Chapter 356: Tactical Flexibility (1/2)

The residents of Asano Village spilled out of the hall into the blessed sunshine, freed from Jason’s domineering aura and the unnatural darkness they had been plunged into. Even though the darkness had faded, reaching sunlight coming down from open sky still felt like an escape.

Once outside, many made a beeline for the village, putting the amazing but unnerving demonstration of magic behind them. Others stopped to watch as Jason returned the solid building they had just been occupying to a flask, like putting a genie back into a bottle. Jason’s other close friends and family had seen it before and had already paused their other activities longer than they should, thus were rushing back to resume them. The exceptions were Farrah and Emi, who stood by Jason as the building slowly dissolved into cloud-stuff that snaked its way into the bottle.

“You got the recordings for Terrance alright?” Jason asked.

“I haven’t checked them but it should be fine,” Farrah said. “Once I get back to Sydney I’ll give them to him. You really need to rank up that portal ability, Jason.”

“One power at a time,” Jason said. “I’m going to put Shade through his paces, now that he’s ranked up. You’re higher-rank than me now, Shade, so I’m anticipating you doing most of the work while I slack off.”

“Miss Emi,” Shade said. “If you find yourself in need of a shadow-based familiar once you obtain essences, I think you and I should talk.”

“Traitor!” Jason exclaimed.

After returning the cloud house to its hidden location underwater, Jason wanted to go out and explore Shade’s expanded limits and capabilities. In the village thoroughfare, Shade took the form of a motorcycle which Jason climbed on and they took off.

The front gate at the edge of the property was around three kilometres from the village proper and there was a large crowd on the other side as Jason pulled to a stop. On either side of the road, tents and campers had been clustered.

Once the location of the Asano compound had been released in the press, panicked people had come seeking the Starlight Rider’s protection rather than head for the designated safe zones. Mixed in were some with fringe opinions about him that Jason had no interest in. As he pulled up behind the gate he spotted signs and placards welcoming the messenger of God, decrying the Antichrist and an oddly large number mentioning chemtrails.

“Has Kaito been leaving condensation trails with his helicopter?”

“No,” Shade said.

“What’s the chemtrail thing about, then?”

“I don’t know,” Shade said. “Something I have learned in my very long life is that not all knowledge is worth possessing.”

“A font of wisdom, as ever, Shade.”

Aside from the would-be refugees and the loons, there was a contingent of press, present, in what Jason suspected to be one of the least coveted jobs in the current media landscape. He looked over at the sketchy portable toilets that someone was charging for the use of and confirmed that suspicion on the spot.

Numerous people had attempted to bypass what seemed like the simple security of a chain-link fence, even if it was a rather odd one. What they discovered was that anyone who attempted to climb over it passed unconscious, courtesy of the mana-draining field Farrah and Hiro had built into it.

In one instance, a press helicopter had attempted a flyover of the property, only for the pilot and passengers to wake up in a different state with no helicopter, no recording equipment and no idea what happened.

Those who tried to cut their way through the fence suffered considerably worse, discovering that the fence wasn’t so much electrified as it shot lightning bolts.

The village largely ignored the people gathered outside so long as they adhered to two rules: leave a space around the security room and keep the road clear. This second rule was currently being broken by the press gathering in front of the gate to shout over one another, firing questions at Jason.

“You’re obstructing a public thoroughfare,” Jason said. His voice was soft yet somehow carried across the whole group, which fell into silence as Jason’s aura descended. He could see frantic eyes light up with the desire to mob rush the gate as it started to slide open but Jason continued to use fine aura control to not just keep them in place but have them scramble back off the road.

Before he set off, Jason looked around the reporters for the one that was holding up the best against his suppression. He relaxed the strength of his aura against that one person to almost nothing and the man fought through the fear to yell out a question.

“You haven’t allowed press into the compound since before the dimensional invasion began. What are you hiding?”

Jason turned, his silver eyes falling unerringly on the man despite his position at the back of the pack. Then he grinned.

“What I’m hiding is my family. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there are monsters about.”

Without waiting for a response, Jason’s bike shot off like a rocket.

“…but there are monsters about.”

Anna muted the television on the wall of her office with a groan.

“Why does he keep running into the press?” she complained. “He has magical stealth powers.”

“Because I asked him to,” Terrance said.

“You did this?”

“Of course I did,” Terrance said. “The EOA went to the trouble of legitimising him, after all. We’ve been doing the faceless government response thing and I get it: we want to show everyone that there’s a system in place and that society isn’t crumbling around us. Yet. But the EOA has been kicking us up and down the street with the good-looking superhero act and we need a human face for people to get behind.”

With the Network transitioning their Media Interdiction department into the more traditional Media Relations department, the new Director of Media Relations was Terrence.

“Publicity is a secondary concern at this point.”

“Right up until it isn’t,” Terrance said. “Did you know the superheroes are claiming credit for the grid?”

“They’re admitting to taking it down?”

“NO, they’re claiming that they were secretly keeping away the monsters until terrorists took down their early warning system.”

“They’re claiming to be us?”

”Anna, if they convince the public that they're us, it's only a matter of time before governments start switching their support from us to the EOA.”

“That’s insane.”

“I don’t think they care. They know that we’re busy protecting the world with a massive outlay of people and resources. They’re busy taking credit for it using a few flashy idiots in spandex with dedicated media crews.”

“They’re not actually wearing spandex, are they?”

“No, their costume design is actually pretty fabulous,” Terrance conceded.

“You do realise,” Anna said, “that if you go with Asano, your human face of the Network is not actually human.”

“He’s from a small town, Sweetie, not space.”

“Never mind. He’s not actually Network, either.”

“Look,” Terrance said. “Asano is charismatic, great at handling the press and he has this light and dark thing that plays amazingly with most of our test demographics.”

“You’ve done focus groups?”

“Of course we have. He tests low with older people, which is partly just racism and partly a religious-based backlash to everything going on. That’s actually a positive, though, because it shows that he’s the face of magic, not the EOA’s knock-off Justice League. He does great with the other demos, though because he has these dichotomies that balance each other out across the board. The lefties love supporting him because he’s not white and it makes them feel good about themselves. The conservatives are on board because of the footage we’ve leaked of him riding around the outback on a motorcycle, tearing through monsters.”

“You’ve been releasing our combat footage?”

“Don’t worry about that. He’s got that easy-going larrikin thing that makes him relatable, but he’s also shrouded in mystery. His powers are dark, dangerous, which brings in the edgelords but he’s also running around healing people like emo Jesus. Actually, Farrah should have some footage for me that will let us show off that dark power thing a little more.”

“You want to play up the dark powers when people are scared of monsters running around?”

“People need to know that someone is going to save them right now. The EOA has been selling this superhero narrative and people are eating it up, so we have to sell it better. They’ve been showing off a bunch of second-rate supermen but they’ve forgotten that people like Batman more. Asano is an Australian, multicultural, yobbo Bruce Wayne.”

“And you can sell this? I’ve met the man and he’s mostly pushy and weird.”

“You think I picked him on a whim?” Terrance said, “I’m a professional, Anna. I watched every bit of footage we have on him, went over action reports and interviewed anyone I could find who has dealt with him. Then I interviewed him.”

“And?”

“He becomes what he needs to get what he wants. He might seem off-kilter to you, but that's because he wants you off-kilter. With regular people, he's relaxed and charming. When he needs to be in control, he's fierce and domineering. He’s confident, he’s handsome and he’s exactly what we need right now.”

“Handsome,” Anna groaned, slapping a hand over her eyes.

“Oh, he’s a tasty treat, alright. I mean, those eyes; it's like he's hunting you. Gives me the shivers.”