Three times. Three times in the last two weeks, Sovereign's men have failed to arrive on time to stop the rogue parahuman burglarizing stores under his protection. This time, however, he is going personally, with advanced warning thanks to a network of lookouts he'd set up specifically to find this lesser villain.

The time of day was somewhat of a blessing. Being just after closing hours, most of the civilians in the area had already cleared out. Unfortunately, the particular family-owned pharmacy currently being robbed still has the owner and a couple workers inside, or so his informant claims.

Sovereign adjusts his hat as his vehicle parks just across the street from said pharmacy. The driver exits and trains his pistol on the building while the passenger opens the rear door for the crime boss. Just behind them, a utilities van comes to a stop, rear doors opening and allowing another four men out, each of these with a rifle.

Cambion creeps his way along the dark alleyways as he makes his way towards the back door of the small pharmacy he had decided to make tonight’s target. Its late, but not the dead of night yet, so Cambion knows he needs to be cautious and aware of any potential passerby’s that might stumble upon him out here.

Gremlin swoops around in figure 8 motions a few yards above Cambion’s head. On the way here Cambion had allowed Gremlin to light multiple small fires with his burning vomit, the resulting smoke having been absorbed by Cambion and boosting him to near his full strength. Cambion hasn’t fully scoped out this location yet, so he’s not totally sure what to expect walking in to this job.

Cambion likes to knock over pharmacies like this. There’s not really any security to worry about, and the pharmaceuticals should be easy enough to sell on the street for a pretty decent profit. Plus, little old ladies picking up their prescriptions are one of the last demographics that still pay with cash money, so there should be something of value in the registers.

Cambion makes it to the back door of the building, and gives a mental nudge to Gremlin to come and join him. The imp flaps down and lands on Cambion’s shoulder, grunting and growling as he does so.

“The lock please?” Cambion says to the creature. Gremlin squawks like a parrot before making a disgusting gagging noise, and then launching a big wad of burning embers from his mouth. The embers hit the door lock with a splat and sticks to the lock and surrounding wall. The lock immediately begins to smolder and burn from the embers, the smoke that is created wafting up and being soaked into Cambion’s body. Cambion pulls open the door and the two slink into the rear of the building.

Stepping out of the car, Sovereign lifts a cell phone to his ear and begins to speak. “Mr. Lin, it seems that an issue has arisen. Please gather your staff and make your way out the front of your building…. Yes, with haste. And use caution as you near the door.”

He and his men get into position as he speaks to the pharmacy owner. Sovereign is in the middle, closer than the others and not far from the front door. The four riflemen, the driver and passenger from his vehicle, and the driver and passenger of the van are arranged in a semicircle around him, weapons up and trained at the store as well as its rooftop.

Already, Sovereign’s gravity field is creeping into the pharmacy, only reaching about ten feet past the door and reducing its strength by half.

Cambion immediately sees that the lights are all still on inside the pharmacy. He knows that this might mean there are still workers there in the building or some kind of cleaning crew. He puts his finger to his lips gesturing for Gremlin to keep quiet. Cambion grips his metal staff tightly in his hand and creeps on.

As he makes his way further into the building Cambion keeps scanning around. He doesn’t see anyone inside, but there are things left out around the pharmacy as it employees had left right in the middle of performing their closing duties.

Did they hear me or see me breaking in? Did I trip an alarm or something?, Cambion thinks to himself. Something feels off, but he figures that since he is already inside he might as well get what he can and get out as quick as possible. Cambion uses his increased strength to break off a door handle to gain access to the back room where prescriptions are stored, and the pair slip in.

As the employees file out of the building, two of the men with handguns break off to lead them back towards the cars. The remaining men file into the building, rifles first. Sovereign follows at a sedate pace, mindful of his shaker boundary, which has expanded about five feet further into the store.

The first two riflemen take advantage of the lower gravity and hop up onto the first row of shelves, giving them a better view of the back of the store. The other four men spread out, one rifle and one pistol to each side.

As Sovereign enters the door, he taps his staff against the floor. “Come out, come out, where ever you are, little thief,” he says, loud enough to be projected through the entire store.

Cambion hears a voice from somewhere near the front of the pharmacy calling out to him.

Shit.

Cambion tries to assess the situation. Who could it be? Angry shop owner? A cop responding to a call? A hero come to try to thwart his villainous activities? Cambion figures that his options are to either fight or run, and either way he can’t do either from this back room.

“Alright alright I’m coming out!” Cambion calls back. He makes his way towards the door, sending a mental command to Gremlin to try and stay out of sight. Cambion walks out of the door, with Gremlin following, crawling upside down across the ceiling.

“But I gotta warn ya, I’m not the kinda guy you wanna…” Cambion’s words fall short as he exits the back room and sees the multiple armed goons with guns all trained on him.

“…damn”.

“Damn indeed,” Sovereign steps forward another couple feet as his boundary grows.

“Cambion, is it? New to the cape scene save for a single battle with a Ward.” His head turns slightly towards the man closest to him. “If I remember correctly, he has, presumably, a projection type minion. If it gets within ten feet of us, shoot the boy.”

He turns his head back to Cambion. “As for you, perhaps you can tell me why you are robbing my subjects.”

Cambion sets his staff down and raises his hands above his head, assuming the universal position of “please don’t shoot me”.

“Yeah…. I’m Cambion, but how’d you know that? And you own this place?”

Gremlin crawls through the doorway and across the ceiling, staying overhead of his master. The creature makes soft grunting noises as it moves along the tiled ceiling.

“Hmm… in a manner of speaking. This place is owned by one of my subjects, who pays tribute to me in return for protection from lesser criminals such as yourself. As for recognizing you, your recent exploits are well recounted by the Ward you fought.”

“Now, as you are harming the livelihoods of those under my protection, you will have to be punished in some way. Not just for this night, but also for the convenience store three days ago, the smoke shop last week, and the other pharmacy a week before that.” Sovereign tenses slightly, only noticeable by an experienced eye, preparing for a possible retaliation.

“Recent Ward? What the hell are you-“

Cambion pauses and then remembers,

“oohhh Refraction! He did say that he had a website or something like that”.

Cambion looks around at the armed squad and the fancy man leading them.

“Look man, uh sir, I had no idea that these places were under your uh.. protection. Honest mistake, really. My bad. Do you really have to punish me for it though?”

Sovereign lets the seconds drag out as he contemplates silently. Then, seemingly coming to a conclusion, he nods slightly.

“I am not normally fond of second chances, but I will present you with one nonetheless. I give you two options. Pay with pain, or pay with service. You may leave here crippled, and perhaps one day be able to walk again. Or you can pledge your loyalty to myself and the Court and break the shackles of your lesser past.”

“Well, I’m not huge on pain” Cambion says, lowering his hands and resting them on his hips. Gremlin hangs from the ceiling by only the claws on one hand for a brief moment before letting go and dropping down to land on the young villains shoulder.

“Then again, I’m not sure I’m really big on being a slave either. Or is this one of those times where it’s like a trick question? Where you ask me ’pain or loyalty?’ and it’s like I think I’m supposed to say ‘loyalty’ because that’s what you want me to say, but really you want me to say ‘pain’ to show that I’m tough and not scared. Is this one of those?”

"No tricks, no trap," he placates, one hand raising in a calming gesture, before falling back to his side. "Times are, unfortunately, changing, and so the Court must change in turn. It seems that every week now, a new parahuman pops up out of the woodwork, causing their own brand of chaos in our beleaguered city. I seek to maintain a... healthy balance, whether that requires elimination of the more egregious of the criminals in this city or the taking in and raising up those lesser criminals who are still able to learn."

Sovereign gestures at his men, and the two standing on the shelves hop down, the drop taking far longer than gravity would normally allow. When they land, he taps his staff against the ground. "Were you to join me, you would no longer need to commit such lesser crimes. Instead, you would work towards the Court's interests, and in doing so, pay off the damages you have already incurred."

Cambion takes notice of the way that the soldiers seem to float down from their positions, and assumes that this must be the result of the fancy man’s power.

“Lesser…ouch…but that’s okay. Moving on. You say ‘The Court’, I assume you don’t mean the judge and jury kind. Serving its interests. What kind of interests would those be? And how long would it take to ‘pay off’ the ‘damages’ I’ve ‘incurred’?” Cambion makes out to accentuate the last few words with air quotes, but gets slightly tripped up and messes up the rhythm of it, looking confused for a moment at Gremlin before shrugging it off.

Sovereign makes a small waving motion, and the men with handguns pull back and leave through the front door.

“The Court is the pinnacle of this city’s criminal underbelly. We provide services- smuggling, asset protection, forgeries, money laundering, and more. Through those services, we exert our control over the unaffiliated criminals of the city. To serve the Court is to ensure that the Court’s operations are safe from outside interference, to put down those who cause undue chaos, and to maintain control over those who do follow the rules.” Sovereign leans forward slightly, both hands on his staff.

“The length of your service will depend on the value of your service. You, fortunately, have kept collateral damage to a minimum in my territory, but you will need to pay off the value of the goods you have stolen. Speaking of, have you damaged this store in any way?”

“Huh. Okay. That sounds…like a lot. But if I’m being completely honest the way things have been going on my own, these small time jobs, it really isn’t cutting it like I had hoped. I need more money than what I’m making now as a solo act.”

Cambion thinks for a moment, rubbing the visor of his motorcycle helmet like it’s his face and he is deep in thought. Gremlin chitters restlessly, looking quickly from soldier to soldier around them.

“I’m not usually much of a team guy, I like my freedom. But if we can work something out, I dunno, I think we could make something that helps us both out. In all honesty I don’t feel like I’ve really taken much from any of your places, so paying it off shouldn’t be that much.” Cambion takes another moment to think about all of this.

“Oh yeah, and I did melt though the lock on the back door. And I broke the handle on that door back there.” Cambion gestures over his shoulder with his thumb towards the door to the back room behind him.

Sovereign lets out a weary sigh. “I see.” He pulls a card out of his breast pocket and hands it to the rifleman to his left. “Inform Mr. Lin of the damage and instruct him to contact Lucille for whatever is needed to fix it.”

He sends the man off out the front and turns back towards Cambion. “If you join me, money will no longer be of issue to you. Loyalty and competence are well compensated. Likewise, the cost of repairs and replacement of stolen goods is not of real issue to the Court. Rather, it is the damage to our reputation that must be repaid. Show that we will protect those who pay for it and enforce the rules we have put in place, and your debt will be considered repaid.”

Cambion nods along to the fancy man’s words, pretending that he is carefully weighing out each word. In truth, once Cambion heard the words “money will no longer be an issue”, he had stopped listening.

“Well, that seems like a pretty good offer. And it doesn’t really seem like I have many other options. So I guess my only question is, how does this work? When you have a job for me do you just give me a ring on my cell, or do I get a pager or something? Or when the Court has a mission do you just shine a gavel shaped light into the sky?”

“I fear that a ‘gavel shaped light’, as you put it, lacks the detail or subtlety that we would require,” he responds, a hint of amusement in his voice. “No, our methods of communicating are far more mundane. Williams, if you would.” He holds his hand out to the side, and the remaining rifleman pulls a smartphone out of his pocket and passes it over. He then holds it out towards the younger cape, inviting him to take it.

“This will be your connection to the Court for now. If you are in need of better living arrangements, that can be addressed as well. You will receive a call if an urgent matter arises, or text messages for general tasks or duties. If you prove your loyalty, you may eventually be placed in charge of operations of your own, with men and money at your command.”

“ Alright sounds good, just let me know. I’m good to go and ready to make some money.” Cambion reaches his hand out to take the phone. Gremlin hops from his master’s shoulder and grabs his arm with both hands, swinging around like a monkey or a gymnast would, before releasing and doing a flip, spreading his wings and flapping to stay in the air after doing so.

“And Gremlin is always down to do something bad” Cambion says, pointing up to the creature who is now flapping and flying around overhead.

“Wonderful,” Sovereign exclaims as he watches Gremlin flap around. “Before we go further, a few things to note. The Court does not deal in drugs. We may supply them to client gangs, but we are not dealers. Similarly, we do not murder and vandalize wantonly. We are a higher class of criminal. Now, let’s allow Mr. Lin to finish closing up his store.”

Sovereign begins walking towards the front door, the rifleman waiting until Cambion follows. While he walks, he begins muttering to himself.

“Perhaps I should have you meet with young Bandersnatch. The girl needs to meet other parahumans who are at least less than twice her age.”

“No dealing, no killing, no general asshole-ery. Don’t be an embarrassment. Got it.” Cambion holds both thumbs up to show that he’s on board.

“I’ll wait for your call, boss”

“Then I welcome you to the Court. Repay your debt, serve well and with dignity, and you will find that few door remain closed to you.” Sovereign turns his head to look straight at the other cape. “And do not go running off and abandon us. The Court takes a dim view towards traitors.”