Chapter 188 Strange.

Chapter 188: 188 Strange.

"For the greater good?" I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.

"Oh, yes," Micheal said, his unblinking eyes. "The greatest good."

He slowly raised a hand and ran it through his hair, letting out a heavy, weary sigh.

"Do you have any concept of how utterly exhausting it is to be factually, demonstrably smarter than everyone around you? Constantly having to patronize mediocrity?

"Having to endlessly give stupidity a chance just to maintain the fragile illusion of societal fairness? Knowing that you could save the entire world with absolute mathematical certainty, if only everyone would just stop with this primitive nonsense about ’free will’? If I could just remove the variables of human choice, I could save us all."

"So, basically, you think you’re Doctor Strange and you’ve looked into the future to see the one timeline where we win?" I asked dryly.

"It is infinitely more complex than that," Micheal corrected smoothly. "Strange saw all the possibilities and found exactly one where they survived. I have calculated every single variable, every societal trajectory, every geopolitical conflict, and I can assure you: under the current model, we die. All of us. Inevitably."

Well, there wasn’t much use in arguing that. Because as horrifying as his sociopathic logic was, he wasn’t exactly wrong. Quite the opposite.

But the idea of making that sort of existential choice for someone else... Forcing them to use their powers as a biological weapon if they didn’t want to.

Robbing them of their free will, their fundamental right to choose a mundane life.

Ugh. It frankly made my skin crawl beneath my armor.

"I mean, you technically have a point," I conceded, leaning back as far as the heavy chains would let me. "But so what? There are lines you just don’t cross, Micheal. And mind-fucking some poor bastard into becoming your invincible meat puppet so he doesn’t work at a deli is definitely one of them! It’s his powers. His life. You can’t legally or morally make them use them just because you think they’re wasting their potential."

I shook my head in disgust.

"Fucking hell. You do realize this exact shit is why ordinary people are terrified of telepaths, right? You’re a walking, breathing stereotype."

Micheal shrugged his shoulders irreverently.

"Hm. Perhaps. But it is of no matter to me. I would willingly commit far worse atrocities for the sake of global preservation. And that is exactly why I will have Psyren. I will take her powers, scale her telepathy, and integrate her into the Override Array.

"And do you know what else?" he added, turning suddenly my way. His serene, calculating smile stretched the corners of his mouth. "You cannot do a single thing about it!"

I felt my hands reflexively tighten into fists, the tungsten cuffs digging into my wrists.

"Oh?" I said softly.

"Oh, yes," he said, stepping closer to the table. "And do you know why?"

"Because I’m a villain?" I offered.

He nodded, smirking openly now.

"Precisely. You tell anyone about this little confession, and who will they believe? You are just some B-list bad guy trying to dodge a federal supermax sentence. And me?" He straightened up, pressing a hand to his chest. "I am the founding administrator for one of the most powerful hero associations on the planet!

"I run everything behind the BSA. I may not be the smiling face on the billboard, but everything goes through my desk. All the boring, complex legislation and logistical paperwork that the S-class brutes who just like punching things don’t want to bother with.

"And that means whatever I say, goes. It is literally child’s play for me to destroy you. I could erase you from the system like that!"

He snapped his fingers, the sharp sound echoing off the pristine white walls.

I felt my jaw clench, biting back the angry words rising in my throat.

Because he was absolutely right.

Dammit, he had me cornered. I was just a two-bit, corporate-sponsored antagonist. A highly paid punching bag for heroes exactly like the ones he secretly controlled.

And he was official. He had all the weight, respect, and unquestioned judicial authority of the United States government backing his every move.

My word against his was about as legally binding as a fart in a hurricane.

The bastard had me completely checkmated in the PR department.

"So why this whole elaborate song and dance, then?" I asked acidly. "Why not just use Cloudfire to incinerate me now and get it over with?"

"You don’t honestly think I’d be stupid enough to initiate violence in an interrogation room wired with federal cameras, do you? Even if I wiped the footage, the physical inconsistencies would alert Khonsu. I know the exact limits of your powers, Miles.

"No. I’m going to do this all nice, proper, and entirely legal," Micheal said, making a precise, pinching motion with his hands. "You made me take a few calculated risks, I have to admit. When you firmly refused to join the BSA during your initial interrogation, and refused to bring your villainesses under my umbrella, I knew I’d have to be a bit more... forceful."

"Which was exactly why you tried to secretly partner with Firefly. To get me to take on a massive heist where the Bureau would be involved," I realized, the pieces falling into place. "And I bet Psyren was going to be one of the ’required’ personnel you insisted I bring along for the job."

"You are a very quick one," Micheal praised dryly.

"Villains generally are quite clever. Which is why I suppose I shouldn’t be entirely surprised that you discovered my little conspiracy regarding the Brain Trust, though I currently have no idea how you managed to track the digital footprint. But it doesn’t matter now.

"When I realized you were actively dismantling them, I knew it was only a matter of time until you traced the Override Array back to me. And I realized I was going to have to do something drastic to remove you from the board."

"So you laid a trap with your mindless gorilla puppet," I said grimly. "And when that failed to kill me, you used your psychic powers to send Mystic after me at the mall. Win or lose, I’d be in deep federal trouble, and you’d have a completely open path to abduct Psyren."

"And I still do," Micheal said simply.

"A proper, optimized scheme, Polaris, leaves absolutely no room for random chance. And you have an incredibly irritating tendency to meddle far more than my algorithms prefer. But do not sell Mystic short. I had originally intended for her to simply grow so overwhelmingly suspicious of your activities that she’d either legally arrest you or accidentally end you in a skirmish. But something you said to her must have inadvertently accelerated her protocols.

"When she said at the restaurant that she was ’close’ to something, I had no idea exactly how close she actually was. She had learned too much about the Brain Trust’s hardware, and she privately demanded I explain certain discrepancies to her. I didn’t like it, but the variables forced my hand."

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Her magical mind was incredibly strong, but I’ve had decades to subtly, passively deepen my telepathic influence on her psyche. Even then, I had to be a bit... rough during the final override. Using the Mind Spike’s algorithm to pilot her nervous system was crude, but the result in the mall was highly satisfactory.

"And now, while she’s safely unconscious in cryogenic stasis, I can properly, delicately twist her memories. When she thaws, I will have her entirely believing that she found concrete evidence proving you were the true mastermind behind the Brain Trust all along.

"Then, you’ll be put away in a black site forever. And I can finally scoop Psyren up without any further issue."