She was angry about the punishment, so she complained about it and did what she could do to make the best use of her time. She called for the files they had on Black Mantis in preparation for an operation on him.
That was just yesterday. Today Black Mantis died, and his base was burned down. His base now looks like one of the wreckages she usually leaves behind when she uses her ability.
Now all her superiors and colleagues claim that she did it. They had called her to say that even before the public began to call her to thank her.
She rubbed her face and sighed, "Maybe someone is trying to set me up. They will let me take the credit only to come out and call me a fraud. That will damage my reputation. I have to resolve this quickly."
She has experienced this kind of thing before, but in a different way. Just nine months ago, when she killed the Patriarch, nobody believed that she did it. It hurt her pride for them to think and say that she was lying.
This time, they do not believe her for saying she didn't do it. But things are worse because they also have public opinion on her part.
In the Patriarch's case, public opinion was on her side, so she reaped the reward of her work, and she felt proud. Public opinion is also on her side this time around, but for the wrong thing. She is growing stronger just like last time, but it can come back to bite her in the future and make her lose everything.
That is a matter for the future, though. Already, the consequences for her action are brewing and about to erupt.
Many leaders in the underworld have met for an urgent meeting after the death of Black Mantis. They sat on a round table in a barely lit room. This made it difficult for their faces to be seen.
They didn't care about that since they had a lot to say. One of them was especially angry and was speaking loudly, which drew most of their attention.
The woman slammed her fist into the metal table again and again as she said, "If it is war that they want, then it is war that they will get. She has gone too far this time around. At this rate, she will be taking out villains every week."
Someone interjected, "Calm down. A war is a big matter. It is not something we should jump right in so easily. We should at least warn them to slow down before we go to war."
What he said was reasonable and welcomed by the masses. Even the villainess thought it was reasonable, so she calmed down. But she still had more to say.
She folded her arms and smiled as she said, "Trust me, this is not something that a warning will resolve. Warn them. That is what should be done. But let us also prepare for war."
Another person asked, "Why are you so pessimistic?"
She scoffed. "This is not pessimism. This is realism. The supers have had it up to here with us. They want the bloodshed and glory that a war will bring. The bloodshed will cull our numbers and give them more popularity."
The person was unconvinced and asked, "But they will also suffer if a war breaks out."
She nodded and said in agreement. "That's true. But that only means that there will be more popularity for those who survive."
That sunk in and caused the leaders to become silent. Then the man who proposed the warning said, "There is no harm in being cautious and preparing for war. If they don't listen to reason, then they will suffer. We will show them that we are not the villains of the past that they used to bully. We are united this time around. We will not be so easy to break."
Another person said, "Let's get the Thunderstorm League in on this."
"I don't like them, but I guess they have their use."
The leaders nodded in agreement. The conclave continued for a while as they spoke about their preparations for war. Then they disbanded to make those preparations.
This is not going to be the first war between villains and supers in New London. There have been many in the past, but none in the past five years.
Five years ago, villains were the outcasts in the city. They were prey to the corpos, heroes, and police. The villains were the ones that always started the wars to resist the oppression they were experiencing. They always lost those wars, though.
The problem was that they were too scattered. They didn't work well with others, so it was easy to defeat them. They couldn't be defeated separately the way that Fire Rose is picking off villains, and they wouldn't stand up to help each other until things became too late.
The wars were started by many villains who wanted a change in the status quo. But they all failed until Thunderbeast and his lightning-wielding rats came into the field.
Those rats were fast, deadly beasts that would shred a target to pieces in seconds. With them, Thunderbeast was able to start what would not be known as the last super war in New London and won.
He managed to negotiate a part of the city for villains. The villains finally had a part of the city that they controlled. They also gained a communication system that they could use to pass across information to each other without the risk of the police force using it to track them.
Things haven't been exactly easy for the villains since then. Their turf has been contested many times since then by upstarts like Fire Rose, but they have always won.
Their success also made it so that heroes mainly put on a show when they claim to be cracking down on villains. After all, the villains were a monolith group now. They would find out when one of them was killed and put up a fight.