August Intruder- Chapter 37- Mr. Hitchcock (Patreon)

Officer Clivensky was Naymond’s officer of choice.

He was a large man with a deep tan. And by large, Melmarc didn’t mean fat or obese, he meant huge. He looked like he benched three elephants on a good day, and his uniform had enough material to sow four suits for Melmarc and have some to spare.

Naymond picked him randomly at the parking lot and had all but commandeered him away from what was supposed to be his patrole partner.

And now they were driving in his patrol vehicle as he cruised round a section of the town. Naymond sat regally in the front passenger seat while Melmarc and Pelumi sat in the back.

The protector between the front and the back section of the car made Melmarc slightly uncomfortable. There was just something about it that made the back seat look like a place strictly for criminals.

They had been driving in relative silence for the past hour or two with the occasional whining fron Naymond about how boring the job was or why they needed to patrol when they could be in some museum trying to track down one art thief or the other through one of their works.

“You’d be surprised by how many paintings you see in museums are fake,” he groaned to no one in particular.

When nobody responded to him, he let out a deep sigh.

Melmarc brought out his phone and shot Delano a quick text. It was a week-day and it was noon. By this time Delano would most likely be in class. Which meant he wouldn’t see the text until at least an hour.

Update on the Sage, he typed. His real name is Naymondeel Art Hitchcock. He’s B-rank. He used to be a Delver. And he has a skill called World of Insight. It’s not a world skill. That should help with your search.

He locked his display almost immediately after, then almost started feeling bad.

Is this how I’m going to feel whenever I use my skills for myself? He wondered.

It wasn’t like he was doing anything bad with it, yet it felt like some deep form of invasion of privacy. And it was.

He’d literally taken information Naymond had not voluntarily shared with him.

But he was the one that asked me to use my skill.

That gave him a little justification, but not enough. Even if it justified him getting the information, it didn’t feel like it justified him sharing it.

But what was he supposed to do? He had no clue what kind of person Naymond was. All he knew was that he was eccentric, liked breaking into people’s offices to hold meetings and arrange their papers, and Pelumi seemed to enjoy his company.

The Gifted was a felon who’d commited a crime so mysterious that not only did detective Alfa not know what it was, but those above her thought Naymond too important to be left to rot in jail.

Even Naymond acknowledged that he was a felon not worth trusting.

But is that enough reason to share his secrets?

Melmarc frowned. He needed to get a hold on the whole dilemma thing, because it wasn’t going to be a healthy practice in the long run.

He couldn’t start feeling guilty everytime he used his skill to get information someone wanted to keep a secret or not.

It was his skill and he needed to come to terms with the good and the bad that came with it.

He stared at his reflection on his blank phone screen and sighed. Easier said than done.

Beside him, Pelumi was looking at him with a touch of worry.

“Pop quiz!” Naymond said suddenly, startling them. “How do you increase your mastery over a skill?”

That wasn’t a pop quiz, that was a question anyone could answer.

“By using it as many times as you can,” Pelumi answered.

Naymond made a jarring buzz sound. “Wrong!”

“But that’s how everyone does it,” Melmarc said.

“The fact that everyone does it that way, Mr. Lockwood, doesn’t mean its how it’s done.”

“Then how’s it done, Mr. Hitchcock?” Pelumi asked.

“Call me Nay, Ms. Pelumi. And since you’re both my lovely students, I’ll tell you how it’s done. Officer Clivensky, please close your ears.”

Officer Clivensky did not, and Naymond scoffed haughtily.

“Anyway. People grow their mastery by using their skills a lot, but that’s not why their mastery grows. The growth of their mastery is the result of the side effect of using their skills a lot.”

“So how does a Gifted grow their skill, Nay?” Melmarc asked.

Naymond smacked his lips as if tasting something, then shivered. “I told you to call me Nay when we met, right?”

“You did.”

“Well, I sincerely apologize for that, Mr. Lockwood.” He smacked his lips again. “I mean no disrespect when I say that it leaves an odd taste in my ear to hear you call me Nay.”

But you’re smacking your lips. And ears don’t have taste.

“I shall continue to call you Mr. Lockwood, and you may call me Mr. Hitchcock.”

Melmarc didn’t really have a problem with that. “What if you called me Melmarc, or Marc, and I called you Naymond, or Nay?”

Naymond turned his nose up then shook his head. “It doesn’t quite have the appeal, Mr. Lockwood.”

“But you call me Ms. Pelumi and not Ms. Olatunji all the time,” Pelumi pointed out.

They were driving through a part of the city that looked for less developed than the rest of the city. In their drive, they passed a group of men standing around, having a conversation.

“Slow down, Officer Clivensky,” Naymond said casually. “We’ll be parking very soon. Just go around the block one more time.”

Clivensky eased the car into a slow drive and did as he was instructed.

“As I was saying,” Naymond continued. “I call you Ms. Pelumi because it just rolls off the tongue better than Ms. Olatunji. Olatunji feels more like something you would call a missus. And you seem friendlier than Mr. Lockwood. You say my name like we’re friends. Mr. Lockwood says it like there’s a guillotine hanging above his neck ready to fall if he doesn’t. And being addressed as Nay by him, knowing what I know, feels like there's a guillotine hanging over my neck.” He paused in thought. "No. A Damocles sword is a better choice."

He wasn’t wrong. Melmarc just never felt comfortable calling adults by their first name. Mister, miss, and missus, followed by their last name were always comfortable for him.

He only called Naymond Nay because the consultant had asked it off him. Also, what exactly did Naymond mean by knowing what he knew?

What does he know? Melmarc wondered.

It couldn't be because he was a Faker, right? That was already old news.

“So I’ll call you Mr. Lockwood," Naymond continued. "And you’ll call me Mr. Hitchcock. Believe me when I say that I don't mean for it to be rude. Only necessary. How does that sound?”

Melmarc met Naymond’s eyes through the rearview mirror and nodded.

“I’m good with that,” he answered.

“Good. Now back to our pop quiz.” He pointed at a road. “Officer Clivensky, please take a right turn here. The only way to increase the mastery of your skill is to understand it better.”

He said nothing else.

Pelumi looked confused. Melmarc didn’t blame her.

“I know, I know,” Naymond said, sounding impressed with himself. “You’d think everyone would know it since it’s quite literally in the name, but people don’t. People who use their skills a lot tend to understand it over time that’s why they think that using it a lot increases the mastery. You’d be a dunce to use a skill a bunch of times and not learn something new about it.”

It made sense to Melmarc. But it sounded like something that had a massive loophole.

“But what if someone just sat down and thought a lot about his skill, are you saying that could work?”

Naymond scoffed. “As if. Have you ever seen someone just sit down one day and think a bunch about the English language and start figuring it out? Like they just sit down and end up realizing what Homonyms and Homophones are and what words have them?”

“If he already knows the words, I don’t see why not,” Officer Clivensky said in a bland voice.

“Ears on the road, Officer Clivensky or I’ll start talking about the relationship between cats and dogs. And we both know how uncomfortable you get around cats and dogs.”

Melmarc was beginning to think Naymond knew Officer Clivensky and hadn’t chosen him at random.

Officer Clivensky grumbled something about a pain in the ass consultant. Naymond gave him a wide smile before continuing.

“Now, Skills are much like mathematics. You can’t just sit down, think about it and discover new formulas and creative ways to use them. You certainly can’t derive any formulas that way. You’ve got to practice, solve new equations and old. Dare to challenge.”

Melmarc thought the Sage was being a bit dramatic but said nothing. At least Pelumi seemed to be enjoying the drama, if her face was anything to go by.

“Even a Sage, for all our magically heightened intelligence, can’t pull it off. For example, Mr. Lockwood, why do you have to pick from a list of skills? Why can’t you just be intentional about it, target an individual and automatically select their skill when you activate yours. And Ms. Pelumi, why don’t you get to pick what type of summons you want?”

That left Melmarc and Pelumi in thoughtful silence. If he was being honest, he had thought of that and not thought of it at the same time.

It was like wondering to yourself why one plus one had to be two. It wasn’t as the example, but it was along those lines. Why could one plus one not be two? Simple. Because it just wasn’t until you got to a point where it was.

A better example would be a child believing numbers didn’t belong in mathematics. They might wonder, but they would simply come to accept that it was simply how it was. Numbers belonged to math, and letters belonged to every other subject.

It would be that way until things changed and math surprises them with letters at a certain grade.

Officer Clivensky rolled the car to a slow stop under Naymond’s instruction.

“Alright, my lovely Gifted,” Naymond said. “I’ve taught you two lessons as a detective and two as a Gifted. I’m about to give you a third as a detective. Now, somewhere behind us is a bunch of men selling drugs. Don’t look back, just listen.”

Melmarc grabbed Pelumi’s wrist without thinking before she could look back. She stopped her turning motion and looked down at his hand, instead.

“You have soft hands,” she said.

Melmarc wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not. Her tone made it seem like a simple observation, though.

“Now, amongst those men is a Gifted,” Naymond continued. “I know this Gifted. The precinct wants this Gifted. Because of that, the both of you are going to chase after this Gifted and catch him.”

Melmarc wasn’t entirely sure what kind of plan would help them accomplish this. “There’s just two of us, Mr. Hitchcock, and how many of them?”

“We passed them earlier. Take a guess.”

Melmarc could not. All he knew was that there were a bunch of men behind them somewhere on the other side of the road.

“We’ll come to that eventually.” Naymond adjusted his hat on his head as if he was about to make a dashing entrance. “What is important is that you know that the moment these men see you, they’ll run. All of them. They’ll scatter because they wouldn’t want to deal with the Gifted part of the police.

“So here’s what’s going to happen. I’ll step out of the car first. They’ll see me and act on impulse. They’ll hesitate, unsure. Torn somewhere between running and fighting. That’s when Ms. Pelumi will step out of the vehicle. The moment they see her, they’ll scatter like Ants.”

“You sound so sure.” Pelumi’s voice had a little doubt in it.

“Because I am,” Naymond answered. “When they run, you’ll chase after the one with the green bandana tied around his upper arm. His name is David Swan. Remember it Mr. Lockwood.”

Melmarc nodded.

“When they’ve scattered, and Ms. Pelumi is on the chase, that’s when you come out of the car, Mr. Lockwood. Your job is to help ensure that Mr. David Swan is captured and not hurt too much. How you help Ms. Pelumi is entirely up to your discretion.”

Officer Clivensky shifted the car into reverse.

Pelumi finally looked behind her and said, “This sounds dangerous. Isn’t there something in the guide about putting us in dangerous situations?”

“It’s all covered with clauses and conditional decisions.” Naymond didn’t sound worried. “Besides, this situation isn’t dangerous at all. You’ll know once I get out of the car. Things will happen accordingly, and if you successfully capture David Swan, I’ll tell you why things went according to plan.”

What other skill does he have? Melmarc wondered. Was it something that helped him see the immediate future?

He sounded too confident, and Officer Clivensky didn’t seem to mind.

“Alright, time to go.” The Sage opened his door and stepped out. “You can activate your skill now, Mr. Lockwood.”

Melmarc didn’t need to be told twice.

He activated [Knowledge Is Power] and his range of awareness expanded. It swallowed the group of men and came back.

The moment it hit him, he knew all he needed to know. First, there were eight men, fully grown. None of them was below the age of twenty.

Second, he had his eyes on David Swan.

Naymond faced the men and adjusted his hat. “Lovely afternoon, don’t you think, boys?”

One of the men tapped another, drawing their attention to Naymond.

“It’s the police. The hell they doing on our block.”

He stepped forward, and another grabbed his arm. “I recognize that suit and hat. It’s Hitchcock.”

“So?”

“So he’s part of the Gifted department. They handle Gifted related incidents. You don’t want to face a Gifted.”

They weren’t too far as not to be heard, but they were close enough that if Melmarc strained himself, he could hear them.

“That’s the hesitation,” Naymond said. “That’s your cue, Invoker.”

Pelumi pushed her door open and stepped down.

As if choreographed by some ruling entity, the men acted in accordance with Naymond’s plans.

They scattered.

There was a lot of cursing as they fled, each man his own way. Melmarc was impressed. He didn’t know any skill that worked so accurately on predicting human actions at B-rank.

In accordance with the plan, Pelumi ran after them.

After a heartbeat or two, Naymond tapped the top of the car. “And that’s your cue, Mr. Lockwood. And just a little challenge. Only our target is permitted to see you. No one else.”

Melmarc came out from his side of the car and started running.

[Bless Your Kindness] had given him a few skills to choose from but only three were Gifted. But all three were more than enough, and he chose the one he wanted.

[Skill Knowledge Is Power is concluded.]

[All stats are increased by +0.5.]

[Life forms detected: 9.]

[You have received 9 Potential buffs.]

…

[Buff mastery is scaled based on mastery of skill Bless Your Kindness. Mastery of buff will begin reduction after eight minutes.]

[Would you like to select a Buff?]

[Yes/No.]

[Remaining time: 00:02:09.]

Yes, he thought, narrowing his attention to only the Gifted skills.

[My Faith In You(Mastery 8.00%)]

The Gifted summons an aid to help in their time of need.

[World of Insight(Mastery 02.00%)].

The Gifted is aware of their existent present surrounding.

[Capture The Moment (Mastery 07.22%)]

The Gifted represents the world as they’ve captured it.

Melmarc made his choice as he ran.

Behind him, standing unbothered, Naymond folded his arms and leaned against the police car. “So that’s what I look like all the time.”

………..

Melmarc was already moving. He started at a jog, then pushed himself into a sprint.

He kept his eye out for the direction David had run in as he selected [World of Insight]. His selection of the skill was a tactical one. Done by process of elimination due to usefulness.

He already knew what [My Faith In You] could do, and the summoning randomness was no fit for the situation, unless it accidentally gave him a speedster summon or a steed. [Capture The Moment] sounded generally unhelpful.

[World Of Insight] was the only skill he felt would be useful in a chase. What better skill was there to have than an acute awareness of your surrounding when chasing someone through buildings and alleyways.

He darted into an alley. It was just at the edge of how far [Knowledge Is Power] had reached so he already knew the alley would burst onto another road. Judging by how the men had scattered, it was a safe bet that this path wouldn’t bring him to meeting them.

He ran out the other side of the alley, head on a swivel and realized a feature of his skill he hadn’t taken note of.

There was a grey indicator being chased by a green indicator. He could see it right through the building even though he couldn’t see through the building.

They were moving quickly, Pelumi chasing after David. David’s indicator was clear as day.

[David Lee Swanda (Crafter)(E)]

Melmarc looked from side to side, found another path and followed it. He had eight minutes before the effects of [Knowledge Is Power] ran out and he wouldn’t be able to keep track of them again. But he was facing a bigger issue.

He didn’t know this terrain. It wasn’t like in the movies where the good guy just ran through alleys and roads and cut off the person he was chasing who already had good knowledge of the environment.

But it can be.

Melmarc activated [Knowledge Is Power] again, still running at full sprint.

The static blasted out of him as he ran. When it came back, he took a sharp detour into a warehouse on the right, leading away from Pelumi and their quarry.

There were people working in the warehouse. They had cardboard boxes filled with Styrofoam and mechanical equipment Melmarc didn’t bother to pay attention to.

He ducked under a heavy set man’s arm as the man turned with a box in hand. The man complained and he shot the man a quick apology as he leapt over a box without looking at it.

The people in the warehouse complained, and he’d made at least eight apologies before he burst out the other side of the warehouse.

He kept his attention on the indicators as he ran, taking a right, then a left.

He scaled a small metal gate as tall as himself even as he got to the edge of the radius of information his skill had given him.

But from here, he had a good enough idea where he was going. He took an alley, an empty road, and another building, before he suspected he was getting lost again.

That’s one use without a buff, he counted.

Another burst of mana left him as he used [knowledge Is Power].

That’s two.

He could already feel his head getting heavy. This burst of mana let him know that while there were a lot of people around, living their lives in the houses around him, none of them were Gifted.

But there were too many grey and red indicators that the information was getting jumbled up. It was beginning to get difficult keeping track of David through the buildings.

Melmarc was following the name, but with so many names and indicators flashing in front of him for every turn he made, it was becoming tasking.

I guess there’re more drawbacks than I thought.

Rather than keep following David’s name, he changed his attention and focused on the only green indicator.

He cut across another part, and vaunted over a car. It was nothing special, neither was it any feat of acrobatic inclination. He merely slid across the hood of the car.

If the information he was getting, along with the Pelumi’s movement, was accurate, the next turn was meant to run him straight into their path.

Alright then, one more for the road.

Surprisingly, even though he could feel his head getting heavier, the rest of his body was feeling lighter. It was as if he could run forever.

I guess that’s what happens when I stack the bonus stats.

He understood what Naymond meant by constant use increased mastery because it was how people figured out more about their skills.

He watched the green and grey indicator with nothing but a building between him and them move down a path.

Two more turns were all he needed.

Melmarc activated [Knowledge Is Power] a third time and made both turns. The moment he burst out onto the path with Pelumi and David, he was a good distance behind them. He had hoped to burst out right on top of them, but his calculations had been wrong.

From what he could see, though, Pelumi was already tiring out, putting her all into something of a last ditch effort.

Got to hurry then, he told himself, pushing himself faster.

The burst of mana came back to him. It carried more information. Something about the way David was running insinuated confusion but not panic. That didn’t make sense. When culprits ran from the police, weren’t they meant to be scared in someway?

Unless he’s leading us somewhere.

The thought worried Melmarc. What if it was an ambush? What if David was leading them back to where there would be enough people to take them down.

Along with the information was another weight on his head, and Melmarc almost stumbled. It was all he could do to keep his feet beneath him.

His worry about an ambush kicked in, and he ran harder.

His feet carried him fast and far until it was as if each normal step felt like a small leap and his surroundings started blurring around him.

Pelumi wasn’t so far away anymore. Before Melmarc knew it, he was scaling past her, feet carrying him in what felt like small leaps.

He breezed past her and ran straight for David. The man looked back and his eyes widened in panic.

Melmarc literally ran into him before he could turn back. He hit the man like a truck. He planned on tackling the man, but the moment he struck the man, he sent him flying forward and crashing to the ground.

As confused as he was, it didn’t stop Melmarc from tackling David while he was on the ground. He tried to be as gentle as he could be while the man struggled. Surprisingly, the man wasn’t very strong.

He might’ve been an E-rank, but Melmarc didn’t have any strength boost that came with his class, which meant he wasn’t much stronger than the average person.

How much weaker is an E-rank?

Pelumi caught up to them while Melmarc held the man face down on the ground. At some point David had stopped struggling and he was glad for it.

Pelumi rested her hands on her knees and bent down, panting for air.

“How the hell… are you so… fast?” she asked between breaths. “Aren’t Fakers… intelligence types? Did you… take… an Agility… skill?”

Melmarc looked at her and couldn’t help a smug smile.

She looked so tired, and so confused.

Pelumi was still panting heavily. She opened her mouth then closed it.

Melmarc cocked an inquisitive brow at her.

“I almost… cussed you out in my language.” She eased down and sat on the ground. “Wipe that smile off your face before I do.”

Melmarc chuckled. “It wouldn’t be bad to be cussed out in a language I don’t know.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No. I get the feeling you’ll just keep smiling like that… and I’ll just get… more frustrated. And how the hell… are you so fast?”

This time Melmarc laughed. “Genetics?”

“Mo fe gba e leti.”

Melmarc had no idea what that meant, and it only made him laugh harder. His head was also beginning to actually hurt.

Peluni groaned and threw her head back. “I hate you.”

Melmarc stopped himself from laughing, and held his head in one hand to stall the pain.

“We just met,” he said, still smiling. “You don’t hate me.”

“Well I’ll work towards it… And stop smiling,” she complained.

A moment later, Naymond stood not too far away from them in his three-piece suit and arms folded over his chest. He was leaning against the wall of one of the buildings while Officer Clivensky came to help them with their captured quarry.

“What happens now?” Melmarc asked as he approached them.

Naymond was looking at him like he was some device that was functioning in an amusing way.

“Well,” he said. “Now we take him back to the precinct for questioning, apologies, and a meal.”

Melmarc looked down. “Sorry about that. I might’ve hit him too hard when I wanted to tackle him.”

“Might have?” Naymond laughed. “You very near threw him ten feet through the air.”

That surprised Melmarc enough to have him look up at Naymond’s head. There was no surprise there when he didn’t see any indicator or name.

Naymond had only been caught by his first blast of [Knowledge Is Power], and that was already over eight minutes ago. And while he wasn’t entirely sure how far the range of the skill was, he knew it was a good distance, maybe a building wide in diameter, but not a very wide building.

The absence of an indicator meant he hadn’t been close enough to get caught in the last two blasts of [Knowledge Is Power].

So how does he know how hard I hit him?