Bad Beat - Chapter 15 - Surprise (Patreon)

Mia swept into his apartment with an excited, curious look on her face, accompanied by the smell of four pizzas. She set the pizza boxes on the kitchen table and looked at him, hands on her hips.

“Well?” she asked, glancing around the room. “Where is it?”

“Where is what?” Gabriel asked as he selected the Meat-Lover’s pizza box and pulled out a slice. Taking a bite, he hummed in satisfaction. “Sho good!”

He started eating faster when a squeal interrupted him from behind.

“Is that?” Mia exclaimed. Gabriel turned to see her rushing toward the table where he had lined up the items he intended for her.

He swallowed before speaking. “Yup. All for you. Better laptop, tablet – whatever you want. All untraceable and beyond anything you could buy.”

She was already sitting on his ratty couch, laptop open, fingers flying across the keyboard, her face lit with joy.

“And I thought the laptop you gave me before was good… this is miles better!” she said happily, already reaching for the other devices to check out.

Gabriel just watched, smiling as he munched on his pizza.

“If you give me your watch, I can also work my magic on it and upgrade that too…” he offered.

Mia, in the middle of inspecting her new phone, looked up at him while her free hand instinctively moved toward the watch on her wrist.

“I… thank you, but no,” she said, her tone turning solemn. “It belonged to my sister, so I don’t want anything to happen to it…”

Gabriel nodded. “No worries. If you have another watch you like to wear, bring it over, and I’ll do it with that instead.”

A brief, grateful smile flickered across her face before she returned her attention to the phone. “Will do…”

As he ate his pizza, he watched Mia go through all the items until she set the tablet down next to the others, staring at them in wonder.

“Gabriel… how the hell did you get these?” she asked. “There is no way those packages had anything even close to this level of tech!”

She looked ready to grab him and shake the answer out of him.

Gabriel gave her what he hoped was a mysterious smile and gestured toward the table.

“So… happy?”

“Happy? Happy?” Mia repeated incredulously. “Gabriel, you have no idea what my power could do with these. Hell, even I don’t know.” She stared at him wide-eyed. “Just the laptop you gave me doubled my hacking efficiency.”

“Nice!”

She stared at him for a moment before deflating slightly. “Yes… I suppose it is nice.”

Mia stood up from the couch, walked over to the kitchen table, grabbed her four-cheese pizza, and took a bite from a still-steaming slice.

A few moments later, she spoke again.

“So… not to be that girl, but what the hell was on the last pallet?” she asked, still not looking at him. Her gaze remained fixed on the technological devices on the table. No doubt she was already imagining what her power could do with them. “The curiosity has been killing me! So… spill!”

For a moment, Gabriel considered lying.

The thought came easily. Too easily.

Deny the pallet. Downplay it. Say it was junk – scrap materials, defective tech, or drugs, nothing worth mentioning.

It would be safer. Cleaner.

No risks. No complications.

No giving away something he didn’t fully understand himself.

But as he watched Mia absently touch her watch, a flicker of melancholy crossing her face between bites.

A small movement. Easy to miss.

Gabriel looked away.

Trust was fragile.

He could lie. He could invent something plausible. He could even claim he’d found parts for these devices in the pallet.

She’d accept it. Probably.

And even if she didn’t fully believe him… she’d let it go.

For now.

But that was the problem.

For now.

Because the moment she found out—and she would find out, eventually—everything would unravel.

Not just the lie.

Everything.

The partnership. The trust. Whatever fragile understanding they had built between them.

Gone.

And in their situation…

That wasn’t just inconvenient.

That was dangerous.

Gabriel flexed his fingers once, then relaxed them. His gaze returned to her and lingered for one more second.

Taking the first step was always the hardest…

He glanced at the goth girl beside him, eating pizza with a complicated expression, and sighed.

He made his decision.

Pulling out his phone, he toggled the jamming signal.

‘Better safe than sorry…’ he thought.

Outwardly, he nudged her with his elbow. “Come on… let’s sit.”

Mia didn’t argue. She walked over to the couch and sat down, pizza box resting on her lap.

“I’m listening,” she said, eyes locked onto Gabriel.

He held up a finger and retreated to his room. Once inside, he closed the door and retrieved the best ampoule of power booster. He held it in his palm, studying it for a moment before straightening his posture and heading back out.

‘One step at a time…’

Even so, he wasn’t careless. All his important items were stored safely in cards, and his multi-tool was within easy reach. If things went bad, he’d need to act fast. Sadly, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to create a personal shield. His best hope was to distract her and get to stabbing if it came down to a fight.

He didn’t want it to come to that – he had grown to like the goth girl now sitting on his couch – but caution came first.

“I should call you the Rubicon Serum…” he murmured under his breath, staring at the pale blue liquid.

Taking a steadying breath, he stepped back into the living room.

He dragged a chair from the kitchen, turned it around, and sat down, resting his arms over the backrest.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

His fingers tapped once against the wood. Then stilled.

Mia leaned forward slightly on the couch, her eyes already narrowing—not impatient, but focused. Watching. Waiting.

He didn’t show it immediately.

Instead, he placed his hand flat on the table between them, palm down, covering it completely.

A small, deliberate pause.

Gabriel exhaled quietly through his nose.

Then he lifted his hand.

“Tada…” he said flatly. “Behold… our loot.”

Mia stopped chewing. Her eyes locked onto the small bottle.

The label read ‘X-1’. Otherwise, it looked completely ordinary – aside from the faint glow the liquid gave off when the light hit it just right.

“What… is that?” she asked cautiously, reaching toward it before pulling her hand back.

“That,” Gabriel said evenly, “is the formula known as X-42. Also called a Power Booster.”

Her eyes went wide.

“What?”

“As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of formula used to enhance powers,” he continued. “No manual, though – so I don’t know dosage, side effects.” He gave a small, awkward smile. “Or how to even administer it.”

She stared at the small, unassuming bottle. Then at him. Then back at the bottle.

Repeating the motion several times.

Opening her mouth and closing it several times before she managed to squeeze out a few strangled words.

“…power…booster?” she finally managed.

“Yup.”

She let out a shaky breath, then looked back at him.

“W-why does it say X-1 instead of X-42?”

“A very good question,” Gabriel replied. “Let’s just say…my magic had something to do with it.”

“Your magic?” Mia asked with a heavy dose of skepticism.

“When I found it, it was unstable and low quality,” he explained, glossing over the details. “Lost some amount to experimentation and whatnot, but in the end, I managed to refine one dose of unparalleled purity and effectiveness.”

“That pallet was huge. How many bottles were there originally?”

“About fifteen hundred…”

“And you managed to get one bottle out of all that?”

“It wasn’t exactly premium stock,” Gabriel said. “You think a small-time gang gets top-shelf product?”

She frowned. “Still… one bottle out of a thousand?”

“At least you can be sure this one won’t kill you, horribly mutate you, or horribly mutate you and then kill you,” he said dryly.

She nodded slowly. “There is that, yes… assuming I trust your magic.”

“I trusted your ability to hack the warehouse and company,” Gabriel countered.

They held each other’s gaze in silence.

After a long moment, Mia sighed.

“Fine. Let’s say I trust you and your magic. What do you want to do with this?” she asked, barely concealing the hunger in her eyes.

Gabriel smiled. “Give it to you.”

“I see. So you want to take it–” Her head snapped up. “Wait. What?”

“I said I’m giving it to you,” Gabriel repeated with a smile.

She went still. A storm of emotions crossed her face.

“Why?” she finally asked, her voice breaking somewhat.

Gabriel leaned forward and gently nudged the bottle toward her.

“I’m pretty sure it won’t work on me,” he admitted. “And you’re the only friendly super I know.”

“Well… that’s convenient for me,” she murmured, picking up the ampoule and examining it. “How do I even use this?”

“I dunno…” Gabriel shrugged.

“Wow. Superhelpful.”

“Sorry… not really a chemist.”

“I didn’t even know there was a way to boost powers.”

“Me neither…” Gabriel replied with a grimace.

Mia furrowed her brows. “Do you think it’s safe to drink it?”

“Why don’t you try it?” he laughed a little.

She glowered at him – particularly effective with her heavy goth makeup, distressed jeans, and simple black T-shirt. “Thanks, idiot.”

Mia played a bit more with the bottle before placing it back onto the table. She then leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms in front of her.

“What now?”

Gabriel thought briefly about the device he had created before Mia arrived, and thought about a bit of addition to it.

“Do you know anywhere we could get some 3D printers?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Buy them… or ‘acquire’ them?”

“I mean, we’ve been pretty successful with our acquisition trip, don’t you think?”

Mia snorted. “One heist and you’re hooked?”

“Why not?” Gabriel shrugged. “Aside from getting shot at once, I would say we did well…”

Once again, they stared at each other before Mia let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks!”

They talked a bit longer, deliberately avoiding talking about the elephant – or rather bottle – in the room before Mia gathered up the electronic devices Gabriel had created and prepared to leave for her own apartment. The ampoule of the power booster stayed behind with Gabriel – for now.

At least, until they could figure out how to administer it.

Mia paused before opening the door and turned back to Gabriel, just as he was approaching the other pizza she had bought. In one hand, she held a pizza box, while the other had a grocery bag filled with high-tech devices.

“Gabriel,” she called out softly.

“Hmm?” he looked up from his slice.

“Thanks,” she said gently. “…you know… for everything.”

Before he could reply, she opened the door and ran away.

He chukcled softly.

‘Dark and goth on the outside… but gooey in the middle… heh.’

Five minutes later, the door burst open again.

She stormed in, tossed a watch box straight at his head, then vanished just as quickly.

After finishing the pizza, Gabriel cleaned up and turned his attention to the watch.

He began the upgrade process: a Cutting-Edge Sensory Device, several dozen power banks, high-performance coolers, and upgraded smartwatch components – all layered into the fusion.

In the end, after a bit of hesitation, he added the Charged Power Booster to the fusion, too.

Finally, he looked at the card – it had a purple border and was labeled with a simple name: 1 x Suffused Power Smartwatch.

Finally, he took the watch box she had ‘given’ him, absorbed it into a card, and fused it with the other item.

When he re-summoned it, the worn, scratched box had transformed into something pristine—sleek, glossy, like something from a luxury boutique. Inside, behind a clear display window, the watch looked restored, polished to perfection.

Smiling slightly, he put the box next to the door, ready for pickup.

Then he turned toward the more important task.

He went to his bedroom, made sure the curtains were drawn, and cleared space on his desk beside his Cutting-Edge Laptop.

With a flick of his wrist, he summoned the device.

It appeared with a faint shimmer.

A rectangular construct of matte black panels, angular and precise, as if assembled from interlocking plates. No wasted curves. Every edge deliberate.

A vertical spine ran along the front, faint blue lines embedded within it, barely visible under the room’s harsh lighting. Hidden ports sat flush with the surface.

The faint blue lines traced along seams and edges, pulsing softly – alive, yet dormant.

At the top, cradled in a recessed socket, sat a semi-transparent blue sphere. Its inner structure shifted constantly – fractals and lattices forming and dissolving in slow motion.

The moment Gabriel summoned it into the real world, the sphere began to slightly pulse.

Slow. Rhythmic.

Like a heartbeat.

And in the middle of the central spine was a big blue button.

Gabriel stared at it.

He sent a silent prayer to all that was holy that his actions didn’t backfire on him, and pressed the button.