THE MOMENT
"Instead of guessing, can you just show me your best?" Marina asked. Ozone chuckled and shook his head.
"And, now you know why I like to do things in a certain order,” he said. “If you’d answered a few questions instead of asking for the catalog I’d have some recommendations for you. There is no 'best'," he said. "There's only the 'Best' for any given situation. But, I don’t know yours so I can't recommend any of them." Marina sighed. She'd have preferred not to be there at all; but, it wasn't by choice. Orders were orders. She had reservations about what she was going to say; but, she trusted it was for a good reason. And, no matter how ridiculous it sounded to her, she was still new to the multiverse. She hoped it didn't sound silly to Ozone.
"My government...," she shook her head. "...The America from my Earth has decided to expand into the multiverse and we wish to engage the services of your best Unique Soul."
"Is that right?" Ozone grinned. "I have just the person for you," he reached forward and turned the pages of the photo album until he found a picture of a young woman with orange-red hair. Marina recognized her; but, did not react.
"Gia here, also known as Ash Regency, is a Corona. She can take control of everyone on an Earth in a few minutes if you want. Of course, being that this is a business arrangement, we'll need to settle on what each Earth is worth to you," he said.
"We'll take her," Marina nodded. Ozone shook his head with a smirk.
"Have you heard of the Council of Courts?" Ozone asked.
"No,...why?" She asked.
"Sharp Development, Chroma Corp, The Void Court, The Regal Court, and the Fae Court; they run the multiverse. I don't know what your end goal is; but, if we're going to go into business you need to understand where my employees step away. Any of those groups take precedence over your Earth's government. If they tell us to cut it out, the contract is dropped with no refunds. And, I really should point out that they absolutely WILL tell us to stop if you grow too big. With that warning out of the way, I'm glad to take your money," he smiled.
"Too scared to stand against them, huh?" Marina sat up straighter to be able to look down at the shorter, rounder Ozone sitting behind his desk. He smiled too.
"It's a Unique respect, you wouldn't understand," he said. "How many Earths have you claimed so far?"
"15," Marina answered. Ozone nodded.
"They're already keeping an eye on you, I'm sure. Let's set up a pay-for-play contract and take it Earth by Earth." He opened his desk drawer and began rummaging around for the right forms. Marina was still offended by his remark. Everyone seemed to worship them. Just because she wasn't a Unique Soul didn't mean she didn't have their worth. She was an S-rank Super that could control the weather, and she had magical powers on top of that. She always felt confident until Tamara revealed the multiverse to her. Then she realized how much more there was. Everything she'd ever known had only been a piece of something greater, and she felt insignificant; especially in learning the existence of 'Unique Souls'. The only version of them in the infinite multiverse. But, here was one Unique Soul acting just as greedy as any of the money-hungry Zeros from her own Earth. There appeared to be nothing special about him.
“What's the name of your Earth?” he asked.
“America 23,” she said.
“Oh, I don’t know it,” he said. He placed a transparent node on his desk and slid it across to her. “Can you touch this please?” he asked. She did and her Earth appeared on it with some text labels. “Huh, it turns out I do; it was only registered recently. Are you familiar with Alpha Squad?” he asked. Marina nodded after a moment. She hadn't been told to keep that hidden.
“I lead Alpha Squad,” she said.
“Is that right?” Ozone chuckled and shook his head. “Small multiverse, ain’t it? Well, I'm gonna assume it wasn't you that hired us last time, or you would've mentioned it,” he said. He let it hang in the air for a moment, but Marina did not respond. He didn’t need to know how much she knew about Gia’s attack. “But, I’m willing to call you a repeat customer on a technicality and toss on a %15 discount per Earth.”