NATE MERCER’S APARTMENT, SAFE HOUSE. HELL’S KITCHEN, NYC
NEIGHBORHOOD: CLAIMED BY GUARDIAN: LOOPHOLE (CONTESTED)
CITY: UNCLAIMED (CLAIMS BLOCKED BY TIMER)
CURRENT PHASE POINTS: 910
END OF PHASE ONE: 03D:07H:12M:18S
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The events of the day quickly caught up to me, but I knew I had to open the newest of my loot boxes before I could get to bed, or at least that’s what I had convinced myself of. Maybe I was just trying to distract myself from the news about The First, but there really was nothing I could do about that at the moment and taking time to dwell on it felt counterproductive, especially when I was already starting to feel so tired.
I was almost annoyed that I had taken the time to open them with how tired I felt because I initially only received a handful of credits and a few Random Ability Level Up scrolls. But for some reason, the B:Tier I had received for entering the Top 25 contained a book titled The Stupid Man’s Guide To Reptile Venoms, granting me “Venom: Reptiles” Knowledge - Level 3. It seemed out of place as a reward for moving up the leaderboard, but I was past the point of being able to logically guess why I had received it.
With those opened I was just ready to sleep and I was out like a light practically the moment my head was on the pillow. By the time I woke up the next day, much to my surprise, Angie had actually listened and hadn't woken me up the moment the sun was up. It was nearly noon and I could hear the sound of the television coming through the thin walls. Sure enough, Jon was on the couch with his laptop on the coffee table, a tablet in his hand, and the television turned to the news.
“Tempest’s Terrifying Thunder. Pacific Northwest Pummeled, god these people love their alliteration don’t they,” I said, rubbing my eyes as I walked into the kitchen.
“Well you’re not wrong. They were calling her the “Lunatic Lightning Lady” until they got some footage of her yelling about how everything belonged to “Tempest’s Wrath”, hell of a name really and she seems scary as hell,” Jon called back.
“Sheesh that’s…. Kinda ballsy, especially with some of the Augments that are already out there,” I said, opening the fridge and staring at the largely empty contents. “So what did she do anyway?”
“Oh it was crazy, she brought down this like, GIANT fucking lightning bolt right onto that uh, what’s it called, the needle thing.”
“The… Space Needle? Really? You can name every Augment ever yet you don’t remember the Space Needle?”
“Yeah that thing,” he brushed it off, not even taking his attention off of his tablet. “Anyway, she literally exploded the Space Needle and left it basically as a giant pile of rubble. Then she was sparking up a storm yelling that “All of the Pacific Northwest belongs to Tempest’s Wrath” which is just weird. Like, not just Washington? Or why not try to aim bigger?”
“Huh…” I said, getting a bottle of water and taking a long drink. “That is odd.”
Whoever this girl was, it seemed like she wasn’t slowing down anytime soon. But to already be making a claim on something that big? It honestly left me wondering just how powerful she actually was. I shook the thought from my head, she was all the way on the other side of the country after all. Unless she was about to lay siege to New York, it really wasn't my concern.
“Oh, get this, our new guy made another appearance last night, like almost literally right after you left the deli a few blocks away. I caught some cops rushing toward it but by the time I got there the dude had already run off. You didn’t happen to see it by chance did yah?” Jon asked, shooting me a look as I lingered in the kitchen.
“I think I just missed it myself,” I said as I walked over and dropped onto the couch. “Guessing there was some footage someone got with their phones?”
“And then some,” Jon said, grabbing his tablet and opening up a web page. “Half the shots are from behind cars across the street but the guy had an actual outfit on. I think calling it an actual superhero costume is maybe a bit of a stretch. It was this kinda crazy almost neon orange jacket and some gaudy as hell boots. I swear, it’s almost like the dude went to a thrift store and grabbed the first things that fit him. Hell, it kinda reminds me of your style. You know 'whatever's available.'”
I bit my tongue as a natural urge to defend the hodgepodge of a costume cropped up and I hid it by taking another sip of water.
“Hey that's a financial choice, not a fashion choice for me, I don't know if I can speak for the new dude's choices. Hell, it can’t look that bad, can it?” I finally said with an awkward laugh. Jon just rolled his eyes as he finally offered the tablet over to me.
“I mean, he looks almost like a leather pumpkin. See for yourself, there’s more videos on the page I grabbed this one from, so just hit back if you want to see more. I swear I feel like I’ve seen this dude somewhere before but I can’t put my damn finger on it. Which is weird as hell right? He’s barely got a raccoon mask on yet I can’t place him from the next random dude on the subway,” he complained and reached down for his laptop. It was opened to a random post on a subreddit that was labeled “/r/AugmentWatch”.
Maybe I was getting a little… attached, but I really didn’t think my outfit so far looked all that bad. Even though I knew, or maybe just hoped, that it was going to change over time, I couldn’t imagine a situation ever where I was going to want to wear a full spandex getup like The First had worn. And capes were so far out of the question it wasn’t even funny. Who hadn’t seen The Incredibles after all?
“It does look a bit… mashed together, I’ll say that at least, but I don’t think it's necessarily a terrible look,” I said after pretending to watch the video. “Though maybe I’m just a sucker for orange…”
“True, though I don’t think I’ve ever figured out why, it’s such a damn abrasive color. Almost makes yah wonder what’s wrong with the new guy,” Jon laughed, his attention turning up to the television as the broadcast’s banner changed to “Disturbing Riddle at Scene of Triple Murder.” Before the story could even start, he changed the channel, stopping on another station showing footage of Tempest’s Wrath. “The dude’s definitely a local though. Shit it was kinda just like Tempest’s Wrath here. He was all like “Hell’s Kitchen is my home, and if you wanna hurt people, you’re gonna have to go through me.” It was honestly kinda cheesy but he put those dudes down so easily I think the message got through. Apparently he’s calling himself Loophole, not exactly sure what the hell that means with the weight and luck stuff but hey, it’s a pretty cool name.”
“Well if he thinks it’s cool, I guess it can’t be that bad,” Angie said with an uncomfortable purr. “Now see if you can get him to get up and walk away, I want to see his butt again.”
“He’s literally a human and you’re stuck in my head, what are you getting out of this!?”
“Hey that’s my business, Loophole, I don’t ask what you masterbate to. Though to be completely fair, I don’t have to ask, but I still don’t ask anyway. It’s called having respect for other people’s private thoughts thank you very much.”
“I… I really need to learn to stop falling for the damn bait, don’t I.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Please don’t, it makes it so much more fun for me,” Angie practically cackled and I just let out an internal groan as I tried to zone her out.
“Any new clues on his powers?” I asked, wondering if I had given him enough to work with yet. I backed up the page from the video he had shown me, assuming it had come from the same subreddit he was browsing on his laptop and finding my assumption to be correct. It returned to a post titled “New NYC hero gives name - Loophole” and was filled with comments and several links to the various videos people had managed to grab.
Most of the comments seemed to be people doing exactly what I was trying to have Jon do now, and as far as I could tell, no one was even close. To be fair, I don’t think I would have even been able to name “Local Area Manipulation” as a superpower before all of this, but I also assumed that people who were more obsessed with this stuff would know what it was. I briefly considered making a random account and just throwing the idea out there before dismissing it. Even if I did want Jon to know what it was, that didn’t mean I wanted it to be the common guess.
“Yeah we can add some sort of illusion skill. It’s a hell of a weird combo of abilities. Like, generally their powers all sort of fall into a set category. Earth Knight for example is able to make weapons out of the ground at will, so you always see him doing that in his fights, he doesn’t suddenly start grabbing weapons out of fire or anything else, it’s always Earth. This guy though… First luck based stuff, then he can control the weight of things and make guns go off, now illusions and it looks like some sort of ability to make someone’s foot get stuck? There’s no connecting tissue that really ties the powers to a single set source, it just doesn’t make any sense… if that makes sense.”
“Hmm,” I said and took another drink. Without having something else to go on, it was starting to seem impossible to get his advice on things without revealing that it was me we were talking about. “Well if you can’t figure it out I doubt I’m gonna have any luck,” I finally said.
To that Jon just laughed as he shot me another look. “Yeah, guess you got me there, you wouldn’t know an energy blast from a laser beam.”
“There’s a difference?” I asked, actually curious and the curious look he had been giving me changed to one of pure shock.
“You’re friggin helpless, aren’t you?” He said with a laugh.
“Hurtful but not untrue,” I shrugged.
“Well I guess if we put our heads together we can figure it out eventually, just gotta get the right opportunity, eh?” He said, turning his attention back to his laptop.
“Yeah, I think we are gonna be relying more on you than me for that. It is kinda cool this guy’s working in our neighborhood. I gotta go buy a new phone here, Mr. Russo fronted me some cash so I’d have one, gotta be able to get the work assignments somehow,” I said as I pushed myself up from the couch and stretched. I noticed I had a Rested buff in the corner of my vision and my health was increased. Hovering over the icon I saw Source: Turnabout’s Fairplay.
“Will do man, don’t go getting yourself into too much trouble, eh? It’s been fun having you actually interested and theorizing about powers and all that,” He said as I started for the door.
“Yeah, I guess it is kinda fun, even if I am basically just bugging yah for info,” I replied, waving a hand back at him over my shoulder. “I ain’t changing my number so I’ll text yah when I’m set up.”
“Cool cool, later dude,” He called after, just as I pulled the door shut behind me.
“I’m going to need you to fill me in on exactly what will cause a breach of the Secret Identity thing cause I can’t keep just guessing with this, clearly it’s not working,” I said to Angie as I climbed down the stairs. I smiled and offered a small wave at Mr. Greyson as I passed him by the mailboxes.
“Short version or long version?” She asked. I stepped outside and dipped into the alley next to the building. I knew logically I should be doing this further away from home, but I wanted to get moving now and I felt like I’d get less weird looks if I was running in my gear than just as a random guy in jeans. A moment later I was exiting from the far side of the alley in my equipment, sidestepping an older couple that gave me a curious look as I headed off in the other direction.
“There’s different- you know what, I don’t care. Give me the long version, I want every variant of every thing I could say that would constitute breaking the rule. That should fill the time till I get over to the police station.”
I walked for just a bit before starting to jog, weaving around people and listening to her explanation as I went. Hell’s Kitchen was actually covered by two separate precincts within the city. What I found interesting about my tutorial mission was the fact that even though the bank I had saved had been in the northern parts of the neighborhood, it had been the 10th precinct that responded. I had a theory brewing about why that was, but at the end of the day it really didn’t matter that much.
The 10th Precinct was all the way down on 20th street, in south Chelsea, and even at a moderate pace, it took me just shy of 30 minutes to navigate traffic there. Surprisingly, I didn’t find myself getting winded at all during the entirety of the run, my stamina lowering slightly but recovering more than fast enough that I never found myself having to stop. I briefly interrupted Angie to ask about it and she told me with my Dexterity at 7, as long as I wasn’t sprinting I’d probably be able to run mostly without stopping.
Even though I expected to be treated with suspicion as I entered the station, I only received a handful of looks from the officers in uniform moving about the front of the building. I actually heard one of them mutter “Loophole” as I passed them and I felt… pride? I tried to shake the idea off, assuming it was coming from the augmentation process as I kept moving.
“You’d think they’d be a bit more cautious about a dude in a mask walking into their building, though I guess going away from the ski mask helps,” I mused as I approached the front desk. The clerk, a younger Hispanic woman with out of control curly hair, a pair of heavy framed glasses, and braces gave me a curious glance before a smile spread over her face.
“You must be one of the new ones that Lt. Nester met yesterday, he warned me some of you would be stopping by, though he guessed it would be by the end of the week, not today. What’s your name? I’ll let him know you’re here to see him,” the girl said. Though I hadn’t been making it a point of scanning every single person I came across, mostly because I kind of didn’t want to know who was and wasn’t considered “sentient”, I still found myself highlighting her out of curiosity.
“Isabel Santiago. This is a Sentient NPC. Isabel has been working for the 10th precinct as a civilian administrator for the last few years. Isabel’s history in this world is largely unimportant given the fact that she’s Sentient and Axio had no part in the majority of her life. What I will say about her is that she almost reminds me of that show Ugly Betty. You know how they took America Ferrera, an objectively beautiful woman, and put her in some braces and thick glasses to try and fool everyone that she wasn’t… well objectively beautiful? Well that’s kind of what Isabel is doing with those glasses and the lack of makeup on the day to day. It lets her do her job without being subjected to harassment and unwanted come ons from every single person who comes walking through this place. And before you start trying to interrupt me and say, “oh where are you going with this Angie?” I’d like you to let me finish. You might ask, was this all just me trying to point out the fact that you’ve watched Ugly Betty half a dozen times and you used to have America Ferrera as the background of your phone? Was it commentary on the current state of fashion in the world? Or was it maybe me pointing out the fact that your heart rate jumped a bunch the moment you saw this girl so it’s clear you think she’s attractive, meaning maybe you could stop wondering why I can admire your objectively attractive friend since sometimes it just pops into your head unbidden.”
That was… that was a bit odd, even for Angie but I decided to ignore the extended description, watching as it faded away leaving only the tag “Isabel Santiago. Sentient NPC.”
“Loophole. I’m going by Loophole,” I said, opting to just try and get through this as quickly as possible. The last thing I needed was for Angie to harp on this the rest of the day.
“Loop… Hole,” she repeated as her fingers darted across the keyboard. A visitor badge printed out and she handed it to me with a wide smile, “Okay, if you want to head on back I can buzz you in here. Head on down the hall and Lt. Nester will meet you..”
“Thanks, I guess I will uh… go and see him now then,” I said with an admittedly awkward wave as a loud buzz emitted from above the door next to her.
“See yah around,” she said with a smile as I passed.
Lt. Nester was waiting at the end of the small hallway and held out a hand as I approached.
“Loophole eh? I like it,” he said as he shook my hand. “Come to my desk here, there’s some activity with the Vipers going down over in the yards and I think we could use your help.”