Chance Encounter #5

Collapsed on all fours on Gotham City Park's grimy paved road, Gray could do nothing but heave heavy, erratic breaths while cursing his rotten lock, the images of people burning and screaming in agony, begging for mercy fresh in his mind.

Seventeen years. The former Gray had managed to live in Gotham for seventeen years and didn't encounter any of the true psychopaths prowling the damned city.

Yet it's only been a week since he came to this world, and he had already encountered one of the most twisted, demented psychopaths Gotham had to offer on his seventh day.

His mind was unable and unwilling to understand what would drive a man to commit such atrocities, despite knowing such individuals, who were simply evil for the sake of being evil, indeed existed in this world and maybe even in his home.

Being aware of the dark nature of humanity and experiencing it firsthand were two things entirely different from each other after all. And for all his bravado and willingness to stand up for himself, both Grays, current and former, were regular people with no experience in dealing with such dark happenings.

"Are you alright, son?"

Gray heard a voice calling, and he turned to the speaker with weary, tired eyes. Thick ginger beard and a receding hairline of the same color with rough masculine features, accompanied by a well-built body.

Gray recognized him as the homeless man he'd always see lurking around the park whenever he swung by for a run.

"The ground is dirty and cold. Let me help you up." Noticing Gray's haggard appearance, the homeless man offered a hand as he reached for Gray with a soft smile adorning his face.

"Don't- don't touch me. I'm fine." Gray weakly snapped, trying to slap the homeless man's hand away, but he couldn't muster half the strength to reach it.

He merely sighed at Gray's gesture and kneeled to be on the same eye level as the haggard teen, his expression turning soft.

"I've seen you running here every day for the past week. You always looked exhausted and sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage..."

The homeless man chuckled at his own joke, but it fell on deaf ears as Gray unblinkingly looked at him with the same hollow expression he had since the start of the conversation.

"You looked so desperate when running like your life depended on it, so I couldn't help noticing you and wondering what made you run so desperately." He cleared his throat, continuing with a gesture of his hand to the side as he sent Gray a curious look despite not any reaction.

"Let's just say I didn't know what else to do... I still don't," Gray sighed and unwittingly replied despite himself, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.

"As good a reason as any, I suppose. But you always came back every day and finished your run, and that's all that matters." The homeless nodded, raising a closed fist.

"Now, I don't know what you've been through, and I know it's none of my business, but that expression on your face, I've seen it before on many people's faces, and it didn't end well for any of them."

He sighed again, a wistful expression creeping into his face, but there was a tenderness in his tone, contrasting his masculine, hardened visage and fondness for times past.

"You've got heart, son. It'd be a waste if you let whatever it is your facing be the end of it," he added, shaking the wistfulness away, smiling instead as he stood up and offered his hand to Gray again.

Gray stared at the homeless man's hand for several seconds, clearly hesitating, but the homeless man didn't take back his hand.

"It's just a hand, son. It will not bite, and there's no shame in taking it either," the homeless man said with an encouraging smile, to which Gray sighed and took hold of his hand.

"You don't have to thank me or say anything," he said, slightly amused at Gray's expression as distrust and bewilderments marred the haggard teenager's face.

"Take care now, son," the homeless man remarked as he patted Gray's shoulder and turned to walk away, leaving the latter to sigh and do the same after a shake of his head.

However, Gray only took several steps before pausing to inspect his pocket as it felt lighter and found no trace of the wristwatch he stuffed inside his pockets in a panic while fleeing the scene of The Firefly's rampage.

Gray turned around to see the homeless man smiling over his and playfully dangling the watch over his shoulders as he deliberately walked away slowly.

Looking at this scene, Gray merely sighed, unable and unwilling to resent the homeless man, who was the first to show him kindness in this rotten city, fake or otherwise.

He left the park with a bitter smile adorning his face, albeit considerably less forced, the light returning to his hollow, weary eyes.

...

I sighed as I plopped into my bed, having taken a shower, the cold water doing wonders to calm my agitated nerves. I couldn't help but think about my encounter with the homeless man earlier today.

I remember running past him every day for the past week during my runs, but I never paid him any attention since I had other things to worry about then.

I'm still not sure why the man approached me when nor I did understand his intentions. But I was grateful for him nonetheless. He knew what I needed to hear and said it.

I've always thought myself capable of motivating myself and above the need for encouragement from other people. But I guess you will only understand the value of such things when you truly need them. Gotham City sure has a way of humbling people.

Still, the entire encounter felt weird. As grateful as I was for the man, I couldn't help feeling suspicious at how convenient the whole thing was, especially with how he seemed to be taunting me with the watch.

Something tells me I haven't seen the last of the man, so I'll probably figure out his aim eventually if my hunch is any good.

I opened my system interface, and a new window in the corner drew my attention.

[You have three unread notifications]

'Show me the notifications'

[New mandatory quest initiated: Fast and Fiery-ous Demise]

[mandatory quest accepted: Fast and Fiery-ous Demise]

[mandatory quest completed: Fast and Fiery-ous Demise]

...

Fast and Fiery-ous Demise:

The Firefly, being the arsonist psychopath that we all know and love, is getting his rocks off, burning down everything that moves and everything doesn't, and it just so happens that you're in his crosshairs (or whatever is the flame thrower's equivalent of a crosshair).

Objective: Get your ass out of there before the Firefly burns into a crisp

Rewards: [Neuron Adaptive Steel Wire] [+10 levels in the crime skill]

...

[Receive rewards now? Yes/No]

I smiled at the quest's name and how hard the system seemed to be trying to make references, but I shook my head and ignored it.

'Receive rewards'

[Received: Neuron Adaptive Steel Wire]

[Received: +10 levels in the crime skill]

[Neuron Adaptive Steel Wire: a twenty-meter long steel wire which can attach itself to your nerves, and by extension, your brain, allowing you to control it through thoughts alone]

'Interesting'

I mused as I took out the steel wire from my inventory to inspect it, and it came out in a roll. It looked no different from regular steel wire except that one of its ends had a pointy tip while the other had a flat contraption.

My eyes widened as the wire's tip with the flat contraption came to life and slithered into my back through my sleeve.

I grunted as I felt something brick me in the back, and the rest of the steel wire entered my sleeve and began wrapping around my arm.

"Wow..."

I intoned as I suddenly felt like I had a new limb as the steel wire attached itself to my nerves through my back.

I slowly raised one of my hands, pointing towards the wall, and the steel wire immediately shot out of my sleeve, hitting the wall and piercing it with an audible thud.

I couldn't help smiling like a kid in a candy store as I began experimenting with the steel wire, throwing random objects and having it retrieve them with a mere thought.

"Today's been a horrible day, but at least I got a new toy for my suffering," I muttered to no one in particular, snickering as I retracted the wire and turned to my character screen again.

Looking at the 24 available stat points, I really wanted to dump them into my body attribute and be done with it to give myself more wiggling space if something like The Firefly encounter happens again.

But I pushed it down when I noticed my Crime skill level (16) and my Thief class level (8).

'If I finish the money quest right now, it will add five levels to the Crime skill and two levels to the Thief class by extension, but what will happen to the extra skill level? Will it count to the new class or go to waste?'

[Any skill levels that go over the host's maximum level will contribute to the next class the host choses]

'Good. You had me worried there for a minute.'

I would have had to delay completing the quest and raise Crime's level myself to avoid wasting levels if that was the case.

'For a passive-aggressive system, this thing sure is well made.'

I mused, smiling as I lay down on the bed, closing my eyes as the fatigue of my long day caught up to me.

...

Author note: a mysterious, wild homeless man appears in Gotham City's park, and Gray gets his first real interaction with a canon character from the comics, any guess as to who he might be?

Hint: the homeless man trained several heroes, one of them was a bat family member. He trained said bat family member in the same place he encountered Gray (Gotham City Park).