Chapitre 26: Rule IV
Week 4: Monday
{Switch}, one of the earliest abilities of his power Jack discovered when he awakened [chamber].
As the name suggested, this ability was a simpler one. Inside his sphere of influence, he could swap the places of two inanimate objects of his choice. The only requirement was that both objects' swapped were more or less of the same mass. The volume or density of said objects didn't matter much.
Though, if it came to this, he could swap objects' places regardless of any significant difference in weight, as long as it wasn't as big of a difference as 30 kg (66 lbs). However, doing so put a huge strain on his mind and was excessively more draining and taxing. Moreover, multi-tasking – using multiple abilities at the same time like {levitate}, {almighty push}, or maintaining a {telekinesis force field} – wasn't possible in the brief window of time he needed to concentrate to pull this feat off.
This trade-off wasn't worth it in Jack's opinion.
Until now that is.
Recently, he has been training extensively, taking at least one entire day a week to train his power until borderline exhaustion.
Now that he has the opportunity to properly train and experiment with his power like before the events of the last stand, he'd not waste the chance.
Jack has a lot of ideas and concepts; new ways of using [chamber] he could come up with. Or even new ways in which he could branch off or improve upon his existing abilities.
He could, for example, focus on finding a way to smash through the barrier that prevented him from interacting with living or organic things. Or he could focus on straightening his force shield so that it could hold even under heavy gunfire. Or maybe, he could work on figuring out a way to finally shape a telekinesis construct in any form he desired, outside of simply making a simple rectangle forcefield using telekinesis.
Improving his abilities and coming up with new ways of using his power would go a long way to make him feel more confident in himself. To the point he wouldn't have to fear a direct confrontation with someone extremely strong, durable, fast or with an enormous range of attack.
He would no longer have to feel as useless as during the last stand.
As of right now though, since he re-started his training proper, he has been focusing on improving upon three or four core facets of his power.
The range of [chamber], for one, something he already increased.
For second, his ability to multitask, which he was seeing a lot of improvements on this side too.
And finally, he was constantly working on improving his power's activation speed and reflexive reactive speed. Even though the latter was harder to keep a good track of, Jack still felt like he was steadily improving.
Today though, the biggest breakthrough he made was not in any of these categories. It was with {Switch}.
He made a major breakthrough with the ability.
The young rogue just surpassed the previous limit of {Switch}, unlocking the capacity to switch objects regardless of their mass.
As the current sight in the warehouse attested to.
Transparent forcefields were active, hovering around his entire body and encasing it, leaving only 20 cm (8") of space between them and his skin while multiple pieces of debris were lazily floating around him. Some were spinning in place while others were floating in the air without budging. He was playing with his control by varying his commands as he maintained the objects in suspension.
With a thought, Jack switched a random small chunk of wood with a whole broken-down wardrobe.
Even then, he still managed to maintain his focus on the various tasks he was performing, not dropping any other objects or dismissing his forcefields by error. The entire process was almost effortless.
He barely felt a drain too.
With sweat running down his forehead and stinging his eyes…
'Lovely,' Jack smiled – a sinister smile stretching his lips.
Yeah, he was getting better and better. Stronger too. His minute control over [chamber] and its abilities was becoming even more refined.
Once upon a time, he used to dream of effortlessly performing feats like this.
And now, it was no longer a dream.
/-/
These days, the deliveries he made around Crime Alley and The Bowery felt more like impromptu, unspecified patrols than food deliveries.
Without noticing or paying attention, at some point, his deliveries started to feel like he was patrolling the streets of Crime Alley.
Since he handed the ass of some wannabe gangsters, trashed two minor gangs, and threatened some bum-asses, dead-beat homeless people who were taking advantage of children; people have caught on to the fact that where he tended to make his deliveries, there were no crimes happening.
Something they began exploiting.
Whether it was because he gained a reputation of being a strong meta-human, or because he happened to one-sidedly trash an entire group of armed mobsters…— some people have been wary of crossing his path and began eyeing him with cautiousness.
At first.
Once it became clear that he wasn't beating up people for the hell of it or just because, but instead had a legitimately good reason to beat up these guys, most denizens of Crime Alley, The Bowery, Burnley and New Town rapidly grew accustomed to his presence and were even accepting of him.
Only common criminals like muggers and thugs, or those he wasn't on good terms with, were acting cautiously when he was around. Same for burglars or any kind of thieves. They tended to keep to themselves when he was in the area.
All of this translated to an increase in the number of orders Lorenzo was getting in said neighborhood at a specific time of his shift.
As a result, various businesses began to open, willing to operate back in the neighborhood. A natural consequence of the feeling of safety his sheer presence brought in, he has been told.
More and more taxis were flooding the streets of Crime Alley and of The Bowery at night, he noticed too. Restaurants were opened later in the evening, food trucks were starting to appear on the streets and other public services like the post office were running back again. Heck, even the fucking people walking on the sidewalk while still vigilantly eyeing everyone and everything around them with alertness – were marginally less surly and downtrodden than before. Even though they still remained cautious and did not tend to linger around on the streets for long at night.
But that was it. There was less tension in the air. Less fear than when he first arrived.
And he was the cause of it, according to Mark and everyone he talked to.
Jack could understand why too. It was easy to see. He was the only meta-human around. The only one with a power in the whole surroundings blocks. Crime Alley used to be under Catwoman's 'protection' and regularly patrolled by Batman, two to three months ago. But now, it has been up for the taking since some time and was about to, either be claimed by Black Mask, or by The Penguin.
Neither of these two villains was known for being particularly tolerable mob bosses who didn't involve innocent civilians in their dealings.
If the alternative was him, Jack has a strong suspicion that he was going to be propped up as a 'protector' of some kind or something. Like Catwoman.
The… unpowered but clad in a skintight bodysuit woman, was a thief from what he heard. Not a gang leader or a mobster. And yet, people have an enormous amount of respect for the woman. She has enough street cred and rep that nobody was challenging or questioning her claim on Crime Alley when it was under her umbrella.
Even now as Jack drove through the streets of Crime Alley to his next delivery address, the people he passed by or came across were generally happy to see him. Happy!
People in Crime Alley were happy to just see him driving around…
The whole thing about gaining a good reputation was going far better than he expected.
Maybe it was even going a little too well and getting off the rails…
Before Jack could ponder further into this matter, a bright flash of light – a rush of heat – interrupted his thoughts, making him stop and urgently turn his scooter around to face the source of the disturbance.
As he skidded to a halt, his eyes fell upon a column of flames a few blocks away from his position, stretching up into dark clouds and lighting the starless night sky.
Just in time to catch the small figure of a man flying out of the flaming building's upper floor, jets of fire seemingly propelling his flight, as the man dived back into the building from a window on a lower floor.
It happened too swiftly and the man has been too far away for him to make out further details about his appearance. But he didn't need to.
Jack had a strong suspicion of who it was.
A villain, possibly using a jetpack to propel himself, armed with a flamethrower and a grenade launcher of sorts to wreak havoc. The individual was obsessed with fire – a dangerous arsonist. Used Genius-tech to commit his crimes. Considered highly unstable and insane.
'Firefly'.
The culprit behind the big explosion in Diamond District.
More fire shot up in the air.
And he was now putting his neighborhood into flames…
His radio suddenly came to life with a noise of static.
"Come in Rule. Come in Rule. Do you copy?"
Jack brought out his talkie-walkie from his parka and answered – eyes still locked on the sight in front of him. "Copy Lorenzo, Rule here. What's the matter? Over."
"What's your position?" Lorenzo asked without ceremony.
"I'm currently around the intersection between Park William and Magnolia street. Over."
"I see… copy that. A fire started around where you are. Wanted to know if you were in the area. You should be quite near the fire but not in the blast zone. Good." Was Lorenzo grunted reply. "You should avoid the area and circle it when you make your deliveries. People have already called the firefighters, not sure if they will show up in time or at all. The entire situation's a mess, but there ain't much we can do 'bout it."
Jack pursed his lips, staying silent.
He wasn't a hero. Actively going after villains, busting up drug dens or weapon deals, stopping crimes or making arrests wasn't his cup of tea. It wasn't something he could see himself doing for a living. Being a hero meant that he would have to constantly risk his life to save people and put his well-being under danger on a very frequent basis.
'Yeah, no.' That was out of the question.
Truly being a hero was suffering. While you'd get the admiration and reverence of the people you save, you also get criticized and placed under undue scrutiny at the slightest failure or controversial decision.
It was even more unappealing considering that heroes tended to be, most of the time, on the reactive or backfoot. Heroes reacted to crimes, catastrophes or any disastrous and perilous situations that would suddenly crop up.
That wasn't a position Jack was comfortable being in. Being reactionary, that is.
Sooner rather than later, he'd come across something way above his pay grade that would be his undoing.
That was, if he had gone ahead and chosen heroing as his calling.
Yet… and yet, this didn't mean that he was fine with just being a spectator either. When a crime, one involving innocent civilians who shouldn't be involved in it by a supe, was unfolding in front of his eyes… not doing something just felt wrong and would leave a bad taste in his mouth.
Especially when he could do something to prevent harm and make a difference.
Jack couldn't act like it was none of his concern and shrug his shoulders and go on his way.
He couldn't.
Crime Alley hasn't seen a single police car driving around the place in more than two months. Not a single crime has been reported either.
The nearest fire station from the scene was the one neighboring Burnley; Crime Alley's only working fire station having fallen into a state of disrepair. It was the same dilapidated and abandoned fire station he climbed on top of, on the fateful night he found himself in Gotham City.
The fire station was practically at the other side of the building on fire. If a response was mounted, it would take a good 30 minutes for it to come in his most optimistic estimates. An hour in his worst.
Which was too late.
A lot of people might die before the fire was put out…
No.
A lot of people would surely die by the time the fire was put out.
Nobody was expected to show up, send the arsonist packing and put out that fire.
"… Rule…?"
Jack's eyes hardened.
"Warn the other customers that their orders will be late and their pizzas might be cold by the time I'll be there." He calmly stated, hand twisting the throttle on the handlebar and revving up the scooter engine as his eyes blazed up in an ethereal red light, nerves firing up. "There's a guy setting an entire building complex on fire in front of me. And people are likely caught in it. I'm not comfortable with letting that happen when I can do something about it."
"..." There was a short pause on the other end of the line. A short silence.
But before long, Lorenzo replied with a single word.
"Understood."
With a small roar of Sasha's engines, Rule speeded off in direction of the fire – a red streak into the night.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone