Quoted By:
<span class="mu-r">“What’s your connection to Arcade and the Pixel Punks? Did he put you up to this, or are you doing this for some other reason?”</span>
Ember didn’t answer right away. She stared at you for a while, using her tongue to feel at her teeth, and squirming in her cocoon, as if trying to get comfortable.
<span class="mu-r">“Me and Arcade met about a year ago. I was always a fan of his game, but he singled me out when a video of me cosplaying as one of the characters from his game went viral. Everyone else thought that it was just a well made costume, but he knew better. I don’t know how he found out, but he knew that I’d created it using my powers. Then, he offered me a deal.”</span>
It was a struggle for you not to blink in shock. She was being surprisingly forthcoming. Maybe she realized that her current situation was far from ideal. That worked just fine for you.
<span class="mu-r">“What kind of deal?”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“The kind where I make avatars and he pays me money. I bake ‘em, the players connect to them, and then they get deployed somewhere. At first, he told me that it was just going to be a promotional thing, but I figured that he probably had other plans when he stressed the importance of increasing the pixel density in their weapons.”</span>
Squirrel Girl stared at her in disbelief.
<span class="mu-g">“And you kept making them anyway? Didn’t you care at all that you were helping him hurt people?”</span>
Ember scoffed.
<span class="mu-r">“People get hurt every day, whether I’m involved or not. Why <span class="mu-i">shouldn’t</span> I benefit from my own superpower? Besides, if you did any research, you’d know that the body count for those avatars are staggeringly low. They weren’t actually meant to kill anyone, just scare them into believing that they might be killed.”</span>
You narrowed your eyes at her.
<span class="mu-r">“But there <span class="mu-i">is</span> still a body count.”</span>
Ember nodded slowly.
<span class="mu-r">“Yeah, well…accidents happen. I tried to make the weapons as weak as I could, but you can’t always account for everything.”</span>
Her reasoning irritated you, and from the look on SG’s face, she shared your sentiment. But that also left the question of why Arcade was wasting time and resources on such grand theatrics. What did he hope to gain from this?
<span class="mu-r">“Are you the only one that’s able to create avatars, or are there others like you?”</span>
Your question should’ve been simple to answer, but Ember adopted a complicated expression, and it took her longer to respond than you would’ve liked.
<span class="mu-r">“I should be, but I think Arcade figured out a way to replicate the effect. I heard you guys mention something about a dragon, right? I didn’t make that. He must’ve been building it for weeks.”</span>
You, Squirrel Girl and Tippy Toe exchanged worried glances. If that was the case, then Arcade was capable of wreaking far more havoc than you originally gave him credit for.
<span class="mu-r">“Do you know anything about why an army of Doombots are attacking the city right now? The timing is a little suspicious.”</span>
(Cont.)
