FFM 2024 20: Read the fine print

Challenge: Collaborate with another writer (or multiple other writers). The protagonist of the story must make a deal with an otherworldly being but be unable or unwilling to fulfill their part of the deal and thus lose the benefits during the story. The final result must include the protagonist and deal-giver’s points of view, clearly sectioned off.

I collaborated with eV13il and wrote separate stories, with me handling the deal-giver’s POV and eV13il handling the protagonist’s POV. You can read their story here: Dream Job

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“And you’re sure this is fine? Isn’t this the police’s job? Or couldn’t one of the superheroes do it?”

I had heard this question so many times it was a knee-jerk reaction for me to respond, “I’m sure you’re aware of how incredibly overworked the police are. The factory managers have been uncooperative to say the least, so there’s little the officers can do with the little resources they can spare to any incident that won’t make it on the front page of every newspaper in the nation. As for the superheroes, they have their hands full with far bigger things such as trying to keep the ever-growing supervillain infestation in check. That leaves both parties to tell the other to do it, so unfortunately issues like this only get resolved when a concerned citizen such as myself to address it.”

The unremarkable person whose name I had already forgotten — I had already catalogued them as Tuesday-6 in my mind — still hesitated, as unremarkable people who came to me tended to do when faced with more risky deals. “Why not do it yourself?”

Another question I had heard numerous times. “For two reasons: One — My powers are geared towards uplifting others rather than purely for my own use. Two — I’m but only one person; tasking people who need powers I can grant to do all these jobs allows me to help far more people than I could do it alone. A managerial job like this is a necessary evil, as much as I would love to help others myself in person too.”

As was often the case with unremarkable people who came to me, this won Tuesday-6 over. “Alright. Where do I sign?”

I pointed at the two lines I needed signatures to. Tuesday-6 — Lia Bassi was apparently their name — signed without hesitation — and without reading the fine print despite signing under the line that said they were aware of the dangerous side effects that would come upon revocation of the granted powers. I signed as well, granted them the power of super speed — adjusted nimbleness not included — and watched Tuesday-6 speed out of the door, most likely straight towards the factory.

I was surprised they did not break anything upon exiting my office. Most people who got a similar deal did. Maybe she actually could pull this job off and become one of my officers in due time. With talent like that, it would be a pity if I had to revoke them.

~~~

As soon as the rest of the appointments of the day were done, I could send my crew home for the day and focus on observing the contracts of the day. I revoked a cheat who thought they could just get what they wanted with teleportation, get their powers revoked at my discretion and then live their life the way they wanted — good riddance, Tuesday-3. Tuesday-2 was unfortunate enough to run into one of Dungeon Master’s officers — the ill-tempered one to make matters worse — and get incinerated before I could help them. No dice. Tuesday-7 had finished the job, actually. That would have been a positive surprise, had their job been something greater than burning a mailbox. Tuesday-1 was finishing their job — potential officer material there, although their ambivalence was a potential red flag — while Tuesday-6 was working on infiltrating the factory. So far, so good on that front.

~~~

“Um, well… I guess I shouldn’t do this then.”

I rolled my eyes. Tuesday-6 turned out to be a dud. A waste of talent.

“C-call the police. Please. I… I’ll turn myself in.”

Should I revoke them now and likely damage the target or wait until the police came and take out a squad? There was a chance that Tuesday-6 was too far to do enough damage while on the other hand the police had the chance to predict that this was my network’s doing and send the one run-down but relatively explosion-proof van they had to spare for these jobs. They might even have a jail cell that’s been proofed against superpowers left tonight to throw Tuesday-6 into.

“Why’d you even do this?”

“There’s this guy who grants superpowers in exchange for work.”

“Oh. What power did you get?”

“Super speed.”

“Cool. Well, aside from what they sent you to do.”

Well, considering how well things had gone today, it was likely that that van would arrive if the factory worker who had caught Tuesday-6 told about the super speed. Best revoke now and see what would happen.

Cue the regular explosion, screaming and… not enough damage to do much to the pollutant pump. Tuesday-6 had been too far away in relation to how thick the metal was.

Oh well. The damage was sure to halt the factory’s production for a time. It would probably not bring attention to the pump in a way that would increase the time production stood still — if the motion to do something about it had not gotten past the corrupt office so far, there was probably no hope — but it was something.

~~~

The next morning, as I opened my email, I saw a message from Aloha Kingpin regarding Tuesday-3 — apparently the idiot had stolen something from her. Whoopee. I’d have to address that ASAP. There was another message from Dungeon Master, who apologized for the incident regarding Tuesday-2 and linked to an article about the factory incident with the words, “Ever considered putting a ‘Read the fine print’ sign on your wall, Evoker?”

I chuckled. I would have to discuss reparations for Tuesday-2’s family once I had replied to Aloha Kingpin. Good thing this week I only had three Wednesdays to barter with, regardless of whether they took my deal or not; supervillain-to-supervillain communication was bound to keep me busy.

Oh well. The managerial job was a necessary evil with powers like mine. Best make the most of it once again — it did beat the dullness of the Divine Realm, after all.