Chapter 5: This dummy's final act
Facing the consequences of one's actions.
Those few word's perfectly described Percy Rupert's current dilemma. He was always a man who wanted more despite his mundane existence. Living in a shit hole like Gotham was already bad for your mental health. In this city only the rich get to even think of living comfortably. He was anything but rich. He made minimum wage despite being constantly over worked. His boss degraded him, his colleague's acted as if he were a ghost. He wasted hour's upon hour's working, and for what?
The only ray of sunshine was his daughter and his wife, Sally. Saying she was the love of his life would be an understatement. There's nothing he would not do to see her happy, afterall she deserved so much. They were highschool sweethearts, though her parents never approved of him. She was from a rich family and the opposite was true for him. No one approved of their relationship.
So they ran away together, they got married and no one could give them any shit for it. Though maybe Gotham wasn't the best place to start life anew. That didn't deter them however. They both got job's in this shit hole of a city. And then they brought Lily into the world, his sweet and innocent daughter. For her and Sally there's nothing he would not do.
Though thing's were dull, to him atleast.
They weren't begging for scraps or anything, they had decent income. But that's all it was, decent. He wanted more, more for him and more for Sally and Lily
So he turned to a more, illegal side of Gotham. A 'friend' had notified him of gambling rings all over Gotham. He was desperate, desperate to have something more in life, to see Sally and Lily happy.
So he gambled and gambled some more. He won and won. Though these wins were gained though no small amount of cheating, he gained money this way. More money than he ever needed. He brought Sally and Lily everything they deserved. Despite her keeping quiet she most likely knew his money wasn't clean.
Then it happend. The gambling ring he was at had a certain guest. Now he had seen some strange thing's in Gotham, but what he saw that day was very, very odd. A portly man walking around with a ventriloquist dummy. Though said dummy seemed to do most of the talking, figuratively speaking. It even seemed to be sentient, as if it had a mind of its own. Though that obviously wasn't the case, the man was clearly just insane.
Though he must've been important as he had guard's all around him.
Percy knew he should've left then and there but he didn't, he neglected to listen to that gut feeling. And by some twist of event's, he gambled against the odd man. He didn't want to cheat this time, of course that would end badly for him. But when he saw how much was being betted he went against his better judgment.
Thus his current predicament. He was found out, a gun had been placed against his temple. Apparently the ventriloquist dummy didn't take too kindly to him cheating. 20 000 Dollars, that was what he owed. The dummy didn't seem to care much about the money, it said something along the line's of wanting to send a message.
And so his dilemma began. He gathered as much money as possible. Pulled in favours and even turned to more unsavoury act's. It was not made easy by the constant beatings he experienced from what he assumed were the dummy's guard's. Something about reminding him what he owed. He didn't want to gather money the way he did, but he knew he had to. Otherwise Sally and Lily could be hurt. He did not care what happend to him, but if either two were to get hurt or worse then he'd never be able to forgive himself.
And so he finally gathered the money.
He intended to pay his debt no matter what, so he made his way to where the dummy frequented. An old Gotham Nightclub. He made it through the bouncer no problem, and he gained easy access to the VIP section. The men must've worked for the dummy, but he paid them no mind. He was agitated, and for good reason.
But he firmed his resolve as he saw him. Seated on a plush couch, a large portly man sat. He was balding at the top of his head, with white hairs latched onto the side's. He wore a pair of spectacles along with a suit and bowtie. But that was not the oddest thing about the man, no it was the ventriloquist dummy seated on the large man's lap. It was dressed like an old fashioned mobster, a striped three piece blue suit completed with a similarly coloured fedora. Further more there was a large scare running down the left side of the dummy's face.
Surrounding the odd duo was about four burly men, all dressed in black suits. As Percy drew near, three of the men approached him. His suitcase was ripped from his grasp as the other two men took ahold of his arm's and forced him on his knees infont of the ventriloquist dummy.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Percy, Percy! Way over the deadline!" The ventriloquist dummy spoke, his voice grating to the ears. "I'm a merciful man. I gave you all the time in the world! Yet you disrespect me like this."
"B-but I have all the money right now! Just count it's all there!" Percy spoke with a shaky voice.
The ventriloquist dummy, Scarface turned to the man who had the suitcase. Quickly said man scanned over the contents of the case, a few seconds went by before he turned to Scarface.
"It's all there boss, 20k." The guard informed as Scarface turned back to Percy.
"Good, good. But ya see Percy ol' pal. The interest has been raised." The dummy stated seeming to bask in Percy's expression of disbelief.
"H-how much?" He asked with an audible gulp.
"50 000 with interest." The dummy coolly stated and Percy found his eye's bulging out of his head.
"That's impossible! I can't make that much!" Merely gathering 20 000 dollar's was already an almost impossible task, but gathering 50 000? Saying that it was impossible would be an understament. He had more to say but was promptly stopped when the dummy held a glock to his temple.
"It's simple Percy 'ol pal. If you ain't paying, well ya die!" It declared, Percy froze as he felt the cold barrel of the gun press against him.
"I-I can't make that much!" The dummy somehow merely sighed at his word's.
"Ya got a debt to pay, Percy. And Scarface will get his money's worth. If ya can't pay then maybe the sweet wife of yer's can help. Maybe I'll sell sweet 'ol Sally, she'd make me all the doe I want with that bod of hers!" The dummy cackled loudly as Percy's eye's widened. "Or maybe that daughter of-"
"You!" Blind rage quickly took hold of the man as he tried to pry himself free of the two holding him down, he received a punch to the face for his efforts. His vision shook as he remained idle, a bruise already forming on his right cheek.
Scarface merely continued cackling loudly at the display of defiance, yet something occured that stopped the dummy's laugh.
The dummy was suddenly propelled forward by a seemingly invisible force. The gun flew from the dummy grasp, as it hit the floor a shot was released yet no one seemed botherd as the music practically drowned out everything.
Scarface flew through the air and all eye's followed him as his journey in the air was cut short when he neared someone, that someone gripping the now motionless dummy by the neck.
"S-Scarface!" The portly man finally spoke as he yelled out to the dummy. The guards released Percy as they all stared behind him, turning he saw what they were looking at.
An impressively tall boy, he wore a dark zip-up jacket with a high collar that was also fairly wide. Furthermore he wore slim-fit matching black pants and black dress boots. But that was not what stood out most, no that would be his head of tousled snowhite hair and the pair of circular glasses that had pitch-black lenses that hid his eye's.
The boy seemed unconcerned by the four men who were closing in. He instead seemed focused on the dummy which he held by its collar. He lifted his glasses slightly as he raised an eyebrow studying it.
"Aww, I was hoping it be sentient." He spoke with a slight sigh of disappointment.
"Y-you! Give him back!" The portly man yelled out as the boy turned to him.
"You can have him back, in a few pieces." And in the next instance his grip on the dummy tightened as he suddenly slammed it against the floor with enough force to shatter the wooden face and body of the dummy into fine pieces.
"No!" The portly man cried out. "G-get him!" Though despair? Seemed to be quickly replaced with anger.
The men seemed content on following the fat man's order despite the absence of Scarface. Though neither seemed content to take out their guns, thinking a measly child was easy enough to put down. They seemed to neglect the strange phenomenon that had just occured. Percy watched as the first man lunged at the boy and threw a wild haymaker.
He merely swiftly stepped to the side as the man's fist sailed past him, then the boy's left arm shot out and gripped onto the man's arm that passed him. Then he slammed his elbow against the man's exposed face. His elbow all but sunk into the man's face as blood flew from his nose, unceremoniously the man's body fell to the floor with a caved in face. Though the boy wasn't finished, pivoting on his heel he turned to one of the guard's who seemed to want to sneak up on him. His left hand shot forward and gripped onto the man's face with an iron grip. Performing a foot sweep the man quickly lost balance as the boy with surprising strength guided his head to the floor, with an audible crack in both the floor and the man's skull he let go of it just to duck low and avoid another sneak attack in the form of another right hook.
The man responsible for the would be sneak attack received a palm strike to the abdomen. Percy watched in shock as the man's body became a mere projectile as it shot back under the force of the strike, before crashing against one of the wall's of the VIP section. His body seemed to bounce against it before falling to the ground.
"Boring~ Are you guy's even trying." The boy mocked. "Though if you're trying to bore me to death then, you're doing a good job." He gave an audible yawn.
"Shut up you brat!" Seemingly the only one with an ounce of brain power, the last guard took out a pistol and pointed at the boy who leisurely had his hands to his sides. The man pulled the trigger, and a bullet flew from the chamber of the gun. The bullet whizzed through the air and to it's target only to...
"What?"
"Huh?"
Percy watched in confusion and disbelief as the bullet merely hovered infont of the boy's face, idly. Then the bullet fell to the floor with a soft clang. Regaining his bearings the man readied another shot, but was promptly stopped when the boy suddenly shot forward from his position. The ground beneath his feet slightly cracked under the force as he suddenly appeared before the man. He could do nothing as the boy's fist crashed into his face sending him reeling back.
Taking his eye's off the man he stared at the former owner of the ventriloquist dummy who was trying to make an escape.
"Oh now that won't do." The boy stated as he extended his hand to the fat man. Percy watched as the portly man's body was pulled backwards by the same strange invisible force from earlier. His body propelled itself right towards the boy, the back of his head in his grasp now. Without another word he promptly slammed the man's face against the floor.
"Yo! Percy right? You should go home, your wife's worried." Stepping away from the man, the boy approached him.
"Sally?"
"Yeah, she was worried you were getting involved with the wrong kinds of people. Seems she was right to." He picked up the suitcase and threw it at Percy, who awkwardly caught it. "Word of advice, leave Gotham. That money should be enough." Percy didn't need the boy telling him why.
"Oh and mind telling your wife to spread the good word of my business? I don't really care about the cash or anything like that."
"Sally hired you?" Percy asked as the boy nodded.
"Yeah, she was really worried about you, old man. That's the kind of women you don't let go off." The boy turned around to leave.
"Wait!" The boy stopped his march as he glanced back at Percy with a raised brow. "Thank you."
He merely gave him a wave before walking off.
____________________
"Those two..." I couldn't help but heave a sigh as I stared at my account through my phone. A whopping amount of 21 000 dollar's. I already told that guy to keep the money and get out of Gotham, yet here they gave me all that money. To think people like them actually exist in Gotham, sure I did the job for them but this amount of cash is just absurd.
I'll check up on them occasionally then, as a thank you and to see if anyone will give them any trouble. As for that fat guy with the dummy, I just handed him to the police. I was pretty sure he was a known character, eh doesn't matter.
For now...
"I look kinda clean." Staring at the mirror of my bathroom I looked at my face, my eye's were coverd with bandages now, spiking my hair upwards. This was my mask so to speak, I couldn't comfortably fight with my glasses on so for now I had this. Maybe it will keep the ladies off my back too, cause they'll think I'm some blind weirdo now.
Stepping away from my mirror I exited my bathroom and went to go sit on my bed. Watching those YouTube martial arts videos really helped, of course I was no master. Though I did have a foundation to build off of, then again all I did was through some fancy moves. Removing Infinity and not using Curse Energy to reinforce and strengthen myself, then I'd be average at best. Watching a few video's will only get me so far. It did help that I absorbed information much quicker thanks to six eye's.
Though wouldn't hurt to have a teacher. What a pain, but I don't wanna rely on Curse Techniques the whole time. But maybe there's some place I can gain experience. Even if it's just me beating people up, an illegal fighting ring maybe? There should be some diamonds in the rough there. Something to keep in mind I guess. For now I'll keep it up with this little business of mine, and then make some more cash. Why do I need more money you ask?
For that sweet nectar known as sweets.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone