Speed 2
Strength
Perception
Defense
Magic
Mental
Technology
Energy
Elemental
Damnit, I’m supposed to be asleep, why is this thing popping up again?
A mountain rumbled at me, “Congratulations champion, you have made your first strides toward power. The wealth you have acquired will help you establish your base of power and influence. Your current abode leaves much to be desired but if you don’t screw up too badly you should be able to get yourself a decent base of operations. Now since you have taken your first step toward power I have decided to reward you with two upgrades. Make your choices.”
I sighed but decided power up was more important than sleep anyway. I asked, “Hey super powerful being… I don’t like that… What should I call you?”
The deep voice responded with a laugh, “You couldn’t comprehend my name, and I mean that literally so how about you just call me Arbitrium. It means choice which is about as close to one of the core concepts of my name as you’ll get.”
I nodded, “Alright Arbitrium, I need to get myself an ID and I can’t really do that through any legal means without putting up a lot of red flags so if I chose to advance down the mental path, would I be able to take control of someone or at least influence them enough to get them to forge some papers for me?”
Arbitrium responded, “Hmmm, that depends, at the first level you’d have enough juice to take over a weak mind, like Sid at the front desk, the amount of drugs he’s taken have lowered his mental defenses. Someone like the leader of the crooks you robbed would likely be able to completely shut you out. His two lackeys would be weak enough that even if you weren't able to outright take control you’d be able to heavily influence them.”
Okay, I could work with that, next question, “If I chose speed 2 would I be able to pick between slowing time and speeding up my body again, and would the ratio be the same again?”
The deep voice responded, “Yes and yes, now it’s time to get you back to your regularly scheduled dream, so make your choices.”
I took a breath and decided, “Alright give me speed 2 with a boost to my body instead of my ability to slow down time and give me Mental 1.”
Pain lanced throughout my body, my muscles felt as if they were on fire, not metaphorically like after a hard workout I mean it felt like my muscles had been doused in gasoline and someone had set me on fire. It was almost a relief when the hammer blow to my head came and the pain knocked me unconscious again.
When I regained consciousness again I found myself back in motel room, which didn’t really surprise me, frankly my body might not have even left. I had a dull ache running throughout my body and a minor headache, but it looked like I had slept long enough to deal with the worst my I guess you’d call them growing pains. I looked around the room and eventually spotted a clock on the wall, once again an analog model. 2:28, looks like I’d slept for a solid seven hours or so. I felt refreshed despite the aches and pains.
I hopped out of bed and took a shower, then got dressed in my pants that had finally dried and the tee shirt that didn’t quite fit. Freshly clean and dressed it was time to address some issues I hadn’t been able to get to yet, clothes and food. My stomach rumbled, but I ignored it, clothes first, I needed to get rid of everything I’d taken from the hapless trio of thieves. I snagged the key to the room and filled one of the wallets with five hundred in $20s and $10s. Then I left, making sure to lock up after myself.
I stopped by the office and found someone other than Sid at the post. This person looked a little more respectable, lacking Sid’s particular blend of charming features. First off the clerk was a woman, somewhere in her late 30’s she had brown hair and a heavy coating of makeup which she apparently applied to cover up the heavy bags under her eyes. She was thin, but not in a healthy way, more in a strung out way. She smiled up at me and it looked almost genuine except it never quite reached her eyes.
I checked the name tag as Janet greeted me, “Hello sir, how may I help you today?”
I answered, “Well I was looking for clothing store and a laundromat. Apparently I spilled something on my bags and it soaked through to my clothes, so all I have to wear is this little mismatched outfit.”
Janet gave me a once over with her eyes and said, “There’s a woolworths about four blocks away, just head down 2nd for two blocks then take a right, you should be able to find it from there.”
I nodded, “Okay, thanks Janet.”
Then I headed out of the office. After I left the office I stopped for a second and did my best to activate my new mental power. It took me a second to find it, but the practice I got activating my time slowing abilities made it a lot easier.
Upon activation I was able to sense everyone around me, I was also able to sense a new rising headache so casted my power toward the office and felt Janet’s presence, it was weak but there. As I closed in on it I began to hear her voice, “Well that fella sure was big, I’ll have to let Tyrone know to be careful when he breaks in later, don’t want him to piss the big guy off. If Tyrone catches a beating I know that shit’ll roll down hill and I’ll end up with a black eye or two. Can’t turn no tricks with a black eye, at least not the kind that won’t want to add another one. Fuck I hope that don’t happen.”
I was surprised at first by her thoughts, but then I’d already suspected some of this. I pushed in closer and the whispered, “I better tell Tyrone about this now, never know when he’ll be back.”
I felt the suggestion slip smoothly into her train of thought, then I let her feel some of my anxiety, which I was hoping would increase her own, adding to her sense of urgency. I heard her pick up the phone and I made my way back to my room. Looks like shopping and food would have to wait on Tyrone.
I closed and locked the door, put my bags in the closet then stepped into the bathroom and waited. It didn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes or so before I heard a ket in the lock and the door swing ajar. From my position I couldn’t see anything, but upon activating my powers again, I felt the approach of two people, looks like Tyrone brought Janet in with him. I focused in on Janet and sent her some of my fear, I could tell it worked when she spoke up, “Tyrone, hurry up I don’t know when he’s gettin back, but he looked awful big and strong.”
I shifted my focus to Tyrone as he responded, “Shut up bitch, if he shows up before this is done I’ll stab the mothafucka won’t be the first time a nigga’s died here, sure as hell won’t be the last.”
I heard someone opening drawers and moving around the small room and II sent Tyrone some of my anger, he continued to speak, “Now you sure he has somthin good? If you been wastin my time I’ll make ya regret it…”
The threat hung uncomfortably in the air for a few seconds before janet meekly responded, “I’m sure, I’m sure, Sid said he came in with three big bags full of stuff and had enough money to pay for a couple days, he should have somethin worthwhile.”
I heard the closet door open and that’s when I made my move. I slowed down time to the max which allowed me to arrive beside Tyrone who was opening the closet before Janet had a chance to yell a warning. Of course my arrival wasn’t exactly silent so Tyrone was already starting to react to my presence by the time I got there. I took half a second to check Tyrone out, he was a tall light skinned black male probably around 6 feet, just a few inches shy of my own height, he was muscular without being totally in shape, the outline of a beer belly pressed against his shirt, which was pink of all colors. He had a bulge in his pocket which I’m assuming was the knife he spoke of but no weapon in hand.
Tyrone was turning to face me while I took the second to observe him. He started to open his mouth, probably to threaten me, maybe to swear at Janet, either way I didn’t care about what he had to say so I kindly shut his mouth with my fist moving at close to twice the speed it used to be able to go. This was backed by a lot of my weight, but not all of it, I didn’t want to kill Tyrone after all. The blow connected with his chin and as his head snapped back and his teeth clicked shut I saw his eyes roll back and watched him crumple to the ground.
Janet then decided to do something stupid, she charged at me, she probably didn’t expect Tyrone to go down so fast, which allowed her to cover most of the distance to me before she realized her mistake and skidded to a halt. I glared at her returned to normal speed and said, “Janet, Janet, Janet, what am I going to do with you? I asked you where I could buy some clothes and you came to rob me…”
Janet started backing away from me and my voice lashed out, “Stop right where you are.”
She stopped, apparently she’d learned not to disobey an angry deep voice. I kind of felt like a piece of shit for scaring her, but she was trying to rob me so…
I infused my voice with anger and activated my powers again, pressing fear and obedience upon the already terrified woman, “Sit down now!”
She sat on the floor and I continued in a slightly calmer voice, “Now tell me about yourself Janet, give me a reason not to kill you.”
Janet started shaking the fear she was feeling came off in waves, she tried to speak but her throat had seized up. I pressed obedience upon her while I rolled Tyrone over, he was still unconscious so I took his knife, wallet and keys. The stimulation began to wake Tyrone and I transitioned powers from mental back to speed. Janet finally squeaked out, “Oh my god, please don’t kill me, I have a kid, I’m a mom, please I don’t want to die.” She started sobbing by the end of her pleading. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and I began to feel even more guilty. I quashed the guilt and looked down at Tyrone who was just now stirring.
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He opened his eyes and I loomed over him, “Morning sunshine.” I smirked, then I took a step back and kicked him in the side. He managed to tense his stomach up as my foot connected, but it forced him to roll over to try and protect the injury. “Now Tyrone it’s really not a great idea to lay down while your new boss is standing.”
He looked a little confused at that then his face scrunched up in a rictus of anger as he tried to respond. I took the opportunity to head off anything stupid he might have to say by kicking him in the stomach. I sped myself up a bit to get past his defenses. This had the added bonus of imparting a little extra momentum to the kick making it hit all the harder. The air rushed out of his lungs in a grunt and he was gasping for a while.
Janet decided that it was a good time to get the hell out of the room, but I couldn’t let her leave just yet so my voice cracked out like a whip, “I didn’t say you could leave yet Janet. Stay where you are!”
Janet collapsed back onto her butt, tears continued to stream down her face, and I refocused my attention back onto Tyrone. He had started to get his breath back and I took the opportunity to lay out his options. “So Tyrone, I find myself with quite the dilemma here, you see you tried to steal from me and I really don’t like thieves, I also don’t really like the cops so I’m not sure what to do with you. You see I could kill you and Janet, dispose of your bodies and then leave. This however would be an inconvenience, plus Janet has a kid and I don’t particularly want to make him an orphan. Now I could also just kill you and intimidate Janet into silence, which would work for a while but I’d still be at risk for going down for a murder rap. I could call the cops of course, have you both arrested for burglary but that isn’t really satisfying, or I could make you both my subordinates.”
Tyrone had stopped gasping at this point and was trying to regather his strength, I switched over to my mental powers again and focused in on Tyrone. The anger was radiating off of him creating almost visible waves. Of course just underneath that anger was fear, he didn’t really doubt that if I wanted him dead he would be dead. I crouched down projecting more fear into his mind and said, “Think carefully about what I am about to say Tyrone, because the next words out of your mouth will likely determine the course of the rest of your life however long or short that may be. Of the options I laid out before you what is your choice? Keep in mind any sort of resistance or disrespect will result in option 1. I’ll give you a minute to decide.”
I got up from my crouch and continued to project fear onto Tyrone, I also increased the worry he felt for Janet however small that was originally. I felt a bond between them snap into place as other emotions seemed to glomp onto the worry I was fostering, lust, concern, sadness, shame, possessiveness, and a desire to protect all sprung up alongside the worry. I may have just made Tyrone fall in love with Janet which was kind of weird, but hey call me cupid and also don’t get in my way.
I felt resignation from Tyrone as he looked up at what I hoped was an implacable expression on my face. He asked, “What would it mean to be your subordinate?”
I smiled down at my unfortunate new subordinate. I responded, “Not much at the start, I’d have you and janet running errands for me at first. You will also have to pay me a tithe of your income from any illicit activities you take part in. You will also lay out your current assets and the local gang situation for me. You see Tyrone I plan on taking over this city and depending on how you perform you will either rise or fall with me.”
I felt greed, anger and a trace of fear flash through Tyrone, he responded, “What’s a tithe? And what makes you think you can take over the city?”
I chuckled a bit before responding, “Well Tyrone a tithe is what churchgoers donate to the church, it’s 10% of their income, which is fitting as you just came to church, and guess what I’m God. As for taking over the city you just let me worry about that I don’t need muscle just a little information from you. Now speak, what do you own that’s of any consequences, and don’t try to lie or we go back to option number 1”
I felt a flash of fear at that and reinforced the feeling. I looked back at Janet to make sure she hadn’t moved and I saw tears still streaming down her face, though a lot of the fear had left her mind and relief was flooding through her as it seemed like she would survive this encounter. Tyrone answered and I focused back on him, “I’ve got a caddy, seven hoes, a gun and an apartment. I also sling some weed and some coke, but most of my money comes from my hoes.”
Apparently Tyrone was afraid enough to be honest as I never even felt a flicker of doubt as he listed off his assets. I nodded, “Alright Tyrone starting from today on 10% of what you earn goes to me. Now what about your expenses, who do you pay protection money to?”
Tyrone answered quickly, “I don’t pay protection money, to anyone, but I do have to pay rent, the owner of the motel gets about 5 bucks a trick and I gotta pay the diablos $100 buck to use the corner of 2nd and 108th.” As for protection I take care of that myself.”
I nodded okay, so I found my first two targets, the diablos would be my muscle and this motel would be my new base of operations. I commanded, “Alright Tyrone, tell me about the owner of this place.”
Tyrone nodded again, “His name’s Clint, he’s a mean bastard, but he pays the diablos on the regular so they keep most of the addicts away from the place. He’s got five employees, Janet and Sid you’ve met, there’s also Lupita, the maid, there’s Hank, he does maintenance and also mans the front desk from time to time, and then there’s me, I get called in when someone doesn’t pay their bill or won’t leave their room.”
I took a second to put together a picture of Clint, he likely paid his taxes and while I doubted he’d get a great response time out of them the police were always an option for Clint to call upon. He’d also have the diablos to call upon, once again I doubted he was high enough up in the hierarchy to get much of a response out of them, but if he claimed someone was trying to muscle in on their territory I’m sure they’d send some people as a show of force. Hmmm, this would bear thinking about, for now though I had more immediate concerns to deal with.
I addressed Tyrone, “Okay for now I have some things to take care of, you are going to give me a ride and act as tour guide. It will give us a chance to get to know each other and for you to tell me about the diablos.” I shifted my focus to Janet, “Janet you get to go back to work at the front desk, don’t try to rob me again, and also your days as a hooker are over, from now on you are going to be my assistant. You’ll be doing things like shopping for me, getting me food, that sort of thing. If you happen to be using drugs, I’d recommend stopping immediately as you will need to be sharp enough to not fuck things up. Now go.” Shifting my focus back to Tyrone, “Now get up, show me to your car and lets hit the road, I need some new clothes.”
Tyrone got up from the floor doing his best to stay as far away from me as possible while he was in a vulnerable position. I felt the fear radiating off of him along, I also felt him do his best to control the fear, I felt courage, apprehension and anger all contending with the fear. It was weird to feel someone else’s emotions but I was slowly getting used to it. As for the headache brought on by alternating between my two powers, well it was unpleasant, but manageable. I saw Janet leave the room as I headed toward the door. I exposed my back to Tyrone and I felt a surge of anger followed by an even stronger surge of fear. Good, he obviously thought about taking a run at me, but the recent beating he received was still fresh enough in his mind to make him stop himself. I’d need to do a few more really scary things in front of Tyrone before I truly cemented either his allegiance or his fear. For my purposes either would work.
We left my room and I locked up behind us, then we headed toward I shit you not a straight up pimpmobile. He was driving around in a baby blue Cadillac Eldorado from the 1960’s. The only trippy thing about it was that it looked brand new. Now I normally wouldn’t care too much about a person’s ride, but I kind of had a thing for muscle cars which gave me some familiarity with cars from the same era. The car in front of me looked only a few years old, which shouldn’t be possible. Tyrone didn’t have the money to refurbish a car like that not if he only had 7 girls working for him. Also who would restore a car like that only to drive it around as their day to day car, it didn’t make a ton of sense.
I added it to the list of weird things I’d noticed and promised myself I’d take a couple of days to explore and figure out what was different between my earth and this one. We got in the car and started driving. I didn’t pay too much attention to where we were going, instead I focused on Tyrone and further exploring this new power of mine. The more I focused on him, the more I could sense, the more nuance I felt from his emotion. I did my best to press in closer and get to his actual thoughts after all I managed to breach Janet’s thoughts without too much difficulty.
Unfortunately Tyrone seemed to have a stronger sense of self or something as I was rebuffed before I could sense any of his actual thoughts. I’d have to practice more later, the attempt I’d just made sent a sharp spike of pain through my temples and I didn’t really want to experience more of that right now. So as we drove I focused on Tyrone’s emotions and commanded, “Tell me about the diablos. How many members do they have, what’s their main sources of income, how high profile are they?”
Tyrone responded, “Well shit, let me think for a sec… okay okay, so they’re this mexican gang, moved into the area maybe ten fifteen years ago, something like that. They supply most of the hard drugs in this part of town, I think they’re hooked up with the latin kings, you know that crazy ass gang out of Chicago. Not too sure bout that though. Anyway there’s like 20 of them mothafuckas that are ready to throw down with anyone, they also have like 50 dealers they supply throughout Charlotte. They also got a couple of pimps working their territory, maybe 40 of 50 hoes workin for em. They collect rent from any of us freelancers and I know they charge a few of the smaller local businesses a “community service fee” every week. They run most of the area around here, they ran out most of the smaller local gangs. They’re mostly at peace with the other gangs, a few scuffles every now and then but no one really wants to mess with them…”
I nodded, “So I’m guessing while there maybe some competition between the gangs they have mostly sorted things out so that they don’t interfere with each other's businesses.” Tyrone nodded so I continued, “Since there isn’t a lot of violence I’m guessing the police don’t do very much to break up the gangs, besides the normal drug busts and stings.” Another nod and I started planning how I would upset the current balance of power.
While I was busy plotting my rise to power, we arrived in front of the Woolworths Janet told me about. Two hundred and forty seven dollars and one bored Tyrone later I had a decent selection of clothing and it was time to fill the empty pit that was my stomach after over twenty hours of being empty. We stopped at Mabel’s and I think I ate somewhere around 3500 calories. The burgers and pancakes were delicious though so no complaints. Tyrone claimed to not be hungry, I could tell he was but then eating with the guy that just put you on your ass might prove to be a bit difficult.
We returned to the motel and I told Tyrone to report back tomorrow at 10:00 am as we had some things to discuss. He just nodded and left. I think he could tell I wanted to be left alone. After he left the apartment I double checked the room to make sure that no one had been in while I was away. The bags were still filled with money and still in the positions I’d left them so I sat on the bed and turned on the TV. I flipped through the channels and marveled at the low production values of all the shows. Of course that was to be expected of a world that was going through it’s 1960’s.
Yeah I know right I was in the 60’s weird right but apparently this world started later than ours or something, maybe Jesus showed up later I’m not a scientist and there’s no way I was going to be able to figure out the how or why without asking a certain deity about the strange situation I found myself in and our meetings weren’t exactly something I could arrange whenever I wanted. So for now a Mystery is how I’d think of the situation. Pushing past that I needed to review my actions over the last day or so. They didn’t make sense, at least not really.
I was a student at a community college, working in a call center selling diazapran, a medication designed to help people lose weight. I went from basically dying due to gunshot wounds to taking out bank robbers, making off with the loot and then beating up a pimp all in order to build a criminal empire. When The Hell did I decide to build a criminal empire? Seriously I don’t remember consciously making that decision. I mean sure it was one way to gain power which would help me level up, but seriously what the hell made me think I could do it?
I kept running those questions through my head, when did I decide to become a criminal? When did I start planning to take over gangs? Clearly something happened to me after I came to this world, because I didn’t used to act like this, even in video games I was always the good guy. Sure desperation can drive a man to do a lot he wouldn’t normally do, but I don’t think that’s what this was. I could have dealt with Tyrone in a lot of ways, but instead of doing the sane thing I decided to recruit the guy into what? My gang? I’m honestly starting to think that the deity messed with my head, because I sure as hell wasn’t acting like myself.
Then again I know Arbitrium messed with my head, after all I’d been having headaches almost constantly since I’d come to this world. Even now while I’m questioning why I’ve done so many violent things over the last day I’m still thinking about how to destabilize the gangs around here to weaken them enough so that a strong figure has a shot at taking over. This desire to control things, to rule, it was not mine, it was implanted. I’m not exactly a fan of someone implanting foreign impulses in my head, at the same time I am a fan of superpowers and it was beginning to look like one came with the other.
Okay, so after my sanity check I’ve learned two things, number one I have some impulses that were likely implanted by Arbirium in order to encourage me to gain power, likely he wanted me ready for the fight with other champions. Two I was not okay with what these impulses wanted me to do. Sure rich crime lord sounds kind of nice due to the whole rich thing, but that’s not the life I want, so I need to figure out how to channel those impulses into something I can live with.
I laid back in bed trying to come up with a route to power that didn’t involve an evil empire. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep at some point in my musings because the next thing I knew I saw something that I’d been both dreading and looking forward to.
Speed 3
Strength
Perception
Defense
Magic
Mental 2
Technology
Energy
Elemental
I heard a deep rumbling laughter in the background then that rumble turned into words, “So you figured it out did you? You are correct I added a little something to your subconscious, I’m not controlling or anything nearly as sinister as that instead I just highlighted a few parts of your personality that atrophied in your old world. You are still the same person I just felt like your old world beat down some impulses that would serve you well in this new world so I reinvigorated those impulses. You can control them of course and if you really want you can kill them, it will just take a little time and some self control. Consider it a chance to truly decide who you want to be. Now I’m pleased with your acquisition of some henchmen and your understanding of your own mind. So you may choose two more upgrades, of course you really shouldn’t expect many more freebies like this. Your going to actually have to do something impressive next if you want another upgrade, like I don’t know, taking over those diablos, or taking control of the inn. Or maybe something even better, surprise me and I’ll make it worth your while. Now make a choice.”
I glared at the deity that decided not to show himself then I sighed. “Okay give me one more level in Speed the time slowing variety and another level in Mental, I’d like you to focus it on helping me overcome the minds of others.”
The deep rumbling responded, “looks like you haven’t quite decided on what you want to do, on who you wish to become. That’s okay though, I look forward to see who you become.”
Fucking deities and their cryptic bullshit. Then Pain double tapped my brain and I fell unconscious again.