Talking with Zander

Evening, Jaxson, and Max go to talk to Zander in his office, and start to realize his true colors.

Evening, Jaxson, and Max walk into the the large Lanzarotta Enterprises building, looking around at the grandness of everything. There were people going about their business, and they had no idea where they were supposed to go. "This place is huge," Max commented, before his eyes landed on a robot looking creature standing alone with a large "i" on it's chest, surrounded by low lying gates. He hesitantly approached the contraption, the other two following behind him. When he approached the robot, it suddenly turned to him, tilting its head at hime.   "Hello. How can I help you?" it asked, its voice the stereotype of robot voices.   "We have an appointment with Zander Lanzarotta at 2pm today," Evening said, approaching the bot. It moved to look at her. It suddenly projected out a beam that scanned all of them, then made a bunch of computing noises. After a period of time, it made a ding sound.   "Identities of Evening, Jaxson Greaves, and Maxwell Farshade confirmed. Information now available." Jaxson and Evening glanced at each other. The robot opened its chest cavity, and pulled out what looked like a very small phone. It handed it to Evening, who took it hesitantly. Suddenly, a large arrow hologram projected out of it, pointing past the bot. "Follow where the arrow points, and it will lead you to your destination. Have a good day." The bot then turned to face back where it was before they walked up to it.   Max shrugged, and took the device from Evening to lead the way. After taking multiple disconnected elevator trips that basically sent them to a different end of the building, they arrived at a receptionist desk. The device then stopped projecting the arrows, and shut down, with a text-to-speech like voice saying "You have reached your destination."   "Hello, are you three the Divine Guardians?" the receptionist asked. They nodded, still overwhelmed by everything. "Mr. Lanzarotta is waiting for you in his office. Go right in."   They all looked at each other again, uncertain, before Evening led the charge into the office. Walking in, they're met with a large, open office, with Zander sitting behind a desk in the middle of the room.   "Guardians! Good to see you! Glad that you three have taken up on my offer of talking. Please, sit down," he motioned to three chairs sitting in front of his desk, and the team took their seats. Zander cleared his throat.   "So, you three are probably aware of the fact that Lanzarotta Enterprises controls a good amount of Arkhall city at this point, correct?"   "Your corporation holds almost a complete monopoly over multiple different services in the city," Max answered, and Zander nodded.   "Exactly! We're also planning on opening up more divisions in the company so that we can diversify," he commented, and Evening raised an eyebrow.   "Isn't it bad for one corporation to hold the majority of control over multiple services for a city? Isn't that a recipe for disaster?" she said, and Zander shook his head.   "Not when it's for the benefit of the people!" he said, and when her stern face didn't waver, he almost faltered. He cleared his throat again.   "Anyways, basically what I'm trying to say here is that Lanzarotta Enterprises is a big asset to you guys! You can use our resources effectively if we make a deal, so that it's easier for you guys to fight crime and save lives in this beautiful city!"   "What do you get out of this?" Max asked, and Zander looked at him, confused. "I mean, you obviously would be having to use a lot of resources in order to make sure that we get the best service possible for... whatever you're trying to give us here, so obviously you need to get something out of it in return, otherwise it's just not a wise business decision."   "All we ask for is your loyalty to Lanzarotta Enterprises, and to assist us whenever we need help," Zander simply stated.   "Help for what?" Evening asked, and Zander's eye twitched briefly, but she caught it.   "Just... any tasks that we might need done, specifically things that require the help of powerful Hellians like yourselves," he explained, and looked at Jaxson. "Doesn't this sound like a great deal for you guys? I'm offering this out of the kindness of my soul." He spoke as if he was talking to the three of them, but it was more directed at Jaxson.   "I mean, yeah! Come on guys, we get priority over other people in the city with this deal!" Jaxson said, looking at his friends.   "We don't even fully know what he's offering us! Priority on what? What resources? How exactly is this supposed to benefit us when 'fighting crime?'" Evening suddenly shouted, clearly getting annoyed with how unclear everything was. It just sounded like empty promises for good things, without any clarification on what the good things are.   "It depends on what you need in the moment!" Zander recovered easily. "If you suddenly need the power shut down in a certain area of the city for whatever reason, you got it! If you need that section of the city to light up like a giant light bulb, you got it! Need help with construction? We have it! Need the latest technology free of charge for your crime fighting needs? We have it for you!"   "See guys, it sounds like an amazing deal! He's obviously trying to help us be more efficient at fighting crime and doing our jobs to the best of our abilities," Jaxson defended the man, and Zander beamed.   "Again, what do you get in return? What kind of tasks would we be doing for you?" Max questioned, leaning forward in his chair. He felt that Jaxson was too easily swayed by the man's words.   "Just... if we need help with, say... convincing people to switch their provider to one of our divisions, so that they're can have more reliable service for all their needs!" Zander responded, but Evening could tell that he was starting to lose whatever façade he was putting on.   "You mean coarse people? Why we would do that?" she asked. Zander's eye twitched again.   "B-because people are more trusting of heroes than business men, am I right?" he asked, and looked to Jaxson. Instead, the ginger didn't respond, and just looked at Zander, expecting something more. Evening grinned to herself. Whatever this man's game was, he was losing it.   "Again, isn't it a bad idea for one corporation to have so much control over one city-"   "LISTEN!" Zander slammed his hand on his desk, shocking the three heroes. He breathed in deeply, and regained his composure, speaking through gritted teeth. "This is a great deal, with barely any cost to you. I highly suggest you take it."   Evening stood up, and leaned across his desk to look him straight in the eye. "Or what?"   "...This isn't a threat, Evelyn," he stated, and she froze, Jaxson suddenly at full attention at hearing her real name.   "How do you know her name?" he immediately asked, standing up. Max leaned back in his seat, observing the situation.   "I-I..." Zander stuttered, not sure how to cover over his slip up. Evening grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up off his chair.   "Only people who have nefarious purposes learn my real name." Her hands started to frost over, the frost slowly creeped down onto his shirt that she had a death grip on. "What is your true intentions?"   Zander's façade dropped, and Evening reeled back slightly at the new look plastered on his face, something she had seen before; pure, controlled insanity.   "I want you out of my hair." Suddenly, Evening felt heat surround her. "I want you under my control, as everyone should be." The heat grew hotter, and she looked down to see Zander holding fire in his hands. She yelped, backing away as he attempted to hit her with the fire. She managed to block it, creating a quick small ice shield on her arm that immediately melted with the impact.   "Fire is the natural enemy to ice, isn't it?" he stated, and Max and Jaxson pulled Evening behind them. For once, she was up against someone who had an edge on her.   "Back off, Zander," Max said, his defenses up. Instead, Zander just laughed.   "This would've been easy if you had just agreed! We wouldn't have to go this far!" he chuckled, his body erupting into flames. Jaxson and Max looked at each other, both nodding running out of the room, Max grabbing Evening and throwing her over his shoulder.   "H-Hey! Put me down!" she shouted, and she could feel Max shake his head.   "I know you. You were definitely going to try to take him on. We need to come up with a plan before confronting him," he said, and Evening still tried to get out of his grip, but eventually relented. He was right, this was the heir to a large corporation, and if the public found out that they did something to him, they would never recover.   "What's our plan then?" she asked, and Max put her down. She realized they were now outside the huge building. Max sighed, and Jaxson looked at the other two expectantly.   "Do we... go to the police?" he asked nervously.   "There's not much we can do. The most we can say is that he tried to attack Evening, but we have no proof of that. I don't even think the public knows he can control fire, so it'll sound ridiculous. I'm not sure what we can do," Max rambled, seemingly just trying to get all of his thoughts out there. The two men look at Evening, and all she could do was sigh.   This definitely was a tough situation. They were going to have to wait for Zander to do something big, that not even the public could deny. And who knows how long that would take.