uniform.“He was looking for his phone, Sir” answered the tall officer. The man looked like he was talking to a mental patient. He turned to the rest. “You all came here” he started “ together. To - follow - a-c civilian- all- the -way -to - a crime- scene, and let me guess this right because I think I might’ve hit my head a little too hard on the way here because he lost his phone?” he enunciated.The officers looked at themselves and nodded carefreely. “That’s correct, Sir.” They repl
“I said arrest him, you dumbfuck!”“I don’t appreciate your tone, Captain. Are all captains in the force as loose-mannered as you?” asked Benjamin, with authority.“Harris!” repeated the Captain, ignoring Benjamin. “I’ll have your badge for this!”“Mr Harris isn’t going to listen to you, Captain. And neither are those two over there” said Benjamin. The Captain looked behind him to both officers, their expressions still neutral from the effects of [Bow Down To Me].“What the fuck?” he muttered.“If you’re done gawking, I have a few questions to ask, if you don’t mind,” said Benjamin. The Captain recovered from his shellshock after a couple of seconds and grabbed the handcuffs from Harris.“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Warned Benjamin.The Captain scoffed but grinned. “What? You think you could actually take me in a fight?” he asked. He had absolutely no idea.“Yes” smiled Benjamin “but that is only my last resort.” He said, pulling out the card from his pocket. “Do we have a pro