Bad Beat - Chapter 56 - Distance (Patreon)

As Gabriel ran after the curse-happy super, he saw one of the drones scutter after her, visibly following her. Shaking his head slightly, he watched as she wrenched the old door open, which opened suspiciously easily.

As if it had been prepared…

Gabriel followed her inside, keeping an eye out for an ambush, the sound of sirens hounding his every step, the clamor of authorities already filling the area behind them. The words were indistinguishable, but he could still hear constant yelling as the yellow smoke continued to billow in one place.

Menacingly…

From a distance, it looked terrifying. Yellow smoke billowing under the harsh sun with almost no wind, refusing to emerge from among the old warehouses.

He had a feeling that the area would soon be crawling with investigators, maybe even worse…

The metal door closed behind him, and his mask instantly switched to low-light mode, showing him as the woman he had been following headed deeper into the building.

After a bit of silent maneuvering, they reached, by his estimation, the other side of the building. There, she looked around for a moment, moving her hand as if counting something before settling on a seemingly random spot on the bare and dirty ground.

Taking a step forward, she reached into the backpack that was still on her back and pulled out an acid-green squishy ball the size of a walnut, glowing unnaturally, before swiftly dropping it on the ground.

Instantly, acid exploded outward in a perfect circle as the squishy ball’s outer shell shattered upon impact, beginning to consume the concrete with a slight sizzling sound. It only took barely ten seconds, Sparky counted it, to create a hole large enough for an adult to pass through.

“¡Sígueme!” she called out, and without any preamble, she jumped down the hole, landing with a quiet thud.

Coming this far, Gabriel let out a sigh. “If this goes even more wrong, I’m totally blaming you, Sparky…”

[Authorities are starting to close down the area.]

[Encirclement complete in approx. 5 minutes.]

[Parental unit should flee.]

[Fight would not go in parental unit’s favor.]

Grumbling under his breath, he stepped closer to the hole and saw the small basement below. Taking a deep breath, he jumped and, after barely a second of falling, landed on his feet, knees bending and his head already on a swivel.

The woman stepped closer, pushed him aside, and flung her hand upward.

Gabriel’s hand snapped toward her hand, afraid it was an attack, only to see a small gray ball flying toward the hole. It hit the edge of the hole in the concrete and burst, causing the concrete to bloom into root-like structures that quickly sought each other out. Gabriel watched with quiet awe as the hole above him knitted itself shut with roots made out of concrete, filling every available space and cutting off the sparse light coming through the boarded and dusty windows above them.

Light flooded the dark basement as she pulled out a third squishy ball, this one radiating light, like one of those breakable tubes people use at raves.

“Follow me…” she muttered and began walking. “You owe me for having to burn an escape route…”

“Excuse me?” Gabriel exclaimed, outraged. “Who the hell decided to throw some mustard-gas-looking shit at random people?”

“It’s not mustard gas!” she shriek-whispered. “It’s just yellow…”

“Mhmm… sure, sure,” he replied, feeling a bit calmer with layers of concrete between him and the police. “Where are we going?”

“Sewers,” came the clipped reply.

“Cool. Cool. Exactly what I wanted to happen today…” he muttered.

“You think this was on my mood board?” she snarked.

Gabriel rolled his eyes but didn’t answer.

‘What’s with the universe blessing me with snarky women…’ he wondered.

Soon, they reached another door, opened it, and began to descend even further.

It took maybe ten more minutes to reach the sewers, using a few more of those acid and concrete-repairing combos.

When they dropped down the final hole, and the hole closed up behind them, the sound echoing above them finally cut off. From a small window on his HUD, he watched the feed from one of the drones left on the roof of a nearby building as Sparky showed him the police setting up barricades and people in hazmat suits walking the perimeter.

Several people clearly in costumes were either hovering with barely restrained eagerness or pacing up and down, ready to throw down with whoever released this ‘biological attack.’

He had a feeling a lot of people were going to be angry when they figured out it was harmless.

“How long does that cloud last?” he asked as he followed her.

Somewhere nearby, water was gurgling and splashing.

She froze.

Gabriel almost walked into her. “Hey!”

She whirled around, and thanks to the light emitted by the squishy ball she was squeezing, her mask-covered face was illuminated as she stared directly into his mask.

“It’s still there?” she asked, a bit of fear leaking into her voice.

Gabriel nodded. “Police have set up a cordon. There’re people in hazmat. All that and more…”

“Shit. Fuck! Chingada madre!” she cursed and began to mutter to herself. “I must have miscalculated the ratio, or maybe the material wasn’t properly…”

“How long is it going to last?”

“I don’t know… Maybe… Originally it was supposed to last thirty seconds.”

“It has already been at least fifteen minutes,” he unhelpfully pointed out.

“¡Mierda! Then… I think we have another fifteen minutes,” she said while scratching the side of her head.

Helpfully, Sparky put up a countdown on the edge of his HUD, under the small window showing the warehouse feed.

After that intermission, they resumed their journey.

The countdown almost reached its end when his temporary walking partner led him into a side room, where an old, rusty ladder was waiting for them, leading upward into the darkness. It was slightly covered in something moist he didn’t want to think about.

She walked into the room, let out a sigh, then leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.

“Is it still there?” she asked, her voice tinged with fear.

Gabriel held up a hand and slowly began to move his fingers down as he watched the feed. There were now small tents and even more people in hazmat suits. One super was projecting a giant bubble around the area. When his hand turned into a fist, he let out a sigh.

“It’s still there…”

“What?” By the sound of it, she was flabbergasted. “That’s only possible if… oh.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but swallow. “Something very bad?”

She shook her masked head. “No. Just stupid. The warehouse I’ve been using to store some chemicals, and it seems there were more of them on the ground, and the smoke reacted with them, creating a self-fueling process. It will last until the remains of the chemicals are consumed.”

“How long?”

She turned her head to the side and mumbled something.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear that.”

Her head whipped back. “I said THIRTY HOURS!”

She practically yelled the last two words.

“Huh, kinda cool,” Gabriel said, a bit impressed, then froze a little. “Nothing harmful, right?”

“No, just obscuring vision. Maybe an irritant if it gets into soft tissue, and respiratory issues if inhaled,” she explained rapidly. “And maybe some carcinogenic effects. Also, probably a chance to trigger epilepsy.”

“That’s it?”

She tapped her finger on her arm, arms still crossed. “Maybe a bit of skin discoloration and kidney failure.” She shrugged. “Never tested it on humans.”

Gabriel let out a long breath, glad it wasn’t anything “truly” dangerous. Granted, the authorities were going to have a field day with it, and once people figured out it was ‘Enchanter,’ a new hunt would begin. He couldn’t wait to see how Bombshell would react…

Shaking off the worries, he turned toward her.

“So… I think we should talk about this…” he told her with a hand motion indicating their clothing.

“I’m not apologizing,” she stated. “I needed a costume, and everyone thought you were made up by the police covering up some shit. Perfect for me.”

Gabriel desperately wanted to massage his temples. “Look. I’m not going to get into this, but the situation is much more convoluted than you can imagine. I recommend ditching the getup as fast as possible.”

“H-how convoluted?” she asked, fear returning to her voice.

Gabriel watched her for a moment before his attention was distracted by a small notification.

[‘Enchanter’ devices infiltrated.]

[Tracking and information extraction are possible.]

Happy with Sparky’s initiative, Gabriel decided to cut this conversation short. It was time to get out of the area.

“Very. A lot of people want to talk to me,” he told her.

“Shit.”

“So, how about you give me a number where we can communicate, and then we both go home and forget about this ever happening?” Gabriel offered.

She looked at him, seemingly considering the situation before hesitantly nodding.

Gabriel, watching her reach into a pocket, simply raised his hand and released a short burst of light, which flew past her head, silently impacted the wall, and carved out a small hole.

She turned her head at a glacial pace and inspected the hole. Then she turned back, and her eyes moved to another part of her backpack before pulling out a piece of paper.

Hastily scribbling a number, she then handed it over with shaking hands. “There. Happy?”

Gabriel looked down at the number, and Sparky, ever helpful, labeled it: Fake – Suicide Hotline in Irvine.

He looked back up and tried to project happiness and satisfaction. “Yes. I’ll call you in a few days.”

“Yes. Yes, you do that,” she told him before heading toward the ladder and beginning to climb upward, already muttering in Spanish under her breath.

It was mostly insults about his parentage. He could understand at least that much…

Gabriel stayed still as one of the drones moved into position, and he watched through the feed as she emerged into a very narrow alleyway, almost looking like somebody had tried to build two buildings as close to each other as physically possible while leaving the manhole cover free for access.

As he watched her emerge into the open, covered by several strategically placed dumpsters and containers, he spoke up. “You’re tracking her, right?”

[Correct.]

[Number added to call list.]

[Parental unit can find her under the name: Encantador.]

“Alright… we’re going to wait ten minutes, then let’s head home…” he muttered.

[Roger.]

For a few moments, he stood there before letting out a sigh and raising his hand. He started summoning the energy inside him, then absorbing it back, never letting it leave his body.

He felt that while he waited, he might as well train a little.

Returning home was a bit easier.

Everyone’s attention was on the “Yellow Cloud of San Bernardino,” as the news called it. People were speculating, and the police were saying nothing. They put out a noncommittal statement, telling people not to get close to or approach the area, but otherwise they were mum on what was happening.

Several supers were rotating around the clock, keeping different types of shields around it to prevent the wind from blowing it away while, according to the news conference, they waited for static shield projectors. Because apparently people in this world had energy shielding.

Good to know.

At least, it wasn’t only Gabriel who was astonished by that statement. A lot of people on the internet were excitedly discussing the shield and who could have created it.

Gabriel had to physically stop himself from putting on his armor and heading out to get a sample of the shield into one of his cards.

“I really have issues…” he muttered.

Sitting down on the couch just as always, with a hot pizza he had picked up on the way back, not really feeling up to cooking, he began munching while Sparky showed him the different feeds covering the Yellow Cloud.

Several were from official channels, while a few were from unofficial streams on the internet created by some very brave, or foolish, people who tried to get close and “uncover the government conspiracy hiding the existence of aliens” or something like that.

Most people believed that it was either supers fighting, a creation of a super going wrong, or some kind of power interaction.

“At least nobody thinks it was some kind of terrorism…” he said between bites.

He watched those feeds until he finished his meal. Then he had Sparky turn them off, brought out his laptop, and began planning for the next day. He would finally be picking up all the things he had asked Sparky to order.

Which would mean he would also be experimenting with them.

Gabriel, before he headed out, wanted to do a bit of internet surfing to see if he could find any more inspiration.

He began to hum as the mouse and keyboard blurred under his fingers, while Sparky occasionally chimed in and made some either inappropriate or useful suggestions.

It was always a toss-up with her…