Just a Guy and a Gate to the Multiverse - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17 - Don't get between a Man and his Steak!

— Giza, Egypt, 2008 —

The sky was nice and clear today. The sun felt warm enough to easily dry me off after my morning swim. Or maybe it was afternoon? It was at least morning for me.

But it had been afternoon on the beach in Sorrento, Italy. At least I was in the same time zone right now, and the view was simply amazing. I sat there on my folding chair, holding my ice-cold Coke, relaxing and watching the dunes while drying off after a wake up dip at the beach.

There were not many people in this world who would ever enjoy this specific sight.

After all, who in their right mind would climb onto the head of the Sphinx of Giza just to relax after a morning dip in the ocean? That was without even mentioning the fact that doing so was probably a crime.

I totally understood why a Jumper would do something like this with his teleportation. There was just something unique about visiting locations no one else could reach. They had the right idea.

It was simply liberating to move instantly across the world in the blink of an eye.

Sure, I could already do something similar with the Teleportation Relay from the Institute, but not this freely. This was my innate ability now, and nobody could take it from me.

Swoosh

“Whoa! Wha—What the hell?” a male voice suddenly appeared beside me.

Ah, I had been wondering if I would ever meet him. Relaxing on the head of the Sphinx was an idea I had copied from him, after all. He understands how to live properly.

Lifting my sunglasses, I stared into the face of Hayden Christensen, who was carrying his own foldable chair. Or rather, David Rice, since that was his identity in this universe. Interestingly enough, Hayden Christensen also existed in this universe and was an actor.

I had a small collection of DVDs at home that I purchased here, including all the Star Wars movies. I turned into a bit of a collector now, souvenirs, gaming consoles, entertainment and whatever I fancy, but that was another topic.

“Good morning, afternoon, or whatever time zone you came from! Sorry, the spot is already taken. You should have woken up earlier, my friend,” I greeted him casually while relaxing in my chair.

The eloquent reply I received was, “What?”

“The spot is occupied. You should come back another time,” I repeated, pronouncing my words slowly.

Based on his expression, he probably realized that I was messing with him.

“That’s not what I mean. I understood you the first time. How did you get up here?”

“The same way you did, I guess. Should be obvious, shouldn’t it?” I shrugged.

“And that would be?”

This time, I just looked at him blankly and let a bit of sarcasm enter my voice. “I got drunk, and somehow, through the magic of alcohol, I woke up on top of the Sphinx, half the globe away from where I got completely wasted.”

Honestly, that was a really good bit of sarcasm.

“Seriously?”

Wow, he was naive.

“No, of course not,” I sighed. “I am a Jumper, just like you. I teleported up here.”

This time, his eyes widened. “There are more of us? I thought I was the only one.”

“Of course there are more. What did you think you were? The Chosen One? Well, you are the first one I have ever talked to, since most of us are a secretive bunch, with the Paladins hunting us and all that…” I bullshitted, because while I knew there were more, I only had my movie knowledge.

I had no idea what they were actually like. There's like one other one in the movie besides those who appear just to be killed for a Scene, and he is obsessed with hunting Paladins and being really shit at explaining stuff.

Besides the nice view, I was only here to do my good deed for this universe. I wanted to give this naive and overconfident guy a bit of warning about what was coming for him if he wasn’t careful.

Just a small thank-you for indirectly giving me one of the best abilities a person could wish for.

“What exactly are the Paladins?” he asked in confusion.

Time to get in Character!

“You don’t know? Aren’t you the guy who robbed that bank eight years ago? They should have been on your trail for a while now, and you never encountered them? Is your mother a Paladin or something?”

For the record, she was, and she had covered up his tracks. Nice mom, looking out for her son, even though she had been taught to slaughter people like him and abandoned him once she realized he was a Jumper.

“They are hunting me?”

“Yes, of course. You, me, and every other Jumper that gets born. That is pretty much what they have done for centuries. You know the Witch hunts? That was them! They dedicated their lives to hunting and killing Jumpers because we have a power that only God should possess. Their words, not mine.” I gave him the rough overview. “That’s why most of us keep our powers low-key. We don’t pull obvious stunts like teleporting into the vault of a bank in the middle of the night. There are too many things that can go wrong. At least you must have done a good enough job doing it discreetly, or they would have found you long ago.”

“Thank you? Are they really that dangerous?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Well, they developed methods to hunt us efficiently. They show no mercy and would rather kill than ask questions. Even children are not spared. There was a kid in Boston who caused an accident during his first jump, and got their attention. He is dead. They have infiltrated the police, FBI, NSA, CIA, and pretty much the full program to get information on us. Especially if we do something as obvious as clearing out a bank. They probably already have some recordings of you, since you were likely caught by a camera while trying to get a look inside that vault. The only reason they haven’t found you yet is because they don’t know which person in those recordings is you,” I explained, once again leveraging my meta knowledge.

“Oh, that is bad.” He gulped, finally realizing the truth.

“Yeah, so be careful about how you act. Don’t let anybody you don’t trust know about your jumping powers. That is probably the fastest way to get discovered. For example, teleporting someone somewhere during a fight. I know it is tempting, but that person will talk about it,” I continued, fully aware that it happened in the movie. “Don’t leave your jump points lying around either. I know it is tempting to show them off like nice trophies, but that is one direct method they can use to limit your movements.”

Jump points were pretty much mementos or pictures Jumpers used to get a clear image of a place they wanted to teleport to. Line-of-sight teleportation was easy, but long distances were trickier. Having a picture made it a lot easier, after all.

“For safety, you should have some that you never recorded. A handful of places you are so intimately familiar with that you can jump to them without needing a jump point. Ideally, you want to keep your jump points on your person if you need them, preferably in digital form with safe encryption,” I added.

“I will keep that in mind.” He nodded seriously before realizing something. “What is your name?”

“Matt, and that is all you will get from me.” I smirked as I replied, “It is always better to keep as much information about yourself safe as possible. You never know who to trust.”

“I’m David.” He grinned back at me.

“Nice to meet you, David. Well, it is time for me to head off.” I said before vanishing together with my chair, not even giving him time to reply. I wasn’t planning to meet him again.

From now on, he was by himself.

———

— Quebec City, Canada, 2008 —

“How do you prefer your steak?” I asked while checking the temperature on the thermometer built into the grill.

It had been a few years, but I had recently started cooking again. Honestly, after my experience as an apprentice in a professional kitchen, I lost all desire for it for a good while. Yet living like a vegetarian, with a limited amount of cooking ingredients for two and a half years in the Fallout universe, reignited my desire for the art again.

Or maybe I was simply a foodie, since I had also been hunting down the best food and restaurants all over the world.

It didn’t matter. I was working on my cooking again.

“Medium rare! What else am I supposed to say?” my companion laughed from inside the Airbnb I was renting. It was actually a pretty new company, only a few weeks old, and I was one of their first customers.

“Good answer!” I chuckled as I placed the two Australian Marble Score 9 ribeye steaks on the grate of my grill, right above the burning-hot coals. I had bought them two hours ago from a butcher I trusted in Australia.

After giving the steaks a good sear for several minutes on both sides, I placed them on the other side of the grill, letting them finish with indirect heat.

“Mmmhh, that smells marvelous,” Nina said as she joined me on the balcony. The same Nina I had met in New York City about a year ago.

She was originally from Quebec, and since I hadn’t visited Canada yet, I decided to send her a message. So here we were, having a small get-together.

“Thank you. I would certainly hope so,” I agreed as I kept a careful eye on the heat inside the grill. I couldn’t let it become too cold or too hot, or the result would be inconsistent.

“I didn’t expect you to move to Quebec,” she commented as she stood beside me at the grill. “Didn’t you say you were here for just a short trip?”

“I am,” I chuckled. “You probably mean the apartment. I’m just renting it. It’s not mine. It’s through a new app called Airbnb. People can rent out their homes to others on there. Great concept. If you ever have a free room or travel for a while, you should try it.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It just came out about a month ago,” I answered easily enough. “So how is the new job treating you? If I remember right, you were just about to start it after your trip to New York.”

Nina leaned her hip against the railing and folded her arms.

“The new job is… interesting,” she said after a short pause. “A lot more travel than I expected.”

“Oh, really? Sounds like quite the job.”

“It is.” She smiled, but it was a little thin. “It’s tradition in my family to follow that career.”

“That sounds suspiciously dramatic.”

“It is not dramatic.” She looked away toward the streets below. “Just unexpected. There are people who need to be found, and my employer is very serious about finding them.”

I raised an eyebrow while taking the steaks off the grill and putting them down to rest on a board. The fat hissed as it dripped onto the coals, sending up a quick burst of smoke.

“Found? Are you working for law enforcement now?”

“No.” Her answer came a little too quickly. Then she laughed, as if correcting herself. “Nothing like that. More like… private investigation. Old cases, sudden disappearances and strange movements.”

That last example made me freeze.

“Strange movements?”

It couldn’t be, right?

“People showing up where they shouldn’t be.”

The way she said it made me glance at her. For a second, her eyes were not on me, but on the apartment behind me. On the doors. On the corners. On the windows and shadows. It was the kind of look someone had when they were trained to check exits.

She was just a random stranger I had met at a food stall in New York. How unlucky could I be?

“Well, that sounds fun,” I said lightly. “Do you get a badge?”

“No badge.” She smiled again. “Just long hours, old obsessed men giving orders, and a lot of waiting.”

“Old obsessed men giving orders? Truly, every workplace is the same.”

That got a real laugh out of her. The tension left her shoulders for a moment, and she stepped closer to the grill. No, she wasn’t here to hunt me. All of this had to be one big misunderstanding.

“What about you?” she asked. “Still appearing in random cities and pretending that is normal?”

Maybe not.

“Traveling is normal.”

“Not the way you do it. Not always.”

I gave her an innocent look. “Planes exist, Nina. Are you stalking me?”

“Planes also have schedules. At first, you followed them. Then you stopped.” She pointed at the steaks. “You said you bought those in Australia two hours ago.”

“Did I?” That had been dumb of me.

“Yes.”

“I might have meant from an Australian butcher. As in, a butcher who sells Australian Wagyu. Those are expensive. We really should enjoy them for dinner.”

“I know, but you said directly in Australia.”

“You have a very sharp memory.”

“Just an eye for details. I was taught that from an early age. I saw the receipt too.”

There it was again. A small hint hidden in a casual sentence.

“Well, I have very good logistics,” I said.

“Logistics,” she repeated. “Like getting a very advanced smartphone model that doesn’t exist on the market kind of logistics?”

“Exactly.”

“Do your logistics also explain why you are a ghost who doesn’t exist? Like how you suddenly appeared in New York City with a very convincing forgery of an American passport, while there are no records of you before the day I met you?”

“Well, like you said, that passport is a forgery.”

She stared at me.

I stared back.

“Not even denying it. Even if it’s a forgery, I would have found something about you through my family connections. Trust me, I got several public CCTV images of you from that day. There wasn’t even a real reason for me to check your background. Just that strange feeling that something about you didn’t add up,” she admitted.

“I really was just unlucky?” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Pretty much,” she admitted. “A ghost appearing from nowhere is even more surprising than a Jumper. They always have some records. You on the other hand, don't exist before the day we met. So I kept an eye on you.”

“I see.”

“I am really sorry about that. I genuinely liked you,” she whispered. “At first, you seemed to be just a ghost who appeared from nowhere. We thought maybe you were a superspy or something. While we have a lot of connections, even we don’t have access to every secret.”

“But then I started appearing in different places, in time frames that were just not possible,” I finished for her.

“Yes.”

“We won’t be eating those steaks, will we?” I asked.

“I am so sorry.”

In that instant, my instincts screamed at me to move, and I automatically teleported into the apartment. It was the first place I thought of.

Not a moment too soon, a bullet pierced through the balcony door, right through the spot where I had been standing. Where my head had been.

How unlucky could I actually be? I didn’t want anything to do with this bullshit, yet the first random cute girl I met in this world, by pure chance, turned out to be a Paladin.

Since when did they even use snipers? Maybe it was because they had more preparation time than usual, since this was supposed to be nothing more than a meeting between friends.

I didn’t really have time to think about all that. Besides Nina, there were already several more guys inside the apartment I was renting, led by Samuel L. Jackson. She had left the door open for them...

“You are a fast one. Usually, even you abominations can’t react to a perfectly placed sniper shot,” the Samuel L. Jackson look-alike commented, sounding impressed and not bothered at all that I had survived their assassination attempt.

What was his name again? Roland Cox?

“Thanks. I have to admit, though, that white hair is really not your style.”

“A cheeky one. Let’s see how long you can still laugh.” Roland sounded unimpressed. “But tell me before we start. Where did you come from?”

“I am a traveler. The universe is big.” I shrugged, not caring how they interpreted it.

“You are a dangerous abomination,” Roland replied.

“Yes, I am. Do you really think I can’t hear you sneaking up on me, Nina?” I asked, not even bothering to turn around as I teleported out of the way, while some kind of crackling electrical wire struck the wall behind where I had just been standing.

It was time to show off the results of my training. In the half year since I had become a Jumper, I hadn’t just been traveling around the world. I also have trained to use this ability in combat.

While I might not be Minato Namikaze, or any decent shinobi or character from a more powerful universe, I did already step into the realm of superhumans.

Not only did I have the potential of two average humans on top of my original one, I also have the fully maxed-out stats of a Fallout 4 characters. While it was not much by itself, it did add up.

Before any of them could react, I was beside Roland, punching him in the face and sending him flying backward. They might be strong and used to hunting Jumpers, but physically, they were all still within human limits.

Before any of the other Paladins could hit me with their fancy electroshock sticks, I had already dodged and taken out another one. Then another. And another, until the only people left standing were Nina and me, while she looked at me with fear in her eyes.

“W-what kind of abomination are you? You are far beyond the others!”

“Just a traveler. If I were the monster you make me out to be, all of you would already be dead. I only knocked them out. Now don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to hurt you. Let me take my steak. It should be perfect now that it has rested enough, and then I will be on my way.”

Then I glanced at the damage to the apartment.

“Oh, and you guys will cover the cost of the damages. It's an asshole move to damage the property of someone who has nothing to do with all of this!”

[ End of the Chapter ]