章節 16: Acclimation I
Now that he could clearly see his muggers, the first thing Jack noted was how young each one of them was. Probably around his age or younger. One for example, he reckoned, couldn't be possibly older than 18.
Slightly unexpecting but ultimately, it still changed nothing.
The person who he assumed to be the leader of this little group, stepped forward confidently with an exaggerated tough guyTM swagger. Pants down, hanging around his ass, while holding his gun sideways, clutched in a loose grip and pointing it at him.
"For starters, ya wanna drop what ya carrying." He confidently said with a forced sneer, "Then, start emptying dem pockets! Ohh! And get naked too! Leave everything on you behind!"
"Hmmm," Jack put his hand under his chin while slowly tilting his head to the right, feigning to think about it. "So. Let me get it straight. You're going to mug a motherfucker decked in what looks like military-grade armor. Said motherfucker knew you were trailing him yet still called you out. And again, the same motherfucker is now seemingly acting unbothered and not panicking in the slightest despite the fact that he's currently being 'threatened' at gunpoint… Hmmm, did I get everything right?" He airily questioned.
At Jack's words, some of his friends exchanged quick looks of doubt and hesitation.
"Hey, James." Another one of the wannabe-muggers stepped forward and whispered-shouted to his friend. "I got a bad feel about it. I think that trying to start shit with this guy is a bad idea. Let's just leave him alone. C'mon!"
"Don't cha tell me you're afraid?" Their leader, the one apparently called James, shouted in incredulity, "He's just bluffing! Fucking with your head to make you second guess yourself. C'mon now, nigga! He's just some nobody! No fucking big name would work some shitty minimum wage job for some bottom tiers pizzeria! Homie here's a fraud, nigga! Just some weirdo going out in costume dressed as some kind of mercenary."
"You don't know that!" Hissed back his friend. "You can't be sure of that, dude! For all you know, you're wrong and the guy might be some new crazy freak who escaped Arkham."
"I'm ain't wrong and I fucking know that he's a nobody!" James snapped in irritation to his friend before rounding out to Jack. "You! If ya wanna fucking leave in one piece, start emptying out dem' pockets and drop that bag, now."
"Are you aware that Lorenzo's under Mark's protection?" Jack curiously asked, ignoring his command – some amusement coloring his voice. "He's the one in charge around here, I was led to believe. Didn't you get the memo?"
His two other friends stared at the young rogue with consideration, while William, presumingly the de facto second in command and voice of reason, warily looked at him.
Good. They knew Mark. This situation might be avoided.
"See! See!" James yelled, wildly gesturing at him with his gun while looking at his friend. "Do you see this?! Now that he knows he's in shit and his bluff ain't working, homie trynna weasel out of this by threatening us with his 'backing." He scoffed. "Last warning. Start. Dropping. Your. Back."
He celebrated too soon.
"Wait a little… last time… acting rashly… we got into fucking trouble because of that… stop to think for one moment… not worth it…"
"Wake up… just… a delivery man… nigga, stop overthinking stuffs…"
Jack tuned out their argument in favor of doing some reflection.
/-/
People who witnessed him use his power didn't even know the complete nature of it along with what he could really do. They assumed that he had some form of limited-range telekinesis.
Which was fair but still was a dangerous assumption to make in a fight. Jack had always done his best to keep the full capability of what his power could do under wraps.
Here. Nobody knew him. Nobody had an inkling about what he could or couldn't do. They don't have his kind of supes here. Heck. Some heroes or villains didn't even have powers!
It occurred to him that he was presented with an opportunity to rebrand himself.
It occurred to him that even now, he could take the piss with his muggers and the people who would start shit with him in the future. He could… maybe act a little over the top but not too much over the top. Like, for example, faking something along the lines of: "In order to use my power, I need to say a select set of words and/or do some kind of gesture…"
'Like an anime protagonist,' his chuuni mind whispered in jubilation.
Back in his homeworld, Jack would have been mocked and memed to hell if he even entertained the thought of doing something like this. People would have called him cringe; and anime were too mainstream for him to get away with it. So, he ruthlessly buried that desire in the deepest part of his teenage soul.
'Here, it's 2011. I'm pretty sure that most of the big-name anime of the decades that are going to shape an entire generation of new anime fans don't even exist yet.'
He could potentially get away with plagiarizing the coolest signature move or gesture of his favorite anime character. And act a little… really a tiny bits… chuuni.
And be cool doing so.
The question was… did he dare? Should he bother going through that trouble…?
'Is that even a question?'
Of fucking course, he dare! His chuuni teenager self wasn't quite as dead as he thought because presented with the possibility and opportunity to act according to his repressed desires; and without facing harsh consequences, aka getting clowned – which for a rogue, was practically a reputation breaker thing if he wasn't powerful as fuck – Jack lept to the chance.
"How could I possibly know that?" His principal mugger screamed in frustration, raising his arms up.
"You would have bro, if you'd stopped one single minute to think! Think!" His friend answered, not as loudly but with as much frustration.
It pulled him back from his musing. 'A dangerous thing to be distracted in the middle of a confrontation.' It goes for them and doubles for him. Thankfully, even armed, he didn't consider them to be a threat. Even less so with the way they were currently acting.
'They are posers. Trying to act tough and carve themselves a name and rep.'
Still, his mind snapped back to focus.
And not too soon because he was growing tired of them.
"If, if, if! It's always IF with you, never actio–"
Jack politely coughed, a tad loudly, interrupting them.
They both froze, turning back to him. And in the dimly lit street, he swore he saw one of them blush in embarrassment.
"Listen, let's just leave–" William grabbed his friend by the arm and tried to lead him away.
"Not the time!" The leader snarled, violently shaking off his grip's friend as he turned back toward Jack and pointed his gun at him. Again. "And you! What ya still doing standing there like some dumb fuck? You wanna die so badly, huh? Don't try me, bitch! Fucking start stripping or you gonna eat some lead."
He made the same threat… what? For the fourth time? He couldn't honestly take him seriously.
"I can't take none of you seriously." And Jack told him as much. "Seriously. You have no sense of self-preservation. It's common sense 101. When you're trying to ambush someone by surprise but that person instead already knows that you're here and even patiently waits for you to show up while greeting you once you do–" He criticized, slowly extending his arm – thumb up. "You should just run."
"You little shit!" Their leader snarled.
Multiple things happened at once.
The sound of a click. Metallic and familiar.
A shout of: "James, don't!"
A thumb was lowered down.
And reality got altered.
...…
...
…
At least, that's what he likes to think to himself every time he uses his power to switch objects or bend on his knees every law of physics. For as soon as the leader of this little ragtag group tried to press the trigger, Jack swapped his gun – along with every other weapon in the hands of his wannabe-muggers – and replaced them with some random trash littering the street.
The reactions were instantaneous.
"WHATTHEFUCK!" Shrieked one with a deafening, high-pitched scream, stumbling back as he looked with wide eyes at the disposable coffee cup in his hands. Instead of the bat he was carrying one second ago.
"The fuck!?" Screamed another, noticing that his knife had been replaced with some kind of fast food wrapper.
"..." William, the co-leader, was just dazzlingly standing around, staring at the cigarette butt in his hand.
"Ewww fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. How the fuck did this get into my hands? Ayoooo, is this fucking condom between my hands? This shit is so nasty!" The leader, James, shouted in panic, wildly gesticulated around even as he threw the condom away. "Ewwrghhhh, it was fucking used to! Jesus Christ, I have some stuff in my hands."
This seemed to snap the remaining three out of their stupor as they started to look at their leader, and then at each other. Seemingly only now taking notice that the same thing they experienced, had happened to everyone else.
Jack didn't let them get a hold of their senses. With a gesture of his right hand, he levitated various pebbles that were loitering on the ground.
The leader of the band of wannabe-muggers took note of his action and stepped back in fear, his face so pale that in the dimly lit street, it looked like he was a lightbulb, casting light around him.
His movement alerted the rest of his friends who turned to look at Jack. Their eyes opened up wide in fright as at their turn, they slowly started to back away even as one stayed rooted on the spot, seemingly paralyzed by fear.
"Oh… he ain't some random delivery guy…" Was their leader forlorn remark before with a forward finger motion, Jack sent a localized, controlled burst of telekinesis force behind the pebbles, sending them hurling at high velocity toward each one of them.
Their startled scream of anguish resounded out throughout the streets as pebbles smacked against their body, causing them to lurch in pain and some to throw themselves on the ground and turtle up.
Jack rotated the pebbles and kept at it for a small while, not even a full 15 seconds of pebbles-fire until he decided to stop when every one of them was cowering on the ground. While most of the pebbles weren't bigger than 64 mm (2,5") in diameter, it should still hurt like a bitch considering that something this size was sent flying at more than 100 meters per second.
A good half of the pebbles hadn't even reached them as they had disintegrated by the initial burst of force. And for those that had struck true, they had shattered upon making contact with their body, leaving noticeable bruises on the exposed parts of the body struck.
/-/
He ended up leaving their broken, cowering and groaning asses behind on the ground without uttering another word, walking away to his last delivery location. The delivery was uneventful and soon, he was jogging back to the pizzeria from rooftop to rooftop, after having notified Lorenzo's that he was done and on his way back. The little early scruffle, not even mentioned, as it wasn't something worth mentioning in his eyes.
What was worth mentioning though, was the fact that some people have witnessed what he did from their homes. At this time of hour, while it was dark, it wasn't so late that people were already asleep. No. Most people either were on their way to come back from school or work, or were having dinner after coming back from work or school.
Jack had noticed people peeking from behind curtains at the time, watching the scene unfolding. The confrontation did happen in the middle of a residential street and not in some dark and dirty back alley after all.
But he didn't mind having some spectators witness what he did. He doubted they caught much anyway, it was quite dark and they were quite far from the scene. And even if some might have clearly seen what happened, good luck for them to figure out how he did what he did outside of the obvious answer of 'power'.
Besides, it was time that words about what he could do start getting out so people knew that he meant business and was not someone being worth fucking with.
'Inshallah this might make randos think twice before trying anything to fuck with me.' Jack thought, jumping from a one-storey building before landing on the ground with a roll to help bleed his momentum and cushion his fall.
He got up and dusted his parka before picking up his backpack from the ground, having swapped it with some random object before jumping off.
"You're already back," Lorenzo grunted from the back kitchen upon hearing him stride into the pizzeria. "Good because I have 15 other orders waiting for you." He said, hobbling toward him. "Three at the same address in Burnley. Seven are in Crime Alley and the last five are in the Bowery. I have another 8 orders I'm prepping for 24" party pizzas waiting for you next. Still for somewhere in the Bowery. All at the same address. That order will be the last for the night."
His shoulder dropped a little at hearing the number of pizzas he would have to deliver next. Their locations were scattered around enough that he wasn't looking forward to making the entire deliveries on foot.
The task was going to be daunting. Still, making this many deliveries should net him a decent pay by the end of the night.
As if seeing his dejection, Lorenzo hurried to reassure him. "I had to reject a fair number of orders because they were too far and making the delivery without a scooter would have been impossible. Don't worry, I have someone working on that scooter. Next week, around the same day, you should have it."
"Got it." Jack nodded, inscribing the addresses of the orders on his wrist-mounted GPS before putting the pizza boxes in the backpack. "It's going to be done." He told Lorenzo before walking off the pizzeria.
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