Chapter 168: Hear Me Out (2/2)

"Place your arms into these cuffs," said the Guardian in its cold mechanical voice "Do not resist"

Another Guardian came up to Seismic with the same cuffs

Aldrich nodded to Seiset locked down The cuffs locked into place with a pressurized click, tightly wrapping memory structure metal around their arms

"Citizens of Haven!" Solomon moved past Aldrich once he saw that Aldrich had been cuffed, obviously thinking Aldrich was done at this point, and spoke out to the crowd "I'll put in my word for Thanatos here He'll be out to help us soon, I know it!"

Aldrich looked at Solo over to the crowd, probably believing he had won But Solomon's victory was all predicated on the notion that Aldrich would stay in custody with no good way out without painting himself as a villain

Aldrich would disprove that delusion And when he did, when he came back, he would have the upper hand to force Solomon's Sunshi+ne Foundation to siphon resources to hiard

It amplified Solomon's voice, but it also made hi his spotless clean good guy ie

"A- rank hero Seis," said two Guardians as they flanked Seis him away

Two Guardians cailante, please proceed with us to the transport"

"Onethe Guardians He spoke out to Solo you in a little over a week I look forward to working with the Sunshi+ne Foundation then!"

Solo eyes and another momentary pause that indicated confusion It was obvious that Solomon did not kno Aldrich could leave custody after one overn as possible until they knew they could control hih for that If they did not think they could control Aldrich, they ht even try to terminate hioing to miss a chance to ith the Sunshi+ne Foundation, did you? Didn't you say it yourself? That you would do your best to have me out soon? Well, I'll help you out with that No,I'll even make it easy for you

Ihave a hero that wants to sponsorAnd, if I read the fine print properly, a sponsorshi+p fro within a week of going into voluntary custody

I'll clear my name there"

"I'm sorry to say this, Thanatos, but Seismic is also under custody His sponsorshi+ps won't be valid-," began Solomon

"Not Seismic I have so as sponsoring Aldrich

To force a hearing required a hero that was B rank and above, and the only living B ranker in Haven was Rocket Man as B-, just shy of being able to call for a hearing

On top of that, Rocket Man was not popular and influential enough to really make waves in the news Even if Rocket Man could sponsor Aldrich, it was possible the AA could just use technicalities to try and circumvent it

There were a few other B rankers that had coain, they were all at the B- rank

And if they they had been raised froument could be made as with Seismic that their minds were compromised

The only B ranker that had coh popularity behind his na froh, unlike Solomon, Minuteman's persona was not a persona It was how he really was

But Minuteman should have been dead as well by all accounts He had not been a part of the larger battle and the tech disrupting storm had ensured that he could not have contacted the AA at all,he would have been classified as a casualty

Solootten cocky when he saw Minute the listed casualties

"Minuteman will sponsor me," explained Aldrich

"Minuteman isalive?" said Solomon "What a relief! It would have pained ood ive him a second chance?"

"My powers? No, not at all He's alive on the merit of his own bravery," said Aldrich Solomon's question was asked to try and confirm whether Minuteman was ‘corrupted’

If Aldrich had raised Minuteman, then that destroyed Minuteman's credibility"You know, before this, I didn't kno Minute so inspiring about seeing a real Golden Age hero fight for their principles that I started to understand why he had so enuine People like to see so so fake

But you know all about that, though, don't you, Solar?"