Anderson Warehouse [1]

Austin pulled a black jacket over his shoulders and attached a bottle of pepper spray a plastic metal baton and a taser gun to his black pants. When he finished switching his outfit he once again looked at the warehouse a few blocks away.

He put on a headphone and soon after a static voice called out to him "That took longer than I expected, did something happen?"

"No, not really just thinking about how my life could've gone if I had never awakened my anomalous ability. I would still be at college chasing girls, ignoring the harsh realities of life. I could have a real friend circle without fearing for any of their lives. So many lost opportunities, so much to regret." A sigh escaped Austin's mouth.

Silence ensued until Jack formulated an answer "That's true but you shouldn't concern yourself with ifs and coulds, think about your actual future and not about something like that. We could become real gods if we show enough resolve and have enough luck, or perhaps die in a containment cell. Whatever the future holds we just need to grab it and squeeze tight enough, we only need to control it."

A bitter smile formed on Austin's face, he never wanted this life, where it's either stealing artifacts and forbidden knowledge or getting eaten by bigger fish.

"Let's just get this over with"

...

Silently stepping towards an unassuming guard Austin pulled out his baton Jack bought on the darknet so that it is untraceable. Austin's ability runs dozens of calculations at this precise moment calculating how exactly to knock out the guard as fast and quietly as possible.

Austin jumped towards the guard climbing up on his back while choking the guard and smashing his baton into his face, without making any sound whatsoever the guard's body collapsed to the floor and Austin began moving again.

"There's another one right behind that wall to your right."

Jack's role in all of this was sitting in their car while monitoring the general area with hacked CCTV cameras.

"How many are there in total?"

"I see about 4 more but make sure to be careful, I'm not omniscient... yet, hehe!"

"You know that I'm not going to do this sort of stuff forever, as soon as I find something that can get the foundation and all its imitators off my back, I'll return to a slightly more normal life."

"Sure if you want to lie to yourself like that I'm not going to stop you. But remember, human greed will never be sated, trust me when I say that you'll come back to me for more. Even if it takes decades for you to realize that, you will come back."

Austin rolled his eyes, Jack can be delusional sometimes, 'Why would I give up a normal, good, and healthy life for this sort of stuff, voluntarily?'

Austin once again snuck up on a guard and knocked them unconscious with precise movements, his ability accountable for his technique. Seeing the percent chances for when where and how to strike, gives him skill in things he has no right being good at, like fighting for example but it also improved his cooking skills.

Austin's ability also shows him how healthy food or certain activities are, that's the reason for his looks and physique, after all, if you know what's inside a hotdog you won't eat it anymore, ignorance is bliss and Austin's ability kicks ignorance in the balls.

Austin glanced at the unconscious guard beneath himself, unmoving, Austin firmed his resolve once again and walked away to the next guard after handcuffing the unconscious guard with zip ties, just like he handcuffed the previous guard. He also took all their belongings in case they try to break free with them.

...

Twenty minutes pass, Austin knocked all guards patrolling the outside of the warehouse out and darkness embraced him.

He already contacted Jack to come down and help him search the warehouse, to pass time he leaned on a lamp post trying to calculate various odds of what's inside the warehouse, the feeling that his ability will soon evolve still nagging at him.

"BOOH!"

Austin staggered to the side full of shock at the sudden noise "Look at you, taking out five trained guards and then being scared by some noise." Jack said emerging from the shadows with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Austin just ignored him and asked, without giving in to Jack's little fun, "How come I didn't hear you?"

"... I learned how to hide myself and be quiet as a kid, anyways let's enter the warehouse, I already checked and there were no guards inside."

Jack started moving again, as Austin's ability flared up trying to learn more about his past 'Abusive parents perhaps or he may be a big fan of ninjas as a kid? I should probably stop this, his past is not my business in the end.'

Austin followed Jack into the cold hall of stone and metal, various containers stood inside stacked on each other giving the whole place a labyrinth-like feel.

"Now let's go to work!" Jack said grabbing a large bolt cutter, he handed it to Austin.

Jack himself took out a crowbar and went up the metal stairs leading to the warehouse manager's office overseeing the whole area from his office windows.

"You open the crates and containers down here, I'll check the manager's office, hack his pc and look through his stuff."

Stunned Austin murmured, "Why do I need to do all the heavy lifting?"

...

Austin opened yet another wooden crate, pain streaming through his muscles, his arms weren't supernatural and they fucking hurt after doing this for two hours straight.

Just as he was about to throw himself on the ground and give up a loud shriek cried out behind him and he watched in amusement as Jack sprinted towards him followed by a small chrome-colored orb rolling beside Jack's feet.

"What's got you so scared? Is the little ball going to kill you?" Austin said, watching his friend run in his direction, contrary to what he said he observed the little ball with the utmost care, he knew the danger of the unknown and the importance of cation.

Austin also ran countless calculations with his ability but due to his lack of details about the situation, nothing much came out of them, except that the ball could be trusted to not kill him or Jack.

Jack's face grimaced and a sad smile formed on it he couldn't help himself and felt schadenfreude for his stupid best friend 'Seems like your ability took all of that brain for itself.'

"No, but I fear that thing." Jack passed Austin and crouched behind a metal container full of computer parts, the small metal ball curling up under his leg.

Just as Austin looked over at the place Jack came from his body froze, a humanoid creature took heavy steps descending the metal staircase nearing him slowly.

The humanoid was a robot composed of plastic-like black matter, gears, electric motors, metal pistons, and all kinds of technology, though the most disturbing part about it was the skin around some of its body that resembled that of a human.

The patches of skin constantly shifted and squirmed almost like they were trying to stretch over the whole machine.

Austin immediatly jumped away to Jack hoping internally that he wasn't seen by that thing 'Who am I kidding that thing has seen me 100%, I can tell even without my ability.

"GODDAMNIT JACK!"

"Look I'm sorry really!"