Location: New York City, Midtown High
Date: Tuesday, January 10th, 1989
Mark POV:
After enthusiastically explaining his plan, Cortana raised a holographic eyebrow in apparent amusement, "So, you want me to access the accounts of all the organized crime in the city, and 'alleviate' them of their financial burden?" she asked.
"Exactly."
"And where, precisely, would you like this newly liberated capital to go?"
"I don't know. It would be great to use it to do some good. The rest goes to an account for our use. And I have no qualms about buying a new place for us with the recovered ill-gotten gains."
Cortana stared at him for a moment, "Your ethical framework for this is surprisingly straightforward."
"They are criminals, Cortana. Drug dealers, extortionists, traffickers, murderers. Their money is stolen. We are taking it away from them. We can use some of it to help people, and some of it to pay for our needs. I am not taking money from someone's savings account."
"That's an ethical argument, Mark. It is not, technically, a sufficient legal justification for me to empty their bank accounts."
"The law is meant to serve justice, not the other way around. These people will not face justice without intervention. But there is nothing I can do to stop them at the moment. So if we take their liquid assets, they will be dealt a serious blow without collapsing into a power vacuum that would hurt everyone."
"You have given this more thought than I expected." she said, "You realize that from a purely legal perspective, this is still theft."
"I realize that."
"You could potentially face several hundred felonies." she said.
"Probably."
"Possibly thousands."
"Cortana."
"I'm merely establishing the scope of the project. And if I assist you, I become an accomplice."
Mark sighed, "I will not ask you to do anything if you object. Can you do it?"
Her amused expression returned, "Technically? Yes. But I suppose the more interesting question is whether you can live with what happens after they discover that someone has emptied their accounts."
Mark smiled faintly, "I want to make it harder for them to hurt people than it was yesterday."
Cortana nodded slowly, "I see. For the record, I am beginning to understand why you keep getting into trouble."
Mark glanced at her, "Beginning?"
"Don't push your luck."
"I thought you were supposed to be objective."
"I am. Objectively, you're a menace."
"That's a little harsh." he said with a smile.
"I've known you for less than a week and you've already been attacked, nearly had a building dropped on you, and built me a generator from scrap." she replied, "I'm revising my assessment upward."
He chuckled before getting back on track, "So, do we need to find a way to connect you to the internet or...?"
"I don't need the Internet."
Mark looked at her, "You don't?"
"No. The cellular network is primitive, but it can provide a connection. From there, I can locate an appropriate gateway into the financial networks."
"And the bank?"
"The bank's computers are connected through private financial networks."
"So you can get into them?"
Cortana gave him a small smile, "I already have."
Mark stared at her in surprise, "That was fast."
"I told you. I don't need the Internet. I should clarify that accessing the accounts is the easy part. Moving the money without immediately informing every financial institution involved will require considerably more time."
"I see."
---
It did indeed take much more time than he expected.
Fortunately, Cortana was able to do something he did not fully understand to reduce the amount of data going back and forth. The connection was apparently so painfully slow that she described it as, "dying of thirst while only able to fill your glass one drop at a time."
But afterward it opened up time for her to do something while they waited for the sun to rise and school to start. So he told her to go through the public record for metahuman activity and put together a timeline. Mark specifically mentioned a few key topics of importance to include, those being the X-Gene and particularly anything about its origin, as well as Captain America.
Occasionally Mark glanced over at her hologram as she worked, but she gave no indication that she needed his attention.
Eventually, as the first hints of dawn began appearing outside the window, she spoke, "I have finished a preliminary timeline."
"What did you find?"
"Quite a lot, actually. Although I should warn you that the quality of the available information varies considerably."
"That is fine. Lets just start at the beginning."
She did exactly that. Going over the first confirmed metahuman activity, the creation of the original Human Torch, and the appearance of Namor the Submariner before the second World War.
The famous, or infamous, Namor attack on New York and battle with the Human Torch. The city's devastation by flooding and many year restoration. She also pointed out this was the root of modern hatred toward mutants, although she did not know why.
Then she got to Cap.
"Captain America has considerably more surviving documentation, though I am curious why you wanted me to focus on him. He was very significant at the time, but other than the attempts to recreate the super soldier serum in the following decades, his story ended in 1945 when he was declared dead." she said, and eyed him suspiciously when Mark just smirked.
Cortana further narrowed her eyes, "...What?"
"Nothing."
"That expression suggests otherwise."
Mark's smirk widened, "I am sure that I have no idea what you mean."
Cortana stared at him for a moment, "...You know something."
"I know a few things."
Cortana's expression became even more suspicious, "That is remarkably unhelpful."
"..."
"Fine. I'll continue." and after a moment, she added, "But when I discover that Captain America is somehow alive, I expect an apology for making me waste processing time pretending this was a mystery."
Mark laughed, "Deal."
She continued with the increasing metahuman activity following the war.
It was at that time that a relatively small number of people were identified and later became known as mutants. Scientists at the time hypothesized they had some unknown X-Factor, and early on many postulated the changes were being caused by radiation from the nuclear testing. Those theories were later abandoned when the X-Gene was discovered.
She even found a possible origin of the term X-Factor. In the 1860s, a scientist by the name Nathanial Essex hypothesized the possibility of mutants and the X-Gene, which he called Essex Factors.
Of course, the majority of major events happened very recently. First the Fantastic Four, then Tony Stark declaring himself as Iron Man, the appearance of Thor, and the exponential increase in the number of metahumans and in metahuman activity of all kinds.
There was definitely several things Mark had not known about, 'Seriously? New York was half drowned and it just never came up?'
With a shake of his head Mark said, "Thank you for the presentation Cortana."
Then, after a few moments Cortana asked something very unexpected, "Mark, are people here the same as in my world?"
The question caught him completely off-guard, "What do you mean?"
"I have been analyzing the documented behavior surrounding mutant discrimination. It does not fully conform to my models of human behavior and psychology."
That got a raised eyebrow, "How so?"
"The intensity, persistence, and frequency with which otherwise ordinary people become willing to harm, abandon, or dehumanize people they have never met, solely because they possess the X-Gene."
Cortana paused for a moment, "There are certainly examples of comparable behavior in my world. Humans are capable of fear, tribalism, scapegoating, irrational violence, the usual collection of unpleasant evolutionary baggage. But the consistency of the phenomenon in this case is, unusual."
Mark's expression slowly grew more surprised as she spoke, 'Did Cortana seriously figure it out already? Just like that? I knew she was smart but, wow. I feel like I have been underestimating her...'
Cortana continued, "I have compared historical incidents involving mutant persecution with other instances of human prejudice. There are similarities, but there are also statistical irregularities I cannot adequately explain through ordinary social factors alone."
"Such as?"
"The speed at which fear becomes hatred. The recurrence of the same narratives across otherwise unrelated populations. The disproportionate willingness to believe claims portraying mutants as an existential threat."
Cortana was watching him closely with narrowed eyes, "...Would you happen to know anything about this?"
Mark leaned back into his chair with a faint smile, "I am very impressed. This world has many geniuses, incredibly advanced technology, and all kinds of other capabilities. But none of that was enough to discover what you already have, at least so far as I know."
"Well, don't sound so surprised. I do have my moments." she said with a little smirk, "So what do you know?"
"I am rather light on details but... in my original universe I was always curious why people that got their powers from the X-Gene were treated so differently from all the other metahumans. Yes there were differences in the situations between the two groups, but it always felt different somehow. So I looked into it one day, and I found the answer."
"Let me guess, it's another wildly unbelievable phenomenon."
"Yes." Mark replied with a smirk of his own as she crossed her arms, "In short, there is something influencing humanity. A highly intelligent, sentient bacteria that calls itself Sublime."
Cortana stared at him, "You're telling me that mutant persecution is being caused by a sentient bacterium?"
"Not exactly caused, more manipulated I think. If it could outright control everyone, the X-Gene would have been eradicated long ago. But it can infect humans and alter their behavior, influencing people's emotions and actions. It suppresses positive feelings toward anyone with the X-Gene while amplifying fear and hatred of them. And it has been influencing humanity for an extremely long time, a million years at least."
"What is the mechanism of infection?"
"I don't know. My information was not that detailed."
"Why is it actively targeting the X-Gene?" she asked.
"Anyone with the X-Gene is immune to infection."
"So this organism has spent approximately a million years influencing a species while being unable to infect a subset of that species. And those individuals are consequently perceived as a threat." she stated.
Mark's expression became more serious, "Yes."
Cortana's eyes flickered as she processed the implications, "Then this isn't merely a social phenomenon. It's an ongoing biological conflict."
"Yes. Sublime is a major problem, but I do not know how to deal with it yet."
Cortana was silent for several seconds, "Could you be infected?"
The question stopped him cold as a chill ran down his spine. Until that moment, he had been thinking about Sublime as a threat in general. He had not seriously considered the possibility that it might already be inside him.
In theory he could be infected, but he did not know if the enhanced biology from his powers would protect him or not. He had no idea if Sublime could infect someone like Spider-Man or Captain America either, it never came up in the comics as far as he knew.
"I do not know." he eventually said, "I should be more resilient against infection than a normal person, but..."
Mark considered his powers, "The Force may allow me to detect external influence if I was infected and I was looking for that influence. Or Sublime's influence could be subtle enough that I cannot detect something like that yet... I will need to keep a eye on myself next time I meet the X-Men. It should be clear then, one way or another."
"I see. You have mentioned the Force before, what are your current abilities exactly?" she asked.
So Mark started explaining the Force, which he understood rather well, and was mostly easy to explain. He also gave a few demonstrations of his abilities.
The divine blessing from being a Numenorean on the other hand, he did not really understand that well. He thought it had something to do with strengthening the soul maybe, and it enhanced basically every physical ability, but the blessing somehow also passed down to any descendants.
That conversation took up the rest of the time before school started that day and Mark had to find a safe place to keep his pot of Kingsfoil.
Much to Cortana's displeasure he also had to keep her data chip in his pocket all day, but she was able to finish the financial 'redistribution'. Though he did not think to ask how much money they were dealing with at the time and had to wait until after the last bell.
So as soon as school was out he grabbed his plant and went looking for a hotel to stay at for the immediate future. Then they could start looking for a new place.
Hopefully the new place would last longer, and not get destroyed.
-----
Later that day:
The Kingpin POV:
Wilson Fisk did not allow himself to lose control. He understood that in moments of crisis, mistakes were deadly.
So he sat behind his desk without letting his anger show while the men before him tried to explain what had happened.
"It has not been confirmed yet," one of them said, "but according to our informants… I think this is happening to all the major organized crime families in the city, and many smaller operations too."
"Find him," Fisk ordered. "I will not allow this to pass without consequence."
"And when we do?"
"I want to know how he did it. Then we kill him."
The words landed with finality and his people left quickly. After the door closed, Fisk rose and walked to the window overlooking the city, his city.
Someone, somewhere, had dared to steal from him. They had penetrated the financial infrastructure of the criminal underworld. Not merely the usual shell companies and offshore accounts. They had taken everything, all his liquid assets, and they had done it without leaving an obvious trail.
And it was not just him. It seemed to have been an attack against the entire criminal financial ecosystem.
It took longer than he liked to understand the true shape of what had been done. But after some consideration it was clear. This was not a simple robbery.
It was disarmament.
Someone had deliberately, though temporarily, stripped the criminal underworld of its ability to operate. Accounts were empty. Bribes became harder. Weapons more difficult to purchase. Informants harder to pay. Drugs harder to move. Losses harder to absorb.
And the other crime lords would make everything worse. Some smaller organizations would collapse very soon. Others would lash out violently in desperation. Some would merge. Some would turn on him. There was opportunity in the chaos, but for the moment a temporary criminal cold war had begun.
Though the truly disturbing part to him was not the theft or its consequences. It was that they had not limited themselves to the Kingpin's criminal holdings. They had taken his personal assets as well.
He had gone to great lengths to ensure no one knew the identity of the Kingpin. He had always gone out of his way to present Wilson Fisk to the world as an upstanding, law-abiding citizen.
And now someone knew his name.
His gaze was cold fury as it passed over the skyline outside. He would find whoever did this, and he would make them pay.