Bad Beat - Chapter 31 - Refresh (Patreon)

RING

RING

RING

Gabriel groaned and tried to blink.

His eyelids felt like they were made of lead, and his body sank into the squelching mattress as the last remnants of pain rushed through him, his muscles tensing and relaxing in uneven spasms.

The ringing continued to cut through the fog enveloping his mind until, finally, one sluggish blink let him see something.

The overhead light shone brightly into his eyes, causing him to reflexively squeeze them shut again before another groan escaped his throat.

RING

RING

RING

Gabriel wanted to say ‘I’m coming…’ but all that came out was:

“Arblrghr…”

For a while, he simply lay there, opening and closing his eyes as sensation slowly returned to the rest of his body and the pain gradually began to fade.

Finally, after who knew how long, he managed to force out an actual sentence.

“W-who is it?” he asked, voice hoarse and throat scratchy.

Thankfully, an answer came immediately.

His vision was instantly obscured by a blue projected screen.

[Is the parental unit alive?]

[This unit is not worried.]

[But this unit doesn’t want to look for a new parental unit.]

Processing the question, Gabriel let out a weak chuckle that turned into a cough halfway through.

“I’m a-alive. I think,” he finally managed after recovering from the coughing fit.

[Excellent.]

[This unit is relieved that it doesn’t have to arrange for body disposal.]

[Was the process successful?]

“I have no idea…” Gabriel answered as he slowly began the arduous process of sitting up.

Ignoring how strange his hand felt as he used it to prop himself up, he noticed the mattress beneath it was soaked with his secretions.

Choosing not to think too hard about that, he scooted forward until his feet touched the ground and he was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the anxiously hovering blue panel with a small smile.

“Really, Sparky,” he reassured the AI, “I’m good. I mean, I feel like I got run over by a car, but otherwise I’m good.”

There was a brief pause before the humming coming from the futuristic device intensified, and a horizontal blue beam swept upward from his feet to the top of his head.

[Scanning complete.]

[Parental unit doesn’t seem to be missing any auxiliary appendages.]

[Scans indicate a loss of 3.6% mass.]

[Judgement: Parental unit is now not not-hot.]

Gabriel shot the sassy AI a flat look before glancing down at himself.

Lifting his drenched shirt, he used one of his cards to absorb the mess with a practiced motion. Tossing it aside would have only created even more to clean up.

His body looked sweaty, but… fresh.

Thankfully, he hadn’t suddenly developed a ridiculous six-pack or anything equally ludicrous, but to his eye, his physique looked streamlined. Everything was lean and surprisingly clean.

Hell, he had even lost a few old scars he distinctly remembered having – mostly childhood injuries or accidents from work.

His hair, despite sticking damply to his skin, felt fuller somehow, and his eyesight seemed noticeably sharper.

And despite having just endured an intense process that had clearly put enormous strain on his body, he felt raring to go.

Feeling marginally better with every passing second, he stood and went through a basic set of stretches.

It felt good.

None of the accumulated aches and tiny injuries he had gathered over the years made themselves known as he twisted this way and that. He felt like a car fresh out of a full-service maintenance session, every joint freshly oiled with premium-grade lubricant.

Gabriel experimented a little further, trying to see whether the process had given him anything beyond an upgraded body.

But nothing happened.

No super reflexes. No telescopic vision. No super strength.

He did feel somewhat stronger, but when he tried lifting the bed frame, it was still just as heavy as the last time he had moved it while settling into the apartment. The difference was that the exertion itself felt less taxing.

Not what he had hoped for.

But also not what he had feared.

Somewhere comfortably in the middle.

Nodding to himself while ignoring the constant stream of sassy commentary Sparky kept providing during his ‘testing’, he finally turned toward the thoroughly ruined bed.

“Yeah… I’m not cleaning that up…” he muttered.

Turning around in his boxers – which were only slightly less disgusting thanks to having been protected by his pants – he headed for the bathroom.

Honestly, they were probably a write-off too.

The only reason he still had them on at all was because there was technically an underage person in the room with him.

He calmly picked up the bottle of laundry detergent and used his cards to create several improved copies of small units of the liquid, absorbing and fusing them together.

Then he returned to the bedroom and absorbed the blankets and bedsheets before combining them with the enhanced detergent.

f it ruined them, it wasn’t much of a loss anyway.

Thankfully, the resulting card was exactly what he had hoped for.

1 x Clean Bedding

Encouraged, he repeated the process with the squelching mattress, which still had a massive brownish-black stain in the middle.

1 x Clean Mattress

A few rounds later, the bedroom was spotless, smelled faintly of detergent, and Gabriel was dressed in a fresh set of clothes.

Just in time for his phone to ring.

Gabriel picked it up after glancing at the caller ID.

“Hey, Mia, what’s up?”

“We’re done,” came the flat reply.

Gabriel frowned in confusion.

“Excuse me? I didn’t know we were dating…”

A long sigh answered him.

“No, you idiot. We finished your list. It’s only waiting for pickup,” Mia clarified, her tone making it abundantly clear what she thought of his joke.

“Any issues?”

“If you don’t count Nate being Nate, then no,” Mia replied with another sigh. “Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot easier to hack things when you have a precog.”

“Well, at least he is useful.”

“Debatable, but sure.”

Gabriel chuckled.

“The event is tomorrow. When do you want to pick it up?” he asked.

“Now,” Mia answered immediately. “We’re going to a bar.”

Gabriel paused, taking a moment to process that sentence.

“Do I have to?”

“We need the cover, and the building is crawling with Jackals,” Mia explained. “Look, it’s just one drink at a pub, then we head home. Perfectly normal behavior. Perfect cover.”

Gabriel was silent for a second.

“That was Nate’s idea, wasn’t it?” he asked suspiciously.

Mia sounded faintly embarrassed when she answered.

“He can be… persuasive…”

“Well, he did say he liked goth mom–”

CLICK

Mia hung up.

Gabriel stared at the disconnected call for a moment before grinning to himself.

Then the grin slowly slid off his face as a far more pressing problem asserted itself.

“What the hell do I wear?” he muttered, turning toward his painfully meager wardrobe.

Half an hour later, Gabriel stepped out of his apartment dressed in simple dark pants, a graphic T-shirt, and a loose overshirt. His hair had been somewhat subdued by the ancient comb he’d unearthed from the depths of his bathroom drawer.

Sparky had attempted to offer fashion advice, but for some reason the AI had become deeply invested in convincing him to acquire an industrial quantity of glitter, so Gabriel had bravely chosen to ignore her expertise.

Mia was waiting by the door.

She wore her usual getup.

Her hair was perfectly styled into the ever-popular wolf cut, silver skull earrings dangling from her ears, and a black choker wrapped around her neck with a small pentagram pendant resting against her throat.

A silk top disappeared beneath a suede jacket, while black jeans – artistically ripped along the legs and tight enough to look painted on – hugged her figure. The outfit was completed by black combat boots with an objectively unnecessary number of straps.

Her lips were painted black, and dark smoky makeup framed her eyes.

Mia gave Gabriel a once-over before scoffing.

“I should’ve expected you to have no fashion sense…”

“At least I’m not a precog’s wet dream,” he shot back immediately.

She opened her mouth to respond, paused, then slowly closed it again before shaking her head.

“Let’s just go before I decide to strangle you,” she muttered while walking past him toward the elevator.

Gabriel merely grinned and followed after her.

Down in the entrance hall, they were greeted by a low murmur of voices.

Several people – mostly gang members – were scattered around the lobby, leaning against walls or sitting on the floor while talking amongst themselves. He even spotted a few cans and bottles of beer in their hands.

“Looking good, chica!” a familiar voice called out as the elevator doors opened.

Gabriel looked up to see Carlos approaching them, accompanied by several other gang members who were all doing a very poor job pretending they weren’t openly observing Gabriel and Mia.

Though, to be fair, they might genuinely have been curious how a goth baddie ended up hanging around with a guy like him. The contrast between the two of them was admittedly a little absurd.

“Hey, Carlos,” Gabriel greeted, bumping fists with the other man. “Just heading out for a drink…”

Carlos grinned, his gaze flicking between them, though Gabriel noticed he spent considerably more time ‘looking’ at Mia than at him.

Which, honestly, was understandable.

She did look good.

“Ah, a date?” Carlos asked, waggling his eyebrows.

Gabriel snorted and shook his head.

“Nah. We’re meeting a friend.” He glanced toward Mia. “Where are we even going?”

“Dead Signal,” she replied in a bored tone.

Carlos eyes lit up. “Oh, I know that place. Good beer, absolutely terrible sandwiches.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“You’re welcome, bro. Have fun!”

Carlos then headed back toward his group while Gabriel and Mia continued toward the entrance.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel saw the gang immediately crowd around Carlos the second he returned, animated conversation breaking out almost instantly.

“They’re getting more aggressive with the questions,” Mia muttered quietly from beside him. “It’s only a matter of time before they decide to get physical…”

“Lucky us,” Gabriel murmured back. “Maybe by Monday they’ll have a completely different set of problems.”

Together, they stepped out into the warm pulse of the city’s nightlife.

The San Bernardino district wasn’t exactly considered the heart of the party scene, but Los Angeles was still Los Angeles, no matter what part of the city you lived in.

Especially now that spring was finally starting to warm the evenings.

Young people flooded the sidewalks while music spilled out from bars, clubs, and passing cars alike, the city settling into the familiar rhythm of another sleepless night.

Thankfully, the pub – Dead Signal – was only about half an hour away on foot, as it was a local establishment. They could have taken a car or grabbed a taxi, but the weather was nice enough that walking simply felt better.

Especially now.

After his transformation, Gabriel barely even registered the trip as exercise.

“Where’s the pickup?” he asked a few minutes later, once they were comfortably outside the range of their apartment building.

Mia pulled her phone from the impossible dimensional pocket, apparently hidden somewhere inside her skin-tight jeans, and tapped away for several seconds before turning the screen toward him.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the displayed location.

“Ahh, I see.”

Once again, the materials had been deposited inside an abandoned building, ready for pickup.

Mia’s phone buzzed.

A message from Sparky flashed across the screen.

[Countermeasures taken.]

[Hidden cameras and listening devices eliminated.]

Gabriel found himself oddly grateful, once again, that they lived in a part of the city where things like that were considered normal precautions.

And, more importantly, where the people supplying them weren’t installing cameras to protect the package, but to gather blackmail material they could later sell.

“We can swing by on the way,” he commented casually as Mia slipped the phone away into whatever extradimensional storage space women’s clothing apparently operated on.

‘I may be able to actually craft one…’ he idly mused.

Twenty minutes later, they paused beside a filthy alleyway packed with overflowing dumpsters, scattered trash, and very obvious signs of recent animal activity.

Gabriel crouched down, pretending he needed to tie his shoelaces.

A second later, he slipped into the abandoned storefront nearby.

The stacked boxes waiting inside vanished into cards almost instantly.

Then he was back beside Mia before anyone passing by could have noticed he had moved at all.

She stood there with her arms crossed, projecting the image of a woman deeply annoyed at having to wait for her idiot companion.

At least Gabriel hoped she was pretending.

The pub, Dead Signal, was decorated with old CRT television sets mounted across the walls like relics.

Some screens showed nothing but dead air – black-and-white static crawling and flickering in hypnotic patterns that cast a cold, shifting light over the street-facing interior. Others looped warped, out-of-date advertisements stitched together in ways that felt deliberately disorienting, as if the building itself enjoyed confusing its patrons.

A modest crowd lingered outside and just inside the entrance – people sitting on mismatched chairs, leaning against railings, or standing in loose clusters while smoking and talking.

Nate, dressed far too brightly for the setting in a dark green shirt and blue pants, stuck out like a sore thumb against the pub’s otherwise grim aesthetic.

Honestly, of the three of them, only Mia actually looked like she belonged there.

That didn’t stop the annoyingly cheerful precog from raising his hand the moment he spotted them.

“Mia, Gabe! Here!”

A few nearby patrons shot him looks ranging from irritated to outright disgusted.

Gabriel glanced sideways at Mia.

“We can still turn around and pretend we don’t know him,” he muttered.

Mia sighed heavily.

“And then deal with him being more annoying? No thanks.”

She raised her hand – noticeably less enthusiastic than Nate’s enthusiastic waving – and returned the greeting.

Nate’s grin widened as he watched them approach.

Gabriel let out a long-suffering sigh and followed after Mia anyway.