Chapter 83: Internship pt3
It was now getting close to night and Technobabble had decided he would join me for the rest of the day. However tomorrow he planned on talking to me over the earbuds he gave me. For now though we walked to go investigate the people Uwabami handed off to us.
"We should be closing in pretty soon."
I nodded and started walking a little slower. Technobabble stopped at a corner to an dead end alley. This was the address, and looking at the dead end it looked like a place people would certainly do some illegal activities.
Technobabble tapped on a tablet... Which I don't know where he got it from. "This was apparently once a motorcycle repair shop. It was shut down because they also stripped stolen vehicles for parts."
"Fun, what is it for now?"
Technobabble looked around and pointed to a camera. "From footage the shop is still running. To be specific it I believe that these guys are just so low bar."
A garage at the end of the alley way opened up. Two men rolled out a old motor cycle.
"Oh shit that's a 1952 model I think its a Vincent." Technobabble was watching through the camera while I was peaking around the corner.
"So then what do we do?"
"Huh? Oh it looks like they are gonna wait for a drop off. Are you able to knock people out without a sound?"
I shrugged, "I can absorb the sound and we can just grab them."
He nodded, the two men came closer to the entrance. The sound of the wheels turning ended. I saw Technobabble pull out a small scalpel like tool from his sleeve. I jumped the guy on the far side while Technobabble grabbed the guy who was close to us.
The whole struggle was silent as I strangled the guy I had. The guy Technobabble dealt with was unconscious already. When the guy I had went limp I stopped with the sound cancellation.
"How did you knock him out?"
"Huh? Oh I pressed on his neck like you did however with a solid pinpoint."
I blinked, I could possibly do the same... "Neat trick now what?"
Technobabble check on the tablet. "Drag the two guys backwards, then check the shop. Do the sound thing because there might more back there."
I shrugged and grabbed the two by the collars and dropped them behind a dumpster. I opened the shop door. The door would've creaked if I hadn't stopped it. I saw a guy in the back pull a gun out. It hit me that I needed to absorb in less of an area. It seemed the guy had some good senses, I stopped my absorption.
"Don't move or I shoot throw that wall."
As it turned out the woman stopped. I couldn't tell previously because I wasn't using infrared. The woman called out. "You the cops?"
"Who asks that? What if I am a hero?"
The woman sighed and I heard her put the gun down. "Can I walk around the corner with my hands up?"
"Go ahead, however you didn't answer my question."
The woman came around answering me. "Cuz if you were a hero I don't think I could fight back. Ever notice most cops are half animal?"
"Not really, mind to talk about whatcha doin?"
The woman peered behind me. "So my boys are knocked out?"
I nodded, and the woman just sighed. "Look what's this about?"
"I have no idea, I am a intern. Though this shop isn't suppose to have any residents... So I mean?"
The woman frowned and Technobabble burst through the door with a loud screeching. "Hey Finch this is the only one?"
"Yeah no one else is in the building or the adjacent buildings."
Technobabble taped a few times on his tablet and then put away on a compartment. "Xu Ling a Chinese immigrant. Left your home town because you didn't want to be married off. You are part of a pretty family. Cooperate and we can see about making a deal."
"Cooperate how?"
Technobabble gestured with his head, "The guys you selling that bike to are the people we are after. Though with the warrant out for the arrest of one of your workers and the illegal auto work being done here, ah well you get the idea. Two birds and stone throws."
The woman sighed once more, "Call me Misha, I changed my name. I'll cooperate just don't arrest my boys."
Technobabble nodded, "I am tracking three sources of gunpowder? Hand over the guns and you can go grab 'your boys from outside'. Me and my compatriot will deal with your client and I'll see to making arrangements for your help. Finch get her weapons."
The woman pulled a tiny pistol from her boot and tossed it to me. I caught it and Techno pointed to a revolver the woman put down previously and a shotgun hidden in a shelf. A few gills on the woman's neck frilled up and I realized she hadn't been sighing.
"Do you need water?"
Technobabble looked at me, the woman was surprised though. "In a way... I'll be fine though. Thanks for asking."
Me and Technobabble left the garage. Walking back to the front of the alley. "Where do I put these guns?"
Techno checked his tablet quickly and put it back. "Shred them try to absorb energy from them, turn them to slag? I don't care, Just get ready." The woman came out of the shop a second later grabbing one of the unconscious men.
"Ready for what? her client?"
Technobabble nodded, "Yeah they are a part of a gang that has been harassing shops. The motorcycle is owned by one of them. They passed it Misha to get a repair done since it is an oldie. By the way good catch on the water thing. I was gonna test you on some things once we got done."
"Was that gonna be one of them?" Technobabble was cut off by the sound of a drumming. He shrugged and leaned against a wall folding his arms.
"Hold the bike, and don't talk. I'll signal."
I grabbed the bike, it would be helpful to know the signal. Whatever though, the drumming came closer and several cycles came down the street quickly. They skid to a stop in front of us. "Hey! You fix my baby?"
Technobabble nodded taking off his helmet. "Yeah, it was a simple fix for us. She should purr like sweet twin cats. You got the payment though?"
"Haha! Payment right, we got the rest of the money. Give me my baby first though..." The man's tone changed half way through.
"No good, and Boss never asked for money bucko. You no the price we asked. You paid the money for repairs up front. Now its time for the time spent."
The man frowned jerking forward grabbing Technobabble from the neck and his group pulled a couple of pistols toward me. "HEHE, Buddy I don't think you get the deal your boss made." The man pointed at me looking away from Technobabble. "Give me my bike or I break your buddies neck."
I expect the signal to be a a little more... like a verbal mark. However the man froze up as I could see Technobabble taser him to the ground. Taking the same course of action I sent arc of my own electricity connecting into the gang. It connected easily thanks to the motorcycles they were on and they dropped.
"Good control of the voltage or well the amps really... Catch and help me handcuff them."
I caught a set of two handcuffs and went over to two of the guys I shocked. There motorcycles were still running. Technobabble said absorb energy from the guns... I didn't believe I could do that, but the motorcycles?
As I handcuffed the guys i held the motorcycles draining them of energy. I didn't exactly understand how it worked, but the tires on each of the motorcycles popped and the batteries and gas burned out. Technobabble looked impressed, "The police should be coming soon. I sent a report already. The will handle the rest more or less. So how was the ride along?"
I thought about it, "Is this your test? Well to sum up, you found the guys Uwabami told you about and found a spot we would meet them. Coming to this garage you planned to use it as a point where we could both have them come to us as well as put a group of criminal mechanics? In your pocket, which makes me realize you likely have done this before? Adding to that the two men we knocked out first wouldn't be very cooperative. So that was a test on my combat, then you knew the woman would cooperate. There was a camera in the garage, it was on a laptop. So you knew how many were in the garage so you were testing how I would handle that as well. Second to last..."
"Slow down kid wow! Let me analyze. Yes I found a way to neatly set up a point of contact. As I already knew where this goon squad was so I made a plan of attack. Its important for heroes to fight on their terms. If you let criminals or whoever to fight on their terms civilians can get hurt. I expected you to give the guy you knocked out a concussion or something. It was well handled, though a little slow. If his quirk was something offensive you would've been in trouble. You aren't unstoppable Finch. Finally yes I knew the woman would be willing to cooperate as per her quirk."
Right the fact I kept think she was sighing. "Her quirk is a mutant quirk that requires special care. Normally her family would've helped her in that case, but like you mention if she ran away from home it would be harder to accommodate those methods. I assume she needs some special mineral water or salt level contain in her water?"
Technobabble nodded, "Good guess, she needs a certain electrolyte for her quirk. It normally isn't in drinking water so the woman gets it through more off-shelf methods. Now the final problem?"
The goons? "Well they weren't that power... I guess ignored the possibility of their quirks? Except they drew guns so I don't know what you expected. What was it?" Honestly I didn't find a problem in the last part.
"Your method was smooth and you used the same method I did. Basically tasering the guys still on bikes. The problem was you waited for a signal fro me. As soon as they drew guns you should've cleared them. You have amazing senses, attacking before they drew deadly weapons should've been you priority. With your abilities you have what I would call first strike retaliation. Do you know why?"
I understood what Technobabble was getting at... It seemed I really would learn some heroics on this internship. "My senses will continually improve, in fact my own abilities would cause the improvement of my senses. Disabling the ability to use weapons would've been possible with my current skill set. Not to mention I could've overpowered them with quick physical strikes."
Technobabble smiled, "Yup got it in one though, as you should've as well noticed they didn't care we had costumes on. This was because I knew how they were handling the case with Misha. So they would've had similar thoughts on our quirks. So they had not only failed to access us properly. You failed to take note of that and truly capitalize on it. Don't get me wrong tasering them was easy and effective, however you expelled extra energy. Which we want to avoid since you hadn't had enough to evolve yet. Though... you made up the difference by absorbing the possible energy from the motorcycles. it also meant they couldn't escape if they woke up from being knocked out."
Flashing police lights rounded the corner and Technobabble nodded once more. "That wraps today mostly up. We can get a ride from the cops, they tend help at night when heroes lack transport. Though don't always rely on that so always have a plan B for travel...Oh and remember convert the energy you have into one unit."
I sat down as a few police officers got out of their vehicles. This internship was gonna be pretty fun...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone