Alexander Becking was the Warden of the LA Villains Detention Center, and the only one among the official list of Staff who held a Quirk.
He was 45 years old, had short, gray hair, with a lush, white mustache and beard resting over on his face.
Also, he was over 7 ft tall.
As he lay on his bed, sprawled half-naked, one could see his chiseled, scarred chest, his snores ringing across the bedroom like a beast's growl.
Suddenly, an alarm next to his bed buzzed.
The snoring bubble coming out of his nose burst comically.
Alex opened his eyes, moved his jaw a bit, and looked to his right, a red flash making him squeeze his eyes.
No.
It wasn't his morning alarm.
The door to his bedroom opened, and a young woman, in her uniform, walked in. Even before she could open her mouth, though, a huge blush surfaced on her cheeks, despite it not being her first time seeing the Warden.
"… What is it, Leya?" Alex asked, sitting up on the bed.
"Cough!" Leya, Alex's personal assistant, cleared her throat. "Sir, there's an anomaly. You need to see this…"
"Really?" Alex asked.
"… Yes, Sir," Leya answered.
Alex yawned, scratched his hairy chest, and then slid off the bed.
Suddenly, the entire bed jumped as if an elephant had been resting on it, creaking loudly, making Leya wince at the noise. This one won't last another night, she observed, taking a mental note to get it replaced tomorrow.
Meanwhile, still in his shorts, Ales threw a white shirt on himself.
"Let's go," he said, once again yawning. He didn't even care to button the shirt or put on shoes, keeping the slippers on his feet that were half as large as Leya's arm. "I hope it's worth waking me up… some excitement… this place is boring as hell…"
An elevator brought the two of them to the uppermost floor of the Central Tower, where the main Control Room of the Detention Center was.
As the Warden walked, everyone stood up and saluted, completely unfazed by his appearance, as if they had seen him in this attire many times.
Leya brought Warden to a large monitor, where a staff member was smashing his fingers robustly, sweating a ton.
The moment Alex saw the guy's nervousness, he lost half of his sleep.
No returning to the dream I was having, it seems, Alex complained inside, frowning.
Sensing a gaze upon him, the operator stood up, shaking, and nervously saluted. "Sir… I…"
Leya cut him off. "Show him."
"… Ah, yes, Ma'am!"
Then, with a command, the operator brought a scene on the monitor, making Alex's brows jump.
The screen was showing dozens of drones, both Spider and Dragon, lying listlessly on the ground, twitching, tiny electrical sparks flashing within them here and there.
"Where?" Alex asked.
"Outer Zone," Leya briefed. "Most of the drones experiencing this… malfunction are in 1st Level, but their numbers are increasing even as we speak."
1st Level… Alex remembered. Main entrance?
All Zones were divided into sector-shaped levels, with their own operating hubs.
In this way, even if some smartass ended up hacking one of the hubs, they still had full control over the other hubs.
So, right off the bat, Alex could scratch off a hacking attempt, as this malfunction wasn't limited to a Level.
Still, there was no harm in making sure of it.
"Hack?" Alex asked, seeing drones from Level 2 and Level 3 falling as well.
The operator hurriedly shook his head. "No attempt detected, Sir," he replied. "Systems are showing an internal short-circuit…"
"… in all drones?!" Leya asked, scoffing.
Alex had to agree with the girl. It wasn't like the drones couldn't experience a malfunction. But for them to experience together, and especially of different Levels, didn't make any sense.
"Sir," Leya asked, looking up, "Orders?"
The Warden took a moment, his gray eyes never leaving the monitor.
"Can you bring up the order?" Alex asked, making Leya feel puzzled. "Like the timing of malfunctions… I don't know how to explain it. Tch! Did you get it?"
The operator nodded several times.
"Good lad," Alex smiled.
Soon, the real-time footage got replaced by a white screen, divided into Levels of the Outer Zone.
Red dots began appearing on the Level 1, marking the malfunctioning drones.
It didn't even take thirty seconds for all the drones in Level 1 to go down, with a few from Level 2 experiencing malfunction as well. Then, slowly, the number of malfunctioning drones on Level 2 increased, but they weren't as distributed as those of Level 1. Soon, even one or two drones from Level 3 fell.
"There's no pattern, Sir," Leya confirmed, looking away from the monitor toward the Warden. "I…"
But she couldn't finish what she was saying.
Alexander Becking's gray eyes were glowing, a small smile hanging on his lips.
Leya's heart skipped a beat. Not because she was in love with that smile, but because… Alex's smile also meant things were getting interesting for him — and worse for everyone else.
"Alright," Alex said, his voice booming in the Control Room. "Here's your order. Dispatch Maintenance Staff and get those drones back to their posts as fast as you can."
Leya, the Operator, and everyone else just looked at the Warden, dumbstruck.
"That's it?!" Leya asked. Did she see it wrong?! She wondered. Had the man, known among Villains all across the World as American Vengeance, not seen anything intriguing in all this?!
"Haha!" Alex laughed boisterously, the entire Control Room shaking with him. "Come on, lads. Do me a favor and just — play along, yeah?"
Then, the Warden turned around and walked away… whistling.
And Leya knew, despite the ordinary order, that what was about to happen wouldn't be ordinary at all.
Meanwhile, out in the Outer Zone, Dr. Blessed put away the Quirk=mushroom, after it had released all Short-Circuiting Spores in the atmosphere, the wind distributing them across the Levels.
The clownish, black mask had returned to his face as well.
"Are you sure they wouldn't notice it?" Iron Mentor asked.
"… They might… or might not," Dr. Blessed said, seeing people in blue uniforms rushing toward the fallen drones in groups of three or four. "It doesn't matter…
"Without a concrete reason, Phase II is already a success."
********************
AN: Up to 60 more chapters are available in advance across three Tiers. [Use the link in my webnovel profile to access all options]
You can even subscribe Trial Tier for just 1 dollar to have an experience of exclusive chapters for an entire month. I hope a few of you will consider supporting the work.
100 Power Stones/day: +1 Bonus Chapter next day