16 Supply and demand

Jack promptly found a convenience store near him using Google maps and walked towards it. He reached it at around 11am, and there was still no news from Robocop.

He went inside, and as he was about to grab a lot of stuff, he remembered he can't go home for a while. Jack didn't want to carry a lot of bags with him while cruising around the town like a homeless person, so he gave up on that idea. He decided to only buy a couple of snacks and eat them before he finds where to eat lunch.

It was a small privately owned business underneath a housing building, and a nice looking female cashier was working at the counter. There were only him and another guy in the shop.

The cashier looked at him once in the face, and when she saw his gaunt face, she looked away. Jack was not surprised since he looked like death incarnated which also reflected in his charisma stat.

He decided to try to inspect once more.

Name: ???

Strength: 5

Constitution:7

Endurance:6

Speed:6

Dexterity:6

Perception:8

Intelligence:???

Wisdom:???

Willpower:???

Charisma:8

Luck: ???

As expected the question marks were on the same places as before with the obese woman in the Unicorn pancake house. Jack waited patiently and was soon rewarded.

Name: Samantha Bauer

Strength: 5

Constitution:7

Endurance:6

Speed:6

Dexterity:6

Perception:8

Intelligence:6

Wisdom:5

Willpower:5

Charisma:8

Luck: ???

He immediately clicked on details, and he got that too.

Samantha Bauer arrested twice for selling cannabis. Probably has some under the counter now.

Jack looked at her, and she noticed and quickly turned away. After that Jack turned to the man, who was inside longer than him but didn't have anything in his hands by now and was looking nervous like he was waiting for something.

»Probably came to buy weed and is waiting for me to leave.« Jack thought to himself.

He still could not keep himself from inspecting the man.

Name: ???

Strength: 6

Constitution:6

Endurance:5

Speed:4

Dexterity:6

Perception:5

Intelligence:???

Wisdom:???

Willpower:???

Charisma:5

Luck: ???

Jack waited, and the man's name and stats appeared.

Name: Lucio Domingo

Strength: 6

Constitution:6

Endurance:5

Speed:4

Dexterity:6

Perception:5

Intelligence:4

Wisdom:4

Willpower:3

Charisma:5

Luck: ???

He clicked on details.

Lucio Domingo is a junkie and just got out from jail for armed robbery. He has a gun hidden under his jacket tucked in his belt towards his privates.

Jack looked at the guy's belt, and he got noticed. The robber panicked and pulled down his zipper and pointed the gun at Jack.

He yelled at Jack, »Turn around you piece of shit.«

Jack complied with the order and raised his hands over his head while yelling, »Fuck, fuck, fuck!!! Don't panic!!!« on the inside.

The girl was facing the counter with her back since she was avoiding Jack's gaze. When she wanted to rebuke him for calling her a piece of shit and wanted to ask him to leave her store she faced Jack with his arms over his head.

She gasped and wanted to yell, but she managed to remain unpanicked.

The guy yelled at her: »Put all your money and your stash into a paper bag, or I will blow his brains out and then yours after him.«

He closed in on Jack and put the gun barrel on Jack's neck.

The girl nervously picked a paper bag and opened the cash register and started to collect the money from it. The guy was commanding her to take out the drawer and also get the money underneath it.

Jack was running simulations in his head. He found the perfect move, but Jack was worried since he never did it before and he might make the gun discharge towards the girl.

When the girl finished taking all the money from the cash register and placed it into the paper bag, Lucio told her to put all the pot in it and also fill it up with cigarette boxes.

By now Jack was determined not to let his life or death be decided by a junkie and just waited for the right moment. It came soon enough as the girl bent under the counter to get the pot and the guy moved his gun from his neck to get closer to the counter to check on the girl.

Jack crouched a little and jumped diagonally back into the guy, and while flying, he grabbed the barrel of the gun and twisted it sideways. The guy's hand snapped from the force exerted on his wrist first, and then he got a hit by Jack's shoulder into his chin and bounced backward into the display cabinets.

Before he realized what happened Jack was already pointing the gun at him.

»You don't have the guts to shoot,« the junkie yelled with a malicious smile on his face.

»I don't need a gun to handle thrash like you,« was Jack's reply.

The guy looked at him worriedly, but he didn't try to act cocky anymore since the confidence now and the moves Jack showed earlier were enough to convince him that resistance was futile. Sadly for him, no one wanted to assimilate him.

He yelled at the girl to get over the counter and made the guy lie down and put his hands over his head. He made him move the arms to his back as Jack pinned him down and gave the gun to the girl.

Jack asked her for rope and wanted to call the police.

As the girl came with a rope, Lucio already gave up on running or resisting.

Jack looked her in the eyes and told her, »You should probably flush or hide the things you were going to give him and remove the tape from the surveillance recorder if it has sound.«

The girl looked at Jack this gaunt seemingly week guy and flushed red and with a timid voice replied that it only records video then went and did as he said. She took her stash somewhere out the back door and came back soon after. By then Jack already bound Lucio like a Christmas present.

He was just about to call the police when his phone rang.

He picked up, and he heard a familiar voice right away. And the dialogue went like this.

»Hello, this is Sergeant Murphy. Is this Jack Russel.«

»Yes, this is Jack.«

»We got him. It's a slam dunk case,« said Robocop apparently extremely pleased.

»Did he resist?« asked Jack hoping a little the asshole resisted.

»Nah. We called him about your stuff on the internet as I was coming up your stairs in my plain clothes. He basically yelled he had a laptop and three displays to sell right in front of my face. Ha, ha, ha. The guy was so interested in the deal it never occurred to him I might be a cop. You should see the look on his face when I told him he was arrested for burglary. I was wearing a body cam at the time, so his statement about your stuff is recorded. I read him his Miranda warning, but he obviously knew he was screwed and he spilled everything. Your stuff is in a storage space, and you can claim it once we catalog and take photos of everything. We are at the place now, and by now we found related burglaries to pin on him as well.«

Robocop would not stop yelling into the phone with a joyous mood. This was probably equal to Chrismas for him Jack thought.

Jack quickly asked:«How far away are you from my place?«

»We are a bit more than half a mile South from you. Why? Do you want to check your stuff?« Sergeant Murphy asked.

»Can you do me a favor and come to Danny's store a mile North from me?« Jack quickly asked.

»Do you need a lift? You know we are not a cab service. But for you today I am willing to make an exception.« Robocop said jokingly.

»No. I punched a guy while he was robbing the store,« said Jack in a completely normal tone.

»You what?« yelled Sergeant Murphy thinking he heard wrong.

»Iiiiiiii puuuuuunched aaaaa guuuuy while he was robbing the store.«

»You should not punch everyone you meet!!!« yelled Robocop.

»Well, he was robbing the store!!!,« yelled Jack back.

»I'll be right there.« was the only reply Jack heard after a moment of silence.