The recording stopped as I grinned to myself.

I think that went well~!

But let's do a quick catch-up for the readers, they haven't seen what's happened the last month.

First off, I needed an official villain costume and name. Im currently wearing a black hoodie with a bulletproof vest under it, along with a utility belt that holds two pistols, two knives, and my grappling gun.

I'm wearing the two hidden blade sleeves along with black camo pants and combat boots. I was wearing my signature ski mask of course, but this time with the newest addition.

The black face mask with the red diamond. Eleanor actually made this for me, gushing about how we'd be matching and all considering the red heart on her cheek.

The irony of the playing card motif when going with the name Checkmate is not lost on me. But either way it's damn badass.

"Remember the plan, Bloodwraith?" I looked to my side, seeing the assassin grinning at me. She held a terrified man from behind, a knife to his throat.

"Yep~!" She smirked.

"Good." I approached the man. "Thank you for letting use your room. As I promised, you may go. I'm a man of my word after all."

"Just one piece of advice." I leaned in close. "Run. Run for your life. Because things might get a little chaotic here."

The man rapidly swung his head up and down, crying tears of praise as Bloodwraith let go of him. He stumbled out of the room before bolting away.

Bloodwraith and I walked outside of the room and into the second floor of the DePlanks Mall. I pulled out my grappling gun, pointing it towards the glass ceiling in the middle of the roof.

The grapple shot from the gun at a high velocity, flying upwards and crashing through the window. I tugged on it to make sure it was properly secured before looking over to Bloodwraith.

"Counting on you if things go south." I smiled.

"Who else would you count on?" Bloodwraith winked back, blowing a kiss.

I activated the grappling gun, seeing a bee whizz by as I flew upwards. I crashed through the glass, flipping through the air and landing on my feet. I placed the grapple gun back on my belt, now standing atop the roof of DePlanks Mall.

Things are going well.

With my announcement I've started to truly sow the seeds of doubt amongst the public against Killian. Of course they already knew we had something against Stromford, but now I've truly caught their attention.

I clearly stated that I was against Killian, before giving teases at what he's truly done. Name dropped some projects and even insinuated that Killian had something to do with Miracle's disappearance.

Which he did, but that's beside the point.

The point is now they'll be left wondering if that is true. How much of what I said can they trust? Was Killian truly involved with the disappearance of a beloved hero?

Killian will no doubt make a public statement in order to sway the populace to his side. But no matter how much someone believes him or believes me, my roots have already been implanted.

The seeds of doubt.

For some, they'll fruit. For others, they'll stay lingering under the mind. But either way they are there. And I don't plan on letting them get buried into obscurity until Killian and Vincent pay.

And Foxfire should be arriving any second now. I needed to talk with Hikari, one on one. I could've ambushed her at her job, but this way I was killing a couple of rocks with one bird.

Wait, I messed that up.

Anyways~! With the threat of the bombing on the line it gives security that I can talk with Hikari one to one without getting interrupted by Stellar for example.

And if that's broken for whatever reason? Well, I don't care about blowing the South Stromford Facility up. That's where those damn I-Genome experiments happened, that building is going down one way or another.

Thanks to Sophie and her hacking skills that she's been working on developing this whole past month we should've broadcasted to most, if not all, televisions in Champion City. So if those scientists don't get out in the ten minutes wanting I gave 'em, then that's on them.

Besides, they still have one more insurance. I doubt that even if I do press the button the place will actually blow up. Which means I get to remedy that later down the line!

And then someone jumped onto the roof. Foxfire walked towards me, hand on the handle of her sword as she approached.

"Hold up, wait a minute!" I pulled out the detonator with a grin.

"You can't be serious, Ski Mask." Foxfire spoke with her distorted voice. "You're going to blow up a building?!"

"First off, it's Checkmate. I know you saw the damn announcement. Secondly, I won't if you stay right there." I replied. "I just want to talk. Seriously."

"You can't be serious." Foxfire growled.

"Just said I am." I smirked. "Take this."

I pulled out a small usb drive, flicking it over to Foxfire. She caught it in one hand, looking down at it. Though I couldn't see her face I could feel the air of wariness she held towards it.

"That's official data about the I-Genome project." I stated. The same data that Mother Wasp tried to leak all the way back at the masquerade party.

"I think the Administration would be interested in it." I continued. "You could call it a little sneak peek about the illegal activities that Stromford has been hiding."

"And why should we trust this?" Foxfire glared. "How do I know there's not some virus on this?"

"Use it on an old laptop or something." I shrugged. "I'm not trying to lead you astray, Foxfire."

"I want to believe that..." She muttered.

"You're not my enemy." I stated. "You never were."

She paused for a moment, before her fists tightened.

"There are other ways you can get money for your brother." Foxfire pleaded. "It doesn't have to be this way."

"For me...?" I sadly chuckled. "It kinda does."

"Then tell me why." Foxfire ordered.

"Now's not the time or place, Foxy." I replied. "And that's a secret for me and my crew at the moment."

"Your 'crew', huh? Those other women?" Foxfire spat.

...now why'd you say it like that?

"I knew you for longer..." She grumbled. "...and yet I didn't know you at all."

She unsheathed her sword.

"Talking's over, huh...?" I nervously chuckled.

"I'll show you who's a damn discount kitsune." She growled.

"Okay, that was a mistake-!" I exclaimed as two people suddenly landed on the roof behind me.

I turned around to see both Prototype and Isolation standing there. Isolation made a sword from purple particles while metal flew onto Prototype's hands to create claws.

"Oh my." I mock gasped. "Guests! And I don't think it's even been ten minutes yet. How heartless."

"No!" Foxfire screamed.

I flicked the cap of the detonator off and slammed my thumb onto the button. After a few seconds an explosion rocked the sky, creating an incredible display.

Now those weren't meant to literally be fireworks, meaning that the one more insurance I was talking bout came into play.

And that would be the Hero of Hope herself, Stellar. Seems like she already found the bombs and chucked them into the stratosphere before they could blow.

Also means she's probably approaching at high speeds. Looks like it's time to skeddadle~!

I activated my power in my left hand, letting it start to lightly glow. Oh, that's right readers! There's one other thing I did in the past month.

I explored my power.

And now I know how it works. It's a temporary super strength that needs to be "charged". The longer it "charges", the stronger it is. But also the more energy it saps from my body.

So a lot of the past month I've been working on my endurance and energy in order to use the power I now call Intensify to its full potential.

I rolled across the ground, dodging as Prototype charged. I quickly avoided a stab from Isolation, before ducking under Foxfire and the blunt handle of her katana.

I felt myself get grabbed from behind by Prototype. I was quickly thrown over her head and slammed onto the ground, before she then held me up so we were face to face.

"Oh wow, I've been caught!" I gasped. "But I feel like your boss forgot to tell you something important."

I slammed my much brighter glowing fist into her chest, sending her flying off of me. I dodged as Isolation swung her sword at me, only to seemingly get tripped and crash to the ground.

Bloodwraith stood there, grinning as she twirled her umbrella. Good job, Bloodwraith!

"You have...powers?" Foxfire gasped.

"It was nice talking, but we'll have to catch up another time." I grinned. "And you should ask the Administration about a Vincent Vandercourt!"

"Sister!" Prototype gasped. "We can't let him get away!"

I grabbed Bloodwraith's hand and dashed towards the edge of the roof, the three superheroes trailing close behind. The two of us jumped off the roof as Foxfire's hand whizzed by.

And was subsequently caught by a familiar robot.

Sophie floated in the air, holding by my hand as I held Bloodwraith with my other hand. From her back popped out multiple lasers, one of her brand new upgrades.

The three heroes dodged as the lasers crashed into the roof of the building and started to make it collapse.

"Let's get out of here before Stellie arrives." I spoke. "Please do the honors, Maid!"

Sophie blasted through the air, taking Bloodwraith and I with her. We weaved our way through the city, making sure no one was following. And then we finally made it back to our base.

We entered the house, seeing Aurelia and Alexis sitting on the couch and watching the live news.

"Now was that a job well done or what?" I grinned.

"Very impressive, dearie." Aurelia smiled. "You escaped right in time too. Stellar just arrived. Doesn't seem too happy."

"You did a great job, my beloved Jason." Alexis clapped. "Unfortunately I must go for a moment. The Cromwells are having a meeting with the CEO of Waverson."

"That's right, he moved to Champion City today." Eleanor scowled. "I'm heading up to my room."

She twirled her umbrella, whistling to herself as she skipped up the steps and entered her room.

Hm. Odd.