I didn’t know how the process would work, and my first guess was that we would just have the contract handed to us. Turns out I was pretty close. Contract used an ability called [Revision] to make me the new owner of Tóxica’s contract. I still had to read through the contract, but that was it for our meeting with Contract.

  He had us escorted out with four supers and a dozen henchmen, each one clearly hoping for a reason to attack. We went through a winding path of disrepaired hallways and decrepit rooms until we were unceremoniously shoved out of a side door, which was shut and locked the second we were outside.

  Once we were outside, I looked at my allies. Before we got moving, I figured a leader should talk to their team. “Alright, we should all introduce ourselves. My name’s Taker, and I’m the one in charge. I have telekinetic powers.”

  Reload let out a chuckle. “Name’s Reload. I make guns that can kill people.”

  “I’m Frank. I’m twenty-four years old, born in March, and my favorite color is blue. I don’t have any powers, but Taker got me fired from my last job so I work for him now.”

  We all looked at Tóxica, but she just glared at us. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up. “My name is Tóxica.”

  I smiled at the three of them. “Alright, it’s good that we got introductions out of the way. We’re going to head back to our base and plan our next move.”

  None of them said anything, so I started walking back to the motel. Nobody spoke on the way there, a suffocating silence hung over us. Even if she didn't say much, Tóxica’s presence made it hard to speak up.

  After over an hour of walking through the streets, doing our best to stay hidden, we finally reached the motel. When I opened the door to our motel room, I could feel the disappointment from the rest of the group.

  Reload plopped onto the bed. “Welcome to the crib!”

  As we all looked around the room, I realized that we were in desperate need of an upgrade. The small motel room was still thick with the scent of vomit and blood, having desperately clung onto the air. Even if we ignored that, this place was too small for one person, let alone four. I was okay with sleeping on the floor while Reload healed, but that wouldn’t work long term.

  “Stay here, I’ll be right back,” I ordered the group.

  I marched towards the main office of the motel. As I headed over there, I noticed that the parking lot was nearly empty. There were only two cars parked, and the prostitutes from earlier were gone. This place was practically abandoned.

  I’d just outsmarted Contract, defeated a champion fighter, and gained two new allies. Right now, things were going better than I could have dreamed of. So I did something that was a bit reckless, inspired by my newfound confidence.

  I slammed open the door to the main office. “Hey, clerk! What’s happening around here?”

  The young clerk looked up from her magazine, startled at my outburst. “Uh, what are you talking about?”

  “Last I heard, Surge Gang and the Disciples are fighting. This place is abandoned, which means they’ve been fighting in the area. So which group runs this spot?”

  “...My dad’s the owner?”

  “Alright, let me rephrase. Who are you paying protection money to? It should be Surge Gang, but I always like to check.”

  She shifted in her seat, her hand slowly moving underneath the desk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I walked up and grabbed her arm, forcing her hand away from the gun. “I’m not trying to start anything, I just need you to answer the question.”

  She gave up trying to lie to me. “Surge Gang. It’s some guy named Vance, he comes by once a month.”

  “See, was that so hard?” I let go of her. “You’re not paying Vance anymore, we’re taking control of this motel. Instead of protection money, we’re going to take the six rooms on the second floor.”

  She was confused, uncertain what was happening. “But what about when Vance comes back?”

  “If Vance shows up, call room seven. Tell your dad to talk to me if he has any issues. Now give me the keys and I’ll be out of your hair!”

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  She pulled the keys off of the corkboard on the wall. She slowly pushed them towards me. “Thank you for doing business with the Sunset Inn, sir.”

  I headed back to the group, who were standing around the entrance of my old room. Tóxica stood on her own, staring off in the distance, Frank was on his phone, and Reload was laying on my bed. As I walked up to them, I tossed each of them a room key. Reload’s key smacked him in the forehead as I threw it in the room.

  Reload picked up the key, inspecting it. “The hell’s this?”

  “Your new rooms. I made a deal with the motel, and this is our territory now. If Surge has a problem with it, we can deal with him later. For now, go get settled.”

  We climbed the rusty metal stairs that led to the second floor. The wooden balcony of the second floor creaked under our weight, weakened by neglect and age. But it gave a great view of our surroundings, letting us see the nearby streets. If Surge Gang wanted to cause problems over this, we’d have a useful vantage point.

  I entered my new room, the one closest to the stairs, with the duffel bag full of money slung over my shoulder. It looked exactly like my old room, but there was one key difference. This room was mine. I wasn’t paying for the room, I owned it. In a way, this was my first piece of territory. And that feeling of power felt better than anything I’d ever experienced before.

  While I sat down, enjoying the peaceful sounds of the city, I decided to read over Tóxica’s contract. She wasn’t acting friendly, but I couldn’t blame her. Not only did we just beat the shit out of her, but she was now working for us.

  As I read through the contract, a pit began to form in my stomach. I’d been so caught up in the moment that I didn’t realize what we were actually fighting for. When Contract told us that we’d be slaves if we lost, I hadn’t pieced together that she’d be in the same position. There were dozens of rules and conditions she couldn’t break, the threat of death hanging over her head.

  Even the section about forcing her to comply with any order given wasn’t the worst part to me, however. It was the part of the contract that outlined how she could earn her freedom. If she just paid off the cost of housing and feeding her, she’d be free to go.

  She was being charged a thousand dollars a day, with a ten percent weekly interest. Any money that she made, from any source, went directly to paying off her debt. It was nothing more than senseless cruelty, taunting her with a debt that was already in the nine-figure range.

  Contract and I were both villains, but that’s a level that even I couldn’t lower myself to. We still needed her help, though. She was a powerful super, and I didn’t doubt that she was stronger than me and Reload in a serious fight. Hell, from what I’ve seen, Tóxica could even rival a Disciple lieutenant. There just wasn’t any way to succeed without having her by our side.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room, trying to figure out what my next move should be. I needed to learn what the Disciples have been up to while we were gone, alongside figuring out how to get Tóxica on our side. There was a lot to do, but someone had to do it.

  In the morning, we gathered in room twelve for our first meeting. Even if there wasn’t any real difference between the rooms, I decided we should have a designated meeting room. We were a small team of somewhat friends, but that didn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be professional.

  I smiled when they all finally arrived at the meeting, sitting around the room. “I hope all of you slept well last night. We have a lot ahead of us, and things will only be getting worse from here. But, before we talk about that, I wanted to address our newest member, Tóxica.”

  She glared at me. “?Qué quieres, cabron?”

  “Look, I know you don’t like us, but we need your help. Right now, we’re in a losing war with a stronger gang. But with you by our side, we’d have a real chance at taking them down.”

  “You already own me,” she spat out.

  “Yeah, that’s the issue. I don’t want to keep you here as a prisoner. I want to try and work something out with you.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “I don’t know how you got mixed up with Contract, but I doubt you were happy working for him. If anything, I’d assume you want revenge. But he has an army of supers and henchmen working for him, and even you couldn’t handle that.” I pulled her contract out of my pocket. “If you help us kill the Disciples of Agony, I promise that we’ll help you kill Contract. And I want you to make that decision on your own, without power fueled slavery.” In one swift motion, I tore the contract in half.

  The air in the room turned to ice, holding me in place. I knew that it would be a gamble to tear up her contract, let alone in front of her. Now, there was nothing stopping her from killing us all. But this was the only way I could think of convincing her.

  Tóxica stared down at the torn pieces of paper, which slowly faded into nonexistence. “Okay.”

  It took me a minute to realize that was the only response I’d be getting, which was good enough for me. I reached my hand out, and she shook it. Our systems connected, giving me my second connected super. With her joining us, we now had enough firepower to pose a real threat to the Disciples.

  “Okay, onto our next piece of business,” I continued speaking. “The Disciples of Agony, they’re a group of assholes looking to kill me. They’ll soon be looking to kill all of you, but that doesn’t matter, because the goal is to take them all out before they have a chance to realize what’s happening.”

  Frank spoke up. “Should I be here? I don’t have any powers, and henchmen aren’t normally a part of these meetings.”

  Reload answered him before I could, “Nah, don’t worry about it Frankie. You’re part of the team, even if you can’t do anything useful.”

  “Thank you? That felt sort of mean,” Frank responded.

  Tóxica joined in, “Don’t be upset, you probably have some use.”

  “Stop bullying Frank,” I interrupted them. “We have more important things to discuss. There’s a list of people we need to kill, and I have a plan for our first target. The Disciples have four lieutenants, but we only need to care about the three that are supers. And if everything goes right, we can kill one of them by the end of the day.”