Waste No Time (II)

[Gotham City Orphanage | Gotham | Four Hours Later]

"Is the particle's speed increasing or decreasing at t = 4? I don't know!" Price complained as he flung himself on the bed. "Take advanced courses they said. You'll get a better edge in college they said! Pray their bounty doesn't get placed on my list. I don't know what I'll do if I come across them."

The 'them' Price was referencing was the orphanage's director and the head lunch lady. Whenever they would get the chance, they would brainwash the children into striving for aerial heights and hope that they become successful. Price went along with their wishes because he didn't feel like it was that difficult.

News flash: it was extremely difficult.

And with all the bounties he was accepting, sparing time to study was getting increasingly difficult. It was times like these when he wished he had friends to help lessen the burden. Being a solo warrior against the monsters of Calculus, History, and English, Price didn't have a break.

"Wasn't the political alignment definition due tomorrow?!" Price's heart halted.

Price stood up and looked at his backpack. One class had to be sacrificed. Boring derivatives or semi-interesting history research. Was there really a choice?

Price headed to the family area of the orphanage to loan out a laptop. He could have headed to the Library but it was already semi-dark. Although Gotham was dangerous all the time, it got worse at night. Even he, a super-powered individual didn't want to take his chances roaming out near night in Gotham.

The world was a dangerous place due to the emergence of superpowers, mystical items, alien technology, etc.. It's made worse in Gotham due to a variety of socio-economical reasons. The people who were getting powers might've been farmers, cops, or gang members in other places. However, in Gotham, almost every time the powered ones were those who Gotham chewed up. They were people, sometimes uneducated, but definitely tired of being powerless. Due to that, they end up lashing out at every conceivable moment.

Although Price was dropped into this world randomly, he ended up finding himself in tune with Gotham. The increasing self-absorbed citizens of Gotham find themselves embracing the anarchy that is their way of life. There is a sort of beauty found in embracing the darkness. The city of Gotham found itself in losing itself. They found themselves born in a world that didn't care about them and so they didn't care about it.

To Price, there was a reason why he was dropped off in Gotham instead of any other place. Maybe the entity responsible felt it appropriate.

'Speaking of why...'

Price only had one mission in this world and that was to hunt bounties. He got credits that could let him purchase greater power so that he could continue to hunt. He was akin to an unsheathed weapon slaughtering those who came to his list.

The clients you asked? The recent death of the Major General was commissioned by Death of the Endless. Price speculated that the times the general escaped Death's Embrace was the reason the literal entity of death put a bounty on his head.

'Another reason to respect the man. Death wanted him dead. Of course we can't forget the innocents he had drone striked but I digress.'

After borrowing a laptop, Price took it to his room and opened a new doc. The assignment was to figure out the political biases of the two people running for Gotham's Mayor position. Of course nothing too impressive was to come out of this assignment but Gotham's Board of Education decided it was important to keep the younger generation invested in politics.

_

[Google Search Bar: Who is Harvey Dent?]

[Ad][Harvey Dent for Mayor - Who do you trust to govern the unfortunate? | HarveyForMayor]

[Who is the man who is most likely to become our Mayor? | Gotham Insiders]

[The worst person to lead Gotham | The Hills Foundation]

.

[Google Search Bar: Who is Hamilton Hill?]

[AD][Keep Gotham Great and Vote Hamilton Hill for Mayor]

[Who is the man running again for Gotham's Mayor position? | Gotham Insiders]

[The skeletons in the closet after the pervious Mayor's run | Iceberg News]

_

Price looked at the information again and nodded again.

'Indeed, this was the better choice.'

.

.

.

[Gotham Forensic Lab | Gotham | 24 Hours after the Murder of Sam K. Lucas]

"Did we get the serial number of the bullet?" Dr. Daniels asked his forensic team. They were comprised of D.C.'s best.

"None sir, there's no serial number on the bullet." A man wearing glasses said grimly, "We're dealing with professionals."

Dr. Daniels scoffed. Of course they were professionals. He couldn't even find the gunpowder residue in the crime scene.

"The Murder weapon?" Dr. Daniels asked the person tasked with identifying the gun.

"Nothing we've ever seen. It's a custom made handgun, that's what I've identified." Another person on the team said. "Although we haven't personally seen it, the power contained in the handgun is equivalent to a sniper shot. This was shown through the crumpling of the bullet and the force of trauma on the victim's face."

Price's weaponry and ammunition come from the system. It's impossible to find the manufacturer much less find the person owns the gun. In fact, there is no one in the universe that had the weaponry or bullets he has.

"Sh*t." Dr. Daniels cursed. The only time he didn't want a challenging case is when he gets it.

Dr. Daniels quickly reviewed the contents of the murder. Unknown assailant. Unknown motive. Unknown weaponry. Is there anything that's known?

Suddenly he remembered what the maid said recently. A couple snacks from the cabinets were missing. That's it! Search for the snack code numbers!

"Is - is the case closed" the man with the glasses hesitantly asked. Even he wanted to avenge the late war-hero.

"Go tell the maid to bring the receipts from the last shopping trip!" Dr. Daniels said as he snapped out of his thinking. Although he was brute forcing through the case, it was the only lead he had.

The team looked at each other. What maid? What shopping trip?

"Sir, are we dropping the case?" the man with the glasses said concerned. To him, there would be no other reason to change the subject so quickly unless it was to give up working on the case.

"Dropping the case? No!" Dr. Daniels had a puzzled expression before seeing where he went wrong. "The general had a maid. She mentioned how some snacks went missing. Although it is a stretch, we can search for their serial numbers."

Each team member had a relieved expression. So they weren't giving up on the general.

Even after knowing it wasn't efficient enough and a massive waste of man-power, they couldn't lose their only lead. This was the least they could do for the dead man. Although it didn't need to be said, they didn't have much hope of finding the criminal.

As the most powerful person in the U.S., the people who went after his life would be powerful too. Therefore, these actions of theirs would be useless. And it has been proven that the person they were going against was professional. From the one-of-a-kind firearm to the untraceable bullets, their foe was experienced.