The Vexing Business of Public Relations

Some weeks before the present
Four Seasons Hotel, Seoul

Recent world events have deeply unsettled the human governments toward metahumans. A renewed wave of resentment or outright hatred has started to take hold over the masses and the powers in charge. In the Militarist culture of South Korea, there was much talk in the upper echelons of society over what this meant – especially as the new generations of metahumans were more liberal and independent minded. And while all were obliged on paper to defend the homeland, in practice, greater control and assurance was warranted. A changing of the guard was occurring in the Armed Forces’ Metahuman Division. The new commander had yet to be installed, but preparations were being made to bring about sweeping changes.

The Four Seasons was fully booked tonight by the Chaebol; the financial and political elite of South Korea. If the rich controlling America was a conspiracy theory, it was a matter of fact in this country. The CEO’s and ruling families of Samsung, Hyundai, LG and many more, had gathered in a discreet summit away from prying eyes. The very finest and most expensive International Cuisine was served to these distinguished guests, as any mistake could be costly to the hotel.

Vexus’s meeting though, was in one of the VIP Rooms above the lavish main dining hall. The meeting was dominated by the incoming Metahuman Division’s new commander, General Yi Wan Boon – named after a man of historic significance, but his character was so far from it. With a thorough investigation, it would be known his family was one of the Chaebol, and was heavily involved in domestic arms manufacture, and he was a political animal who bullied, coerced or outright blackmailed those who would oppose his rise in the ranks. He was also publicly contemptuous of metahumans, giving many controversial speeches about how metahuman soldiers were immature, weak, insubordinate and liabilities to the country.

He was with a few other very powerful figures as well- his first cousin, the heir of the Yi Heavy Industries Group, the secretary of state, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and a seedy little man in thick glasses, wearing an enlisted man’s dress uniform, unkempt and wearing braces, working with an open laptop consuming a pile of corndogs where his company was being fed the finest fare.

“Hackerman. Be on your best behavior for our guest.” Yi said, chiding the young man as he sipped cognac.

“Yes sir. Heheeehee.” He said, rather sarcastically. The technopath was the only metahuman at the table, and he knew how much he was needed.

Ever since the events that transpired in London, there has been a major political shift on how MetaHumans are viewed. Even globally my those without any abilities have began to resent them. And all quite literally overnight.
Elena Vexus was capitalizing on the turmoil, as villainesses do. She was playing both sides of the argument. Providing sanctuary and fighting for the rights of MetaHumans, while also developing methods to keep them controlled. Which is what has brought her to the nation of South Korea. Here she was to meet with some of the most powerful people not only in this country, but the world. Such names that preceded even hers. Elena was by no means nervous, but it was a conference she was taking incredibly seriously.

She arrived via private jet with a couple of her best assistants in tow, her body guard stood cloaked at the base of the airplane to see his creator off into the armored vehicle. She arrived at the world renowned Four Seasons in Seoul. Escorted by the subordinates of her soon to be business partners, she made her way through the lavish accommodations. She was made aware that she would be here for a business opportunity. Details of such were not disclosed, but again, with the names that closed the invitation it would have been foolish to decline.
She could hear herself be introduced before she entered the room. The door was opened for her and she proceeded in, her assistants forced to remain outside. Her Louboutins clicked as she made her way to her assigned spot at the table. She gave a bow before her chair was pulled out of her. She was in a black pencil dress with a very conservative neckline. All of her blonde hair was done in a very slick updo. The diamonds around her neck, in her ears, along her fingers and wrists danced with the light with her movements.

”As mentioned, I am Elena Vexus. Philanthropist, entrepreneur, former government freelance agent for the United States of America. I thank you for your summons and opportunity to collaborate with South Korea.
How may I be of assistance?”

She scanned everyone at the table, making eye contact. However, the individual who seems to have been pulled off the streets was completely overlooked. Not even in an intentional feeling way, Vexus just simply didn’t so much even acknowledge another human’s existence in the room. She was brought a glass of red wine accompanied with a sparkling water as the negotiations commenced.

As was customary, the Asian hosts stood and bowed, then back to their seats. “Good evening, miss Vexus. Please sit and join us to eat. We have a few presentations to show to give you a complete picture of what we require. I am General Yi Wan Boon, and I am the next head of the metahuman division of the armed forces.”

The tech folks set up the projection screen and projector, while a course of truly lavish and extravagant food was brought in on carts. The first courses were Giant Oyster, with slices of lemon, a small piece of parsley, a dip of spiced vinegar, lying on a bed of ice. Everyone also were served a platter of Bluefin Tuna Sashimi, a dish whose price rose higher and higher as the animal was brought closer and closer to extinction. Then an entrée of Matsukasa Beef Steak, grilled on cast iron plates and with fine butter, and steamed King Crab. This was the meal prepared for Vexus and her hosts. It was rounded out by some very, very expensive bottles of wine of various years, and even extravagant ice cream desserts from the menus of New York’s most expensive restaurants.

Once the meal was under way, the tech fellows handed General Yi the remote. He pointed and pressed, and the video playlist was brought up. “Let me start off with … the state of metahumans in South Korea.”

The media division had prepared a video compilation of the darker deeds of South Korea’s less moral metahumans. A combination of surveillance footage or just amateur videos, it revealed Debauched parties and gatherings, drunken rampages of powered beings, property destroyed, innocent lives ruined- super powers abused, public figures humiliated and so on and so forth. These were very, very public occurrences in South Korea, and yet the State had managed to keep most of it from escaping into the wider world. The video was suspiciously very well edited and put together. It didn’t even feature some of South Korea’s more reputable heroes.

“It doesn’t capture the whole picture if you must know… but it paints a very… specific picture.” The video compilation was a media bomb. One that would tank the reputation of all metahumans, for the sins of a few.

“Hackerman. Your turn.”

The young man scooted over to sit closer beside Vexus, opening his laptop and the projector screen also displayed what was on his smaller computer. He showed Vexus the code and rudimentary blueprints for a subcutaneous chip smaller than a grain of rice, with a surprisingly good foundation but messy execution, the sign of an undisciplined mind. “With my… considerable genius, but woefully limited resources, I have created a functional neural recalibration device. It features… a remarkable degree of varying magnitude, from subliminal messaging to encourage a certain way of thinking, to outright control of the subject, but, ah, there are kinks in the design…” He says, and the screen shifted to pictures of young women in hospitals, comatose.

The General spoke up again once their own technopath was done. “Anyway. Miss Vexus, we would like your… expertise in technology to accelerate this project the metahuman division has been working on. Time tables are everything. Sometime after the lunar new year, less than four months, we will be instituting mandatory conscription for all South Korean metahumans. Any who refuse will be branded a traitor. Part of this bill will involve a mandatory chip implant. It is for their health… and to encourage good conduct, obedience, and loyalty to the motherland. And in extreme cases… enforce such traits. I presume you have no objections to such… goals? The compensation I think, will be quite generous. Plus, we are also willing to entertain requests.”

“One condition though. Hackerman here, will be monitoring the progress of the chip and keep us appraised of your progress. We will supply you with batches of test subjects for your first rounds of trials. Do you have any questions?” Of course, they weren’t going to just blindly trust the entire process to Vexus. They would keep her on a leash. Or at least attempt to. The young brain hacker was far too enthusiastic.

“I look forward to long fruitful nights working with you, miss Vexus.” He said it without any sarcasm and with full sincerity. So, this was the new low the government would resort to, to hire such a personality instead of locking him up or letting a vigilante ‘deal’ with him.

Vexus sat professionally and watched the presentation unfold. It was not unlike governments to contact her to push forward such unethical projects. It was their own failsafe, no doubt. They could always pin it on her. Or at least try to. They had carefully put together everything they were showing her. This had more than likely been a project in the works for quite sometime. The results of London only rolled out the red carpet. If they found success in these measures in control of metahumans, who knows where they may implement them next.
All this sounded like was a resounding business opportunity for Ms. Vexus.

The next presentation was provided by their trust sidekick, putting it nicely. He had done well in kicking off the project. With his abilities it was sure to prove useful in manipulating certain aspects. However, due to his inability to complete the project it only painted him in an inexperienced light for Elena. The South Korean government resorting to reaching out to Vexus would probably cost this boy his life down the line.
As expected, they were looking to control their residents. This was dangerous. And even more so with Elena getting involved. There was no guarantee that this sort of technology wouldn’t be used against her in the future. But with great risk would come great reward. Their last bit of their deal involved a close partnership with their hacker man.  Constant surveillance. She was disgusted at the thought. She let out a sigh and scanned the room again.

“If there will be constant surveillance, it will be done under my terms.”
Elena pulled out her phone and tapped a couple of things on her screen and she was in control of the media players the group had just played their presentation on. There were building blueprints.
“If my methods are to be monitored, I will not be working on this project in my home facilities. I will require materials to construct my own laboratory here in South Korea. I will also compile a list of equipment and tools. If you require constant surveillance, the price on completion of this project will be renegotiated to a higher rate.”
If they had complete video footage of Elena working, they would be able to rewatch and study anything and everything she was doing while creating this new technology. Providing this mind controlling device while also essentially a video tutorial for its creation would be a very heavy cost.
“For a project like this, materials are already listed on this blueprint. I will not require labor. I will construct this establishment on my own, however I will allow your security and surveillance teams to monitor the construction and also install your personal security measures into my building. Upon completion of this project, I will have the property destroyed entirely…”
She paused for a moment to gather some of the reactions in the room.
“If these terms are acceptable, I will gladly move forward with this project.”

The groups discussed further and came to an agreeable conclusion. Elena Vexus and the South Korean Government signed the applicable contracts and would officially be in business together.
As she left the meeting room and was greeted by her assistants they were immediately ready to absorb any updates she could provide.

“I will be here in South Korea for an extended period of time. Please have the essential personal amenities sent to me from my residence in New York City. Here are the Korean individuals to keep in contact with in order to organize the shipments through customs.”
After this, all of the parties that had met dispersed. Vexus retreated to her luxurious hotel accommodations as she waited for the materials she requested to arrived at an open area agreed upon by both her an the government.
There was a. Knock on her door.
“Enter.”
It was their hacker.
”As I mentioned I am so very excited to be working together with you. Your reputation entirely proceeds you, m’lady.” he said in an almost annoyingly comical sniveling voice
Vexus was going to ask how he even discovered what room she was in, but that had an obvious answer behind it.
“Listen, child. This is already a breach of contract and it hasn’t been so much as 12 hours. If I can make anything painfully clear to you, please know that if there is ever just a single moment where you lost your usefulness to me, you lose your usefulness to South Korea. And I will take it upon myself to do them a favor of removing you entirely from this plane of reality.”
Since he was more technology forward she figured some light illusion magic would set the tone. So she looked up from where she was sitting and her eyes met his, from behind her a black skeletal hand crawled its way up and over her shoulder bringing into a view an incredibly demonic form. From beneath the bed a strange black substance began spewing out with echos of the dammed and human hands scratching the floor till they bled. every reflective surface blackened and hands emerged from them like they were rising out from a thick dark liquid. The lighting dimmed until it was nearly dark as pitch. The whole atmosphere of the room began to grow heavier, and heavier, and heavier until all at once it simply turned off. Like Elena had just flicked a light switch. Her head was down as she typed away on her computer as if nothing had just happened.
“Get out.” she said calmly letting the boy run away hopefully with his tail tucked between his legs.

——

Time passed and Vexus arrived on site with all of the construction materials ready for her to get to work. She did not request that no one be present for the construction, so if they wished to see in what method she constructed a laboratory, they were permitted to. Elena had specifically requested the wood and steel be placed within arms length. She stood between the piles of them ab placed a hand on each. Meanwhile, her Celestial Eye released a pink light as Technomatter swirled to life around the area. The grey sand-like material did the appropriate excavating while the nanotechnology in her body began to infuse itself with the piles of wood and metal. Spreading between each beam like a rot. Eventually the beams would levitate and float into place, with the Technomatter working in tandem drilling together and welding where needed. It was almost like a well choreographed dance as everything began to float around at Vexus’ command. Every so often there was a flash of magic where an extra burst of heat, or sudden amount of great force needed to be exerted.It took a decent amount of time and a few breaks here and there, but Elena was finished with building her laboratory by day’s end.
“I’ll return tomorrow at noon. I hope to see all the equipment I requested in place and operating properly by the time I arrive.”

And with that, she was whisked off back to her hotel accommodations to await the following day to embark on this feat of technological engineering.

Sponsored by Korea’s Big Companies

It was telling how serious the South Korean government and armed forces took this, as a prime location was prepared for Vexus’s discretion. Overnight, a large, empty and mostly abandoned factory industrial park had an entire town’s worth of men and material assembled and ready to go. All the nation’s big-name companies- LG, Samsung, Hyundai, even Lotte, and all their industrial sub-groups, had brought in massive amounts of material to get this project off the ground. A veritable army of experts and technicians, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, under the scrutiny of the South Korean government, were assembled in parade formation, ready to get to work.

But beyond the actual work, there was also a large segment of the park walled off for movie crews, actors and actresses. A large propaganda wing was also prepared working parallel to the chip development and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Chip implants were going to face large amounts of backlash, and it would take all the prettiest faces in South Korea to sell the program to its people and the metahumans.

Test Subjects Arrive

After some weeks and Vexus would have her operation up and running, the time for the first test implants was already on hand. Hackerman, thoroughly intimidated during their first one on one encounter, had knocked the chivalrous pervert act off with Vexus, content with harassing interns and nurses. With the proper incentive and motivation, he proved he had an irritating competence, not just on the chip but also in the accounting of the processes involved, and surveilling the complex as well.

In perhaps a sickening echo of a recent outbreak, the industrial town had prepared a small district of converted shipping containers, arranged in neat rows, to serve as patient wards. The air was abuzz with monitored radio and cellphone signals, surveillance, and layers more of communications related to the chip. A fly couldn’t get into this sanitized zone without them knowing.

Hackerman delighted at the live feed of the three patients in their respective patient wards. He was especially focused on Patient 2, a young woman who was attempting to escape her bonds by high-speed vibration. The feed of Patient 1 showed a large, muscular humanoid with black wings, albeit bedridden and comatose.

Patient 3 was a tall and familiar figure, sitting calmly on her bed. Dragon Girl. As her personnel file suggested, she had willingly and voluntarily submitted to this procedure. In her ward was a film crew, ready to record the event up close. If Dragon Girl obeyed the government, then it would be inferred that most heroes would too.

“Oohh. I want to chip patient 2… then we can do the honors and install a chip on 3.” Hackerman suggested, what he wanted private time with the poor speedster lady all too apparent.

Patient 1
Name: unknown; designate “Nephilim” Age: unknown

Status: Comatose

History: Being of unknown origin appeared (5 years prior to present date) at a hospital and caused over 60 patients in ICU or critical condition to pass away. After failed military response, Dragon Girl was deployed and incapacitated subject “Nephilim”. Subject “Nephilim” was covertly recovered after encounter, and kept for study and observation as metahuman DNA source.

Powers: Wings grant flight. Subject demonstrates supernatural speed and strength, and precognitive ability that allowed him to fight Dragon Girl until the hero adapted her tactics and overcame the ability.

Known Weaknesses: at present none, but subject is comatose- likely brain dead- and poses no active threat.

Patient 2 -
Name: Camille Park; aka “Neon” Age: 21
Status: Active, Criminal, Dangerous
History: Camille Park is a runaway metahuman, known to be active in Seoul’s underworld for at least a decade. Her powerset and familiarity with the criminal elements of society allowed her to avoid contact with the armed forces for all that time, until the government contracted foreign agents to capture her. Warning: subject exceedingly uncooperative.

Powers: Super Speed, supernatural reflexes. Superspeed allows her to move at a velocity exceeding any land or air vehicle, avoid projectiles, and process information and perform tasks far beyond human capacity.

Weaknesses: Immobilization, Friction, Distractions. Subject must be immobilized at all times, as even a free limb may pose a danger to any who approach her. Camille Park’s super speed is negated by surfaces of extremely low friction coefficient, and is most commonly employed countermeasure. Overstimulation of senses may also distract her momentarily.

Patient 3

Name: Lt. Ja-Eun Yeong aka “Dragon Girl” Age: 35

Status: Active, Military, Compliant

History: Dragon Girl is a well-known public figure in both Korean society and in the military, having served with distinction battling many super threats to Korea for the better part of 15 years. After a brief stint as the superhero Dragon Girl in America, she was repatriated and has served in the armed forces since.

Powers: Aquatic adaptation, Super strength, super toughness, dragon form, ice breathe, technological devices, vast combat experience. Dragon Girl’s powers put her at number 1 ranking in South Korea’s metahuman index, and likely somewhere in the top 20 globally, in terms of pure physical combat. This is demonstrated many times especially when dealing with threats in aquatic environments where scant few heroes can operate.

Weaknesses: Dragon bone weaponry – An extremely rare substance that can penetrate Dragon Girl’s normally impregnable skin. Mother – Dragon Girl’s mother, Juri Yeong, is her only known living relative. If Dragon Girl should prove uncooperative, threatening or abduction of Juri would be recommended. Warning: any personnel involved in such an operation are advised to seek out a lawyer to write their last will and testament and have their earthly affairs in order.