one with you caused the least amount of collateral damage, and we believe you could duplicate that.”
“You keep saying “we.” Who is “we?” And who are you so that I can stop thinking of you as “Suit chick number one?””
“We are Superhuman Handling and Incident Prevention, and I am Agent Heather Ruthers.”
“SHIP?” Anansi smirked a little. The agent nodded. “So...like “This ship is sinking and I'm here to bail it out?” Or “Who's running this ship?!”” Anansi flailed his arms as best he could and laughed. He adjusted his glasses and rolled his eyes. “You people and your acronyms.” Agent Ruthers gave him a stare which made him smile wider.
“So if I am going to be taking down Archangel, will I be doing it in handcuffs the whole time?” Anansi yanked at his cuffs again, rattling the chains. “Or can I get extended a bit of trust and lose them?”
Agent Ruthers stood and walked around to Anansi's side of the table, pulled a key from her hip pocket, and unlocked the handcuffs. Anansi rubbed his wrists and watched Ruthers closely as she unlocked his ankle cuffs. Anansi grinned at Ruthers, who returned the smile with an impassive look before returning to her seat.
“Now,” Anansi said as he pulled a cable from the cybernetic implant at the base of his skull, connecting it to the port in his glasses. His virtual display did not activate, but he was able to activate the recording feature of his glasses. “Let's get this straight. I stop Archangel from releasing something I'm going to call “Instant Superhero-Kaboom” on the unsuspecting population for reasons that you don't know on behalf of the President so that he can save face with the global community. That about right?”
“Not my terms, but yes.”
“Alright, I have a few terms, before I agree to do that.” Ruthers started to protest, but Anansi held up a finger and simply talked over her. “First, while I don't really care about it, I'll take that pardon that you mentioned earlier. I might as well if it's on the table. All crimes, and I'll give you a detailed list of everything I did so that you don't try to accidentally not include any of them to prosecute me on them later. Second, you leave my family the hell out of any dealings we have. I know three of my siblings are registered. You mess with them, you mess with me.” Anansi leaned forward, interlacing his fingers beneath his nose. “And seeing as you lot have left me alone for three years and are now sending me after a Class four Works, I know you think I'm dangerous enough to do something if you do.”
Agent Ruthers nodded and sighed, looking more irritated by the second. “Is there anything else on the damned list? Money? Political demands?”
Anansi leaned back and smiled. “Just one more thing. I want a damned sandwich.”
“A sandwich?”
“Yeah. Bacon, crispy but not too crispy, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, and toasted whole wheat bread with butter.” He licked his lips and chuckled at the incredulity on Ruther's face. “Hell, had you asked me to, I would have kicked Archangel's goody-goody ass for free, and it wouldn't have cost me a couple of months of work on security protocols destroying my experiments.”
“We did.”
Anansi's grin disappeared in an instant. He blinked. Maybe he hadn't heard her right. “What?”
“We tried to contact you. A week and a half ago when it was first authorized to pull you in on this mission.” Agent Ruthers crossed her arms across her chest. She snorted and shook her head. “You never responded, which we were told