The Paragon

Chapter 29 : The Roster

Date: 4th April, 2336

Time: 1:26 AM

Location: Gunga Mountain Villa

What is the most powerful weapon in the world? Is it a quirk? Is it a gun? Is it a nuke? No.... The most powerful weapon in the world is information. That is what drove Tomoyasu Chikazoku or as the crime world remembered him as, Skeptic. A bitter chuckle comes out of the man's mouth as his fingers run across the keyboard at a blinding speed. Remembered, not known. The villain knew very well what that difference meant. If you are known as a villain, then it means that you did have some influence in the world of crime, but if you are remembered, you are treated as a ghost of a past and that is what he has become.

It was a fatal mistake to hand over the MLA's leadership to Shigaraki. Skeptic was always doubtful of the new leader, in fact he was skeptical of him. He always knew that handing over the leadership to a man-child would lead to problems, but his loyalty to Re-Destro didn't allow him to raise his concern. Looks like he was right on that instinct because in the end, everything went down to drain. Re-Destro and Trumpet got arrested. Curious is dead. Most of the liberation's forces were detained. He and what remaining forces are left are in hiding. To make matters worse, all the assets of Detnerat and Feel Good.Inc were freezed, leaving him completely bankrupt and he can't put new members in Hero force because of the new screening process implemented five years ago.

But Skeptic didn't give up. Even if Re-Destro is god knows where... he was still around. There is a saying.... When in Rome, do it like the Romans. He had to adapt. He took over the leadership of the New Meta Liberation Force. NMLF. If he can't have access to his funds... he has to create new funds and thus all the members of NMLF have become sleeper agents who were secretly collecting funds for the group. His biggest moment of pride came from the location he chose to bunker down.

Gunga Mountain Villa. The hideout and main headquarters of the PLA. Skeptic still laughs at how the heroes and police had failed to realize that he was using the rundown HQ of the PLA as his hideout. Sure, he might have been on the run from the past five years, but he had returned to this place frequently. Currently, he has been staying here for the past eight months. His followers, who lived nearby, brought him supplies and this place was very much under surveillance. The heroes and police had no idea that he was living in the last place they would think of to raid. This place was already picked clean and due to the war, this place was very much unsuitable for living. But that didn't factor in the hidden rooms that were yet to be discovered. Heck, this place wouldn't even be on their list. Re-Destro made sure that this villa, which was already hidden, had even more hidden places.

He can gloat about his geniusness later since he had work on his hand. Recently, a new hero team arrived in Japan. Team Paragon is what they call themselves and the underground is going crazy for any information on them. One information broker even agrees to pay three million dollars for any information they could get on the team's leaders. Three million dollars! That is nearly 400 million yen. That much money sounds nice and Skeptic was all in for money... but he also had a personal stake here... Shigaraki and his friends from his ragtag gang were a part of this hero team and Skeptic was not happy about it. Why should they get a good treatment while he and his friends are on the run. Even that bitch Geten sided with them. When he came to know about the reward, a plan formed in his mind. Skeptic was not only gunning for the info but the entire team itself. He would make his personal mission to destroy that team and now he was in that process.

Few days ago... he had hacked into Paragon's server. The security was lax but due to the fear of being caught, he bailed out from the server quickly. He had waited for a few days just to see any response from the team, but when his agents said that they were acting as usual, he decided to become a bit more ballsy. Now he was scouring through all the information he could go through. Most of the information didn't make any sense... They seemed like a stack of random bits and data, but there were some things that did boggle his mind.