Bad Beat - Chapter 26 - Stutter (Patreon)

“Excuse me?” Gabriel asked, taken aback.

The man standing at his door growled and aggressively stepped forward, his finger still pointed at Gabriel as if accusing him of a heinous crime.

“You are not excused!” he snapped, slamming the door shut behind him without even glancing back. “Do you realize how much trouble you caused me?”

Gabriel immediately scanned him for weapons, his eyes moving quickly over the man’s frame, but he couldn’t spot anything through the relatively thin clothing. The man was in good shape, broad-shouldered and lean, but there was nothing beneath the jacket that looked like a gun or knife.

That wasn’t exactly reassuring.

With superpowers in the picture, the guy could be capable of firing lasers out of his belly button for all Gabriel knew.

Guns weren’t exactly the dominant weapons anymore.

“W-what? I-I don’t know what–”

Gabriel stuttered as his mind worked furiously, trying to come up with a solution to whatever insane situation had just barged into his apartment. His hands moved in an uncoordinated mess, grasping at empty air, until one of them somehow reached behind his back.

The reassuring weight of the Deck of Infinity settled into his grip.

He froze for a brief moment.

Then he forced himself to relax and tried to act as if nothing had happened, keeping his hand hidden behind his back and his face carefully blank.

The man suddenly slapped himself on the forehead hard enough to make an audible smack.

“Agh! I’m such an idiot. Of course, you wouldn’t know. We haven’t had that conversation yet.” He looked at Gabriel with an apologetic expression that looked slightly out of place with his previous anger. “Sorry, man. I always forget that I only see these conversations. I don’t actually have them. Happens every time.”

Gabriel stared at him for a long second.

“I still have no idea who you are…”

“Right. Right.” The man nodded vigorously before nervously glancing around the apartment as if searching for someone hiding behind the furniture. “Mia hiding in the bedroom? Sometimes that happens.”

“Who is Mia?” Gabriel asked, fighting to keep his reaction under control and failing to keep all the tension out of his voice.

His heart pounded hard enough that he could feel it in his throat.

The possibility that this man could genuinely see the future was becoming more realistic by the second.

And if that was true, Gabriel needed to know exactly how much he knew.

The man’s eyes unfocused briefly before he shook his head.

“No. She isn’t here.”

Before Gabriel could speak, he continued rapidly.

“Listen, man, I’m not here to hurt you. I just want you to stop it.”

“Stop what? I still have no idea what you want,” Gabriel replied, irritation beginning to bleed into his voice.

The man scratched at his scruffy jaw and looked genuinely exhausted.

“Whatever you’re doing. I don’t know what it is, but it keeps destroying timelines.”

Gabriel’s thoughts accelerated.

The man claimed he had some form of precognition.

From what Gabriel had seen so far, most powers had at least some kind of scientific basis. Magnetism. Radiation. Quantum nonsense. There was usually something he could vaguely point at and call an explanation.

However, his power – the Deck of Infinity – felt like something from outside of this system. There was no rhyme or reason why or how it worked.

Maybe whenever Gabriel used the deck, Nate’s power simply failed to process it and had to recalculate everything from scratch.

To test the theory, Gabriel tightened his grip on the deck behind his back and summoned a small burner phone he had stored inside one of the cards.

It appeared in his hand for barely half a second before he reabsorbed it.

The man’s head snapped upward.

His eyes darted around wildly as if searching for something invisible.

“That!” he nearly shouted. “Whatever you just did destroyed the timeline. You have to stop doing it.”

Now that the man stood closer, Gabriel could properly see how exhausted he looked. Deep circles sat beneath bloodshot eyes, and the scruff on his face looked less like a style choice and more like someone who had stopped caring about mirrors entirely.

Knowing he was on the right track calmed Gabriel slightly.

Only slightly.

He was still fully prepared to run the moment the man shifted from unstable to violent.

Looking back at him, Gabriel spoke carefully.

“Look… what’s your name again?”

The man stared blankly for a moment before slapping his forehead again.

“Argh. So stupid. Right. I watched myself introduce myself to you and somehow still forgot actually to do it.”

He straightened and flashed Gabriel a bright smile that was entirely too cheerful for the current circumstances.

“Hello, Gabriel. My name is Nate, and I’m your new best friend.”

The now-named Nate gave him what was clearly meant to be a winning smile.

Under normal circumstances, it probably would have worked.

The man was handsome enough.

Right now, however, with the scruffy beard, dark circles, twitchy behavior, and manic energy, he looked less like a future best friend and more like a high-functioning drug dealer who also happened to be sleep deprived.

Gabriel frowned.

“Right,” he said slowly, making his disbelief painfully clear. “Why don’t we sit down and you explain why you thought any of this was a good idea?”

Nate stared at him in horror.

“Oh, come on. Again?” he whined. “I’ve done that like twelve times already. You ask so many questions every single time.”

Gabriel let out a quiet sigh.

He was already beginning to understand that dealing with Nate was going to be exhausting.

Nate’s eyes widened.

“Oh, hey. I know that sigh. You just thought something unkind about me, didn’t you?”

Five minutes later, Gabriel sat on his couch in a relaxed position, seemingly casually leaning back, hiding one of his arms behind his body, out of Nate’s sight, never letting his deck of cards go.

It was currently his only real defense, and he had no intention of letting it out of his grasp.

Nate sat across from him in a chair, looking entirely comfortable, as if this were his apartment and Gabriel was the unexpected guest.

“So,” Nate began, smiling strangely at him. “How about I answer most of your questions first, and then if I miss anything, you can ask new ones.”

Then he frowned and raised a finger as a warning.

“Just… don’t do whatever it is you do.”

“Not promising anything,” Gabriel said flatly.

“You never do,” Nate muttered under his breath before shaking his head. “Right. Here are the answers in no particular order.”

He inhaled deeply and began speaking rapidly.

“As I said, my name is Nate. I have precognition. I can see the future. Only one timeline. Noticed timelines breaking around March. Found you after some detective work, mild stalking, and inductive reasoning. And now I’m here to join your ragtag team to fight against the system or whatever.”

He bowed his head a little, then raised it and looked at Gabriel proudly.

“I work in IT at the Bernardino Times. I’m single. Twenty-two years old. My parents are alive and terrible. I like fish but hate squid. My favorite color is green – it goes well with my eyes – my future goals include surviving whatever insane thing you’re planning, mostly because I can’t see it.”

Gabriel listened carefully, sorting useful information from nonsense while trying not to focus on the phrase ‘mild stalking’.

Then he nearly reacted.

Nate mentioned Mia.

He mentioned Gabriel.

But he never once mentioned Sparky.

There was no way this excitable guy would go without at least dropping a hint about the AI.

Gabriel glanced toward the phone resting on the table and silently hoped the AI had enough self-preservation instincts to stay very quiet.

“…then I was watching the recordings of the battle at the 3D printer shop online and finally managed to figure out I was looking for you when my power went tizzy when I tried to look into that fight.”

Nate finished, taking a deep breath before smiling smugly.

“Anything I missed?”

Gabriel grimaced.

His mind was going over the solutions for this situation, but nothing he came up with satisfied him.

The easiest and most expedient option was killing the man.

And Gabriel really didn’t have the stomach for that.

“Ah, yes, forget one other thing. Please, don’t try to knock me out,” Nate added cheerfully, as if knowing what Gabriel was thinking exactly. “I have battle precognition.”

Gabriel could already feel a headache forming behind his eyes.

Somehow, despite everything, Nate had a certain reckless charm to him.

That realization instantly worsened Gabriel’s mood.

The man was probably deliberately behaving in ways he knew Gabriel would respond positively to. At least that is what he would do if he had access to the power Nate claimed to have.

That felt deeply unfair.

“What exactly do you get out of this?” Gabriel asked as he subtly summoned the burner phone for half a second before reabsorbing it.

Nate visibly flinched, then sent a glare at Gabriel.

“Not cool, man. Not cool.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” Gabriel pointed out.

Nate rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Right. I forgot about your paranoia. Justified, but man, is it annoying,” he said, grinning. “Aaaanyway, as I was saying–”

Gabriel summoned the burner phone again.

“– gah,” Nate groaned loudly. “Will you fucking stop doing that?”

Gabriel smiled innocently.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Nate stared at him.

“And I forgot you’re an absolute menace.”

Gabriel simply kept smiling, without saying anything.

Nate watched him carefully for several seconds before leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees, fingers interlaced.

“Look. Gabe. Gabe-man. I’m not your enemy. I’m not here to hurt you or Mia. Honestly, I actually like you despite you being kind of a dick,” he said with a playful glare. “But I had two options. I could either keep dealing with you breaking my timelines every time you sneeze, blink, or fart.”

He pointed accusingly at Gabriel’s hidden hand.

“…or I could join you.”

“Out of the goodness of your heart, I assume?” Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow, re-summoning his phone every few seconds, then reabsorbing again, not letting the other man use his powers.

Nate obviously realized this, but didn’t mention it.

Though his eyes kept twitching.

“Yes, well, I foresaw some great scores, and you know… a man has needs,” Nate replied glibly. “Before you ask – because you ask every time – not drugs, sex, or anything like that.”

“Money?”

“Indeed. The purest of needs of all – money.” Nate agreed with him while rubbing his fingers together. “Papa wants to live comfortably.”

“I assume the feds have locked the stock market down from precogs…”

Nate looked personally offended.

“Immediately. The second I got my powers, I tried opening an exchange account and received an email that was basically one giant ‘absolutely not.’ Then they banned me.”

“Tragic,” Gabriel commented without any feeling.

Nate pressed a hand dramatically against his chest. “Gabe, I can feel your love. Right here.”

“Sure, sure…” Gabriel replied, looking at the man. “So, you want money. We will get some money, so you plan to join us to get that money. Did I get it right?”

Nate’s grin widened, and he pointed a finger gun at Gabriel. “Right-o, Gabe-man.”

It was at that exact moment that a soft mechanical hum filled the room.

Then came the unmistakable sound of a futuristic weapon charging.

Nate froze.

Gabriel looked past him.

Mia stood behind Nate, barefoot except for socks, her expression completely flat as she aimed her futuristic gun directly at the back of his head.

The room fell silent.

Gabriel gave her a small nod of gratitude before looking back at Nate.

Nate slowly turned just enough to see Mia from the corner of his eye.

His grin somehow widened.

“Mia!” he said warmly. “My gothic techno-queen. What a pleasure meeting you for the first time.”

Then he turned back at Gabriel and winked. “Man, you got me good, Gabe! Good showing!”

He raised both of his hands and stood up from his seat.

Mia’s weapon followed him without the slightest shake.

Unlike Nate, she looked thoroughly unimpressed.

Nate took a small step back, enough so that he could look at both of them at the same time.

The grin was still on his face, as if the entire situation delighted him.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” she asked coldly, the gun still aimed at the grinning face of Nate.

Gabriel almost pointed out that he had already asked that question, but Nate beat him to it.

“Seriously?” he whined. “Again? I literally just explained everything!”

Gabriel quickly summoned and dismissed the burner phone.

Nate twitched violently.

Then let out a deeply offended groan.

“I hate all of you…”**

**

A/N: So we have Nate. No time travel, just a perpetually tired precog.