Esther shrugged as she silently mouthed back "Well, he's our best chance."<br/><br/>Carl's face swung from concerned to excited almost as soon as Alysia finished her string of questions. "Oh, I know a lot, but as you know, this is something Emerald City's higher-ups don't want people to know. People in town who had a bone to pick with your father. Who will try to kill you or me if they suspected something."<br/><br/>Producing a small flash drive, he offered it to Alysia. "Don't worry about plugging it in, I virus scanned it on an air gapped network."<br/><br/>After connecting it to her smartphone (or other electronic device), she found a folder with gigabytes worth of videos. The order did not particularly matter, as many of them seemed to be footage of RedShift Energies offices and MarsTech laboratories. But one thing was noticeable: one whose date was mere days before the untimely death of her father, a video labeled FinalMeet.mp4<br/><br/>It was a penthouse downtown in West Vallee, an urbanized downtown area in southwest Emerald, a place that Alysia had rarely been to but was quite familiar with when her father had "grown-up business" to attend to, and a network she had once even hacked into by age 12. Her backdoor only lasted 12 hours before her father caught it. Contrary to grounding her, he thanked her for finding the security flaw, but to be mindful in that "not everyone I meet with like the idea of being watched."<br/><br/>The streaks of gray in his otherwise-vibrant red hair the only sign of approaching age, Max Mars was engaged in conversation with a raven-haired man in an equally-slick business suit. Alysia would recognize that face anywhere: Jonathan Grant, of Grant Conglomerates. Mars' trademark smile was absent, a rarity for the man even among family.<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/8oU1jDh.png)</div><br/><div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/n7aAfc5.jpg?1)</div><br/><br/>"I was once like you, Mars, back in the Swingin' Sixties," Grant said. "Thinking of others before myself, even if they were some uncontacted tribe halfway around the globe." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul-gAZr7tpc)<br/><br/>Pacing around the penthouse, Grant smirked as he admired a High-Definition television projection on the wall, broadcasted from a cell phone-sized object. "With automation being the future, humanity will need augmentations to keep up. No wonder we idolize the metahuman community so much. We want to be more like them."<br/><br/>"I like to think of them as anyone else trusted with great power," Mars responded, hands in his pockets. "Which makes it easier to see their character."<br/><br/>Grant shook his head as he popped open a pill bottle in his hand. "That's because they're fools, Mars," he said as he popped a pill. "The Centurion's flight vibrations have enough force to power a small town, and could outfly modern fighter jets. He could have been a rich man. The potential for the applications of his power endless. And what's he done for the past 70 years? Fought supercriminals, commies, terrorists, and fascists for the good of others. And what's that left him? A dead body crashed into the side of a skyscraper, broadcast on live television, a grieving family left behind whose true identities we'll never know and who will be forever unable to express their sorrow to the world due to his 'costumed identity.'"<br/><br/>Grant exhaled. "And all the generations of people whose lives he saved, all they could pay him back with... is a single statue in Freedom City. A statue not even ranking in the top hundred tallest of its kind." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_statues)<br/><br/>He laughed. "I could've built that thing with less than a month's salary!"<br/><br/>"It's but a symbol," Mars replied, finally taking a hand out of one pocket to lean against the wall. "But we can make comparisons to superheroes all day and it won't change my mind: the fragments are not for sale."<br/><br/>"Oh they are, Mars, they are," Grant replied in a low whisper. "If you aren't selling, then someone else will be. One of the inviolate laws of the free market; men like us, we don't need others' statues to make our mark on the world."<br/><br/>Grant patted Mars on the shoulder as he walked to the penthouse's exit. "I'm glad you finally realized that."<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Jonathan Grant, Automatic</div><div class="spoiler_body"><em>Given his pivotal role in taking over her father's company, Alysia gets a +5 bonus on all Intelligence/Expertise rolls in regards to him and his businesses.</em><br/><br/>Jonathan Grant is the CEO of Grant Conglomerates. Getting his start with experimental drugs at Woodstock, he discovered a knack for chemistry and soon transitioned from the nature-loving counterculture to the cold, cutthroat world of Wall Street. His company's been at the forefront of gene splicing, metahuman biology, pharmaceuticals, and dozens of subsidiaries of related and unrelated companies. After the death of Maximilian Mars, Grant Conglomerates conducted a hostile takeover of MarsTech and now is the most prominent employer in Emerald City. They reversed many positive trends that MarsTech did for Emerald City; at-cost health clinics were closed, faulty generators jacked up energy bills, city council members elected by Conglomerate donations banned the sale of energy-efficient vehicles in town, and many other policies which helped almost no one save the bank accounts of company managers and the board of directors.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 20</div><div class="spoiler_body">Grant Conglomerates earned some controversy in the 1980s for employing Nazi scientists hiding out in Argentina, as well as hiring paramilitary groups in Latin America to overthrow governments with stricter regulations on big business. The close relationship with newly-established corrupt governments in the region provided some legal immunities, although revenge-killings of said Nazis by Mossad agents put a damper on their operations in the region.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 25</div><div class="spoiler_body">Despite its worldwide reach, Grant Conglomerates previously never had much of a presence in Emerald City. Many chalk this up to Maximilian Mars’ opposition to their expansion, although this previous lack of influence persisted well back into the 1970s. The other major company in Emerald City, Brande Management, had an oddly “hands-off” approach to MarsTech and vice versa even when their markets would ordinarily be in opposition. It’s always remained a small company even now, and its influence is shrinking further with Grant’s arrival in town.<br/></div></div></div></div></div></div><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>"That's not the only evidence I have," Carl said, "but I don't have it on me right now. I had to leave others in places around town so if one was caught I wouldn't lose them all."<br/><br/>"Alright!" Esther exclaimed with a bit of alcohol-induced enthusiasm. "Let's go get the others!"<br/><br/>"Oh no, not right now, it-" Carl quickly glanced at his smartphone. "We should wait until nightfall first, less people on the street and stuff. We should lay low here and then go. Trust me, it'd be less trouble this way."<br/><br/>No matter their cajoling, Carl was dead set on this course of action. But although there was little to do in his apartment, his fridge was well-stocked, and he was eager to hand out more beer...