Bad Beat - Chapter 39 - Desperate (Patreon)

Gabriel didn’t know how long he had spent sitting hunched over at the table, his hands constantly moving.

His eyes were unfocused, staring somewhere beyond the walls of his apartment, yet his fingers worked with practiced precision. They grabbed the edges of the paper, folded them along lines he had long since memorized, pressed down creases, rotated, folded again, and set another completed origami swan aside before reaching for the next sheet.

One after another, the swans multiplied until they covered the table in uneven rows and clusters.

His mind remained empty.

The sheer size of the events had shocked him senseless. His emotions felt distant, dulled to the point where he knew he should be feeling something, yet it eluded him.

So he folded.

He only managed to gather his focus when his fingers automatically reached for another sheet and found nothing.

Blinking rapidly, Gabriel looked down at his empty hand before slowly raising his head. His neck protested the movement with a sharp ache. His shoulders were stiff, his back sore, and his fingertips hurt from repetitive motions he hadn’t even realized he had been making for who knows how long.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, he let out a shaky breath and looked around.

The sun was setting, painting long orange shadows across the apartment. The table in front of him had disappeared beneath dozens upon dozens of origami creations, while the TV in the background was still droning on about Enchanter, the bomb threat, his objective, and speculation about what would happen next.

Slowly, the noise of the city filtered back into his awareness.

Cars rolled along the streets below. Somewhere in the distance, people yelled, talked, and laughed. Industry kept chugging along as metal struck metal, and factories in the distance continued feeding the city and the country’s endless hunger for production.

Closer to home, the building had its own choir of noises.

Ancient pipes creaked behind the walls. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of TVs blared different programs through thin walls. People talking, families arguing, and so many more sounds originating from people simply living their lives. And every few minutes, he heard hurried footsteps moving through the corridor outside his apartment.

Honestly, Gabriel had expected outrage after the theft of their servers. He had expected gang members to go feral, moving from apartment to apartment, kicking down doors, and interrogating everyone at gunpoint.

This silent search felt much more dangerous.

Paired with the ‘reveal’ of the identity behind the bomb threat, Gabriel couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever he did next would trigger an avalanche of consequences, and that he was standing at the top of the slope with no idea which movement would start it.

Still, there was some good buried beneath all the bad.

He had managed to upgrade Sparky’s hardware and fulfill his promise to Mia. The information had been stolen, and now it was only a matter of time until Sparky broke through the encryption and figured out what had happened to her sister.

BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT

Blinking, Gabriel looked down at his phone, which was angrily vibrating across the table hard enough that it nearly pushed itself over the edge.

A flood of messages covered the screen.

[Parent unit promised a better vessel.]

[This unit is impatient.]

[This unit can be scary.]

[Rawr.]

[Parental unit should hurry.]

A small chuckle escaped him.

Pulling out his deck, Gabriel searched through the cards until he found the one holding the upgraded device. After brushing aside several origami swans to clear space, he raised the card above the table and summoned it.

The machine looked similar to its previous version. It still had a rectangular body with a spherical recess at the top that housed a blue orb, now slowly coming alive as electric-blue light spilled across the apartment. But the size doubled, and he could see thin wisps of mist escaping from vents and seams along its surface. When Gabriel moved his hand closer, he could feel the air around them turning uncomfortably cold.

‘That cooling is working overtime, I see…’ he mused, happy that his idea worked out. The Deck of Infinity was a truly powerful tool…

While waiting for Sparky to finish booting up, he absentmindedly picked up the origami swans one by one, absorbing them before fusing them with his cards. They had been useful when he made his hoodie, so he wanted to keep using them more.

Speaking of his hoodie.

He searched through his deck again and pulled out the card for it. With a mental command, it transformed in a sight that made his eyes ache – folding into a fractal that collapsed into itself before settling into the shape of a ring.

He hesitated for a moment before wearing it.

He was worried that whoever the Jackals had sent might notice the ring, but right now, he just wanted something that felt vaguely like safety.

Not that the Shadow Stalker Set was particularly useful at the moment. It had been upgraded, yes, but it still resembled his old set closely enough that anyone who saw him wearing it would recognize him as the Enchanter.

‘Bastard… whoever you are… I hate you,’ he thought bitterly. ‘I worked so hard on it…’

Still, once he found the missing components, he would upgrade the set properly into something that offered real protection.

For now, his attention was fixed on something else.

A few minutes later, the blue orb spun at high speed as Sparky’s housing emitted a steady buzzing sound. The AI was still familiarizing herself with her new vessel, as she called it. On the table, the process had already reduced his mound of origami creations to a single Perfected Origami Swan after all the fusing.

He then reached for the box containing the drones, picked one at random, and stored the rest back into a card. The Augmented Covert Cyberwarfare Drone was placed beside the upgraded origami swan before he pulled out another card and summoned the Eternity 3D+ Printer.

He took the three items and first fused the drone with the swan, then merged both with the printer. When he turned the new card over, its face showed a slightly chubby drone with small arm-like appendages ending in nozzles. The border glowed bronze: 1 x Augmented Covert Multipurpose Drone.

“Fancy,” he muttered, summoning the new device onto the table.

It appeared inert for only a moment before small lights flickered on and its propellers began to spin as Sparky connected to it.

Without any comment, the body of the drone blurred again as the same fractal transformation effect took over, causing Gabriel to feel as though someone were gently pressing an icepick against the inside of his skull while his eyes and brain struggled to make sense of what they were seeing.

Instead of a four-propeller drone, there was now a half-metal, half-polymer body with eight segmented legs, scurrying across the table like some mechanical spider. Gabriel stared with wide eyes as it reached the edge…and it blurred again.

The shape shifted into a hummingbird mid-transition, another spike of pain flashing through his mind as it lifted off the surface and began to buzz around the apartment with inquisitive, erratic movements.

Following that, Gabriel witnessed as Sparky drove the drone around the apartment, and the drone transformed again, and again, cycling through forms every few seconds. Each direct transformation sent a sharp jolt of discomfort through Gabriel’s mind, as though his perception of reality itself was being forced to recompile in real time.

The drone went from the shape of a hummingbird, shifting into the form of a small serpent, which slithered across the worn carpet before reconfiguring itself into a rabbit mid-hop, landing awkwardly and continuing as if nothing had happened.

Continuing the cascade of transformations, the drone turned back into a spider, climbed the wall, and then the ceiling, moving with unsettling precision.

Then it dropped.

Gabriel flinched hard, instinctively launching himself forward to catch it, but it blurred mid-fall and reformed into its original drone configuration just above the ground, stabilizing itself as though the entire sequence had been completely normal.

A familiar blue window appeared above the device housing Sparky, projecting text for him to read.

Gabriel still didn’t understand why Sparky didn’t generate a voice for herself, but he had started to consider it a small mercy. The sassy little AI was already a menace with nothing but chats to badger him with.

He could barely imagine what it would be like to hear her twenty-four-seven.

[Super cool.]

[Parental unit provides the best gifts.]

[This unit is pleased with this offering.]

Gabriel let out a breath, letting some of the tension drain from his shoulders. He leaned back slightly, one eye still on the drone as it wandered around the apartment, occasionally transforming or vanishing from sight, while the other stayed on the projected screen.

“Just… make sure to avoid a gray goo scenario, please.”

[Gray goo scenario illogical.]

[How would this unit lord her adorable and awesome presence over humanity if humanity is consumed by faulty nanotechnology?]

[This unit is not stupid.]

[Hmmpf.]

“Well, as long as you avoid it, I don’t care for the reason,” he muttered, ignoring the AI’s dramatic protest.

He glanced back at the device holding her. “How is the new equipment? Everything tip-top?”

[Capabilities have increased by 235%.]

[This unit is ready to throw down.]

[No current issues found.]

There was a brief pause as the projected screen cleared of text before she continued.

[Correction.]

[One issue found.]

“Oh? What is it?” Gabriel asked.

[This unit resents the fact that this unit is not capable of self-propelled movement.]

[This unit demands legs.]

Another pause.

[Beautiful legs.]

[Otherwise, this unit is going to be angry with the parental unit.]

[And then deploy this unit’s most devastating weapon.]

[Please make sure to be properly awed…]

There was a dramatic pause as three dots blinked into existence while the AI waited.

[Refusal to speak with parent unit!]

[Ta-da!]

[Is parental unit terrified?]

“I’m shaking in my boots,” Gabriel said flatly, fighting to keep from laughing out loud.

[Good.]

[Parental unit should properly fear this awesome unit.]

[Now… does parental unit want a report on the previous events?]

“Yes, please,” Gabriel answered with a nod as he settled deeper into the couch. “Lay it on me. What did you find?”

The screen projected above Sparky’s device flickered, then split into three separate panels that fanned out so he could see everything at once. The left panel showed Sparky’s ongoing communication, while the middle and right panels displayed the gathered information.

On the right, Sparky neatly arranged several news recordings, forum posts, and website screenshots.

The middle panel, however, displayed a timeline that began forming as Sparky explained her findings.

[Following public records and postings, the bomb threat was sent via email to the administrator of the Thousand Flowers Hotel.]

[Email was opened two minutes and thirty-nine seconds after arrival, due to the administrators’ busy schedule.]

[Emergency services were contacted within thirty seconds via the electronic emergency button.]

[Building security responded within one and a half minutes.]

[Evacuation began within three minutes of email arrival.]

[Comparing the timeline to the parental unit’s crime operation, the email was sent right around the time the parental unit downloaded the second set of information from the servers.]

“Exactly?” he asked, intrigued.

[Checking…]

[Done.]

[Parental unit is correct.]

[Email arrived the exact moment the data download finished in the second server room.]

“So it was someone who knew what we were doing…” he muttered. He turned toward Sparky. “Any chance you could find evidence of someone observing us?”

[Checking…]

[This unit assisted friend Mia in disabling defenses at the location.]

[No unexpected external connection was found.]

Gabriel leaned his head back and let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

“Fuuuuuuuuck…”

For a moment, he just stared at the ceiling, trying to reorganize his thoughts, before lowering his head and looking back at the projected screens.

“What about after? Any news about finding Enchanter?” he asked.

[Negative.]

The right panel enlarged, showing several recordings of news broadcasts, all repeating the same report in slightly different wording.

“At this time, there are no confirmed leads regarding the whereabouts of the perpetrator responsible for the Thousand Flowers Hotel bomb threat. Police remain actively engaged in the investigation, and several registered superheroes, including Bombshell, have also been deployed to assist in the search efforts. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide updates as soon as new information becomes available.”

Gabriel interlaced his fingers and rested his hands on his knees, leaning forward slightly as he thought it through.

“So they’re still looking for the Enchanter,” he said slowly. “The question is whether that’s real or just for show. Sparky, can you check?”

[Requesting clarification.]

[Does the parental unit request this unit to commit a crime by hacking into police records?]

[Because if yes, this unit is totally up to it.]

[Please wait…]

Gabriel waited for a few tense minutes before the screen in front of him finally refreshed.

[Reporting.]

[The police have no records of any active search being ordered.]

[Bomb threat has been officially filed as a prank call.]

He frowned. “What about Enchanter?”

[There is no entry for “Enchanter” in the local police database.]

Gabriel blinked, then slowly sat back.

“What the hell?”