Gacha God: Risky Bets (ch. 25) (Patreon)

"Ohh, swanky," I remarked, looking out at the guy we would be intimidating and/or kidnapping. He was an older guy -- white hair, wrinkles, but money let him age with grace. He lived in a nice high-rise apartment in New York, complete with a balcony with a swimming pool on it. He was dressed in one of those suits that looked like they were worth a thousand bucks, but you paid like fifty thousand for the brand. The outfit was complete with one of those weird silk scarf things that were draped over his shoulder and a watch that cost more than most people see in two lifetimes. "Sure you want to go with the drop? I'm not sure his heart could take it."

Black Cat spared me a glance, "You really aren't going to ask who he is?" She questioned, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as we camped out in a building that was under construction. We were doing recon now that he arrived home after a long day of doing… whatever it was that guy did. "Aren't you curious?"

"Nah, not really," I admitted with a small shrug of my shoulders as I lazily spun through the air. Zero gravity was awesome. "Plus, I'm looking forward to the surprise. Why ruin that for myself?" I questioned, looking back at her. Black Cat's gaze followed me for a moment, and for some reason, she seemed to be struggling to get a read on me. I knew the issue -- she was looking for an ulterior motive when there wasn't one. No, actually, that was a total lie -- there was an ulterior motive, it was just a lot simpler than she thought.

She was super hot.

That's… pretty much it, really.

"Hm. If you think he'll croak, then don't. I do need him alive. Unfortunately. I just need you to ask him some questions -- who is the Kingpin? Where is the money going? And do a little prodding with whatever he answers with," She requested and shot a dazzling smile at me.

Done and done. And I felt my interest rising in the whole situation. Who was the kingpin? There was a kingpin? "No problem. I'm guessing that you'll slip in unnoticed, do your thing, and as far as he's aware, Audacity is coming for this guy?" I asked, and Black Cat froze. Oh. Did she think she was being subtle? "I don't mind. This kingpin guy -- What- no, don't tell me. I wanna learn by myself. Sounds fun," I decided, grinning at the idea.

The tension started to ease out of Black Cat before she cast me a suspicious glance. Though, she didn't seem to disapprove exactly. "You sound like a kid in a candy shop," she remarked lightly.

"Danger is the spice of life. Alien invasions, mafias, billionaires -- it's fun. Having enemies is almost as fun as beating them. So, as far as I'm concerned, you're doing me a solid by putting me in this guy's crosshairs. Wait, is this kingpin the guy who you're after? Ah- no, never mind. I don't want spoilers," I hastily said, floating upside down. Oh, I hoped that he was something incredible. Did he control all of New York through proxies and unseen strings? That'd be exciting. Fighting the Russians had been amusing, but… well…

It was the difference between a snack and a meal. I could fill up on snacks just fine, but sometimes you wanted to sink your teeth into a full-course meal, you know?

Black Cat really didn't seem to know what to make of me, but her lips quirked upward, "Alright, no spoilers. Just keep him distracted while I do whatever I'm here to do," she remarked, reaching out to cup the side of my head, "And when the job is done, I'll have a proper reward for you." Then she leaned forward, pressing her lips to mine, the Kabuki mask separating us. And I was damn lucky that I was upside down because I'm pretty sure my brain just about died from blood loss.

She pulled back, her dark blue eyes telling me that she knew exactly what she just did. God damn. Save some sexy for everyone else. Or don't. I'm cool with this.

I gave her a salute, "Consider it done!" With that, I floated off, humming a tune to myself as I sailed over the street that separates us. I didn't particularly care for high-rise apartments -- not just because they were gaudy, but because they were dangerous. When you lived above it all, when everyone on the streets looked like ants, it was a very easy mistake to make thinking that you were safe. That you couldn't be touched. It was the only problem I had with the Fortress of DOOM.

When you were above it all, you couldn't imagine someone taking a shot at you. Which was why I preferred sleeping on the streets. The constant danger of someone stealing from you, the perpetual fear that one slip-up could cost you everything? Including your life? That kept you on your toes.

After all, it only took one asshole with the ability to fly to breach your supposed sanctuary.

Whoever this guy was, he didn't even bother locking the balcony door.

"Nice place," I did admit, looking around and announcing myself, making the old man jump out of his skin and splash the bourbon he had poured himself. It was a nice apartment, I had to admit. Wide open spaces, everything polished to a shine, good color scheme. "One of the questions I'm going to ask is for the number of your interior decorator."

"Oh… hell! Why are you here?! Why are you targeting us?!" The guy shouted, throwing his hands up as I floated over to him. He tried to run, but a little gravity manipulation took care of that. He suddenly found himself in the air, spinning helplessly, and he seemed to enjoy it a lot less than I did. Pretty spry for an old guy. Well, it should be fine, then.

"Targeting you?" I echoed, bringing him over to the balcony. My ATs produced a field of zero Gs, though it wasn't particularly big, and I did notice that the effects diminished the closer to the edge you got. I also didn't have fine control over everything in the field, I noticed as the couch was lifted, and spun lazily in the air as one end stayed in the field longer, before being set down. However, that seemed to be a skill issue. Floating over the pool, I dangled the old guy over the balcony. "I don't even know who you are. How could I possibly be targeting you?"

"Oh God! Oh God! Put me down- I-I'll answer whatever questions you have! Please don't drop me! M-my interior decorator! Her number! I have her number-!" He sputtered out, fumbling for his phone, but he ended up dropping it. Luckily, my gravity field caught it. Reaching out, I plucked it and gave it a look. It seemed expensive.

"Passcode?"

"081384!" He answered, gasping in relief but failing to not look down.

I typed the password in and saw the home screen. Pulling up the contacts… "Her name?" I asked, seeing that he had approximately three metric fuck loads.

"N-nancy!" He answered with a quiver in his voice.

Ah, there she was. Pulling out my phone, I copied the number. "Awesome. She knows how to use natural lighting, and she knows the line between upscale and gaudy." Might give her a ring to see if she did Fortresses of DOOM. "Anyway -- what's this about me targeting you? I've done no such thing," I told him, affronted by the accusation.

The guy looked absolutely baffled. More than he did scared. And he was really, really, really scared. "Y-you've been targeting us from the start! First with the Russians, and then with Tully!" He protested, and I blinked, caught flatfooted.

"Wait, Tully had connections with the Russians?" I asked, not even sure what I should process first. Actually, how did they know I had targeted Tully? I broke into his house, sure, but I didn't actually do anything. "Do you have connections to the Russians?"

The guy wasn't listening. "Then with Ian! You've been targeting our contacts! What do you mean you haven't been targeting us?! You've been picking us off!"

What? "Who the fuck is Ian?" I was so lost right now. Have I been picking a fight with a criminal overlord? I feel like that would be something I would have noticed.

"Ian Quinn! The billionaire! You attacked his villa and stole the Gravitonium!" He shouted at me, starting to sound a little pissed.

Ian Quinn? Oh. Yeah, that guy. I completely forgot about him. He just had one of those faces. "Huh." I had been tripping over a criminal organization and I hadn't noticed.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'huh'?!" The old guy shouted at me, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "Do you have any idea how many setbacks you've caused me? The amount of shit I've had to deal with because of you?! I'm just the money man! I make the numbers work! I can't fucking conjure up billions of dollars from thin air!" He exclaimed, starting to get choked up.

"Oh. My bad," I apologized, not really sure how to react when he wiped away a tear. It sounded like he had some stuff to get off of his chest and he was just unloading it in my direction.

"Bunch of idiots. I make hush funds and clean money -- that's what I do! It's what I'm good at! I… I always worked with crooks, but that's just how it is! Taking advantage of some loopholes. I never should have gotten involved with real criminals. Do you have any idea how many times I thought I was going to die this past month? Thank God we managed to bring Cottonmouth on board after you crushed the Russians." He sounded choked up, a sob lodged in his throat.

Cottonmouth? The gangster up in Harlem?

This was going to be so much fun. I was practically vibrating at the prospect -- I was going to fight an alliance of criminals and gangsters. Who was led by some kingpin?

Today was the best day ever.

The guy's eyes widened, "His name. I-I can give you his name -- the Kingpin! He's-" he began, but I reached out to press a finger to his lips. I think that action scared him more than being dangled over the side of a building.

"Shh. No spoilers," I told him. Why would I want to know?

The journey mattered more than the destination. I'd figure out who the kingpin was. I'd stumble through his organization and work my way up the chain of command. I'd do this the fun way. The proper way. Why would I want the answer handed to me?  It was an adventure!

The guy gaped at me -- I really should learn his name -- with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. I didn’t mind. I inspired that reaction in a lot of people. Eventually, after a long minute of sputtering, he managed to get some words out. “Then why are you here? Why are you doing this to me if you aren’t trying to take down the Kingpin?” He asked, sounding so bewildered and scared that he seemed more afraid of me than the drop.

I couldn’t exactly say it was because Black Cat asked me to. She wanted to paint the image that I was here because I was gunning for the kingpin. Because, somehow, they had the impression I was deliberately targeting them. I mean, I was going to now, but that wouldn’t explain why I was dangling this guy over the side of a building. So… “Because you make money disappear. I want you to make it reappear,” I decided, picking up from the pieces that he mentioned before.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was currently upside down, I think the blood would have drained from his face. “What?”

“You make money disappear for some crooks? Scummy billionaires and the like? I wanna know all about it," I decided, thinking it was a good chance to make some headway in that plan I had a pin in. The original idea was to steal all the money from the banks, but that was poor people's money. And while robbing banks did sound very entertaining -- and I might do it anyway -- the point was to get money to the people who needed it. The people that had to choose between skipping meals and paying a bill.

"They'll kill me," he replied.

"Well…" I began, letting him drop a little. He let out a screech of pure panic and I'm pretty sure I saw his heart in the back of his throat. He barely dropped a foot. Talk about being over dramatic. "It seems to me that you have more immediate problems than a billionaire coming after you."

"F-fine! Fine! I'll tell you everything!" He exclaimed, but I stopped listening when a sound reached my ears. I tilted my head at it before looking in the direction, seeing exactly what I thought I would.

Tony's suit was a lot quieter than it had any right to be. I barely noticed the sound of the thrusters until he was practically upon us, but you couldn't make them entirely silent. That split second before he arrived gave me a moment to consider some options and see that he was currently flying solo. "Audacity. Lovely to see you. Am I interrupting something?" Tony questioned, his featureless golden faceplate looked down at… the guy. I never got his name.

"Kinda-"

"Help me! HELP ME! He's crazy! You have to stop him!" He sobbed out with evident relief.

"Well that's hurtful," I remarked, stealing a glance at him to see what Tony would do. Was he here because of Shield? Did the cops get called? Did Shield notice me with the spy satellite that they have pointed at New York? Or was he here because he happened to catch me as he flew by? Tony and I had something of a non-aggression pact to troll Shield, but I doubted that he was so attached to the agreement he was willing to risk Shield's ire over it. "Nice to see you. It'd be great to catch up, but I am in the middle of an interrogation right now, so…" I trailed off.

"No can do, kid. Shield asked me to bring you in for your own interrogation. Gonna come in quietly?" He asked me, and I suppose that answered that. However, I also noticed that he volunteered the information, telling me that he was putting on an act. Or he was luring me into a false sense of security, but that didn't really change the result.

"Oh. I'm good," I decided, giving him a slight nod. Message received. However, I'm pretty sure Black Cat was still doing something in the apartment, so I couldn't just leave… this guy here. So, I did the obvious thing.

I took him with me.

"Ahh! AHHHHHHHHHH! OH GOD! OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" For an old guy, he sure has some lungs on him I noticed as I shot off into the air with him in tow, sailing above the building and flipping to see that Tony hesitated a split second before he gave chase. I couldn't tell if he noticed Black Cat or not, but at this point it was too late to do anything about it. "HELP! HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

"Come on, kid -- put the old guy down before you give him a coronary," Tony said, giving chase as he engaged his weapon systems. I sailed over a building, crossing a block before deciding that it was probably far enough.

"Don't go anywhere," I told him, dropping the old guy off on top of a building, he collapsed to the ground and trembled like a leaf, curling into the fetal position. With that, I shot off into the air and Tony was quick to give chase. He was really trying to sell that he was coming after me. "So, are we actually doing this?"

"Gotta make it look good for the cameras, Audacity. Plus, I was already planning to grill you," Tony replied, his tone unusually serious. "First of all -- nice roller skates. You pick them up for that little death game you're involved in?" He asked me, his tone flippant.

My heart went still in my chest, flinching back at the remark. What? "... How in the fuck do you know about that?!" I exclaimed, caught completely flat footed as we flew above New York, my mind racing a mile a second. Did he bug the mancave? No, that didn't make sense -- I never outright called it a death game to Mary Jane. More than that, if he had bugged the mancave then he would know that I wasn't competing any more.

So how did he know?

"You-" Tony started, sounding surprised by how shocked I was. "Your brother. The one that was murdered? He might have mentioned it along with some other things before he died."

Past Me told them? What the fuck? What an absolute dick. I'm so glad that I shot that guy. Loose lips sink ships, idiot. How did it even come up?

"Look, kid, I figured that was you conning Shield, but if you really are involved in something like that, then you can ask for help," Tony began, holding his hands up, as if he meant no harm. Now he was confusing me -- what did that look like from the outside looking in? How would Shield make sense of that? I figured that they'd stop looking for a guy with my face, but I hadn't anticipated Past Me having such a loose tongue. As for Tony, who knew what I looked like underneath the mask?

Twins? Cloning? I had no idea.

What a prick. I'm so glad I killed Past Me. He had it coming.

"I'm good," I dismissed the offer out of hand. "You're reading way too much into what you heard."

To that, Tony tilted his head as he flew across from me. Directly at the edge of the gravity field, I noticed. "So, you aren't going to have a sibling of yours try to murder you because of some prophecy?" He asked and…

I hesitated.

If this was real, then I doubted I would so easily be let off the hook. That wasn't Dad's style. No… his style would be to send the winner after me. Meaning that I would have to face her.

That hesitation gave Tony his answer. "Don't be stubborn, kid. I like you, but if you're not going to ask for help, I'm going to help you even if I had to drag you kicking and screaming. You won't win," he earned me and an affronted expression crossed my face. I wouldn't win? I wouldn't win?!

"Uh, first of all -- yes, I would. I'd kick your ass up and down the street. Secondly, I don't need any help. I don't want any either," I told him outright. It might be a year or two before the game ended, maybe sooner. No real way to tell on my end. But,judging by how fast we had been killing each other over the course of a decade, a year seemed like a solid bet.

I left the game because I knew I would win.

And I knew who the runner up would be.

"As if -- this suit? Designed to kick your butt the moment I heard about the Gravitonium stuff. So, if you ever had a chance, it's a snowball in hell now," Tony replied, every bit as affronted as I was.

I tilted my head, "Bet." Really not how I thought this day would go, but I wasn't complaining. I got to fight Iron Man.

There was a brief pause. "Tesseract. I get to keep it."

Oh, right for the throat, huh?

"Your armor… and you have to change the name of Avengers Tower to Audacity Tower for the period of… call it a month," I decided. Tony crossed his arms, not looking g pleased with that, even through his mask.

"That's not fair!" He protested, gesturing to me.

"Is too! Your armor isn't worth that much," I pointed out. "I'll drop the armor, but instead you have to change the name for a year."

"Did you just- what are you going to do with my armor, huh? Fly around in it and call yourself Iron Boy?" Tony shot back at me, taking that comment personally. Oh, I touched a nerve. And everyone knew the best thing to do when you found a nerve was to keep poking.

"Why would I? My skates are way cooler. The armor is pretty lame -- I just wanted it because I knew it would annoy you. And for bragging rights," I told him, and boy – if I was trying to annoy him it was working like a charm. "Don't feel like putting your money where your mouth is?"

"Not at all," Tony said, his tone downright smug, as if he knew he was going to win. As if. That armor was mine. And I couldn’t wait to see how he was going to justify renaming the Avengers Tower after what amounted to a terrorist considering my attack on Ian Quinn. That was going to be a real popcorn flick. “I’ll take that bet,” he said, “Just don't start crying when I beat you, kid.”

As if.