Bad Beat - Chapter 38 - Stranded (Patreon)

For a long, terrifying moment, Gabriel stared at Mia, and she stared back at him.

He could see in her eyes the storm of regret, fear, and anger, all directed at him. She was wondering how she had managed to misjudge him or miss that he had been doing the things the news was undoubtedly spewing about him.

But she was also terrified for herself.

Mia was worried about what this would do to her, for her chances of finding out the truth about her sister, or even surviving the next day.

They were currently in the building practically owned by the Electric Jackals, whose base had just been robbed and who were all hightailing it back there after the news broke that somebody had threatened to bomb a gathering filled with disabled children in the vicinity, worried that the searches for the perpetrator would lead the authorities to their hideout.

It was only a question of seconds before they realized what had happened to their servers, and then chaos would descend on the entire building. They would search every nook and cranny and investigate everything suspicious.

Both Mia and Gabriel had been under increased scrutiny, so he was sure they would be coming for them. Whether it was under the guise of a friendly visit or simply breaking down their door and asking pointed questions was up to fate…

But Gabriel could also see a glimmer of care in Mia’s eyes, directed at him.

Breathing hard, he reached up with one hand and disengaged the mask, hiding his face as the faceplate slid up, revealing his sweat-soaked face, and he tried to smile at her.

It came out as a grimace, but he didn’t vomit, so Gabriel counted that as a victory.

“H-hey, Mia. What’s up?” he asked as he didn’t really know what to say.

Mia’s face scrunched up in anger, and she pointed a finger at him, the appendage practically an inch from his eyes.

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, mister. Why the fuck is your face on every news bulletin and show? How the hell did they get that picture? And what the hell is up with that stupid name? Enchanter? What the hell?”

“Mia, I promise, I have no idea what’s going on,” he stated, still looking up at the angry woman, whose watch was buzzing with energy and pulsing with light. Her gun was not out yet, but Gabriel had a feeling that she would shoot him if he said the wrong word.

Nate stepped up to Mia and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him questioningly.

“We have to leave,” he said seriously. “They’re going to search the entire building.”

Mia brushed off the hand but nodded. “Yeah, I’m going back to my apartment to make sure my stuff is hidden.” She looked down at Gabriel. “You should make sure everything is hidden.”

With that, she turned around and left the apartment without saying anything else, the door closing behind her seconds later.

Nate frowned at Gabriel but reached down, grabbed his hand, and helped him stand up.

“I have no idea what’s going on…” he said, still frowning. “This is some deep shit we managed to crawl into…”

Gabriel took a few deep breaths before fixing Nate with a hard look.

“Dude! Shouldn’t you have foreseen this? After all, you’re the precog!”

Nate shook his head while letting out a tired sigh. He reached over and patted Gabriel on the shoulder.

“My friend, I told you… Your power messes with my power. Every time you do whatever it is you actually do, the possibilities shatter, and I have to piece them together again.”

Gabriel pulled down his hood, letting a bit of fresh air caress his face. He also glanced around the room, seeing everything as it was when he left. The only thing missing was Mia’s setup, which she had presumably taken with her when she left. Two drones were on the table, and the last one was still silently hovering over his shoulder, as it hadn’t received an order to cease operation.

Nate, meanwhile, continued talking.

“The future is already a collection of infinite possibilities which expands into sets of infinities, each holding its own infinite sets, the further you move from the starting point,” he explained. “There are countless futures where we never meet and where we kill each other. There are infinite ones where you decide to go to clown college. There are also numerous ones where you become a chef.” Here, he grinned a little. “Not a good one, mind you, but still a chef.”

Gabriel shook his head as he reached into a pocket of his hoodie and grabbed the Deck of Infinity. The deck of cards managed to ground him a little, distracting him from the seed of panic that had appeared within him.

“Very funny…”

“I thought so, too,” Nate replied, then held his arms out helplessly. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you used your power too many times, and I couldn’t see what was going to happen.”

He glared at Gabriel a little.

“And if you can restrain yourself for a while, I can probably figure out where it went wrong.”

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up. “You want me to stop using my power? While an entire gang is looking for me? While the entire district is probably looking for me? While Bombshell is hunting me?”

Nate scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“I mean… they are not exactly hunting you, right? People are hunting Enchanter—very lame, by the way—and the gang is looking for some guy who broke into their gang hideout.” Gabriel sent him a flat look, but Nate just grinned. “So, technically, you’re safe. Well, safe-ish…”

Gabriel let out a sigh. “Just… Just go…”

Nate nodded gratefully, gathered his stuff, including the old gaming console, and headed out.

The moment the door closed, Gabriel summoned his wallet into his hand from the card it was hiding in, then absorbed it back.

From the direction of the door, he could hear a faint yell.

“Goddammit!”

Grinning despite the situation he had found himself in, Gabriel turned around and started cleaning up.

First, he undressed, taking a small cup of detergent and mixing it with his clothes to clean them before putting the entire thing into one lone card and getting a change of clothes from his wardrobe. Then he put the three drones into a stray box and absorbed the box, thus storing all three drones in one card.

“Sparky, make sure to clean up the network traffic,” he called out as he put the plates they had used in the sink. He knew the order would be followed. Then he made sure the living room looked like someone who didn’t really care lived there and turned on the TV.

As the newsreader droned on, with the Thousand Flowers Hotel in the background, he headed for the bedroom. There, he eyed the device housing Sparky.

A screen instantly popped up.

[Network traffic cleared and spoofed.]

[For authenticity, this unit added visits to several porn sites.]

[This unit is slightly scarred.]

[Humans are weird.]

Gabriel smiled and then wondered what would happen if he put the entire thing into a card now that Sparky was alive.

[Parental unit is staring at this unit weirdly.]

[Please, this unit is innocent.]

[Parental unit shouldn’t slake their lust on this unit.]

[Kyaaa~~]

Gabriel closed his eyes and massaged the spot between his eyebrows. “I was just thinking about what would happen if I placed your home into a card for fusion…”

[This unit is relieved.]

[This unit stopped dialing police officers.]

[This unit is not worried.]

[This unit can temporarily vacate physical shell via parental unit’s communication device.]

[Transfer would limit this unit’s capabilities.]

[Would be still smarter than parental unit.]

“Haha, very funny…” Gabriel said while rolling his eyes. “Get into the phone, Sparky.”

While outwardly he tried to keep it together, though he wasn’t exactly sure whom he was performing for, inside, he was a mess. The entire thing worried him, and anxiety clawed at the edge of his mind.

He could feel his heart beating erratically as he tried very hard not to think about the consequences of the news broadcast he had watched. He even refused to look down because he just knew his hands were trembling like crazy.

A moment later, his phone dinged sassily, and he let out a brief breath of relief before swiping a card by the rectangular device where the blue orb in the middle was slowly dimming, losing its electric-blue coloring.

It vanished into the deck and created a red-bordered card, surprising Gabriel. When he had first created it, it had an orange border.

“What does it mean? Did it go down in quality or up? Why didn’t the stupid deck come with a manual?” he grumbled as he took one of the Quantum Server Rack (Functional) cards and a Cold (Strong) card, fusing them with the Computer Assistant card.

The end result still had the red borders, but completely showed Sparky’s home in all its glory, with maybe a bit more shine than before. Even the name only changed a little: 1 x Upgraded Computer Assistant (Actualized).

His phone dinged again, the sound rather insistent.

Pulling it out of his pocket, he swiped up and checked his messages.

[This unit is impatient.]

[Hardware insufficient for this unit’s glory.]

[Please ensure the next vessel is better.]

“Sure, sure…” he said fondly, ignoring the way the phone was trembling in his hands. “As soon as the danger passes, you can move back.”

[Humph.]

[This unit crossed her arms.]

Putting the phone back in his pocket, Gabriel looked around the room, making sure he wasn’t leaving out anything incriminating. He picked up a bunch of papers, slightly crinkling them, before heading back to the living room and sinking into the couch.

For a moment, the slight remnants of Mia’s perfume entered his nose, spiking his heart rate as the thought of the consequences of this day once again entered his mind.

Forcefully shoving those thoughts aside, he threw the pile of papers on the table in front of him, scattering them messily, then looked at the TV screen, finally paying attention to what the news was saying.

He nervously cycled through the local channels, all of them talking about the bomb scare at the Thousand Flowers Hotel and about Enchanter, his supposed supervillain persona.

Most of the information was hearsay, and they only had that one picture, but in true journalistic fashion, they stretched that limited amount of information as far as possible.

In such a short amount of time, they pulled up a bunch of crime statistics from the San Bernardino district and tried to figure out which crimes had been committed by Enchanter.

Others were speculating about his objective with the bomb threat, trying to figure out why Enchanter did it and what he hoped to accomplish.

One gossip channel surprisingly focused on his clothing, critiquing the design and trying to figure out if it was a style choice or something to do with his power.

Oh, his power…

A lot of people were speculating about that too. The only picture they had access to had been cleaned up, but it was still clear there was some unnatural artifacting on it that made it hard to pick out details.

Most channels he listened to for a minute or so, thought he had some kind of electromagnetic power he could imbue into items, hence the name.

It was surprising how close, yet how far, that was from reality.

And as he sat there, body resting and mind distracted by the inane chatter of the TV, he could feel himself calming down somewhat.

The entire situation was so weird that instead of panicking, he focused fully on understanding it.

Someone, or a group, managed to get a picture of him, then gave him an odd name before using said name and picture to commit a bomb threat against one of the most powerful supers in the city while she was at a community outreach program that included disabled children.

It was as if somebody wanted to make sure his name was tarnished to the fullest.

That no matter what he said, what he claimed, it would be denied because nobody would believe him.

His first thought instantly jumped to Mia and Nate.n

Mia had been with him since almost the beginning; she had access to those recordings. She could have taken one and had the skills necessary to clean it up.

But why the bomb threat? It made no sense for her.

‘Unless she lied about her sister?’ Gabriel thought before shaking his head. ‘No. Sparky looked into her. That is real.’

Then there was Nate.

Nate, the mysterious precog who suspiciously didn’t see this coming.

‘Well, there is the whole thing with my power negatively interacting with his own, so I could believe that…’

Still, the man did show up out of nowhere, inserting himself into their small group, claiming just to be in it for the money.

Very suspicious.

Also, it would be very stupid of Nate to do it this way.

Why become friends with them? Why join the group? If people figured out who Enchanter was, Nate would be painted with the same brush on account of being in the same group.

Gabriel shook his head again.

No.

It made no sense to Nate either.

He may be a smarmy, annoying guy, but Gabriel was sure he wasn’t the one behind this. Granted, Gabriel still didn’t trust him fully, but he was at least sure that Nate wouldn’t have anything to gain by pulling this.

‘So… that means there is a third party out there manipulating events…’ he mused before perking up a little. “Could be one of the companies using me as a patsy?”

Reaching for his phone, he began to browse the news sites, looking for any clue that would validate his theory.

He was reading the press release about the bomb threat from Helix when he heard a sound.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Insistent knocking on his door.

Freezing a little, he took a deep breath and once again cursed himself for forgetting to set up a small camera for security.

He walked to the door, stopped a few feet away, closed his eyes, and forced all his feelings – anger, fear, anxiety, nervousness, and the undercurrent of panic threatening to overwhelm him – deeper into his mind before forcing an amicable look onto his face.

“Who is it?” he asked out loud, hoping his voice sounded normal.

“Hey, bro! It’s Carlos!”

Gabriel nodded to himself.

It wasn’t really unexpected.

The Electric Jackals should have already discovered the theft.

Opening the door, he was greeted by the grinning visage of Carlos as the gang member looked him over and glanced behind him, obviously hearing the TV blaring about the bomb and Enchanter.

Despite looking like someone who didn’t really care, Gabriel could see the tense shoulders, hands hovering near his hips, reaching for something behind his back but pulling away at the last second. Carlos’s grin was visibly forced, and his eyes were filled with anger.

“What’s up?” Gabriel asked. “Did you hear about the whole Enchanter thing?”

Carlos flinched but nodded, the grin never leaving his face. “Y-yeah, bro. That’s why I’m actually here. You know we have to look out for each other in this community. So we’re going door to door to make sure everyone is okay. That hotel is way too close…”

Gabriel nodded and waved the man inside. “Well, that’s cool of you. Why don’t you come in? Want something to drink?”

Carlos followed him inside, leaving the door open.

Gabriel turned around, heading toward the small kitchen, but from the reflection in the window, he could see Carlos professionally scanning the room, cataloging everything.

No doubt he was looking for something suspicious.

Or the missing servers.

“No need. No need,” the man waved the offer away, causing Gabriel to stop and turn back. Then Carlos pointed at the table with the papers scattered on it. “What’s that?”

“Haha,” Gabriel laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s for origami. I read somewhere that it helps with anxiety, and that whole bomb threat brought back memories of the… you know…” Gabriel explained, trying to act and sound as pathetic as possible.

He stepped up to the table, picked up one of the pieces of paper, and with trembling hands quickly created a wonky swan before handing it over to Carlos. “Not my best, but it takes my mind off the… well, everything.”

As Carlos took the origami swan, Gabriel was sweating and hoping that the gang member would buy his story.

Carlos looked up from the origami swan, stepped closer to Gabriel, and patted him on the back. “No worries, bro. We’re going to make sure the bomb threat doesn’t affect this building.” Gabriel could see in his eyes that suspicion was the last thing Carlos was thinking about. Though it was obvious he didn’t think much of Gabriel, that suited him just fine. “Also, watch a movie or something, not that stupid news… It just makes you more nervous, okay?” Carlos said, some genuine worry leaking into his voice.

Gabriel nodded as Carlos gave the apartment one last look before taking the origami swan, saluting Gabriel with it, leaving the apartment, and closing the door behind him.

He stood there for a long moment, just breathing, happy that he had survived, when the sound of knocking broke him out of his reverie.

At first, he thought it was Carlos coming back, but then he realized the knocking sound came from much farther away and was rather muffled.

It was Carlos, but at another door.

Letting out another sigh, he walked over to the sofa, dropping down into an undignified heap and reaching idly for another piece of paper before starting to fold it without even looking at it