"I'm a man of fortune and I must seek my fortune."

- Henry Avery.

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The ride to the police station gave me time to get a story formulated in my head. The officer was kind enough not to ask many questions on our way, but I was plenty sure she would once she noticed how I managed to stay hidden even from the rest of the cops when they arrived to secure the perimeter. A sigh left my lips as she slowed down in front of a very obvious comissary, and I hoped my preparations would be enough.

Parking and getting out of the vehicle, I took the chance to throw the wod of cash aside, sticking it quickly to the underside of the parking spot with a tiny amount of web to keep it safe and secure. With some luck, I'd manage to retrieve it on my way out. Either peacefully or while running from the authorities. Either way, that was done and I stepped inside with the officer. The comissary was, oddly enough, a little more populated than I assumed with all the officers deployed and all.

I was given a few passing glances since my clothes were not appropriate for the weather and I actually looked lost. Thankfully I could vouch for my own age, nineteen was considered adult practically all around the world. Maybe I couldn't get a beer in the states, but I had no idea if I was even within the states of this parallel reality. No matter, I just followed the officer until we arrived at a particular room. The kind they use to interrogate suspects with the false mirror that actually has view to the interior of the room and all.

I figured there might be someone there so I waved playfully, the officer took humor in it and grinned before telling me to seat down, and I did so. A little nervous but also confident that they wouldn't immediately point me out as a suspect for the robbery.

"So, I'll just ask you a couple of questions and you'll be allowed to leave. The snowfall will get a little worse in the evening so you might consider getting a jacket or something." She said, already probing into wheter or not I could afford one. I had to admit my choice of clothing left much to be desired but I didn't think I'd be tagged as poor as soon as I arrived here.

Then again, everyone else had really fine clothes so maybe the situaiton in Ark City was better than I expected by comparison.

"Sure, I just gotta go grab my stuff at the bank after so it shouldn't be a problem." I replied, innocently enough.

"Alright. First off, why don't you tell me your name?" She began, and I kept a calm smile on my face.

"Sure. My name's Valeria Ramirez."

"That's a nice name. I'm officer Peralta, pleasure to meet you Valeria. Now, let's start on the beginning, what were you doing around the bank when it was being robbed this morning?"

"I was on my way out of the city. I'm not exactly in the best money situation so I was looking for a scrap yard I could sell some copper to. Nothing stolen, of course, just picked up from...Less than desirable places." I decided to be honest, making shit up would just make my story more convoluted than necessary.

The woman seemed to feel a bit of guilt from her previous comment on the jacket, I couldn't fault her for giving good advice, so I just smiled as she took some notes and kept asking questions. These ranged from any other information I might have related to the robbers or how did I manage to hide so well, which I replied by saying I used to play a lot of hide and seek as a child and just got used to hiding away from people. That might've been a bit of a mistep as the officer seemed a bit perplexed on that one, but she seemed a little more reassured when I mentioned I used to play with the children at the orphanage back home, making the topic a hard point to go over for her. I felt a little bad lying to her since I had no idea of any specific institution names around Ark City since the GPS was fucked, but with no specific information I couldn't do much.

"We did register the call being made from a private phone. Can I assume it belongs to you?" She tried to phrase it in the best way possible but it was clearly an insinuation that maybe I had a stolen phone in my possesions.

I sighed, to which she recoiled a little, but then I just replied calmly again.

"Yeah, it was a gift for my seventeenth birthday. I don't use it much though, hard to find place to charge it at." I lied again, but mixing truth in between to make it believable.

The officer seemed pleased enough. She glanced at the notes twice before nodding to herself and standing up, a smile on her face.

"You said you didn't have a good situation right? I can give you a lift to a goodwill center. Some good food and maybe a blanket should keep you warm for the day." She offered, and I looked at her with glint in my eyes.

I smiled and practically jumped out of my seat, startling her for half a second before I nodded furiously. Any way to save money would be worth it. Plus, I'd get to meet other people from the lower ranks of the city so maybe I'd get to find what's the best bench to sleep at in the parks!

"I'd really really like that, thank you!" I said, approaching her and giving her a big ol' hug.

She chuckled before I let go of her, and then we made our way back to the parking lot. I feigned dropping my phone as I was checking the time, mainly to get the wod of cash from beneath the car and put it inside my pocket again, grabbing a seat on the back of the car and graciously accepting the free lift all the way to the community center. It had a big "Goodwill Rally" banner plastered in front, maybe it had to do with the advertisements I saw for a mayor canditature? No matter, free food was free food after all.

"Really, thank you for bringing me here." I said, bowing my head to the officer. She seemed taken aback by the gesture, maybe my manners were a bit sideways after all.

"No need, if you ever need anything call the department. You did good today, you deserve a warm meal at least." With that, the officer made her way back to the car and drove away.

I was happy enough with the free food, so I entered with the hood still covering my freezing head as I stepped into the last spot of the line. Multiple homeless people were making a line to get their share of the goodwill goodies. A few elderly seemed to be in front of me, so I just smiled and waved at them as the turns kept moving. When it was finally my turn, I noticed the cauldrons of food were already running low on stew, and there was a mother with a kid at her side just behind me. Saving money on food was good, but...Yeah, taking advantage of this when there were people that needed it more wasn't the most heroic thing to do was it?

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"Go ahead, I'll just wait until later." I said, stepping aside to let the mother ahead. The kid could definitely use a second serving if available.

"I - We -... Thank you." She replied, smiling gladly. The kid looked up at his mother and then at me, and smiled wide. He was missing a front tooth, which only made his smile more adorable.

I ruffled his hair and stepped aside, I did take one of the free blankets, but I figured sticking around without food might not be the best idea to test my patience and psyche. Instead I just made my way to one of the benches and sat down, the interior of the community center was slightly above warm. It was clear the heating wasn't working properly since even the owners behind the bar of food seemed to be complaining about it. I did know a bit or two about fixing stuff, so after taking a few minutes to not make things awkward, I stood up and walked over to one of the men serving food. He had a thick moustache and a large build, but a gentle tenderness to his eyes. Real gentle giant vibes.

"Excuse me, if the heating isn't working I could give it a look." He looked at me, a bit of doubt in his eyes, so I cleared it up a bit more. "My Pa used to work as a handyman, taught me a few things."

"Hummmm....I'm not really supposed to let you in the back, but it is getting a bit too cold for the people...." He seemed to think on it for a few moments, before taking a look at the inexistent line now. "Alright, I'll let you take a look but I'll come with you."

"Sure! Name's Valeria, pleasure to meet you." I extended my hand, though it was shaking since I only had a thing shirt and a hoodie on me, and it was fucking snowing outside. He took my hand in his, and shook it with a firm grip.

"James. Let's go, I'll grab the keys and you can take a look in the back."

As offered, he took a moment to ask permission to get a look at the heating unit in the backroom and took the keys, opening the door and guiding me inside. The unit itself didn't look damaged so that was good, but the nearby window was open and there was a trace of ice forming in the ground and the wall. A puddle had formed earlier in the day, and since it was locked...I opened the unit and found a few circuits frozen over. It seemed that rained had seeped down the window and with the cold it froze a few of the cables and junctions. Only needed a bit of warmth and to reconnect a few cables in the temperature control and it'd be good as new. At least as good as this old thing was when it was new.

"Shouldn't be too much of an issue. Should definitely keep the window closed when keeping this on though, especially when it rains." I said, James took my words at face value and closed the window as I got to work.

Thawing the ice took a bit of a long time, and reconnecting the cables without gloves was a bit dangerous, but I got it done in under an hour. Soon enough, the ventilation started to rumble a little more, and a warm breeze of air shook through the entire building as the heating unit went back to doing its job properly. With a smile on my face and pride in my chest, I turned to James, who smiled in return as well.

"Good work kid. Could've gotten this fixed but nobody paid much attention to the room before..." He mentioned as we made our way back to the main hall, where the elderly people seemed a lot more comfortable than before.

"Small things like that go unnoticed a lot. You'd be surprised to find how many things break without you noticing, really. My Pa was a bit too obsessed with fixing things though, might've had a tic or something." I shrugged, it was the truth. My father was many things, and a real good fixer of things was one of them, shamefully, being a good father wasn't one of those.

"I might have something for you, wait here." James said, pulling into the staff room for a few moments until he came back. A small piece of paper with a phone number written on it, and a one dollar bill.

"I got a cousin working downtown on electronics, might get you a gig or two if you show him you can do the work. Tell him James sent you over for fixing the heating unit and he'll take a look at you." He offered, and I just stared at the piece of paper for a moment. I mean, I was sure I was being kind and all but, receiving actual rewards for being a good person felt kinda awesome really.

I nodded and gave him the brightest smile I could muster. Putting them both in the pockets of my pants.

"Thank you, really, thank you." I bowed my head to him, something that I should probably start to stop doing. Made me feel dumb how people seemed a bit too taken aback by the gesture.

"Hey, no worries kid. Saw you giving your spot to Martha and her little rascal, you got a good heart." He smiled and gently smacked my shoulder before going back to work.

I stood there for a few moments before sitting down at a bench again, maybe I could give that cousin of his a visit during the day? I mean, I could probably rent a cheap motel room for the night and go in the morning, but I also didn't have much else to do, and securing work might be a pretty good idea. I couldn't do superhero work without money to keep myself alive after all. Plus, I'd be needing a suit soon enough and getting the textile right would be a big bother, especially considering winter and the need for extra padding.

For shock absorption of course!

I was pretty proud of my size, mind you. But no matter, that was a thought for another time. Half an hour later I was already on my way back downtown as I dialed the phone number I was given and called. The call rang for a few moments until a younger voice replied, a little annoyed.

"Hello, Everett's Electronics, how may I help you?" He said, his voice was a bit rougher than James's but still seemed attentive enough.

"Hello, James gave me this number? He said you might have work for me. I fixed up a heating unit at the Community Center and gave me your number." I explained, the line went silent for a few moments as he seemed to think about it. Eventually he sighed, and responded.

"Get to the 7th with Maine, it's a straight line from the center. I'll see what you can do and we can go from there, kid." He instantly seemed to catch onto the fact I was not older than him, something I was not sure I was comfortable with.

I mean, being called "kid" all the time felt kinda degrading in a sense? I was a perfectly fine adult! An adult that now has superpowers. An adult that got thrown across what I assume to be the multiverse...

But an adult nonetheless!

Fifteen minutes later I made my way to the direction I was given and entered the store, instantly noticing the man at the counter buried under piles of wires and cables, probably trying to untangle them from the mess they were in. He looked over at her, saw the blanket she was wearing over her hoodie and how she was still shaking a little from the cold, and sighed again. I really didn't want to guilt-trip him into giving me a job, so I just approached with a smile on my face and figured I'd introduce myself.

"Name's Valeria Ramirez, pleasure to meet you." I extended my hand and he kind of struggled for a moment to reach through the mountain of cables to shake it.

"Jacob Everett, I'm James's cousing though he probably told you that already." He introduced himself and retracted his hand, fidgeting with the wires.

"Do you need help with that?" I asked, innocently enough.

"God, yes, please." He replied, mumbling some dirty language under his breath as he made way for me to approach him.

We both took the better part of thirty minutes figuring out which cable was which and which wire not to touch for too long until all of them were neatly arranged with each other and put on individual sealed bags or boxes depending on how likely they were to be sold or used for repairs. Once that was done, I shared the little story of how I ended up at the community center and he seemed to approve of James's judgement.

"That heating unit is pretty old at the center. Been trying to convince the folks over there to change it but they always say they don't have that kinda money. They're just trying to keep as much cash on their pockets as anyone else, don't let the free food win you over...." He seemed to reflect on it, once he remembered James was part of those folks. "James used to be semi-homeless for a while, got attached to the people there. Now they have him working day in and day out whenever they feel lazy."

Well, there seemed to be more going on at the Goodwill Rally than I thought. Maybe this would be a good topic of investigation for that new superhero?

"I wouldn't really know, but those organizations tend to get like that around this time of year." I said, pointing up to an old TV screen that was currently displaying the preliminary results of the mayor candidates.

"Yup, sounds about right." Then he finally remembered I was here to get a job, so he cleared his throat and looked around the store, finally getting a radio from beneath the counter and putting it on top.

"Alright, here you go. This'll be your test. Find out what's wrong and see if you can fix it. Customer forgot he put on the order so it won't be missed but don't go breaking it even more alright?" He explained, the radio seemed to work on batteries so that was my first intuition. I smiled.

"Sir, yes sir!" I joked, before chuckling and just taking a closer look at the radio, it looked a bit old, not by too much though.

The antenna was slightly crooked since it had a bit of trouble going up and down when I tried moving it gently. The knob was working fine and the display seemed to be in order. Just to make sure I used a screwdriver to remove the back panel and checked the circuits. They were covered in dust so I cleaned them up a bit and started to get a closer look. The issue, as always, was in the details. The circuits seemed to be in good order at first sight, but a few of the connectors were old and one was fried. With a smile, I searched around for the spares that could best suit it and tried them on before plugging in new batteries and seeing if it worked.

The antenna was crooked so it was no surprise the signal was a bit erratic, but the thing worked well enough. And, judging by Jacob's smile, it looked like I got the job.

"You got the eyes for it, at least." He said, grinning as he stretched out his hand. "5.99 an hour, you'll be cleaning and organizing things first, and we'll move onto actual repairs once you get a good hold of how the store is run. Objections?" He asked, knowing damn well I wouldn't have any.

Six dollars an hour wasn't the biggest paycheck I've ever had, but it certainly beat having to rob from bank robbers! I took his hand and smiled as I shook it.

"Thanks!" I said, joy coursing through my veins.

With a job secured, all I needed now was to get a cheap room and then start searching for clues on what was going on at the rally. This were starting to get pretty interesting around here!