6 - Status Report//Foley

"This is a nightmare," the old man said, rubbing the bald spot on his head. Paradox City had been so quiet lately that he thought everything had gone back to normal.

The oddest thing that had happened this week was drivers reporting that the white lines on the roads were shifting into kaleidoscopic shapes whenever they went over thirty miles an hour.

But now...

A large stuffed animal burst out of a downtown café and made it's way towards Don's Mustache Emporium. It rampaged across [X] Street, they called it that because no two people could ever read the official street name on the sign in the same way, and tossed a grown man in the air.

This was bad enough; a giant monster terrorizing the citizens of Paradox City, the inevitable escalation of the strange things that never stopped happening around here. It was almost a given that the Heist Phantoms had to appear and make it worse.

Those two entitled teenagers had been a thorn in his backside for the past six months. Coming and going from the city's most secure facilities with reckless abandon. They'd even stolen from his private collection of artefacts, though they'd only taken a minor trinket.

It was as if they were teasing him. Most of the time, they merely broke in and looked around, but they'd chosen to steal from him. The one and only-

"Mr. Foley," Navy said as he entered the home office, having changed into his black and white butler's uniform. A crisp white shirt under a black vest, tucked into a pair of black chinos.

Mr. Foley had tried to tell him every which way that none of this formality was necessary, but the young man continued to ignore him.

It was a small price to pay for such a loyal, diligent staffer.

"Navinder," he acknowledged. "You can call me Mick when we're in private, just like I call you 'Navy'."

"Mr. Foley," Navy repeated. This time Mr. Foley was sure his aide put extra stress on his name just to spite him. Either that or show his undying dedication, it was hard to tell with Navy.

"I've spoken to the Paradox PD Chief; they've managed to contain the footage of the incident. I also paid some black hat hackers on the dark net a five figure sum out of the reserves to delete any footage that might have been uploaded to personal cloud services, and set up troll accounts to call public uploads of any video to YouNow 'fake CG'."

"Brilliant," the mayor said, pausing the video at where the Green Heist Phantom -Verdant- set up her mysterious string and flew towards the monster. "We have to keep this quiet, for the sake of the city."

"We've also convinced most of the witnesses that they merely experienced mass hysteria, and Mr. Lacombe of Lacombe's Feisty Ice has agreed to collaborate with us on a cover story," Navy explained. "The overall damage was minimal, aside from the downtown hipster café, which now resembles a warzone."

"We've estimated that it will take a week to fix the area up," Navy continued, standing more stiffly than usual.

"Is something bothering you, Navy?" Mr. Foley asked.

"What do we do after it's all contained?" he asked honestly, his eyes a little wider. They shone brightly against his caramel skin. With his highly competent nature, it was easy to forget Navinder Dempsey was just a young man. Mr. Foley smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I have a plan to sort this all out, we'll find out the truth behind these Heist Phantoms," Mr. Foley explained. "And their mysterious powers, at any cost."

Mr. Foley took a slight but loaded pause.

"By the way, how much did the hackers really cost?"

"I'd prefer not to say, Mr. Foley," Navy said cagily. "Your doctors said not to give you any sudden shocks; it's bad for your heart."

"Navy," he said sternly.

He wished he hadn't.

He'd never thought it possible to suffer a heart attack from the mere mention of a few thousands.