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HIM gestured to the table, pulsing with a halogen-yellow grid of light. “The differing levels assigned to our foes represent differing levels of ability. It is our internal tool to help with threat assessment.”
“Threat assessment. Wow, that makes it sound so official doesn’t it?” asked Veero.
HIM tactfully ignored her and continued that the DMIC didn’t utilize levels on their side anymore. “There were too many disagreements and besides, our enemies laughed at us.”
O-Man shifted his sitting position several times, like he fighting to keep something from getting out.
HIM flipped a switch and then rotated a dial; the grid color changed to a bright violet, and Brandon could see that the figures on the grid now shone with different colors beneath them, which yielded clusters of colors to those observing.
Franklin’s face was bathed in an orange glow from a large cluster of figures near City Hall. He said, “LM, what you are about hear may be shocking. Hold fast. Remain until the end.” Brandon could only nod, caught in mid-swallow of an especially fizzy mouthful of soda.
HIM then introduced the means and the tactics of various groups and individuals that the DMIC fought. Franklin had added to remember that most of the grid was dark. This was because most incompetence was strictly accidental or resulted from laziness. However, the next-order incompetence resulted from those who had the ability to increase incompetence either in individuals or en masse.
Again, the DMIC was as focused as he had ever seen them, so much that Brandon had a difficult time believing it was the same team. Brandon tried to remember all the groups, but he only grasped a few — the Complexitor he knew already, the Slate Men sounded interesting, and the Bad Byte Boys he immediately consolidated into BBB. The last group that HIM mentioned, however, caught him completely by surprise — the Future Union Members of America. He knew people in that club at school!
HIM described the group. “The Future Union Members of America is a typical incompetence front group. The members themselves may or may not be aware of the end goals, but they are recruited because of their suitedness to the cause. In this case, the FUMA consists of the stupidest and whiniest individuals available on any particular campus. Even a threat of a protest causes the school to give them whatever they ask, and as a result, their club is often popular and has all the latest equipment.” Brandon thought for a moment. That was certainly true at Westchester High. The FUMA was easily better funded than the football team, even though they never really did anything but go on field trips all the time. He had always wondered how that worked out, but this cut close to home. If FUMA was a front group, he wondered, what else was? What else did he know that was wrong?
Then HIM addressed the areas of incompetence by highest to lowest. The section with the highest incompetence reading for the past month was the Westchester High stadium. Wenchy stated that the Complexitor had pushed the levels into the danger zone; Velvet Katherine noted the attacks on the other members of the DMIC this past week; O-Man stated that he had information about the FUMA preparing. Franklin looked at the sea of orange around that location and said, “There is a convergence of incompetence. Their plans are hazy, but I can sense the pattern. It is coming.”
The faces around the table were unexpectedly grim. Although he was concerned about the attacks on the other members, Brandon wasn’t sure just what an attack meant to the DMIC. Those were the members from his school, he guessed.
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