Bad Beat - Chapter 57 - Experiment (Patreon)

The retrieval of all the things Sparky managed to gather for his experiments went off without a hitch. Nobody was interfering, and with an AI doing the doctoring of electronic records, there were no witnesses.

Everything was neatly packaged up, delivered to a warehouse, this time to the good part of the district where the proper warehouses were. The rent was paid by a legal paper corporation for the month, as a stopgap measure due to technical difficulties at the company’s location. It was so common that nobody even gave it a second glance. Delivery people unloaded the product and the temp workers organized the boxes, crates, and piles and piles of cheaply manufactured, worthless products.

Gabriel simply looked up a shop near the warehouses, this time a store that sold high-quality hoodies, and headed for it. And it wasn’t even a fake trip. He actually wanted one of those hoodies. According to the reviews, they were a bit pricey, but so worth the price.

Once again, a bit surprised by the ease with which he used the robust public transport built throughout Los Angeles Megacity, he emerged from the underpass and shielded his eyes as the morning sun hit them. The crowds of people, dressed in a bit more expensive attire and holding higher-quality devices in their hands than the people he was used to seeing in his neighborhood, ignored him just as the crowds back home did.

Comforting.

Following the directions on his GPS, punctuated with sassy comments from Sparky, he arrived at the shop. It was filled with all manner of hoodies, from plain-colored ones to ones showcasing superheroes or celebrities’ faces. There were themed ones designed to evoke the image of a certain superhero.

Gabriel quickly walked through the store and, with the help of a bored sales assistant, selected a black one, and, just for funsies, one themed after Bombshell. The young woman standing behind the counter gave him a look, but he just smiled and shrugged.

After that, he walked around with his purchase for a little while before, under Sparky’s direction, he ducked inside an alley when she assured him that no cameras were watching. There, his own Shadow Stalker hoodie unfolded over his upper torso, and his body vanished instantly as invisibility activated.

A bit of a jog, and he was entering the warehouse just as the invisibility fell from him. Thankfully, the warehouse was quite modern, so the only thing he needed was the code, which Sparky had.

Entering and closing the door behind him, he watched with a grin as his protective equipment refolded into the ring on his finger, the lights illuminating the warehouse that was filled to the brim with things that they had purchased, redirected, or even stolen. It wasn’t a big warehouse with sprawling shelves stretching farther than the eye could see, but there were at least two dozen international-regulation pallets filled to the brim, with a few loose boxes and crates here and there.

“Well, it’s nice to be in a warehouse with the lights on…” he declared as the drones hovered behind his shoulders. He rubbed his hands together, eyes gleaming with greed as he beheld the veritable mountain of cheap products.

“As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure…” he smiled as he walked over to one of the shelves and began slowly and methodically putting everything into the cards he pulled out of his pocket. For now, he didn’t check the contents, as there would be time for that back in his apartment.

Half an hour later, the entire warehouse was empty, and Gabriel was looking down at his phone.

“Everything good on your end, Agent Sass?”

[First of all, this unit is offended.]

[Second, yes.]

[Logs wiped clean, with the cover replacing them.]

[They will think that somebody came and picked up the merchandise.]

[All legal and boring.]

[Boo.]

“Excellent work,” he commended the sassy little AI. “Let’s go home…”

Gabriel pocketed the device; the protective clothing unfolded on his body, once again hiding it from anybody watching, and he turned around, his form already turning invisible.

Returning was just as easy.

He ducked out of the alley after a signal from Sparky and rejoined the throng of people before heading for the subway and getting on the first one that headed in his apartment’s direction. There, he walked into the building, the bag holding the hoodies in his hand swinging visibly, making sure everyone observing him saw them.

In his apartment, he was about to make some snacks when his phone began to ring.

Closing his eyes, Gabriel let out a sigh before pulling up the device. He snorted when he saw it was Bombshell calling. It was even a video call.

Cursing slightly, he eyed one of the drones watching him. “Sparky, be ready for intrusions. And if there isn’t one, try to see if you can get something from the call. But be careful, okay?” he asked tenderly. He still remembered the sight of the little AI almost crumbling.

Taking a deep breath and forcing a smile onto his face, he accepted the insistently ringing phone.

On the screen, Bombshell appeared in her superhero costume, standing on what appeared to be some roof. Behind her, he could vaguely make out Los Angeles by recognizing a few landmark buildings. The wind whipped by, yet he could hear her voice clearly.

“Wipe that idiotic smile off your face, puppy,” was the first thing she said.

He did so.

She continued. “I’m calling because you live in that trash heap…”

Gabriel sighed. “I assume you’re talking about the Yellow Cloud, right?”

She smiled, her eyes glinting. “Good job, puppy,” she cooed. It didn’t sound nice. “What can you tell me about it?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Not much. The prevailing theory on the street is that it was either some moron super fucking up an experiment, or some moron new super fucking up an experiment. Those warehouses were known to be used by supers to either experiment with their powers or, for those who need them, use the buildings as temporary workshops.”

Bombshell clicked her tongue. “So nothing useful?”

“Unless you want me to stop looking into Enchanter…” he floated the idea, but Bombshell just frowned.

Then she shook her head. “Nah, an idiot like you is better with simple tasks.” She smirked, looking directly into Gabriel’s eyes. “Just continue looking into Enchanter for now. Remember, end of the week.”

The call went dead, and Gabriel let his hand holding the phone drop while breathing out.

“Well, that went better than I expected…” he muttered, about to put away his phone and get back to his experimentation when it buzzed.

Opening it, he saw it was a notification from Bombshell. It was a picture of her sitting on the ledge of the building, holding a pose that accentuated all her assets and with one hand raised, two fingers pointing at the camera. Under it, a simple sentence: I’m watching you.

Just to be an asshole, he sent back a message. “There is spinach in your teeth.”

He grinned and waited a few moments.

BestShellRack: You motherfucker! You made me look!

BestShellRack: I didn’t even have spinach for lunch!

Gabriel’s grin widened as he put the phone away while it kept buzzing, Bombshell no doubt bombarding him with messages. But for now, he had other things to do.

Once again, the experimentation would need to be put on hold for a moment.

He sat down on his couch, and instantly three screens, projected from three drones, appeared in front of him, one of them containing the window for communication with Sparky.

“Sparky, did you manage to follow Enchanter?”

[Yes, parental unit.]

[She didn’t even suspect.]

[Would parental unit like a current location?]

“Nah, for now just keep an eye on her movements and actions,” he said before leaning back and getting a bit comfortable. “Please, call her. Sound only.” He made sure to say it out loud, because he suspected Sparky would have loved to prank him by initiating a video call.

RING RING RING

“Yes? Who is this?” came the slightly accented and stressed voice. “How did you get this number?”

Gabriel smiled. “Why… you gave it to me…”

There was a pregnant silence on the other side before she broke into rapid Spanish and cursing. Finally, after almost half a minute of it, she spoke again, breathing heavily.

“I most assuredly did not give you my number,” she declared. Gabriel could almost imagine hearing the teeth grinding.

“Well, you did. And I’m calling you…” he said casually. “Don’t worry. This is just a friendly warning.”

“Warning? Am I supposed to believe you, you… you gringo?” she replied. It was clear she wanted to use a different world, but for now the unknown held her tongue back.

“I don’t care if you believe me. I’m just doing what my moral compass tells me to do,” Gabriel told her with a smile.

He listened as she took several fortifying breaths before speaking again. “Fine,” she practically spat. “What warning?”

“Helix is hunting you. Not Enchanter. The person who created the Yellow Cloud.”

“And I suppose I’m not supposed to think that you work for Helix? Probably keeping me on the phone so your buddies could ambush me!”

“Please…” he waved his hand in the air, even though she couldn’t see it. “If I worked for them, I wouldn’t have bothered to call. After all, I found your number…”

At the mention of that, he could hear the frantic motion on the other side stop.

“Why… why are you doing this?” she asked in a low voice.

Gabriel shrugged. “Call it me being greedy. I like it when people owe me one.”

Naturally, he didn’t really care about people owing him. He didn’t particularly trust her, so any favor repaid would be suspect at best. No, for now he just wanted to make sure that if he needed somebody to play the role of Enchanter, he had someone in his pocket.

She cursed again before blowing out air. “Fine,” she ground out. “Anything else?”

“They’re searching for you in San Bernardino first, according to what I have heard, so you should stay there. Smart people would flee, and they’re looking for smart people,” he told her. He hoped she would believe him.

“Ugh…” she grunted before he heard heavy movement. Like a bag being dropped to the ground. “Fine. I’m staying put. Give me a call when they stop hunting me, and then you can say I owe you one.”

Gabriel thought about arguing, but in the end, he had achieved his goal, so he didn’t much care. “Good enough. Have a nice day!” He motioned for Sparky to cut the call and let out a relieved breath.

“Keep a close eye on her, Sparky.”

[Understood.]

[Very bad at cybersecurity.]

[Would parental unit like to see identity?]

[Ohhh…]

[Would parental unit like to see nudes?]

“Sparky,” he spoke slowly. “We are, technically, the good guys. We don’t do that.”

[Truly?]

“I’m afraid so.”

[Huh.]

[Nudes put away for future blackmail.]

[Anything else?]

“Just do a general check and tell me if you found anything from that call with Bombshell…” he told her, massaging his forehead.

[Reporting that encryption on Bombshell’s phone is high-grade.]

[Infiltration without raising alarms will take more calls.]

[No current estimates for actual numbers.]

“Well, that’s better than nothing…” Gabriel muttered. “Did she or anybody else on her side try the same thing?”

One of the drones shook itself, as if Sparky was shaking her head.

[Negative.]

[No counter intrusion was detected.]

Gabriel nodded, but frowned. This entire situation with Bombshell was weird as hell.

After getting over the calls, he finally could make his snack and prepare for some good, calm, and rewarding experimentation. At least he hoped so.

Gabriel once again began by rolling up the carpet and pushing every piece of furniture he could to the wall, making enough space in the middle to summon one of the pallets completely filled with products.

He even mentally labeled one of the corners the box corner.

He wanted to collect all the boxes and see if he could make some super awesome and powerful box. Maybe add a storage function to his ring…

Fanning out the cards holding the acquired merchandise, he moved his fingers thoughtfully through them until he stopped at one.

“Let’s start with this one…” he mumbled.

Pulling out the card, he held it forward and, with a well-practiced mental push, gently summoned the pallet to the middle of the room. He walked toward it, pulled out his nifty Multi-Tool, and cut the top box open.

Inside were books upon books, their spines all facing upward, each of the titles having to do with yoga and exercise.

“Nice!”

He rubbed his hands together and began pulling them out one by one, placing them into piles as the new book smell began to fill the room, making sure to damage the boxes as little as possible.

Sparky spent a minute following his actions with her drones before she settled down and turned on the TV to watch some kind of reality show.

A/N: Did he just do the same to "Enchanter" that Bombshell did to him? Why... yes. Irony is delicious....