Chapter 11: The charismatic Parasite Part 1 (1/2)
”Harriet Russel.”
”Huh? Is that you're girlfriend or something?” Zinnia yelled, keeping up with her karaoke session of Michael Jackson Beat it.
”What? No! Pokiero. Her name is Harriet Russel. 23 years old. Signed up as a streamer five years ago. She had always had a healthy number of fans, but it's only been recent since she had a huge boom. It seems V.I.R.A.L were the ones to push her, right around when we joined actually. She mainly streams on weekdays ranging from early mornings to late afternoons.”
Gale lifted his head from the sofa, throwing the last clump of crisps into his mouth. ”How do you know all of this?”
”It's all public information. She has it on her streaming page. Slightly odd to me that she has all her info on display.”
Zinnia glimpses over her shoulder, trying to juggle singing and contributing to the team. ”Does she have any more information we can use? Streaming locations? Home address?”
”Zinnia, no one in their right mind would give out their own… holy shit she has her home address on here,” Alton spoke in a baffled tone slouching overlooking. ”To make matters even crazier, she lives like ten minutes away from my place. Small world.”
”Well then, that's all we need. What's the plan? We commence an all-out attack on her house, take her by surprise? Tie her up for the world to see and force her to confess?”
”That's a little dark for you, isn't it?” Gale stated.
”No, that won't work.” Alton regrettably said, putting his phone on the table. ”If we just attack her like that we may be marked as the bad guys. Besides, we need the public's side on ours if we are to successfully take her down. If the controversy is too small people will forget, and our hard work would all be for nothing.”
”And we still don't know what her abilities are capable of. If we aren't careful, she could drop us all like flies.” Gale added looking for once reasonably concerned. ”If this girl had physical abilities, she wouldn't be an issue, but mental ones will be little help to me.”
Zinnia pauses her song, dropping to the floor cross-legged. ”So, what do we do then? If we can't fight her directly or take the fight to her, how do we take her down?”
Alton had Pokiero's stream on with the video paused as he read the chat. He kept watching the discussion gloat over her as an idea came to mind. ”We use her fans.”
”Her fans? How would we do that?”
”It's simple. If we somehow made her fans turn against her, she would be forced to give up. If we turn enough of her fans against her, drop her viewer count enough, she would be forced to come after us. Make her desperate enough her confession will come out without us even trying.”
”Setting a trap by using her body shield against her. That might just work.”
”The only problem is still her powers. If we start turning against each other or make the attack seem like a misunderstanding or a fault on our end, it could all come tumbling down.” Alton said in a mixed tone flipping his phone around. ”We need to find her weakness.”
”You think she has a weakness?”
”Every superhuman has a weakness Zinnia. For example, if there is no source of liquids around, I can't use my powers whatsoever. Pretty sure mister punch first never ask questions has no chance against ranged opponents, and you have to touch the target to suppress their emotions. Pokiero has to have a weakness.”
”Maybe her mind control has a range limit? If that's the case, you could easily take her down.”
”No, if that was the case, she couldn't get to us during her live streams.”
”You said she only affects males, we could use that to our advantage. Use Zinnia to take her down.”
”No, that wouldn't work. The effect took hold of Zinnia took. Although not as strong, it still captivated her. Besides, she isn't exactly a fighter.”
”I thought this was going to be a lot easier.” Zinnia pouted, acting like a spoilt brat. ”Should we get another teammate? A female who could withstand her might?”
”We don't have time for that. Although… I might have a way to get the number of people watching.”
”Really? But why would we need that for?”
”Well, the more people watching our takedown spreads the downfall and likability that she stays out of the streaming service for good, and it gets us more followers.”
”I didn't think of that.”
”Of course, you didn't.” Alton sighs. ”Say Gale you think you can do more research into Harriet's background. Family upbringing, any previous controversies or bad she's done.”
”I guess I could look into it. What about Zinnia?”
”Zinnia if you can get in contact with the businessman who approached us today. See if you can find any more victims who would tell their stories. I'm going to try and get our views.”
”I can try. Who are you going to talk to?”
”An old fan.”
****
Iris put her legs up on the small coffee table, flipping a lollypop around her fingers. ”Hunting rouge streamers sounds like something right up your alley was this Zinnia or your idea.”
”Mine of course. She's a streamer going by Pokiero.”
”Oh, her.”
”You know her?”
”My sister was meant to have a dual-stream with her a little while back. She turned down the offer, not giving me a reason apart from she didn't feel like it. Our father was pissed. I've seen one of her streams. She's a creep.”
”She's also using her powers to manipulate men into throwing their money away to fuel her lifestyle. They are completely unaware they are doing this too. It's ruining some of their lives too.” Alton snapped, feeling more frustrated that he too fell for her trap.
Iris swirled her lollypop around, taking one last lick thinking. ”Sounds horrible. So, you came to ask for our help? I'll give my sister a call, and we can take down this bastard together.”
”That's not why I called you here.”
Iris pressed her leg on the table nodding. ”I expected that. It's still cool that Avalanche is coming to me for help. What can I do?”
”Well, I need your sister's help. My team are going after this rouge streamer. But we need the numbers to get a good backlash. With our low efforts, it would be futile. We need to take her down alone to build our reputation.”
”I get it now. This is a way to blow up and get your name out there. Makes sense why you wouldn't want my sister helping, she might take all the thunder… how about this. When you start the takedown stream, I get my sister to host the said stream. Have her followers watch your stream? Spread the word and get everyone hosting the stream. With those sorts of numbers, we might just get you to the number one streamed channel at the time. Might even get the attention of Vanguard.”
”That would be perfect. Is that alright?”
”She would be thrilled to help one of her all-time favourite streamers. Dad might be pissed, but who cares. This is for the good of mankind.”
Alton looked at his phone, getting a text from Zinnia. ”I need to go. We have a lead.”
”Well, I wish you luck. Though you don't need it. The might of Avalanche will live on!” Alton walked out of the coffee shop backwards giving her a thumbs-up as she leaned back smiling to herself. ”I'm friends with Avalanche, this is awesome!”
”Can you take your feet off the table please mam.”
Iris turned to the old woman as she stood up, biting the last of her lollypop off and throwing the stick at her. ”Get fucked, Grandma.”
****
”I must thank you again for accepting my plea.” The businessman informed bowing. ”It means the world to me.”
Alton was glued to his phone, going over old photos as he nodded. ”Yeah, so listen you mentioned the other day there was more victims of Pokiero. Could you possibly get into contact with them?”
”Contact? I suppose I could message them over the Pokiero forums. I am the moderator of it.”
”Of course, you are, but this coincidence might help us. Since you moderate the chat could you get the other victims to flood the forums with people sharing their stories and exposing Pokiero? She would have to step in and take notice.”