Chapter 22

"BEN, WHY IN THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING RPG, AND WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT IT INTO MY HOME!!" Felicia screams at me when I walk through the balcony window carrying the bazooka in both hands. It is what I went and got off the roof. I couldn't just leave it there, could I?

"Come on, Felicia. What was I supposed to do? Also, it isn't an RPG, it is a rocket launcher, and I couldn't very well leave it on that rooftop for those guys to pick back up and use again later, or god forbid, some other idiot to get their hands on it and blow up a lot of shit." So I say, placing the rocket launcher down on the coffee table. It was pretty cumbersome to drag it all the way here, especially without being seen.

"Alright, fine, I get that. But why the hell is it in my apartment and on my coffee table?" She asks as I walk by her to take a seat on the couch, and I kick my legs up onto the table, tired after a long day dealing with a bunch of bullshit.

"Uh, first of all, it is our apartment. I pay half, after all. And where was I supposed to take the thing? I don't have anywhere to store this thing." I tell her as she takes a seat next to me and also kicks her legs up.

We had moved out of the penthouse suite we were first in a while ago and had since gone through two different places before we winded up in this one, and I had started to pay half on account of my living with her. So, to be honest, I would be fine going out and getting my own place, but I don't have any ID, and I have no idea where to get it, and I really don't want to stay at any places that don't require ID since they are all shitholes.

"Uh, whose name is registered to this suite? Because I know for a fact that it isn't yours." She says, giving me a look since, as I said before, I don't have any ID, so she has been booking into the rooms while I continually sneak in through the windows.

If I am truly honest with myself, I could probably go out there and find some fake ID, enough to suffice for most things. But I am worried that there may be people looking for me, such as Shield or even Miles Warren if he is still alive or if he may be cloned himself. So I would rather stay anonymous and stay with Felicia, at least for now, and she hasn't yet complained.

"I believe this suit is registered to one Candice Rosemary, which is not your name. Plus, who is the one buying the groceries and cooking dinner for us every night? If it wasn't for me, you would still just be eating junk food and the food given by the hotel, which the staff probably spit in, given you are such a bitch to them. Not to mention the fact that I am always cleaning up after you. I think I have done enough to deserve a rocket launcher or two." Actually, the food given by the hotels is perfectly fine, but I get bored having nothing to do all day, so I like to go grocery shopping and cook food. I am getting quite good at it as well.

"Candice Rosemary is just one of my many aliases, and cooking is the only job you have to do all day. The rest of the time, you are playing on those stupid consoles you bought. I would think you could have spent all the hard stolen cash on better things than games, but now you bring those stupid things along every time we move, you dumb boys with your dumb toys." So she says, but before I get a chance to respond, she continues her tirade.

"And I didn't ask you to start cleaning up after me. I was perfectly content living like that and not cleaning up after myself. I am not going to live here longer than a couple weeks after all. And if you really wanted this place to be clean, then you can let some of the maids in to do it. you don't have to clean it all up." She finishes before giving a sigh and letting her head drop back to rest on the top of the couch, a little out of breath from her little rant. I give her a second to calm down before I respond.

"First of all, the nerve of you to belittle my games, you use them as well, and you love to play Smash Bros and Mario Kart with me. And excuse me for not wanting to live in filth and squalor. I really thought you were supposed to be some high-class lady who lived a life of luxury, but I was clearly wrong. And how in the hell would the maids clean the place up? In case you didn't notice, we have tons of stolen goods all over the place. I can't exactly let them in and see all the duffel bags of cash or the countertop filled with jewels and necklaces." I don't just play games all day, either. I go out and do various different things.

She lifts her head back up and stares at me, and I stare straight back, and we stare like that for a moment. But then she relents and lets her head flop back onto the couch, allowing me to win our little battle.

"Fine, you win. You can keep the rocket launcher. But in return, you can't be Donkey Kong on Smash Bros from now on. I am tired of being Princess Peach and all those other suckers that get smacked down by that big monkey. I just can't win against you when you are him. Now, get up, and let's go." Felicia stands up and starts to move, but I am still basking in my win. I am okay not being Donkey Kong. For some reason, I am just really good with him, and I was getting tired of just winning anyway. It will be fun to use some other characters.

"Oh, uh, where are we going?" I finally catch on to the last thing she said and quickly get up to follow her. She has now walked to the balcony window and opened it fully before she turns around to look at me with her hand still on the glass door.

"We are going somewhere that you can store that rocket launcher. We can't just keep it here, after all. If a maid does happen to walk in for some reason, we could maybe explain away all the cash and jewels, rich people are weird and eccentric, after all, but a rocket launcher is not so easily explained. Now let's go, and don't forget the stupid thing. I suppose I could find a use for it someday." Ignoring the last thing she said since it brings some worrying things to mind, I quickly turn around and go back to the coffee table to pick up the rocket launcher before following her out onto the balcony and towards wherever the hell it is we are going.

I am carrying the rocket launcher with both of my hands, afraid that I will just end up accidentally crushing it if I only use one hand and hold it too tightly. Walking out onto the balcony, I stick my foot out behind me onto the glass door and activate my sticking powers. I then slide the door closed since we don't want flies or too much of that New York air getting in. Then I walk over to Felicia, who is leaning against the railing waiting for me, and for some reason, she is giving me an odd look.

"Are you going to be carrying it around like that? Because we are going to be moving around very slowly with you lumbering around like that, and we have got quite the distance to go, so please tell me you aren't taking it around like that." She tells me, and while I know it will be pretty challenging, what else can I do? I am going to have to leap and run without using my hands, and while that doesn't seem too different, the hands usually play a big part in doing swift manoeuvres and switching directions on a dime, and they add a lot of power to springs.

"Well, it isn't like I have a pocket dimension with me, Cat. This is the only way to take it, and I can only carry it." So I tell her, to which she looks at me like I am stupid. Does she expect me to just cook something up to help me hold items? Well, I suppose I could theoretically make an item in which the inside is bigger than the outside, like in Doctor Who. Still, the materials would have to be very strong, durable and malleable to withstand the dimensional flux, which I can't afford at the moment, but I am sure some bad people have this stuff, and we can steal it from them.

"Ben, did you or did you not just close that glass door with just your foot?" Hmm, why is she on about that? I did close it with my foot and- I sigh and look down at the ground for a moment in awe of my own stupidity.

"Alright, just ignore me. I am just being stupid." I lift my head back up and then move my hands to position the rocket launcher behind my back, after which I press it in, and then I remove my hands, and it stays there.

I really forget about my power's capabilities and just use it to stick to stuff, and I forget that I can also stick things to me as well. My sticky powers are holding the rocket launcher to my back, leaving my hands free. I feel like an RPG character that can just place multiple weapons on their backs and run around without being affected by them. I can definitely use this in the future.

"Yeah, you are stupid. Now let's actually go. just follow me." Felicia says before promptly jumping off the balcony and zipping away into the night sky, and I quickly jump off as well to follow her to this mystery location.

------------------------------------

I have been following her for a while at this point, and finally, we have come to a stop on top of a Brooklyn roof. But we don't stay there for longer than a second before Felicia leaps across to the top of a lovely brownstone house before scaling down one of the pipes and sliding open a window which she then climbs inside of, so of course, I follow her path and also climb inside.

"Uh, what the hell is this place? And why are there no doors or anything, just a window?" I ask as I enter and look around this new location, just to see that it is a plain room that is very dusty and filled with boxes and bags littered all over the place, and one big draw at the very back of the room. Still, by far, the strangest thing is that there are no doors, wardrobes or anything in the room, just four walls, and only one of them has a window which I just climbed through.

"This, Ben, is the secret hidey-hole that I told you about. It is where I store everything I really care about and want to keep, as well as all my tools and equipment. As for why this room is so weird, well, that is because I am the owner and landlord of this building, and I rent it out, but before that, I did some reconstruction to alter this room so it would not be accessible and I snuck in and changed any records of the plans for the building. I chose this room because you can't see it from the outside, and you wouldn't notice anything amiss, so feel assured when I say your rocket launcher will be safe here." Felicia says, stunning me into silence.

This was supposed to be the secret place that Felicia wouldn't share with anyone since it holds all the treasures she cares about and wants to keep along with all her gear, yet she so easily just showed it to me. Does that mean she trusts me? We have been getting along great lately, and instead of being enemies or possible paramours, we have just been roommates that live together and hang out. Our relationship is quite good, actually.

And I don't doubt that this is just one of the many hideouts she has tucked around the city, and she isn't about to show me those. But still, this is a big step, and I am surprised she has taken it. Maybe this dynamic duo we currently have going on won't have to end after I have gotten what I want. Perhaps we could go on to form a very lucrative partnership.