Bad Beat - Chapter 50 - Drop (Patreon)

Bombshell continued to smirk at him. “Do you think I wouldn’t notice when my own power vanished?”

Now that she had asked such an obvious question, Gabriel had to admit it was rather stupid of him not to have considered it. He couldn’t even bluff his way out of it, as the superhero had just confirmed that he actually possessed energy-absorbing powers.

The energy he had absorbed from that one punch was minuscule, so he knew for certain that she had aimed to confirm her theory rather than actually hurt him. Gabriel wasn’t going to lie, but it stung his ego a little.

They continued to stare at each other, Gabriel worried and Bombshell amused as her fist was still resting in his palm.

Gabriel swallowed and took a hasty step back, nervously wiping his hand on his pants. His eyes never left the blonde superhero, who had also shifted from her fighting stance to simply standing in place. One of her hands moved to her hip, and she cocked it to the side while continuing to stare at him.

Her entire stance radiated smugness.

However, she was clearly waiting for him to speak. A pure power move, but Gabriel wasn't in a position to deny her. He was squarely on the back foot here, both figuratively and literally.

He didn't know if his energy blast would affect her, but he readied himself to unleash it. At worst, it would slow her down or maybe blind her.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Aww, I expected begging…” she giggled. It was rather disturbing. Then, with one hand still on her hip, she leaned forward slightly before raising the other and coquettishly pointing at Gabriel. “I. Want. You.”

“Excuse me?” he asked, taken aback.

She straightened up. “You’re not excused,” she said with a grin. “I want you to work for me.”

Gabriel eyed the woman. “Or else?”

“I rip your spine out, arrest you for whatever, or simply make a post about your identity. Dealer’s choice…” she told him matter-of-factly.

Gabriel reeled back. “Er, I prefer my spine where it is, thank you very much.”

Bombshell shrugged. “Then you work for me.”

“I feel like something doesn’t really make sense about this, but I don’t think I’m in a situation where I can argue it.”

“You aren’t,” she nodded.

Gabriel let out a sigh. “And what would this work consist of?” he asked, not seeing much chance of getting out of this. For now, he had to play along for now and then figure out a solution later, if he survived.

Bombshell tapped her cheek with a finger, humming playfully, which sounded terrifying to Gabriel.

“Hmm, I don’t know yet, but it would be useful to have a guy on the street,” she finally said after a few seconds of thought.

“So that’s it? You show up, and I work for Helix?” he asked resignedly.

“Helix? Hahahaha!” Bombshell laughed so hard she doubled over. “No, no. You are working for me,” she said after she finally stopped laughing. “Helix has nothing to do with this.”

“Ah… okay?” Gabriel replied. Not that he believed her. A company as big and powerful as Helix must definitely have ways to keep track of its supers. No doubt it had entire departments that kept track of every powerful entity in its employ. If Bombshell knew about him, then there was at least someone within the corporation who knew about him as well.

“And if you think about running, I’ll make sure that every person in the country will know your face, family history, and what you last ate,” she threatened, looking directly into his eyes.

He held her gaze for a moment before looking away, his thoughts racing.

However, no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find anything that would get him out of this. Bombshell was more powerful than him. She had much more experience fighting. Furthermore, she seemingly had no compunction about causing bodily harm just for the sake of hurting him.

And as a cherry on top, she was far more connected than he was.

He could finish this conversation and go to the nearest news station, and nobody would believe him. Or even if they did, none of them would dare to publish it, fearing reprisal from Helix and Bombshell.

“Got it. No running,” he muttered. Then, a bit louder, he asked, “And then? What exactly do you want me to do?”

Bombshell nodded, satisfied. “I’m glad we got to skip the whole begging and beating-up part. While I like kicking people while they’re down just as much as the next girl, this is much faster,” she grinned at him.

The grin was rather bloodthirsty.

“As for what I want you to do? Keep me up to date and look into things I want you to investigate.” She hummed thoughtfully. “You’re basically my… dog. I whistle, and you come running.”

Ignoring the part of his brain that was telling him that agreeing was much worse than resisting, Gabriel nodded reluctantly. “I suppose I don’t have much choice.”

“No, you don’t,” Bombshell replied in a singsong voice, visibly ecstatic about the dynamic. She took several steps forward until the superhero was standing within arm’s reach in front of Gabriel,

“And I already have a target for you, my little doggy,” she whispered in a conspiratorial manner.

“Just… just tell me so that I can go home and forget this ever happened…” Gabriel told her.

“Oh, it seems you do have a spine. Excellent,” she grinned, clearly amused at his reaction.

Then, before Gabriel could react, her arm lashed out, her fist burying itself in Gabriel’s stomach, folding him in half and driving the air and spit out of him. He could feel shockwaves travelling through his body.

Gabriel almost blacked out from the pain, spending several seconds simply gasping for air.

He felt her fist pull back, leaving his body without support, which caused him to fall forward onto his knees with a quiet thud, as his arms instinctively wrapped around his stomach and he took a shuddering breath.

Bombshell looked down at him with clear superiority and derision.

“That was to show your place, dog. Don’t think I’m defenseless against your power,” she declared as Gabriel tried to fill his lungs with air while simultaneously trying to prevent bile from rising from his abused stomach. He had an odd feeling that Bombshell wouldn’t be happy if he projectile vomited on her.

Still looking down at him, she thrust her hand forward, causing Gabriel to flinch. She laughed a little, clearly taking great delight in the reaction she was eliciting from him.

“Phone.”

“Hurhgh?” he grunted, still fighting with his own body, unable to form proper words.

“Your phone, dog.”

Not seeing any other option, Gabriel removed the hand holding his stomach. Still taking great gulping breaths, he reached into his pocket and held out his phone.

Unfortunately, it was his upgraded phone, the one he had modified with the Deck. Fortunately, it looked like a beat-up old device that would belong to someone working alternating shifts at a chain grocery store. As he held it out, he used his thumb to unlock it to the decoy OS.

Bombshell, either not suspecting anything or not caring, grabbed it from his hand, spent a few moments tapping on it, then held it up in front of her with the camera facing downward while making a kissy face and holding up a victory sign with her other hand.

He heard the camera shutter go off, followed by some more tapping, before the device was thrust back into his hand.

“There,” she declared proudly. “Now you can see who your owner is.”

Gabriel glanced down at the phone and saw that the background had been changed to the picture Bombshell had taken.

“I also added a number to your list. You can contact me there,” she added.

Gabriel felt his body recovering slightly, so with some effort, he used his other hand to push himself up from the ground, once again standing in front of the superhero. He took another breath, letting his poor tortured lungs fill to their maximum capacity before letting the air out all at once.

He pocketed the phone and tried to act as subserviently as he could. He categorically did not want to get hit again.

“O-okay,” he said with a shaky breath. Then he took another deep breath and spoke again with a bit more stability. “What do you want me to investigate?”

Bombshell nodded, seemingly satisfied with his act. “That’s very easy. You live in the area, so you must have heard of Enchanter. That asshole interrupted my meet and greet. I want you to find him.”

“E-Enchanter?” he asked, flabbergasted.

She nodded emphatically. “Yeah, that asshole. Go fetch, dog!”

“Um, sure?” he answered, his head spinning.

Gabriel eyed the blonde superhero suspiciously, not knowing whether she was acting cluelessly, really didn’t know, or was just playing some kind of sick game with him. Sadly, from what he knew and had experienced, any of the three could be a possibility.

She reached out with one hand and patted him on the head. “Good boy. If you do a good job, I may even reward you,” she told him with a sickly sweet smile.

Then, as Gabriel hesitantly nodded, very much wishing to be somewhere else, her other arm blurred again and smashed into his stomach once more, sending spittle flying as the air exploded out of him.

“UFFHG!”

He fell to the floor again, his knees protesting against the abuse, but this time he continued to fall to the side, not even having the strength to hold himself upright.

“Don’t lie to me,” Bombshell stated as she looked down at him with an imperious expression, her smile nowhere to be seen. “I don’t like when people lie to me. I’m not sure about what, but I’m sure you lied about something, so this is a small reminder of how to behave.”

She then turned on a dime and walked away, making sure to keep herself in Gabriel’s view. He watched from the ground as the superhero stopped at the edge of the building and looked back at him over her shoulder, dramatically flicking her hair.

“I expect regular messages, Mr. Porter,” she declared. “Don’t disappoint me. I hate to do a house visit.”

Then, with barely any effort, she launched herself into the sky, vanishing within seconds and leaving the gasping, groaning Gabriel alone on the roof.

Gabriel staggered home and practically collapsed onto his bed, with the worried Sparky using several drones to hover around him.

He ignored all of them, the earlier meeting on that dilapidated rooftop replaying in his mind again and again.

Gabriel was angry.

He was angry at himself for making such elementary mistakes and outing himself to Bombshell. He was angry at the supposed superhero for threatening him and punching him several times. He hated that he didn’t have any choice in the situation.

But despite the anger, he couldn’t help but also feel the barest flickers of joy and amusement emerging from deep within his soul.

She had sought him out not because she suspected he was the Enchanter, even though he didn’t use that codename, but because she noticed he had powers and guessed he had a connection to the local super scene.

The fact that she had tasked him with looking for himself posed a set of new problems, but he had a feeling that with his Deck of Infinity, he would be able to manage.

Letting out another groan, he rubbed his stomach, where a purple spot was already forming. His new power helped with absorbing energy, but did nothing when his enemy knew to keep their energy out of his reach. Sadly, Bombshell was experienced enough to do just that.

Another interesting tidbit was that Bombshell was seemingly doing this outside the purview of Helix, as if she had her own agenda. For a moment, he considered whether he could try to flip the superhero, but then he discarded the thought.

There was no way he was getting closer to that mad woman.

For now, he had to gather the energy to go to the kitchen and eat a bowl of his special rice to heal his abused body, then try to figure out a plan. He was about to pull himself into a sitting position when two drones buzzed into the room, carrying a bowl of jade-like rice between them, filling the room with a heavenly scent.

The third was holding a small spoon.

Gabriel let out a relieved groan. “Thanks, Sparky.”

A/N: Some feedback was that MC doesn't really have a reason to do anything. Well, here he is, due to his own hubris being pulled into the game with someone holding a gun to his head. Happy reading!