Dressed in his iconic red and blue suit with yellow gauntlets, helmet, and belt, Firefighter crouched a little lower to check on an odd pattern he noticed on the calcined wall before him. Given the state the building was in before it went up in flames it was entirely possible this was inconsequential, but he would be very bad at his job if he dismissed anything based on prejudice. Contrary to popular belief, fires didn't perfectly erase all evidence - rather, they altered everything to the point of being muddled. Even the best forensics specialized in this field would be forced to say they couldn't discern the truth sometimes. It was an important part of the job: knowing how to successfully discern the truth with very little and knowing when to admit you couldn't know.

"Find anything?"

He didn't turn to face his interlocutor, rather he took a few more seconds of observation and some light scratching of the spot before standing back up and addressing the regular forensic.

"Burnt mold."

"Uh. You know, I always figured the madman's place would be a horror set, but I never registered it was also his home. I mean, I knew, but the dots didn't connect, you know?"

The Hero grunted his affirmation - someone else may have offended, but since he was one of the few Heroes who stuck around after the brunt of the action was over, others whose job it was to handle the aftermath too had gotten used to him. Case in point, he'd been the one putting out the fire and doing damage control until the others arrived.

"Like, sure, being burnt didn't help, but from what's left it's clear the place was always a dump. It feels kind of pathetic."

"You have to remember he wasn't alone. Most of the hospital was occupied by Patchees, so why bother giving them nice things? We haven't gotten to his quarters yet, and something tells me those will be in much better condition."

"Right, right. It's just... This place was always taboo, the stuff of nightmares. To actually be standing here, knowing he's dead, it kinda kills the myth."

"That's a good thing. At the end of the day, he was just a man."

Despite his calm exterior, Doug himself was still digesting the fact they were currently standing in the ruins of the Patcher's base. The criminal had been around for almost as long as the new Zalcien, and Doug's non-Super colleague was right to say the place was almost legendary. The Union had wanted to get their hands on this monster for the longest time, only held back by the various threats of the entire criminal underworld and the terrible failures of past attempts.

To suddenly learn someone else had succeeded and killed him was... Well, he couldn't deny there was a widespread sentiment of some light resentment, that someone else had done it where they failed, not to mention the complete lack of care for the law and the brutal way he died, but the vast majority of Zalcien was celebrating, and that included the Heroes. Even Saline had been spotted drinking some of the champagne she kept for great occasions.

All that said, they needed to figure out what happened. If not for the public, then...

"Uh, Firefighter? I... I think we may have a problem."

The Hero went to see what his colleague had spotted, forcing him to walk back outside, and while it made him tense he wasn't overly surprised. It was only a matter of time.

Seated on a crate that hadn't been there when they arrived was a very infamous cyborg. A sleek yet spiky black robotic body with an orange glow coming out of the many holes on its surface, too thin to fit a normal man, topped by a pale human head with a dark gray buzzcut and a metal gasmask over the lower half of his face. Said mask also had a mechanism that let a straw in, the other end of it currently in a bottle of a famous Draskian drink that had been made illegal following several incidents of melted throats. The cyborg took a sip and watched them calmly with his cold blue eyes, as though he wasn't one of the city's biggest Villains on the scene of a crime in front of a Hero.

The man accompanying Doug began to take out his weapon only to be stopped by the Hero's hand grabbing his arm.

"That won't be necessary. Go back inside, use the radio."

The man nodded before rushing back in, leaving the two Supers alone. The Blood Angel Villain finished his drink, picking up the empty bottle and incinerating it in a flash, reducing it to ashes in a fraction of a second. His trash dealt with, he began to speak, his Draskian accent clear as ever.

"Long time no see, Firefighter."

"Not enough for my taste, Sunburn. Let me guess, Marcus wanted his pyrotechnics expert to check the scene to try and figure out what happened."

"Yup. Even if I repeatedly reminded him my thing is starting fires, not checking the wreckage. He didn't take the news of what happened to our partner very well. Moonfreeze was still handling him while grunts cleaned up the blood when I left. And when I arrived, who did I spot? The Union's number one fire handler and the usual crime scene guys."

"I shouldn't be a surprise, your people let us through."

"Your territory map isn't up to date, but yeah, I knew. Well, the brat knew and told me. She and I agree that it's worth letting you come."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"So you've been waiting for me to finish and tell you what I know?"

"Ah! No. You and I both know you wouldn't say a thing. I'll do my own investigation when you're done, even if I don't expect to learn much. No, I'm here for protection, funnily enough."

The Hero narrowed his eyes behind his helmet.

"The Union doesn't need your help."

"The Union, sure. But those Coreless buddies of yours? I already had to take care of a few packs of Sicklers. The gangs may have implicitly agreed to let you do your thing, but the same doesn't go for the monsters. Wouldn't want one of the Patcher's leftovers to harm your pals now, would you? Not to mention the possibility of our mysterious killer coming back to erase evidence and take out those who already know too much."

"What do you get out of this?"

"Me? Nothing. I don't care. Moonfreeze and Marcus? The reassurance that your little stunt goes well and you can focus on your job."

"You're planning to steal information, aren't you?"

"Stealing files, bribing folks. End result is, you do your job, we know who did it, and we take the matter into our own hands."

"We could always drop the investigation. You get nothing then. It wouldn't be the first crime to go unpunished in these parts."

"Ah. As if Saline didn't want to know who had the means to sneak in and the guts to do the deed. Not to mention, we educated few know the Patcher didn't go down like that. Monster at his side or not, there would have been a fight, and your average hired muscle would have been done in seconds. We all know this is either a new player in town or one of the existing big boys decided to shake the status quo."

Doug hated that he was right. They couldn't afford not to know who was responsible for the Patcher's death, or else they ran the risk of being blind to the presence of an unknown Super. If this person truly existed, they needed to know who they were and what was their agenda. Killing the Patcher while going against the law would be a sign they were anti-villain, but that could just be a way to garner the public's favor. Not to mention, Vigilantes were criminals for a reason. Even if they did mean well, they didn't have the proper training. There was always the risk of things going wrong, as well as some Vigilantes who didn't care about casualties so long as they reached their goal.

"So, you decided to show yourself to mock me?"

"If you truly believe that, then you have more ego than I thought. We're talking right now so that you don't take my presence as an attempt at an ambush, and to clarify to every observer why I'm here. You'd be surprised how many people thought I was the one who did it."

"Hmf. As if you would leave this much intact."

From the twinkle in the man's pale blue eyes, he found the phrase amusing. Perhaps he would have smiled behind his mask, had he still had lips.

"So, who's here so far?"

"You won't tell me anything yet you expect me not to return the sentiment?"

"If it means throwing your opponents and competition under the bus, yes."

"Well, a little birdie or two should be enough to let you know Black is watching."

"That isn't a surprise. The Patcher may not have been his client, but his disappearance still impacts his business. I suspect we will soon see a rush of loans to pay off medical debts amongst you lot."

"That I agree. What I find suspicious is that from what our eyes and ears gathered, there were even more birds before the place burst into flames."

Doug narrowed his eyes.

"Are you suggesting Blake Black is the one who killed the Patcher?"

The cyborg shrugged.

"Do I think he's the one who did it? No. It doesn't match his personality and the Black Bank's code wouldn't allow it anyway. But he knew what was about to happen, or had a good guess. If he doesn't have ties with the killer, he has information on them at the very least."

"That's good to know. He won't tell us a thing and surveying his business isn't worth attempting, but that's still something."

"I knew you would appreciate it. Aside from that, we have the usual bots, scrying, homunculi, pets, curious idiots, and the like. Nothing that stands out like the crows."

The Hero nodded. He might not like the situation, but if he was stuck entertaining a Villain's schemes, he might as well get as much as he could out of it.

"While I have you, I always wondered. Why did he like you so much? Moonfreeze and Marcus I can get, they're just as twisted as he was, just in different ways, but you? You do not kill or torture for pleasure. You do it as a job. You didn't care about him one bit."

"I suppose he appreciated that I actually bothered to show up. Grunts are too scared to stick around for long and other big shots were either too busy to handle it themselves or just did it by phone."

"It makes sense, even if it doesn't seem like much."

The Draskian grunted as he looked up into the sky, pondering the question a little further.

"If you really want to dig deep, there's also the possibility he didn't see me as a walking mass of materials but a real person. Not enough meat left for that kind of stuff. There's also how I didn't care much about what he was doing. Marcus just likes to kill. Moonfreeze appreciated playing with prey like that but found breaking them into proper obedient beasts a killjoy. Most of his other customers either fit in one of those categories or found his work horrifying though useful."

The Hero harrumphed.

"I subscribe to the cyborg bit. That man loved traumatizing others too much to care for someone not reacting, if anything it'd make you boring."

"I wasn't in his head, and I like it that way."

"On that, we can agree."

Picturing either Sunburn with the madman's personality or the Patcher with Sunburn's powers... Neither would have ended well for the city. If there was one good thing about the current strongest Villain in Zalcien, it was that his professional behavior led to far fewer damages and casualties than weaker unhinged Villains. Sunburn saw civilians as hostages, and for better or worse it worked in everyone's favor.

The cyborg stood up and rolled his shoulders.

"Alright, that's enough playing nice for today. Any longer and people might think I'm getting soft, or your friends might think you're corrupt."

"They know better either way."

The Draskian chuckled.

"Ah, they better. Until next time, though I won't be far. Tell your Hero friends to play nice."

"Hopefully you'll drop dead before we see each other again."

"You wish. You'll have to drown me yourself."

"I will if I must."

The cyborg chuckled one last time before stomping down, creating a firey blast beneath his feet that sent him flying a few buildings away. He wasn't truly leaving, he had made that clear, but Doug couldn't deny he felt better not having him in his sight.

When he came back inside, he was asked the expected question.

"I didn't hear fighting. Didn't you fight?"

"It wouldn't be worth it. We're in their territory, not the other way around. Besides, it would risk compromising the scene, and neither of us wanted that."

"So it wasn't because he was stronger than you?"

"If I thought you or any of the others were in danger, I wouldn't have hesitated. As is? It would have put us in unnecessary danger."

"Uh."

"Now come on, we have more grounds to cover. Go ahead, I'll call the others and update them on the situation. We wouldn't want Mecha Man to drop some new big toy and destroy everything before we're done checking."

"Yes sir!"

This was going to be a long day.

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