Off Grid

Chapter 12: Birds of a Feather

"I don't take kindly to being interrupted when I'm working. Lucky for you, you've got my attention. For now. I'd suggest speaking quickly."

Faintly, he heard the sound of the armored truck roaring back to life. Within seconds, it was gone. Along with his fun for the day.

"I suspect you're familiar with Dean Johnson."

That gave Off Grid pause, and momentarily quelled his growing irritation.

"Mayor Dean Johnson?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"The very one," the man confirmed.

"Just what business would you have with him? And why would it bring you to me?" He asked.

"Mayor Johnson is not the man he pretends to be. He's been embezzling money from the charity that he's so well known for. Accepting bribes. He's corrupt, and he needs to be stopped," the stranger told him.

All of that was news to Off Grid. The mayor of Argent City was a much loved and respected man. Everyone spoke of his kindness.

"And how did you find all of this out?" He asked.

"Because I used to work for him. Until I discovered what he was really up to. I tried to turn him in, to handle things legally and professionally, but someone tipped him off to what I knew," the man explained. "It resulted it the loss of my job, but that wasn't where it ended."

"Oh?"

It was quite the sob story, really. But it wasn't any of Off Grid's concern. He looked out for himself and his brother, not for wronged civilians. He wasn't a hero, and he didn't deal in stopping criminals.

Unfortunately, that was his brother's job.

"He framed me for one of his own crimes, and he destroyed my reputation. So you see, it now goes beyond turning him in. He attacked me personally. The law is no longer my concern. I want him permanently dealt with."

"Sounds to me like you're looking for a hitman," Off Grid said. "I'm a thief, not a killer. Find someone else to dispose of him."

Seth already had too much blood on his hands.

"Oh, I don't want to kill him, boy. No, a man like him deserves a far worse fate than death. I've got something much bigger in store for him."

Off Grid was losing what little patience he had left for the ramblings.

"Then just where do I come in? Why seek me out? Get to the point, or leave me be."

"Because, as you said, you're a thief. You have exactly the set of skills that I'm in need of for what I have planned."

"So far, it doesn't sound like there's much in it for me. You get your revenge, and a crooked politician gets what's coming to him. But I'm not exactly morally opposed to embezzlement. I don't care what the mayor does with his free time. I care how much my own free time earns me."

The fact was that villain could almost respect the heinous schemes that the mayor had allegedly taken part in. It took a special kind of evil to keep up such a perfect public image while also robbing everyone blind.

Off Grid would know.

"I assure you, what I'm proposing will be beneficial to us both. I want to take everything from Dean Johnson. I want him to watch everything he has built be slowly torn away from him. I want to leave him with nothing left. That includes all of the money he's been hiding away."

Now things were sounding a little more his speed. More like something he could get behind.

"I'm listening."

"I happen to know where to find his hidden safe. All I ask is that you help me to procure a few incriminating and precious items from him first. Then, the location of that safe and everything in it is yours."

Of course, Seth had known what his answer would be, even before the money was mentioned. Because he knew that with the knowledge of Seven's secret threatening to expose him, he needed to finally let go of Off Grid.

Seth had spent years carefully building up the walls that separated himself from his alter ego. Even so, to separate himself so completely, to live while Off Grid died, was not something he thought he'd ever need to do.

Somehow, somewhere, Off Grid had become more than a survival mechanism. More than a means of putting food on the table. Seth didn't need Off Grid. Not the way that he had when he'd created him.

Seth could handle his compulsion to steal, he always had, but then he had also always known that he had an outlet to pour his restless energy into. His villainous persona had become a safety net. Something to fall back on when Seth needed to escape and let loose the monster that he knew slept within him.

He didn't know what it would mean to live without that. And he wasn't sure how to start.

Until the offer was made.

Seth saw in it a way out. An act of closure. There was something more manageable, more satisfying, about the idea of starting clean after a victory.

To take the mayor of Argent city for all he was worth? That was a noteworthy theft.

Off Grid wouldn't disappear all at once or fade out. He would have his final moment of glory. One last incredible heist before he hung up his cape for good. Something to make the world stop and stare.

He could, he supposed, live with giving it all up. So long as he went out with a bang.

"You've got yourself a deal then," Off Grid said.

For the first time since finding out that his brother was Resonance, he felt at ease. More of himself. He was entirely within his element.

He didn't need to worry about Seven learning his own secret, because it would all be over very soon. There was comfort in that knowledge.

The two shook hands, each aware that if Off Grid wanted to, he could fry the man right then and there. Maybe he should have.

Instead, the new allies nodded to each other and broke apart.

"Meet me here in two days time. I have to check on something before I can give you your first assignment," he said.

The villain's anger flared to life. He didn't appreciate the tone or the wording of the statement.

"That sounded like an order, so let me be perfectly clear. I am not working for you, I'm working with you. For my own gain, and nothing else. You don't give me orders."

"Of course. I just meant that I would let you know what I need you to obtain first," he said.

But Off Grid wasn't done giving his warning.

"Right now, I'm on board with this whole scheme. I'm willing to help you out. You don't want that to change."

The villain could crush him, quickly and easily. He must have known that, but the man still appeared completely unfazed

"Just remember. If you want that safe, I'm the only one that can get you to it."

It was peculiar, Off Grid thought, how the threats instilled in each a begrudging respect of the other. It also brought them to a standstill. Put them, for at least the time being, on equal footing.

"Then I guess I'll see you in two days," Off Grid said.

"I suppose you will."

The older man started to walk away, but he paused in thought when Off Grid called out one final question.

"Do I get to have the name of the man I'm working with?"

"You can call me... Retribution."

And so began the weaving of a much more dangerous web than even Off Grid was equipped to handle.