Bad Beat - Chapter 45 - Quest (Patreon)

Gabriel walked up and down, wearing a groove into his old, fading carpet as he contemplated the issue at hand. Sparky was following him with the drone while keeping the information projected onto blue screens, casting the apartment in a blue glow.

“Are you sure there is nothing else in there? Maybe some random file that explains everything?” he asked in frustration.

Sparky made the drone move from side to side, emulating someone shaking their head.

[Afraid not, parental unit.]

[Electric Jackals were careful.]

[Despite heavy encryption, they made sure to only use vague language and code words.]

[The only concrete information this unit managed to learn: there were experiments performed with a certain liquid, and Mia’s sister more than likely participated in those experiments.]

[Extrapolating from the fact that the parental unit found a power-enhancing liquid in one of their warehouses, some other data suggests human experimentation.]

“Because of course they experimented on humans…” he grumbled. He stopped and abruptly turned back to the screens and Sparky. “Any idea where those experiments took place?”

[Checking logs…]

[Cross-referencing keywords…]

[Extrapolating from known gang territories…]

[Found 3 possible locations.]

“Chances?”

“Better than nothing, I suppose,” he said, letting out a breath. “Anything that stands out about those locations?”

[Searching…]

[Ding~~]

[Parental unit should rejoice.]

[Number two and three are both inside the Arbora Life Sciences territories.]

Gabriel’s head snapped up. “What are the chances they are bankrolling the Jackals?”

[Unknown.]

He reached up with a hand and began massaging his temples.

“Fantastic. Juuust fantastic,” he muttered. “We have Bombshell going around picking up people and interrogating them over something; somebody has it out for me, and now we have a war between companies.”

[Chances of Electric Jackals being deniable assets: 100%.]

“More than likely…” He walked around the table and sank into the couch, the furniture groaning under him.

The drone housing Sparky turned around, and the projected screens followed.

For a while, he just stared at nothing, trying to put everything in order in his head. He had thought that with this small heist, he would gain the information Mia wanted, and then they could…

Honestly, at this point he didn’t even know what he would have wanted to do if they were successful. Apparently, the only thing he had succeeded at was digging himself deeper and deeper into the seedy underbelly of this gigantic city.

Once again, he had the choice to just walk away.

Probably, it wouldn’t be as easy as it would have been before the heist, but there was still a chance. Now? Now he would have to leverage the full might of his Deck to vanish, but it would still be something he could do. He would have to leave Mia behind…

“Ugh… being not an asshole is such a hassle…” he grumbled as he threw his head back, staring at the stained ceiling.

“Whatever, I don’t even want to think about this for now,” he finally said after a few minutes of blankly staring at the ceiling. “Sparky, please send a message to Mia that we should sit down tomorrow.”

[Message sent.]

[Message acknowledged.]

However, before he left for work, Gabriel had one more thing to do. “Now that we have some money, I want to buy a few things,” he told Sparky from the couch, with his laptop on his lap.

[Waiting for shopping list.]

He began searching Miombo, this world’s giant e-commerce store where you could buy everything and anything you could think of, and some things you couldn’t. Naturally, like in his previous life, the quality was rather questionable. Unless you were willing to pay extra, whatever you ordered was most likely counterfeit or made cheaply in a factory where safety regulations were aspirational folk tales.

Any other person wouldn’t even dream of buying serious equipment from the site.

Gabriel didn’t blame them.

There were hundreds, even thousands, of products aimed at protecting people from the everyday dangers of the superhero world, but he wouldn’t trust them to protect him from a determined pet rock.

Fortunately, he had a way to surmount those defects. Hell, with the way his power worked, he was looking for the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that nobody wanted.

He started clicking through several pages as he dictated the list to Sparky.

“Let’s start with those cheap-as-hell phones, then I want more drones, so let’s get a few crates of the toy ones,” he said, continuing to click through links and trying to put together a coherent plan in his head. “Oh, and those color-changing mood rings. Let’s get a few thousand of them too.”

[List updated.]

“Thanks, Sparky,” he said, momentarily looking up from the laptop and sending a smile at the drone. “Then let’s continue with those bargain-bin plate inserts they sell to mall ninjas. Add a few inexpensive reinforced motorcycle pants and gloves.”

[Anything else?]

“Get a bunch of those stick-on voice recorders. I can make some quality bugs out of them. Hell, get some of those small toy bugs, and then I can combine them into self-propelling listening devices.”

[May this unit suggest something?]

“Go ahead.”

[According to the research this unit performed, acquiring weapons would increase the survival rate of the parental unit.]

“Well, if you insist,” he said with a smile.

After a few minutes of searching, he said, “Get me a crate of those toy lasers, in red, green, and blue. And some of those awesome-looking Nerf guns with a few fingerprint padlocks.” He paused, then had a thought. “And get me a bunch of magnets and electromagnets. I want to see what I can do with them.”

Then came the last part of his current shopping spree.

“Also get me the highest quantity of the cheapest first aid kits you can find. Add a bunch of those skin-healing sprays, too. With my Deck, they could become absolute beasts.”

Thinking a bit more, he decided that now that he had the money, he could try a few more experiments.

“Also make sure to order me a bunch of self-defense, martial arts, yoga, and exercise books. Preferably ones that describe movements and exercises.”

‘Maybe I can distill knowledge…’ he mused.

[Collating list…]

[Done.]

[Shopping list assembled.]

[Preparations for purchasing have begun.]

“You’re a doll, Sparky,” he said with a smile as he closed the laptop. “Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.”

[Parental unit is welcome.]

[This unit is excited to see what kind of technological abominations parental unit will create next time.]

[Tehe~~]

“Your faith in me is astounding,” Gabriel quipped as he stood up and stretched.

Looking out through the small slit between the curtains, he noticed that the sun had finally reached its zenith.

“Time for work…”

The next morning, he woke with the rays of the sun on his face, as someone had maliciously moved the curtains just enough that the morning sun would hit him.

Letting out a groan and ignoring the excited buzzing of the drone that sounded like laughter, he crawled out of bed, still feeling yesterday’s shift in his body, despite all the upgrades. Somehow, a shift at the store was more taxing than running for his life.

At least he managed to use his power to absorb a bit of energy every time he went to the cooler part of the store, letting his internal tank fill up bit by bit.

After taking a quick wake-up shower, he took a quick trip to the neighborhood bakery, survived the old lady’s attempt to set him up with her granddaughter, and returned to his apartment with his treasure safely secured in a flimsy bag.

Everywhere he looked, there were stone-faced Electric Jackal gang members watching the street, the cars driving by, the people walking into businesses and buildings, and people leaving them. There were at least a dozen of them spending their time in the atrium of his apartment building.

The moment he stepped into the atrium, they fell silent and followed Gabriel with unnerving intensity. And when he returned, they did the same until the lift doors closed behind him.

‘Ugh…’ he thought. ‘I need to find a new place…’

Since he and his team had stolen those servers, the entire building had been crawling with gang members. He couldn’t even leave for work without being followed by a car or someone on a motorcycle. The gang was fully in paranoid mode.

Being the de facto cause of it wasn’t making it easier to tolerate, sadly.

Spreading his bounty on the table, he sent a message to Mia and started cutting his bread, then buttering it. By the time he assembled his preferred sandwich, he heard the lock turn and the door open.

“Do come in!” he called out sarcastically before taking a bite of the sandwich he had constructed.

Mia closed the door behind her and walked into his living room before throwing herself onto the couch next to him. She then reached for some of the bread on the table and began to assemble a sandwich for herself. Thankfully, Gabriel had counted on this, so he had bought some extra.

She was wearing black jeans, black trainers, and a top with a pile of skulls arranged in the shape of a larger skull. Also, she had apparently taken the time to apply her usual dark mascara.

“Hello, Mia. Nice to see you. How have you been? I have been great, thanks for asking.”

She let out a sigh.

“Yes, yes… hello to you, Mister Most-Wanted,” she replied with a smirk. “Anything new?”

Gabriel sent her a look.

“I have bad news and good news. Then some more bad news…”

“Did Bombshell kidnap you for a date again?” she asked with a smirk. “I’ve seen the compilations. Sparky made sure to show me her favorites.”

“No. I was talking about the encrypted data from the Jackal servers.”

That statement wiped the smirk off her face. She immediately sat up straighter, the sandwich in her hand almost forgotten.

“W-what did you find?” Her expression screamed indecisiveness, as if she didn’t know if she really wanted to know what Gabriel had found.

Gabriel waved his hand, and Sparky appeared with the drone, projecting a screen on which their findings were displayed. Mia absently placed the sandwich next to the plate on the table and leaned closer to read it.

Five minutes later, she was crying, her mascara ruined.

“What the hell?” she whispered, but it came out uneven, like she wasn’t sure whether it was meant to be anger or disbelief. “All this, just for… that?” She waved vaguely at the screen, then shook her head harder than necessary. “This is fucking nothing.”

Her voice cracked on the last word.

“What do you mean nothing?” Gabriel asked, still pointing at the screen. “We now have some concrete evidence that your sister was involved in something. Now, whether that was voluntary or forced, I don’t know. But if we follow the breadcrumbs, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Mia stared at him for what felt like hours, but her breathing was uneven now, like she was trying not to fall apart completely.

Then she whispered, “Just l-like that?”

“Just like what?” Gabriel asked.

Mia scowled. “Why are you still helping me? You got doxxed on live television, you had Bombshell kidnap you in broad daylight, and you’ve been shot at. Why are you still helping me?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Call it sunk cost fallacy, or maybe I just want to help my friend. Either way, I know it’s stupid, but I’m still staying.”

Mia continued to stare at him, which, with her ruined mascara, looked pretty scary. To Gabriel, it felt like she was waiting for him to tell her it was just all a big joke and laugh in her face.

She then let out a hiccup as she desperately tried to choke back the tears. “Goddamn it…” she muttered, wiping at her face in a way that only made the mascara worse. “You’re so stupid…”

For a few moments, they sat there in companionable silence, with nothing more needed to be said.

Then, as Mia was picking up her sandwich, she took a bite and, after swallowing, spoke up. “You said you had some good news. What is it?”

Gabriel, glad he could distract her for a bit, smirked.

“How would you like to shoot me a few times?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

Mia looked at him as if he was stupid. Probably because Gabriel suspected she thought he was stupid.

“Are you stupid?” she asked almost immediately.

Instead of answering, he raised a hand that wasn’t holding his half-eaten sandwich and held it out, palm facing toward Mia.

“Come on. It will make you feel better!” he encouraged her.

Mia stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “Whatever. It’s not like I don’t want to shoot you the moment you usually open your mouth…”

She raised her hand that had the watch on it, which in a smooth motion and a fraction of a second flowed into the shape of a gun, aimed directly at his palm. There was a moment when he could hear the weapon charge, and then a click.

Blue light spilled forth, hitting his palm instantly.

Then it vanished almost as fast as his skin drank it in, like a man traversing the desert.

Gabriel could feel his tank being filled.

Mia just stared at him, flabbergasted.

“Cool, huh?” he asked.

Mia shot him again.