CHANCES part 02

Part 02 of "CHANCES", my monthly series, please enjoy!

0002#

In this mad world you only got to live three times, no matter who you are.

And every time you come back from death, you bring a strange gift with you, something people call simply Ability.

Ninety five per cent of the people get a strange, but mostly harmless Ability, like guessing the real weight of all people with blue eyes in a ten meter radius, or always knowing when your favorite TV show in on. The rest, 5%, are called FoG, Favorites of God, people with Abilities far beyond… harmless. But there is a catch, a big one:

More powerful Abilities have more dangerous Fatal Flaws.

My first’s Ability Fatal Flaw is that my perfect shield only cover 30% of my body at any time, and I have little to none control over it.

That’s why I am now turning my back to the same girl who just saved my life, while a bunch of punks are about to kill her, as many times they can.

I don’t look at her, just…Walk away of the bullets that will rain down her at any minute.

I am now at left and a little behind this criminal firing squad, and the girl looks at the punks and give them her middle finger as she provoke them, fearless.

Now I look at her, no fear on those tiny brown eyes, she look tired, I think her Flaw is to get drained after use. She will simply die there, and probably twice.

I wait her to beg, but she wont, damn kids nowadays don’t value life.

-OHM!

I clap my hands and say the mantra and I release a wide shock wave over the good-for-nothing punks for whom I have been working in the last three months. I hate them, to be honest.

My shock wave is my second Ability, and like any second Ability, is a derivation far more powerful of my first. I literally use my perfect shield to create a air pressure canon. And I guess no further explanations are necessary.

I got them all at once, they are not bothering anyone in the next few hours. I grab the one closest to me and take of his ridiculously colorful jacket with a hoodie , and I throw it over the girl shoulders.

She look at me puzzled, then smile, a honest smile, to bad she hide it bellow that annoying irony most kids have this days.

-Hey grandpa, easy on the goods, this bird here have a dislocated shoulder… Also I’m not into old guys, if you expect something afterwards.

-Just shut that pie-hole while I get us out of here, the rest of the punks will get here at any moment!

I get in the elevator and use the illegal Priority Key I have to turn our elevator in a private cab. Now she rise her head and look at me with adamant determination.

-Your guys upstairs were right. Velvet wants me dead.

-Yes, yes, I believe in it, a shorty girl has been attacking Velvet business around town in the last months, no brainer to see you fit the description.

-You KNOW who Velvet is, right?

I look at her like she just said the most stupid thing on Earth, of course I know.

-Kid, there are forty million people in this city, and every single one of them know who Velvet is. Fuck, people who never heard about Buda or Jesus know who Velvet is, what he does and why is so stupid and suicidal to mess with him, but look like you are kind of a crazy person, once you have messing with him.

-He, look who is talking, now you are my side kick.

She try to laugh, but both of us keep silently until we got to ten floors under the street level, the metro-city, the door open, but she just stand there.

-Grandpa, if you keep helping me you are good as dead. But if you kill me now Everyone will think you wanted to keep all the goodies for yourself, and Velvet love that on people.

-I’m not senile; I know how things work; now move or I will simply drag you like a trash bag.

-I am sorry to sound like a little uppity daisy, but this shoulder is kind of slowing me down.

-We should put it back in place. It’s actually worst than taking it off.

-I know, not my first time grandpa. Just let’s find a corner and do it.

They walk among a crowd of thousands, the metro-city crowd, the largest public transportation structure of the world, designed to transport from five to fifty million people every eight hours, 24 hour a day, seven days a week, non stop, never, twenty to eighty meters below surface. It was a city on it own, Shopping centers, schools, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels, hospitals, public gardens and even public pools, thankfully a crowded hell to digital surveillance. Was easy to disappear from police on  “downstairs city”.

As any city, it had some bad neighborhoods and we were in one: Police cams jammed or broken, hookers on every corner and lots of unsanitary things going in the alleys. We found a dark alley of our own.

-It will be painful, girl.

-Yeah, yeah, just do it.

She fold one of the arms of the jacket I borrowed and bite it. I push and pull her arm back to place. A muffled scream and she lost the balance. I’m over her now, it’s a brave kid, I admit.

-So how was it?

-Not as bad I thought it would be. Am I a little brave girl scout or not?

We both laugh of this lame and weird observation, But she suddenly stops.

-Someone is watching us… Jesus, it’s horrible.

-Damn, they found us already?

-No, it’s much worst.

-…Velvet men?

-No… It’s a decrepit old dude jerking off, Jesus all mighty, should we say we aren’t doing it? I mean. If he keep it I think I my eyes will bleed.

I feel like dislocating that shoulder of hers again, damn, I can’t afford to die from a heart attack.

-You little… just shut up and let’s move.

-Sure, hey play along…

-What…?

-Oh daddy! Don’t worry; I’m sure some Viagra can fix it…

-SHUT UP GOD DAMNED BRAT!

I can’t believe, things couldn’t be worst, the Boss of all crime bosses of this town is after us, and I am now tied to a dimwit. This time I am really done for.

I have some old tricks up my sleeve, and I’m the mood to put them to good use.

-Where are we going, grandpa?

-Stop calling me that!

-Aw daddy, don’t be so mean!

-My name is James, you wreckage of our educational system!

And both disappear in the alleys.

Back to surface, the everlasting party on the streets continues but several floors above a police line isolate the drug dealers-den.

A cop in uniform gives a detective a quick report:

-Plenty of “Dingos”, also a “Cherry” from down stairs, one more in the roof, the entry point. Plenty of cash and drugs.

-Fuck, what I’m supposed to do? Those guys are in Velvet “do-not-touch” list. You know we can’t arrest DNT guys.

The elevator door opens, and a large man and a tall girl walk off it calmly.

-Good news detective! Velvet sent us here to say hi!

The cops literally freeze in fear. The detective is the only one to talk back, politely:

-Good night Mistress Holly, mister Fracture. So you have orders on this case?

-Oh Fields,  is always a pleasure to work with you! First good news: Velvet decided that those gentlemen abused his patience, so their DNT privileges have been revoked. Me and Frac here will just take the organization part on the money and erase some shit from the computers and videos, and you can arrest them all for dealing those dangerous drugs!

Little surprised he look at the corpses in Lazarus State.

-All of them will come back in three days, any special treatment to them?

-Not this time, just let them know that they are back to the bottom of the food chain, but still in the game. Also, please report it was an inner fight, without Ability Users involved.

-As you order. I guess you already know that she was here.

The woman, dressed in leather, hit her heel on the floor.

-Yeah, don’t worry about her, we already have someone on her tail, isn’t guys?

Three figures in dark street-camo coats walk of the elevator; a woman, a man and a third person wrapped in bandages, so smaller that could be even a child.

-Yes, Piercer got a trail; she says they are on downstairs’ city.

-So she is out of her environment. Velvet wants her in pieces, split in boxes so he can delay her Lazarus state at his will.

-And the other?

-Who cares? Kill him; take him to dance, whatever. He has two abilities, and Velvet doesn’t give a damn about him, that’s all I have to say.

They return to the elevator, down to Metro-city.

TO BE CONTINUED.