After a very careful and totally calm sprint through the very eerie and totally safe corridor, Calvin finally arrived at the end. Under the dim lights, he made out a vague outline of the inside of a fridge door. There were bottles of alcohol that glinted off a little light on the bottom shelf, some equally shiny eggs on the top, and some those little packets of ketchup you get from fast-food takeout in the middle.
"Hooh," he caught his breath, tired from his relatively short sprint, "couldn't have afforded more than a dying light bulb from the nineteenth century? Goddamn."
Wanting to get out of the darkness as soon as possible, he pushed open the fridge with more force than necessary, rattling the bottles. He cringed, remembering he was supposed to be sneaky. A little too late for regret, he opened the door fully and saw what was on the other side.
Or, rather, who was on the other side.
On the floor was a groaning man, sitting on a chair that's fallen over forwards with him, slowly trying to crane his neck upwards and face him. And by slowly, he meant slowly, like he was trying to emulate a very lethargic slug.
"You- you okay there, man?" He asked, a bit worried the man was having a stroke. Or experiencing an overdose.
The man didn't respond, only continuing to groan. Calvin exited the fridge and moved closer, wanting to at least get him upright so he didn't choke on his own spit. He noticed something that made him pause, the man was cuffed to the chair.
"Those three cosplayers went through here and left him like this. Are they actually villains? And was that a morally good lab?" He thought out loud, scratching his chin to deliberate. "Wait, no, they were experimenting on kids. At least that's what it looked like."
He looked at the man on the ground and remembered the three from the elevator. "Fuck that vomit boy. Let's get you up and out of here."
He walked around to the back, grabbing the back of the chair and the man's shoulder when a wave of dizziness suddenly struck him and made him fall on top of the man.
"-elp me- ow! What the hell- get off me!" The man suddenly started shouting. "Hey!"
"Woah- wait. My head, please stop shouting." Calvin rolled to the side, beside the man with his forehead to the ground. He started massaging his temples from the hangover-like pain.
"Who are you?! Where are the other three?!" The man asked loudly. "Ow!"
Calvin smacked the man's head. "I said quiet. My head hurts. Whisper or something."
"What's wrong with you?" He said, earning another glare from Calvin for his volume, "look, are you with the three from earlier?"
"No," He whispered back, the headache thankfully getting better much quicker than he thought, "I'm here to get you out, I guess."
"What? Why?"
"I met those three. The clock made me vomit."
"And?"
"Fuck 'em." He answered, getting up. "That's why."
"Ha," the man chuckled, "I get it. Now help me up. My forehead's about to dent."
"Yeah yeah."
Calvin stood up and pulled the chair upright, letting out a hum of surprise at the ease by which he did it. Putting that at the back of his mind, he walked around to look at the man much more properly this time.
White, blonde, brown eyes, and a long stubble. The man is the epitome of 'all middle sliders' in a video game. He looked like 'default character 1', the template you always changed to make it look more interesting.
"Sup?" He wiped away all those rude thoughts about the mediocrity of the man's face and greeted him.
"You-" the man's eyes widening as he looked at Calvin, his face paling slightly, "how are you here?"
"You know me?" Calvin was surprised for a moment before he remembered the body he was in wasn't originally his.
The man's lips flattened, shaking his head in denial, "no, your shirt. I know that shirt."
"Really?" He doubted, looking at the shirt he was wearing. It was super gear, but he only knew it because of the system. "It's a plain white shirt."
"That it is." He chuckled winking. "Now come on, get this handcuff off of me."
"You have the key?" He asked.
"No, but these things are civilian-made. You can break them." He smirked.
"I don't think I can?"
"That shirt makes it so you can. Just try it, use that wrench you're lugging around."
Calvin narrowed his eyes at the suspicious man. "How do you know about the shirt?"
The man let out a tired sigh, "that's tinker tech. I can smell tinker tech. And I know the guy who made it."
"Oh." From his words Calvin concluded that hero gear must be what tinker tech is. "Is that your super power? You can smell this?"
"What? No? Figure of speech. Just get me out of here kid, before those three come back knocking."
Calvin remembered the urgency of their escape and nodded, going around the man. He looked at the normal-looking handcuff, then at his wrench. He wondered briefly if it was actually made of gold, and would break immediately once he smashed it. Shrugging, he raised it high and brought it down, smashing the handcuff in two.
Along with the entire back of the chair.
"Holy fuck!" The man cursed as he stumbled backwards, landing into the debris that was the chair.
"Sorry." He apologized halfheartedly, a bit distracted by the strength he had. He looked at this hand, clenching it repeatedly as he glanced at the chair in disbelief.
"Ah, fuck it, it did the job." The man stood up, taking off the destroyed cuffs and dusting himself off. "Look, we gotta go, but I need to get some stuff first. Wait for me here."
"Sure?" He shrugged, fully intending to raid the man's kitchen while he was gone.
"Ah," the man turned around just as he went out of the kitchen, "name's Sam, by the way."
"Calvin."
Around ten minutes later, the man returned with a duffel bag clinking with metal. Calvin eyed the bag, imagining it being filled with nothing but gold coins, based on the sound it was making as he walked.
"Wow- how did you even cook that in ten minutes?" Sam asked, looking at the remains of an omelette in front of Calvin.
"With love and care." He answered, wiping his lips. "You sure you want to carry all of that? That'll make a lot of noise."
"Don't worry, I'm very quiet." Sam nodded, trying to reassure him, only to receive a doubting look from the kid. "Look, I'd put it in my pocket if I could. But some tinker tech just can't be put in one."
"Oh, so it isn't gold coins." Calvin muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing." Calvin grabbed the sack of nuts and the wrench, ready to go.
"Why are you carrying that?" Sam asked.
"Food," he said while lifting the sack. He lifted the wrench next, "weapon."
"Yeah, but you don't have a- oh yeah, Of course you don't." Sam face-palmed as if he missed the obvious. "Wait a minute."
He dropped the duffel bag and opened the zipper, rummaging through the items inside. His arm went deeper and deeper into the bag, and at some point his entire torso was inside the bag. Calvin was amazed at the magic bag, but was a bit too tired to be as amazed as he should be. He chuckled at the silly scene.
After a moment, Sam resurfaced with a chain necklace that looked worse for wear.
"Wear that." He tossed it over to Calvin. "Underneath your shirt."
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Calvin caught the chain, immediately getting a popup before he could look at it closely.
Super Equip
Super Gear: Rusty Chain Pocket detected. Equip? Yes No
"Huh," he looked at the chain. He almost instinctively said yes to the panel, before realizing it would be prudent not to show the equipping to other people and possibly alert them to the super system. 'I wonder if it'll equip if I wear it normally.'
He put the chain on, stuffing it underneath his shirt. The prompt disappeared right after. Calvin hoped that meant that he had equipped it.
"What is it?" He asked.
Super Help
Rusty Chain Pocket An accessory designed to contain a pocket dimension that can be accessed by wearing it. Contains a 30cm-cubed pocket dimension. It takes at least a second to take items in and out.
"It's a pocket. You put stuff in and take stuff out. That one's around the size of a shoe box, should fit your food and weapon." Sam explained as Calvin read the super help.
"Huh, how do I do that?" He asked, swiping away the panel.
"Just look at your item and try to imagine pocketing it. There should be a pulling feeling from the chain- there you go." Sam nodded as the bag of nuts disappeared from Calvin's hand. "Take the wrench too then let's head out."
"Ah, yeah, escape." Calvin nodded, grabbing the wrench. "I think I'll keep this out, just in case."
"If you want." He shrugged. "Oh, and take off that red coat. You'll stick out like a pimp in a church."
The two went out the kitchen door, crouch walking along the fence until they got to the front of the house. Sam signaled him to wait before he went behind a bush and parted the leaves, just enough for him to peek through. He then sent another gesture for Calvin to back up, and the two went back behind the house.
"Okay, we have two ways to go about this. First, we give up and get arrested." He raised a finger.
"That's hardly an option?"
"It is. It's a shorter sentence than getting caught at least. And there's less of a chance of dying from some trigger-happy cop."
"What's the other way?"
Sam glanced back to the front of the house before looking at Calvin. "There's a system of storm drains that runs from Central to the edge of the city, where we are. We can use it to get to Inner City without any trouble."
"I sense a but." Calvin remarked.
"But getting there is the problem. The way is crawling with cops for some reason. There is a small cornfield that would help with sneaking through without getting caught, but there's still a chance they have supers or tinker tech for that." He explained.
"How big is that chance?" Calvin asked, wondering what kind of superpower they would have.
"Not that big, really. Just telling you there's a chance." He shrugged. "They're probably just here to look like they're doing something."
"Won't they just be guarding the entrance to the storm drain?"
"They would if they knew it was there." Sam chuckled. "I made that entrance. For cases like this."
"Couldn't you have made a fridge for that? Like the one in your kitchen?"
"I didn't make that." He shook his head. "And those are expensive. I only got that one made because it paid for itself."
"How?"
"Entrepreneurial stuff." He turned around. "Now come on, stop with the questions. Let's go."
They went back to the front of the house, this time with Calvin being shown cops patrolling around the field, and presumably with some inside as well. They wore red uniforms, almost like royal guards with the big afros. Made them somewhat easier to see through the crops.
The two ducked back into the bush just as a guard appeared from inside the field. He looked around suspiciously before shrugging and going around the cornfield.
Sam signaled and the two immediately dove into the field. From then on, it was an easier time. They sneaked through, stopping whenever they heard a rustling nearby. It was around the halfway point when they reached a conundrum.
"Shit." Sam muttered, Calvin echoed the sentiment. "They cut the fucking field in half."
In front of them was a ten meter gap of cut corn that ran across one end to the other. No cover, no anything for them to sneak through. Additionally, there were cops hanging around the center. They were chatting away, not paying any attention, which was good. But still, it was an open field, there's no blind spots.
"You have anything in there to distract them?" Calvin asked, gesturing towards Sam's duffel.
"What? You think they'll just look in one direction like some cheesy video game? No. If there was only one or two, that could work. But there's at least ten of them. They'll look around." He spoke with a grunt.
"What do we do then? Go back?"
"Shut up and think."
Calvin looked at the empty patch and the red-uniformed cops, trying to think of a way through. Admittedly he had no experience with sneaking outside of video games, so he was out of his depth here. All he knew was to press shift and walk in the shadows.
He sighed, watching some of the cops walk in and out of the adjacent cornfield, as if trying to find people.
"Wait-" he turned to Sam, an idea formed in his head. "Do you have anything red on you?"
Moments later, the two came out of the cornfield several meters away from the cops hanging out. Calvin was wearing the lab coat again, although folded up to his waist to look like their uniform. Sam wore a puffy red jacket, the ones that made people look like the Michelin man.
Up close it was obvious they weren't cops. From afar, they looked pretty much similar.
"Just walk confidently, don't pay any attention to them." Sam reminded him.
"This was my idea." Calvin argued, trying to look confident despite his trembling hands. "Just do your best to keep the duffel bag out of sight."
"Obviously."
They walked like they owned the place, crossing the patch until they were just a meter away.
A nearby rustling made their blood run cold. They turned to look, finding a guard walking out of the field with fury in their step. He was a few meters away from them, enough to see they weren't actually guards.
"Gosh darn corn. The missus ain't gonna be happy one bit with all the green in my uniform." The cop grumbled.
"Just keep walking, we're almost there," Sam whispered as the two started to power walk.
"Hey," The cop called out as they were about to be in the clear, "you found anyone yet?"
Calvin froze, turning to Sam. Thankfully, the man answered with a nonchalant voice, "nope. Just about to go look in this area again."
"Bah, don't bother. That area's field is heckin thick as my old man's beard on humid days." The cop laughed at his own joke before walking away.
The two calmly entered the thick field, their power walk quickly turning into a sprint as they wanted to get some distance before taking off their coats. A few meters later, they stopped to rest and remove the fake uniforms.
"That was close." Calvin said in between his heavy breaths.
"I can't believe he didn't see my puffy jacket." Sam looked at the ridiculous coat in his hands before stuffing it away into the duffel.
"He looked old. Old people have notoriously bad eyesight." He chuckled. "How much farther?"
"Not much, we should see the end of the field in a few minutes, if we walk carefully."
They continued on, thankfully without any more events and interruptions to make their hearts beat out of their chest.
"End of the field," Sam whispered, "see that fence over there? We just need to the other side and we'll only have to walk a little bit more to get to the drain. There's likely no cops in that area."
"That's- how are we supposed to get over that?" He looked at the three meter tall stone wall. "I can't reach that."
"Who said anything about over?" Sam grinned. "I dug a hole."
"How are you so prepared?"
"Crippling paranoia. Now let's go." He gestured for Calvin to follow.
Halfway towards the wall, Sam stopped. His head turned to the sky before turning around and running back into the cornfield, dragging Calvin with him.
"Wha-" Calvin started asking when Sam covered his mouth. He then pointed at his ears, prompting him to listen.
Three thuds hit the dirt, shaking the ground enough for them to notice the impact. Calvin shut up, now finally getting Sam's sudden frantic panic. There were supers. And they were close.
"It's just some scientists, not even supers. Why are we here?" One of them grumbles.
"Because we need the rep," another argued, "and it's the hero thing to do. You do remember that's what we're going for here?"
"Yeah, but this just feels weird. We're not geared for search and capture. We're front liners."
"It's just looking for people in a farm. What, you blind or something?" Another one came.
"He's just looking for something to hit."
"I'm not, okay? I'm just-"
While the three argued instead of doing something productive, Sam and Calvin slowly inched away from them. Sam, probably already experienced in making the least noise possible, made careful steps and gentle swipes to avoid rustling the corn or disturbing the ground. Calvin, not so much.
They both froze as Calvin rustled some corn a bit too loudly.
"What was that?" One of the heroes turned, hearing the rustling. "Did you hear that?"
"Of course we heard that, moron. We're not fucking deaf."
"Language." Another shushed them. "And shut the fuck up."
"Who's there? Come out!"
Sam glared at Calvin, taking out a gun-like object from his duffel bag and turning to where they heard the noise. Calvin did the same, brandishing his golden wrench and trying not to fuck up any more than he had.
"What are you doing here?" A new voice caught all of their attention. "You three, come here."
"Who? Ah- D-destructoman- s-sir." They stammered, their steps going away from where Calvin and Sam were hiding.
"Ha! Destructoman!" Another voice, much more burly, laughed right beside him. "Still cracks me up every time."
"Uh, s-sir, what are you doing here? Can we ask who t-that man is?"
"You can ask, doesn't mean he'll answer, kid."
As they were talking, a voice rang in his head. The voice sounded similar to the newly arrived ones, the one that laughed.
<
Calvin turned to Sam who had already grabbed his arm and started dragging him back out. The stalks of corn parted and Calvin turned to where the voices came from, seeing the five people in costume talking. Three of them were standing respectfully away from them, the other two were talking while facing them.
One of them had a brain in a jar for a head, with sunglasses inside. The brain turned towards him, winking with sunglasses before ignoring them afterwards.
They quietly went through a hole dug behind a tree, crawling through a dirt tunnel and up the other side of the wall. A forest in front of them, Sam beckoned him to follow and they went through bushes for a few minutes before coming across a suspicious grate in the woods.
"This seems... conspicuous." They were in the middle of a forest, with a random grate in the ground.
"You'd be surprised what people ignore." Sam chuckled, opening the grate. "Close the grate, will you?"
He went into the depths, with Calvin following immediately after. The grate screeched as he dragged it back down with a bang, showering him with a dusting of rust.
"Haa..." Sam was sitting beside the ladder, laying his head against the walls of the storm drain. "That was too much excitement."
"Did you hear that voice too?" Calvin immediately asked what he was most curious about.
"Voice? Ah, that," Sam nodded, "that was Brainmatter."
Judging by the name, he figured it was the one with the brain jar. "You know him?"
"Not really, but he's ex-supervillain. I'm betting he's just doing that to annoy Destructoman." He suddenly trembled. "Fuck, we just escaped Destructoman. Holy fuck."
"Which one is Destructoman?"
"The one in full black. With the big letter D on his forehead."
"Oh." He remembered the man, he was facing them. There was no way he didn't see the two trying to sneak through. "I think he let us go."
"Oh he probably did. Or Brainmatter did something so he didn't see. There's no way we'd be here if he did." Sam breathed deeply. "What we did was dumb, but we had help. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to run away from Destructoman, don't. Just surrender."
"What? Why?"
"Just do as I said. You'll find out why." He laid back, massaging his temples. "Now that we're in the clear, let's rest for a bit. We have a long way to go."
"Okay?" Calvin mirrored him, sitting beside the ladder and laying back, taking out his sack of almonds to much on. 'That was a ride. At least I'm out.'
Just as he was starting to relax, a new panel popped up in front of him.
Super Quest
Road to Heroism I Save 1/1 people The road to heroism starts with small steps! Prove yourself as a hero, rescue or otherwise save those who cannot protect themselves. Quest Rewards +1 Super Point(s)