Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Admittedly, heading to a popular burger joint right after committing four person homicide wasn’t the greatest of ideas.

The adrenaline rush that accompanied mortal combat had faded away completely by the time we busted out the Southside and was heading up the middle lane on Lord Street, so I shifted mental gears and opted to follow my crippled passenger’s souped up GPS directly to her hideaway near the Docks. The traffic got significantly busier as we drove through the middle of Downtown, but my paranoia about speeding was pretty low considering Cassie’s phone had a scanner that apparently pinged off nearby police communication devices. How the fuck she managed that through a mobile app, I had no idea, but I wasn’t one to look security ungratefully upside the head.

We were just hitting 75 after yet another lane change when the passenger princess broke our companionable silence by reaching forward and click-clacking at her cracked phone screen, taking us off of her weird GPS-Scanner app. I glanced down, one hand on the wheel, and arched an eyebrow at her fiddling.

“Unless you’re tryna be my IRL Siri, I kinda need to see where the blue line’s takin’ me.” I said in  a questioning tone, pumping the gas a bit to cut off some asshole trying to overtake me from the right lane.

“Don’t worry Mr. Sunday Driver, it’s mostly a straight shot from here. We’ll probably wanna ditch the ride soon though.” Cassie responded with an idle wave of her free hand, the other one scrolling down what looked like a pink and black version of Spotify - if it was made in Bizarro World. I returned my eyes to the road pretty fast, though. Safe habits; they kept me out of car crashes back on my Earth, and they would do the same here damn it.

“Easy enough. Excuse my old lady speed, though - I’m not really tryna get stopped by the cops in a dead man’s Dodge Charger. Your little police scanner can’t possibly pick up every mention of the word ‘car’ in Brockton Bay.” My finger began to tap a quiet little beat on the steering wheel, even as I glanced boredly out the rearview mirror. Nothing but plain ol’ cars, all heading forward and back in an endless cycle.

Cassie snorted.

“Definitely not in the entirety of Brockton, but I’m currently keyed in on mundane comms throughout this part of the Bay. Once we get deeper into the shittier part of the Docks and away from Downtown, we’ll have less to worry about. But forget about that for now - what kinda music do you listen to?”

The sudden question threw me for a loop. “Depends on the kinda music you got. My taste varies.”

In my peripheral vision, I could see the girl practically preen in arrogance. She looked like a colorful little bird in her bright, oversized jacket. Maybe one a bit worse for wear.

“Let’s see here…I’ve got some Mandrake - dude’s a classic in Rock n’ Roll, a bit of Larry Herd…I don’t really like country though. A lot of EDM, from back when I was in my techno-girl phase…don’t ask about it. I’ve even got some unreleased tracks I managed to, uh, pick out from some popular artists-”

“You got any Lil’ Wayne?” I cut her off, already tired of hearing a bunch of names that I definitely didn’t know. Didn’t Earth Bet follow normal history up until a certain point? I knew that GTA, at the very least, existed in this world - mainly because I’d read something about ‘Uber and Leet’ fucking up hookers during one of their many video game rehearsal shenanigans. Or maybe that was fanon, and I was completely incorrect. “Shit, or even some Drake. His sad fuckboy shit would be a nice balm on the morning we’ve had so far.”

Silence enveloped the car. I didn’t have to look over to know that Cassie was looking at me oddly, if not a bit offendedly due to me cutting her off. “Who the hell is ‘Lil Wayne’? Sounds like a rapper or something, right? And there’s a couple Drakes, but…”

Damn, they probably didn’t exist here. Or maybe not yet? Fuck, I really didn’t get how this shit worked. Quantum Physics wasn’t my strong suit. “They’re pretty underground,” I sighed, exaggeratedly pointing my nose up and away from Cassie. “You wouldn’t know them I guess.”

“Ha!” she laughed out loud, playfully punching my shoulder. It was a testament to her significant lack of physical strength and weight that the hit didn’t even budge my grip on the wheel. “Dick. I mostly listen to rock and EDM, so I guess I wouldn’t.”

“You can just play whatever you usually listen to. I’m mainly trying to keep an ear out for trouble. If the scanner’s audio even works with music playing.”

Cassie rolled her eyes, but a genuine smile still graced her face. “If it catches one of my keywords it’ll stop any third party audio, dad. But thanks, I think I know just what I wanna listen to. Music…helps a lot with stress, y’know? Today’s been pretty wild.” Her voice got a bit quieter as she began scrolling again. An easy silence grew between us once more, before…

“And, uh, if you wanna help me try to find your ‘secret underground artists’ later, we can listen to them together…if you’d like.”

I blinked, turning my eyes from the road ahead and looking back over at Cassie. She was markedly not meeting my gaze, but her smile - smaller but no less genuine - seemed to accentuate the slight blush on her cheeks. Or maybe the redness was from the heat of the car, because it was getting a bit toasty. Regardless, it all made for a surprisingly cute sight from the spunky hacker.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah, sure. It’s a date.”

She scoffed, her smile growing a tinge as she met my dry and lidded stare. “In your freaking dreams, jackass. Pay attention to the road.”

“Mm.”

She finally seemed to find whatever song she was looking for, as she clicked on a little thumbnail that showed a beach with a blue thunderbolt flashing through the sky. Immediately, the sounds of electronica began bumping through the speakers of the car - surprising, considering I didn’t remember her plugging up an AUX or connecting to some sort of bluetooth.

It wasn’t my type of music, to be sure, but when I noticed Cassie relaxing back in the passenger seat with her little smile, nodding her head along to the violent and eclectic beats, I figured I’d just endure the ensuing headache and pretend I liked the ‘song’.

That was a very minor sacrifice for keeping that smile on her face for a little bit longer. I kinda liked how it looked.

_________________________________________

Cassie had fallen into a deep sleep by the time we arrived into the Docks proper, and I felt pretty bad at the thought of waking her. Don’t get me wrong, I would in a heartbeat if I felt like it was necessary, but with her asleep and the loud EDM music turned off I was easily able to navigate back to the GPS app. It actually wasn’t that dissimilar from my old Google Maps, except it gave me a whole view of the entirety of Brockton Bay alongside a smaller subscreen with different names and buttons.

Most of them were encoded and completely lost to me, like G-1059629 or Z-5968274, but ‘Brockton Bay PD’ was pretty easily identified.

I turned the audio of that particular scanner up to a medium volume as I pulled off into one of the quiet side-streets that the GPS guided me towards. The area seemed pretty barren - like I remembered from the wiki, the Docks seemed to be a smorgasbord of warehouses, abandoned factories, and poorly constructed homes and apartments - though I noticed that we’d left the residential neighborhoods behind a while back.

It was starting to become midday - Cassie’s phone read 4 PM, and the sun was beaming a warmth down that completely contradicted the previous frostiness of the morning. Brockton Bay seemed pretty fucking random in the weather department.

A static-like buzz brought my attention down to the phone. Moments later, a tinny, gruff voice came through the speakers, though it sounded crackly and fragmented.

“...no trace of…witnesses reported…golden…in a dark hoodie…be on the lookout for a dark red-”

The audio fizzled out again. Instincts almost had me smacking the phone until I realized that the bar beneath ‘Brockton Bay PD’ was probably the signal strength - and it was quickly lowering down into the red zone. We were probably far enough away from whoever was issuing the BOLO for the signal to almost completely go dead. Still, as broken as the information was, common sense told me that they probably didn’t get a good look at my face and Cassie wasn’t even mentioned - which was fair, considering she spent the entire fight literally lying in a broken heap on the side of the sidewalk.

The car was an issue, though, and we needed to get rid of it now.

Fortunately, we were already in what could be constituted as an abandoned side alley, and other than maybe a bit of sweat and other miscellaneous bodily fluids the car was pretty clean. I wasn’t even sure if it mattered if I bled or sweated everywhere…it’s not like I was a native to Worm. I had an ID card, sure, but those were easily fabricated. I sincerely doubted that they had my DNA logged anywhere in the system. I was practically a ghost, and as long as I kept my face outta view of any cameras or nosy snitches I would hopefully stay that way.

At least until I felt secure enough to reveal myself fully.

“Yo, Cassie,” I reached over and prodded her cheek.

No response.

“Cass.” I said a bit louder.

Nada.

I smirked, a devious thought coming to mind. I raised my voice higher, feigning shock and disgust. “HOLY SHIT, what is this browser history-?!”

“NOOO!”

It wasn’t often that I genuinely laughed, but something about this entire day - and the girl I’ve spent it with - had me in a…different mood. Lighter, more floaty.

I released a full body guffaw as Cassie lunged forward, a broad grin curling into my cheeks as I restrained her back down with one large hand. As lean as I was, I had broad shoulders and long arms - and plus, it was purely for her benefit. I wasn’t 100% certain that her fucked up ankle was broken, mainly because there seemed to be no blood or white parts sticking out, but I doubted her mad lunge for her phone would’ve felt good.

“Heh…calm the fuck down. I didn’t go through your phone. Clearly you got a lot to hide if you’re freakin’ out like that, though.” I chuckled, taking my hand off of her almost nonexistent chest.

She, fortunately, made no comment on the touch - too busy yanking her phone out of the console mount and cradling it against her body. Her eyes were still sleepy and blurry, but they had no issues glaring daggers. Blunt daggers, maybe, but daggers all the same.

“You can’t play with a woman’s privacy like that, Jason,” she huffed.

I shrugged easily. “When that same woman is an accessory to murder on my behalf, I think we skip a few steps.”

“Shhh, dumbass, don’t say that out loud so easily! Where even are we?” Cassie stifled a yawn as she sat up straighter in the seat, a wince covering her face as the movement jostled her injured ankle.

“Check the GPS. We’re in the Docks, that much I know. Some random ass alley off the side of…” I peeked over at the screen, “Burgundy Street?”

Her face lit up as she slipped the phone into her pocket. “No need to check - I know where we are. It’ll take us fifteen minutes to get to my spot if we go by foot…probably longer with my bum ankle, but I don’t want to get the car any closer.”

“Yeah, that would be a pretty stupid idea. That’s why I parked here…figured we could, I don’t know…set it on fire or something?” I still had the Zippo in my pocket after all. Additionally, the fishing line in my soul was starting to loop around something…I could feel a pretty hefty charge resting in my sternum, and the Grimoire probably wanted to wane off the excess. What were the odds that my next magic would be something arson-related?

“Ew, you’re starting to smirk evilly again Jason - stop it. And what the fuck do you mean set it on fire? You wanna just blow a car up in some random alleyway?!”

I wiped the drool from my lips and fixed the deadpanned Cassie with an unamused glare. “Cars don’t just explode when you set ‘em on fire…they smolder, burn, and smell horrible. Although the tires might burst. It’ll probably gain some attention but we’ll be long gone before it gets to that point. Hopefully…”

I trailed off, because the Grimoire managed to snag that elusive mote of light that almost slipped away. It was getting easier, dividing my attention between the inner workings of my soul and the outside world, so I was able to catch Cassie’s next words even as I briefly surveyed the magic being offered.

“‘Hopefully’ is a pretty huge adverb in this situation, Jay. Wouldn’t we be better off by sending it into the bay or something?” She seemed unsure, a far-cry from her usual rough bravado, but who wouldn’t when talking about dumping a dead nazi’s whip? I pretended to think over my response while inwardly analyzing the Grimoire.

Sorcery - Conveyance, One Dot (WoD: Sorcery - 100 CP): Teleportation, flight, and other means of magically swift transportation are covered by this path.

[1] The sorcerer may transport themselves across roughly 10 feet.

Teleportation! And something else from the World of Darkness? Hell fucking yes - if there was one spell that I felt would be useful in all aspects of life, it was teleportation. Who couldn’t find a use for something so utilitarian and multidimensional? Not to mention Spellcaster would probably increase the range a little bit…if I understood the ability correctly. I reeled it in quickly and efficiently, not bothered at all by the feeling of my consolidated charge growing smaller with the catch.

Shaking my head and pushing the nerdy wizard thoughts to the side, I refocused on Cassie. “Something tells me ‘dumping shit in the bay’ is the choice most sloppy criminals default to when tryna hide evidence, and I don’t know if we wanna show ourselves, along with the car they’re looking for, anywhere near a place like that right now.”

She bit her lip. Thin, soft, and red, the poor girl’s mouth was already looking a bit bruised from the abuse her teeth had inflicted from the stress of the day’s activities. “Damn, you might be right. Okay, just…let me check something real quick. Try not to set anything on fire just yet.” Still fiddling with her bottom lip, Cassie leaned back in the seat and brought her one uninjured leg up to her chest, looking distinctly uncomfortable with the half-and-half position.

It was probably an instinctive comfort thing though, because she was almost immediately sucked into her own world, click-clacking on her phone once again. I didn’t want to interrupt whatever the fuck she was doing, so I decided to just pull the car further up into the alley near a couple of overfilled dumpsters. The alley wasn’t a deadend, but the street on the other side seemed just as quiet and desolate as the one behind so I tried not to let it make me paranoid. If anyone was snooping around and watching, I felt like I would’ve been able to spot ‘em by now. Unless they were pulling a Batman and lurking on the rooftops…

Ugh.

Turning the car off, I chanced a glance out the window and up to the lip of the roof beside us. Nothing.

“Whew…paranoia’s gonna be the death of me…”

“What was that?” Cassie murmured, darting her eyes towards me without stopping her handheld typing. How the Hell did she even move her thumbs that fast?

“Nothing,” I sighed.

“Cool. So look, I used a personal app I made called ‘Spy Be Gone’ to hook into the CCTV cameras around our location - Burgundy Street, right? They’re still using Detcore as a security network for their IP addresses, old shit, and I’ve already installed a subroutine for those years ago. As long as those babies stay connected to wherever they’re keeping the servers for this side of the Docks, I’ll have eyes on every spot with an unprotected CCTV for this entire block.”

She showed me her phone screen, a wide, prideful smile on her face. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I had no fucking idea what she was going on about, but the dozen or so little black and white squares of live camera footage told me all I needed to know. Curiously, I stuck my hand out the window of the Charger and saw the same arm wave out of a nondescript car in one of the lower CCTV recordings.

My eyes widened. One click of her finger, and that same camera went lights out.

“You…are something else,” I breathed, genuinely impressed despite myself.

Cassie blushed, her nose wrinkling in that same cute way it did the last time she was both embarrassed, proud, and fake annoyed at the same time. “Yeah, well…” For some reason, I got the impression that she wasn’t used to flexing her talents to people who actually gave a shit. Or receiving compliments. Or, as evident from her reaction to skinship, receiving physical affection. Life was hard on the lonely hacker.

So I reached down and rested my hand on her head, messing up her short, straight locks of greasy black hair. “I’m being serious, good work Cass. This would be a fucking shitshow without you.”

Idly, in the back of my mind, I knew that I was taking advantage of the pitfalls of her life in order to get a certain reaction and feeling out of her. I didn’t actually feel the urge to thank or compliment her, but I did it because I knew it would make her feel good and feel affection towards me. That was the thing about being Jason Black…empathy was a decision and a choice, rather than a natural human instinct. Regardless, I couldn’t really bring myself to feel bad about wanting to emulate being a good person.

Cassie’s blush, previously just a scant little dust of red on her cheeks, volcano’d instantly. Her bruised lips warbled up into a shy, tentative smile, and it seemed like she didn’t know whether to melt into the slow, deep massage of my hands and fingers in her hair, or pull away in fear. “T-thanks Jason, that um…it means a lot. I’m…I’m proud of the stuff I’ve made. I know they’re just little ratty apps and scripts instead of badass Tinker shit like Armsmaster’s halberd or one of Dragon’s suits, but-”

“Meh.” I yawned.

Her brow furrowed, and her smile froze. A self-suffering snort broke through her previously rosy exterior. “Boring, right? Compared to all that heroic stuff, I guess it would be.”

“No, I mean the beard dude and the mech suits and all that shit. Just…meh. Never been a fan of Gundam or Robocop.”

Cassie’s pity party screeched to a resounding halt, and she blinked owlishly up at me, my hand still resting on her head. “What?”

“I like your apps. Hacking’s cool…I did a bit of coding in co- er, highschool, and even though I flunked out I still find it badass. Kinda like magic, y’know? A few random numbers and words and bam, you’re controlling the Statue of Liberty and shit.” I withdrew my hand, inwardly smirking at the way she instinctively moved her head to follow after it without realizing.

Her eyes, however, were completely focused on me. What seemed like surprise, amazement, and something else my current Force of Spirit-lacking self couldn’t identify brightened her gaze. “You know…you’re something else too.” She threw my words right back at me, shaking her head in amusement.

I winked, and she deadpanned.

“Don’t do that if you’re not even gonna bother putting more emotion on your face. It’s creepy, no matter how handsome you are.”

“I’ll take the compliment. Now, use those cameras to find me a place with gasoline. Or oil. There has to be something around here, and we don’t have time to search the whole block.” I grinned, sitting back in the cushy leather driver’s seat and crossing my arms over my chest.

Cassie sighed, but her mood definitely seemed happier as she hunched over her trusty phone once again. “Fine. I can’t really tell, but it seems like there’s drums of something over here at Camera 11B, which would prooobably be somewhere over…”

As she reverted into ‘girl in the chair’ mode, filling my ear with absolutely essential information that I’d probably have her summarize right after she was done, I had to admit something to myself. The thought even surprised me.

I still wasn’t happy about being sent here…but this could’ve been a lot worse. Cassie truly made everything much more bearable, and I was lucky to meet her at that bus stop.

I wasn’t completely confident about the near future, but maybe…

‘Maybe things’ll go smooth for once…’

_________________________________________

Perks Received:

Sorcery - Conveyance, One Dot (WoD: Sorcery - 100 CP): Teleportation, flight, and other means of magically swift transportation are covered by this path.

[1] The sorcerer may transport themselves across roughly 10 feet.

900 CP Remaining.