Chapter 1: From the Beginning

Taking over the entire state of Alabama was not going to be easy; I’d known that from the outset.

But the influx of money that I got from my program— it worked!!— certainly went a ways towards making that task an easier one.

I spent the next month not only helping Javier get all of his ducks in a row— that is, helping him get his ‘new recruits’ into some semblance of a shape that could do for Tuskegee what would eventually be done all across the state— but I also spent that time making money.

Okay, so technically I was stealing it; once I found out that not only did my program work, but that the banking institution I’d targeted didn’t even seem to know that the money had been taken from them— let alone who had done it (though my suspicious mind said that they likely knew the money was missing, but because they might not know how it went missing, that they were electing to simply cover up the crime)— I decided to unleash my creation. By the end of that month, I could have bought a smaller first-world nation with what I’d collected.

Believe it or not, I wasn’t doing it to be greedy; I didn’t want it just to have it, either; I had ideas and plans, some of them rather long-term, and that money would make making those ideas and plans a much easier reality.

It also made it easier to deal with- I mean, help, Javier.

“So I got us a bit of funding,” I said to the two, Javier and Tony, as I trotted down the stairs into the basement of the cul-de-sac home they still called their ‘base of operations’. Of his original crew, a couple of the guys had decided that they couldn’t work with Javier, and me, too; the “Bratt”, once he’d recovered from the beat-down I’d given him, had gone off on his own; he hadn’t lasted more than a few weeks before law enforcement had snatched him up, and had him on lockdown. He’d called Javier, sniffling and sounding like he had been trying not to cry, asking for help, and Javier had basically told him to go pound sand. I was pretty sure that that would eventually come back to bite him— Javier— in the ass, but I was also pretty sure that it wasn’t my problem, and that I didn’t care, anyway.

I tossed a slip of paper on the desk in front of him as I went to sit down; Javier gave me a look as I sat down, as though he had wanted me to wait for him to give me permission to sit. Fuck alladat. “Twenty-five, for operating costs for the next year.”

“Twenty-five thousand??” he blurted, incredulous, and I’d bet disgusted as well. “That ain’t gonna—”

I waved a hand at him, and he cut himself off. “Twenty-five million,” I corrected him.

“Twenty-five million?!?” he repeated, the incredulity now laced with awe. “Holy shit!!”

I could almost see the wheels turning in his head, about what he was thinking, what he was about to start considering.

One of the reasons I had come to the idea of that number, that specific number of twenty-five million, was because I had a hunch that if I gave them just a few hundred thousand, or maybe even a million, and then let Javier and Tony— but especially Javier— know that I could get my hands on money pretty much whenever I wanted to, they would likely pester and bother me to get them more and more money, and after a while, it would be like running water through a sieve, me getting money for them, and the so-called ‘uses’ that money would go to. Giving them a lump sum of that amount not only made it a real thing to them, but an amount that they would assume was the most I could beg, borrow or steal for them. Because, who in their right mind, would say “I’ve managed to get twenty-five mil in funding, but yeah, there’s a whole lot more out there” and expect that the ‘more’ wouldn’t actually be asked for? But it would be enough to appease them. Give ‘em just enough to not even think about asking for more, basically.

“For operating costs,” I reminded him. “All of these guys you just recruited, they’re gonna be your employees, and you’re gonna have to pay them. And, as you expand across the state, you’re gonna get more employees, and you’re gonna have to pay them, too. This ain’t money to go and buy a million-dollar sports car; you’re gonna need to pay your employees, buy all their gear, pay for everything you’ll need in order to make this work.” I paused for a moment, then continued, “I’m not saying you can’t treat yourself a bit, but you gotta—” I paused, cutting myself off, then redirected myself, “I would strongly suggest that you, make sure that all of your bills and necessities are taken care of, before you go on a spending spree.”

Javier looked like he was about to say something else, something with some heat and maybe a little bit of anger in it, when Tony waved a hand his way to get his attention. “What are some other things you might suggest?” He asked; Tony didn’t talk much in my presence, and his voice was a little deeper than I always thought it should be, in my head.

“Well,” I began, “considering that at some point, when things are running smoothly, you’ll be pulling in money from johns and prostitutes, from protection services, and weed sales, among some of the other possibilities, maybe start out paying yourselves a small salary? Maybe about 50K a year? Then, when you have income, so you’re not draining the start-up funds, then maybe see about paying yourself more?” I shrugged, as though I hadn’t thought much about it. “I’m just sayin’, I think you have to be smart about this whole operation.”

“How so?” Tony tossed back at me, and if I hadn’t had the thought before that Tony was the real brains behind Javier, I would have right about then.

“Because, no matter how much money you have, right now, you don’t have the bodies to make it happen, and you’re gonna need those bodies,” I answered back; I had an idea that Tony- and Javier- were trying to see just how much of this idea they could get me to spill; if nothing else, it was almost certainly a test to see how much they might or might not need my help. “The quickest way is with money, but even with twenty-five mil, that won’t be enough, in the long run. So, you’ll have to keep an eye on what you spend, until you get enough income to make it a proper business.”

I let that sit in the air for a few moments, to see if either of them would say anything else, and then added, “But even that is the least of your concerns in the long run.”

“Whatchyu mean by that?” Javier blurted out; Tony gave him a look with a raised eyebrow.

“That you’re gonna need to be able to hire some Powered folks to help,” I added. “Cuz while you’re trying to take the state, there are gonna be lots of folks who will either try to fight you, and or who will try to take over from where you’ve left off. Or, even worse, who will wait for you to do all the hard work, and then swoop in and take over. You’re gonna need folks who are willing to see your ... vision, and work with you to make it happen.” I paused for a moment, and then added, “And, back to those bodies; you’re gonna want and need someone who can turn those bodies into something vaguely paramilitary, so that they can work to keep the peace, without you having to micromanage them.”

“Huh?” Javier grunted, and even Tony looked a touch confused at that point.

“You’ll need someone to train your people,” I tried again, speaking a little more plainly, “in military-like tactics and training, and how to use weapons and to fight hand-to-hand, and all that jazz, so that when they’re out there,” and here, I gestured in the general direction of ‘outside’, “and miles away, they know what they have to do, and how they have to do it, and you don’t have to be looking over their shoulders, calling every order for it to get done. You’ll need competent folks who will know how to do what needs to be done.