The Conquerors bloodline

"Good evening Lisa… ah, I suppose it's just becoming morning there in Vale, isn't it?" Lisa rose her brows. The voice was unfamiliar to her, a mans no doubt but not of any man she knew personally. He also didn't sound like anyone with some prominence to their name, she would have been able to recognize it as well.

"Sorry, who is this?" She slowly rose from her bed, her feet slid to the cold wood floor as she reached for a remote on her bedside and after scanning its options, pointed it at her roof and pressed the 'Lowlight' button which flared to life a soft yellow light that kept her from cringing away in the early morning.

The man on the other end replied, "Parc Evans. You may have heard of me." She perked up at that. The name, now that was familiar to her. While not of any importance, she had heard from sources about a new teacher taking up home on the cliffs of Beacon. Few actually knew him personally but there were some rumours that he proclaimed himself a hitman. Some even stated that he was the owner of Gloam, the restaurant that replaced the Charlatan after its collapse during the raid by White Fang insurgents.

Lisa lifted herself from her bed, the coolness of her apartment struck her naked body, raising goosebumps across her body as she made her way to the full wall window and peered out over Vale's city. The lights of the houses were few and far between, a side effect of it being barely past four in the morning.

"I have," she responded curtly, "how did you get this number? I don't just give it out to anyone and I would rather it not be divulged to the masses." That was a hellish proposition for her. Her managers and directors and sound guys were annoying enough calling her nigh all times of the day to get her to run around to the newest development of the day. Thankfully since she started working as a main broadcaster in the studio, that part of her job had decreased, though it didn't quite go away.

Setting one hand on her hips, Lisa's sharp eyes narrowed.

"I have my ways, ms Lavender."

"Not ominous at all. You are aware that this is breaching my privacy yes? This isn't even my work phone your calling me on and that's not even mentioning that's it's four in the morning."

"I'm aware." He said as calmly as possible. "Of all three, that is."

Seeing nothing of interest happening over Vale's canopy, Lisa abated a yawn and turned back to her luxurious and extortionately priced apartment and began to flip open her wardrobes in search of some clothing she could wear for her morning exercises. She was awake, so going back to bed wasn't an option anymore, may as well get some heart-pumping going.

"Yet something tells me you don't care."

"You'd be right." The masculine voice laughed.

Sighing as she rested her scroll on her shoulder and kept it in place with her cheek, she lifted a pair of form-fitting purple jogging pants and sports bra as well as a pair of light blue panties. "Considering you have me now, how can I help you?" Returning to her bed, Lisa threw her chosen garbs onto it and seated herself beside them so she could focus on the conversation at hand… after grabbing the pen and notebook that was on her nightstand to log anything interesting they said to one another.

"Oh, I just thought I'd give you a little call and make you an offer." His tone lowered to this oddly devilish level. Like an imp on her shoulder urging her to do something mischievous.

"The type I can refuse or the type I can't?"

"Both." He said and she quirked her brow. "You can refuse it, if you'd like to. Yet you won't."

"That's awfully presumptuous of you."

"A presumption that is built upon forethought and knowing how you journalist and news people are. You're a vulture for stories Lisa. You can't tell me otherwise. I've seen your piece's on Gram & Kilo energy and Juniper pharmacies. Both were relatively minor things yet you spun and spun and spun them till they became boulders rolling down a hill."

Lisa pursed her lips to lines. "Gram & Kilo forged documents, skipped out on taxes, and laundered millions. Juniper experimented on animals and were developing a virus that did not in fact, kill grimm, but people. I don't think those were minor at all."

The line went cold, "I can't deny that. Then again, I've barely done my research on those two."

"Then perhaps you shouldn't bring them up. It doesn't make you sound smart or interesting as a source." Once more she rose from her bed to peer out over Vale's skyline o, though this time she sunk into the plush, velvet-lined chair she set before it where she would read on the daily when not in her lounge. Her notepad on her naked lap and pen spinning in her hand. "And before you come back with some smart comment about how 'you don't know I'm calling to become a source,' don't. Just get to the point and let me see what you're offering me."

Evan's chuckled on the opposite end, his voice gruff but quickly lowering. "To the point aren't you?" he waited for a response though got nothing, "I can appreciate that. See, I've got something… juicy… on Brandy & Co Defense and Security Operation." Lisa sat upright in her chair, eyes flaring to life. "Well, not so much the company itself, but it's CEO." Ohhh, now that was bound to be juicy. Quickly Lisa bit her tongue and calmed herself, she couldn't get excited over an unverified source, at least, not just yet.

"Really now? Last I heard Bleu Brandy was already the head of numerous allegations." Laundering, fraud, tax evasion, name it and the Brandy's were accused of it. Very little of it ever came to anything though.

"Difference is, unlike an allegation, I have proof. Evidence of his crimes… at least, evidence of his less then respectable actions." She could hear some angered grinding to the man's teeth.

"Such as?"

"Many things. Too many to properly discuss right now. But to give you the general gist of things. He beats his wife black and blue." Now that, that was good. Nothing better than a good wife better story to ruin a scumbags reputation. "Or how he has a daughter with a woman that isn't his wife… oh, did I mention the girl's mother was sixteen when he got her pregnant?"

This just kept getting more interesting. "Those are definitely some interesting accusations. And I would love to see what evidence you have on them in person. I can't just believe everything a stranger says after calling me out of the blue at four in the morning, you see?"

The boy chuckled once more as she tapped her pen on the armrest of her seat. "I get that. How do you suggest we go about proving it to you then?"

"Why don't we set up a meeting. Somewhere private. Let's say… four days from now, Thursday at around say, nine O'clock. There's this little known cafe hidden in the industrial sector. They provide some decent privacy for things like this."

"Ahh, you mean Nascience." He almost audibly smirked. "I would love to, but I'm currently out of Vale on a little trip. So I wouldn't be able to make it there."

'Outside of Vale?' Lisa thought with no small amount of confusion. She looked down to her scroll, saw the number and it was odd. She hadn't considered it at first but it didn't look like a Vale number or even a number being proxied by the CCT tower in Beacon. There wasn't any logic to its order, it just was.

"What do you mean, outside of Vale? How are you calling me then? Are you in a CCT?"

"Well, I'm calling you on a phone. And no, I am likely the furthest thing from a tower than anything. But, we're getting off track. While I can't meet you now, I can certainly have a copy of what I have on Brandy sent to you to mull over while I'm gone."

That was certainly an option. "That could work. Do you need me to-" before she could finish speaking, her head was thrown around to her bedroom door at the loud knocking that rang out, reverberating hollowly through her apartment, calling for her.

"I already know where you live Lisa. I have to go now, so, this is a goodbye. Though only for a little while. Can't wait to meet you in person when I'm back in Vale, Ms Lavender. We have plenty more to talk about." The line went dead with Lisa stuck staring at the scroll and back to the doorway leading into her large studio apartment beyond.

It was an odd call, far from the most cryptic she'd dealt with over the years but also not verily explanatory. She glanced to her notebook, mulling how she hadn't written a thing of interest or importance. Another set of knocks rang out and she sighed heavily. Lisa stood, tossed her scroll to her bed and quickly pulled on her sports bra, panties and jogging pants over them so she had at least a little modesty before the person delivering this new and unverified source's information.

About to head out, Lisa grabs her scroll, deciding that she'd check out this information after her workout in the apartment complex's extensive gym. She passed through her sweet-smelling lounge and arrived by her door. Feeling like another knock was incoming, she gripped the handle and twisted it open. It clicked and clunked and as she widened it to greet the deliverer, she went silent. Her mouth lulled open and eyes white at what stood before her… herself.

There, standing proudly with back straight and dressed in a black suit with half-buttoned lavender blouse beneath, was a girl much… no, exactly like herself. The womans… her eyes were sharp and gold and stared into her own. It was an odd feeling looking yourself in the face with it not being a reflection. Ominous even.

"Delivery," she said, "for myself." Her doppelganger held out a thick binder out and Lisa reactively took it. The copy winked at her and backed one then two steps away before saying, "Parc sends his regards, myself." As she turns, the copy's hands lift to her chest and squeeze her breasts, chuckling as she mutters, "God, these are some nice tits." And fades down the hallway.

Lisa watches herself go, her mind blank and confused though quickly reasons that whoever it was had some form of illusory semblance… but that tits comment, it sounded so much like they were feeling up her chest… true cloning or doppelganging… that shouldn't be possible for semblances? Some came close, but none true copies.

As she trails down to the thick brown binder, she feels a buzz in her pocket. Not a call this time, but a message. Before she picks it up, she closes the door and turns to her lounge and then flips open her scroll.

What she see's there makes no sense to her. It was a video, barely twenty seconds long and as she plays it, she is left astounded by the ocean of foam, no, clouds below.

"Now, you may be telling yourself that this is all just pre-recorded or whatnot." The image shifts, spinning around as a handsome boy comes into frame, the ocean of clouds behind him. The face familiar to her, barely at that considering the few images of Parc Evan's that were in circulation. "All I have to say to that is, my god, that purple exercise ensemble you've got on really fits your body, Lisa. Though, I will say. You lounging in that pretty little chair you've got in your bedroom while stark naked, takes the cake." For a moment he went silent, only to cast her a wink. "If you don't believe my information still. In about a week, two weeks. Bleu Brandy's going to divorce his wife, Marigold Brandy. I think that's going to be enough proof for you. Have a good day Lisa."

Just like that, the video winks out as a flush raises to her cheeks. She dives her head down, glancing to her clothing, it was purple, no doubt about that. With a lump in her throat, she looks down to the binder and notices a small piece of glossy paper sticking out from the top. On the portion she could see, was the top of a head of bed headed lavender hair. Lisa rushes to her dining table, slams the book down and in seconds throws open the binder to see the picture.

Staring down at herself, naked with one leg pulled up to provide a base for a notebook with pen spinning in hand. Lisa's lip began to quirk upwards until she threw herself into a flurry of laughter. As it softened, her expression tightened into a smile, "damned pervert. Better bloody enjoy it." Pulling out one of her chairs, Lisa lost the will to workout her body, but her mind on the other hand… this binder would do just that.

***

***

I HAVE RETURNED!!!