Cover art by: silhouette_artizit on Instagram
The apartment building I live in is pretty quiet, the floor I live on has almost nobody living on it which is why it's my ideal living space. Thanks to the sparce company, I can get away with most of the stuff I get up to. Tuning up weapons, 3D printing gadgets, making stuff and other activities that'd make noise. I rage pretty hard when I game too, so maybe it's good that I don't have direct neighbors that are forced to listen to me cuss and scream when I pick up the controller.
I pocketed my keys and walked out of my secure apartment left in chaos from the sudden assault of the coffee pot. The door let out the assuring click that it was locked before I turned on my heel and walked out down the hall to the elevator. Where I live wearing masks can sometimes be a common thing, I usually wear a gas mask but I usually result to a classic black cloth mask when I go out in public.
Today's fashion choice was my cloth black mask, but I chose to put on a Gothic leather muzzle over the mask to match my shirt. As much was I was a slug getting out of bed this morning and grabbing what little I could reach to wear as an outfit, I do sometimes have a decent sense of style.
I made it to the standard twin elevators at the end of the hallway and hit the button to call my ride to the lobby floor. It wasn't a long wait because it was a pretty early morning, early enough that not a lot of people were awake. Especially not on a Sunday morning when people chose to sleep in.
The elevator doors slid open with a subtle metallic thud sound as the entrance to the box of transportation stood there exposed. I walked in and clicked the button to be taken to the lobby floor and pressed the button to close the doors immediately because I get way too anxious in small spaces with strangers.
If there's one scenario I like to avoid the most it's the awkward silence of being stuck in a small space with a complete stranger, like when one of my neighbors steps in with me in the elevator.I do not wanna talk about what happened to the last guy that wanted to start a conversation with me in the elevator out of boredom.
The doors slid shut and the gravity of the room became weaker as the descent began. This is the time I take to make sure I had everything I'd need for the little trip to the cafe and after a quick self pat-down I came to the conclusion that I managed to grab just about everything I needed.
Mask strapped, bag packed and rage stacked, I waited for the elevator to stop and allow me to walk out into the building's lobby. As the doors slid open and I stepped out, the looming stares of the other early risers in the building burned into me. Of course I stuck out like a sore thumb among these people. Where I live it's normal for people to have dramatic mutations, tails, horns, gills and spikes but for some reason I peak the attention of everyone in my vicinity no matter where I go.
It gets annoying.
I stepped out of the doors and looked down at my phone. I opened my notepad app to find the code I used to store my roller skates, found it, and coded them right onto my feet. I've used my quirk in public before, it doesn't surprise that many people. To make things easier on my memory for my codes, I give most of my stored and manifested items names. My roller skates are named Blitz.
Strapped in and ready to roll I strided slowly, the pavement making a semi-smooth surface for me to glide my way to the cafe.
It was a pretty sunny day, despite the sun barely beginning to rise. The sky was painted a dark blue color, with the horizon slowly seeping through morning shades of yellow, pink and orange to brighten up the passing night sky. There were only a few clouds, and the sun wasn't up high enough for it to hurt my eyes to look at it. Surprisingly peaceful, might take inspiration from this for a drawing later, my laptop's in need of an upgraded live background.
That sounds like a good project to work on once I get to the cafe.
I skated my way around the round courtyard in front of my apartment building down my street, passing by a couple houses and a nearby kindergarten. The place was barren and quiet, besides it was a weekend, nobody goes near school buildings on the weekends unless they're borderline psychos, or those nerds with weekend school clubs.
Hanging a right around a street corner, I was making my way towards a nearby intersection. Little to no traffic in sight, I took off my headphones to take in the quiet bustle of my city. Funny how everything became so peaceful as soon as I left my apartment which does not happen often for someone like me.
Pressing the tip of my foot down so the rubber stop on my skates break me to a halt, I foraged into my bag for a cassette tape, carefully placing it into the player strapped to my thigh and plugging my headphones into that instead.
The tape I chose were for my lofi download beats I play in my apartment, and since so far the morning has gotten better, I'll chose to relax and let my guard down.
As the music played and filled up my head so gracefully, I picked up my striding once again and made it to the intersection. The traffic light said I couldn't cross the street, but there was literally no cars in sight, so I didn't care. I skated right across the paved road to the other side into the marketplace parking lot where the cafe was.
With the wave of my hand and carefully placed footing, I stored my roller skates back into my codes and was back on my sneakers, walking my way to the cafe.
I delicately pushed the door to the small cafe open and the cliche small store bell rang with the door opening. This peaked the attention of the main barista attending the counter, who acknowledged my existence.
They didn't directly say anything to me, but just tilted their head with a warm welcoming smile and a little wave. I'm not gonna lie, under my mask, I smiled. So I waved back to them.
I'm not a confrontational person, so I'm glad they didn't make an effort to strike conversation with me until I showed that I was comfortable. Maybe some people are good.
I walked up to the counter to be greeted by the petite woman behind the counter that welcomed me in so nicely before. She was short but not much shorter than me, caramel toned skin with rosy cheeks and freckles. Messy dark chocolate brown hair tied up in a bun that convinced me she didn't make much of a effort getting out of bed either. Her white apron draped over her black collared dress and tied tightly in a bow behind her back.
Her dark brown eyes glistened with a look of slight exhaustion from the early morning as she spoke, "Hi there, what can I get for you hun?"
As I took off my headphones to take in her voice and words, I pondered in thought of what I wanted. Her voice sounded so sweet yet drained, I related to her struggle, so I made the effort to be polite and cooperative.
"Hey, can I get a medium coffee with a little milk and cream? And a breakfast wrap please"
The petite and polite barista nodded, repeating the order back to me. She must've noticed that slight surprise on my face when I realized she was able to hear me through my mask, because she gave me the head tilt and smile again, "Alright than, I'll get that right ready for you. That'll be 6.75$"
I reached into my laptop bag and pulled out my wallet. It was a pretty standard folding wallet, with a pink melting design on top of the black. I pulled out my debit card, which the barista took interest in because I had it custom designed to have a Sakura tree design on it.
Completing the little transaction sequence, I thanked the nice lady, and walked to the other side of the counter to wait for my order. I pulled out my phone to start checking my emails.
To my surprise, I didn't have to wait long at all.
Not even a minute went by and my food was there, ready for me. My breakfast wrap tucked away in the little bag and my coffee sitting right beside it. The nice lady gave me that smile again and I tilted my head and squinted my eyes a little, in effort to recreate her expressions.
She let out a cheerful little laugh and I walked over to get my things. I took a quick glance at her name tag, 'Andi'.
"Thanks Andi, you're really sweet"
I may not be confrontational, but I won't hide the truth. She playfully waved her hand back at me, "Oh it's no problem"
As I turned around, kinda still entranced by the polite and petite barista behind the counter, I somehow managed to run into the second incident of the day. Some guy who was standing right behind me knocked right into me and my coffee fell right out of my hands.
The guy standing over me grunted, and the worst reflex of his kicked in and he shoves me over. I collapsed onto back, and when I tried to catch myself on my hands, the coffee on the ground burned my palms and soaked my gloves.
The sparce company in the cafe were all focused on me, and I could hear the silent panic Andi was having. Of course, this fucking ignorant asshole who pushed me blamed me for staining his clothes and shoes.
I felt humiliated and was even more fuming than before, but I didn't confront the guy. I stayed quiet and ignored the bastard as I got up. My wrap was saved, but my coffee suffered. For fuck's sake I was really looking forward to that coffee.
I found a spot along a table near the windows of the cafe and sat down, taking off my jacket as it was soaked and stained. I tied it around my waist and put my bag up on the table. I immediately checked my tablet, phone and laptop to make sure nothing broke or got waterlogged.
Fortunately, nothing cracked or broke.
Struggling to recover from the second-hand embarrassment, I pulled out my tablet and laptop, strapping on my headphones and got to work on a digital sketch for the ideas of a new live background for my laptop.
As much as I tried to ignore what just happened so I could get over it, my anxiety was kicking in and I could still feel people staring.
I was getting really testy, and my toleration meter was not having it. I was just about ready to snap and scream my lungs out in frustration. I had to do something to get back at that bastard, and for the on-lookers who are daring to make a fool out of me. I swear if one of them got a picture-
That's it, I gotta do something.
I looked through the note files of my laptop that brings out a toolkit and propped it beside my bag. What came out of my codes afterward, was Sasha, my sniper rifle.
Yup, what did I chose to do to get back at the asshole who screwed me over? Pull a gun in a coffee shop. The people who were semi-fascinated by my quirk watched me pull out a whole rifle out of my computer from code alone, and prop her up on the kickstands I set up on the counter.
I sifted through my toolkit and grabbed a few things that'd help me adjust Sasha, and began to tighten what felt too loose, and adjust what was out of place. It only took me a quick glance to notice everyone that was staring. Some people pulled out their phones and began recording me, but with my hood up, I doubt anyone got a good look of what little I was showing of my face.
Then there was the asshole that knocked me over, who was doing most of the muttering. I gave him a good death glare when I tested out Sasha's trigger, but the safety was on. Made him jump though.
Just as I was ready to bust a cap in the bastard, I felt a very unsteady hand on my shoulder. I turned around in my stool and saw Andi, standing there, holding another cup of coffee that I presumed was for me. Of course she was terrified, but the kind gesture was enough for her to earn her life.
"Huh, thanks... You can go if you want."
As I took the coffee from her hands, she very slowly made her way out of the shop. I kinda watched her for a bit before glancing and noticing the very next person that tried to leave was that bastard.
Quicker than a flash bang I reached into my pocket and cocked a bullet into Sasha.
I turned around, propped my baby up on my shoulder, stared down the barrel and pulled the trigger. The ear-piercing bang of the gun filled the room as a clean shot pierced right through that useless man's head, his blood spattering all over the unfortunate scene behind him as his limp and lifeless body fell over like a rag doll onto the Cafe floor.
The silence afterward was deafening, but didn't last before the panic of the other people in cafe set in and everybody began to freak out.
This was my cue to get the fuck out of there. I gave myself a good 5 minutes tops before pros and cops arrived. Time to speedrun this bitch.
Quickly stashing all my gear, I tightened my shoes and stored Sasha away. I coded a flash bang/gas grenade and pulled the pin, chucking it into the middle of the panicked crowd that was struggling to escape. As the thing popped, I parcoured my way over the counter, through the back and to the backdoor of the place.
Manifestation time, code: leap
Code leap is a pair of shoes and gloves that can make it easier for me to stick to walls when I climb, and this came in really handy when I was met with a tall building wall at the back of the cafe.
I backed up for a good running start, and leaped onto the wall. I sprinted up the wall and scaled the building till I got to the roof.
I was perfectly out of sight by now, and from this height, I can watch the chaos unfold with plenty of time to get further away.
The manifested code faded and I watched as the pros arrived on scene first, obviously clueless of how I got out of there so quick without being noticed. Boy was that a rush, I needed that to wake me up.
I made my way across the rooftops to get at least a mile away from the cafe, and watched the big screens of the city light up with breaking news.
"BREAKING NEWS: HOSTAGE SITUATION AT LOCAL CAFE ESCALATES QUICKLY - SUSPECT ON THE RUN AND NOWHERE TO BE FOUND"
Good, hope it stays that way.
I sat on the edge of a building, coffee and wrap still in hand and perfectly fine from the sudden speedrun. I watched the people below me and felt like I was on top of the world, watching these little ants scatter around in a panic.
Munching away to my wrap and taking sips of my coffee, I pondered going back to my apartment to finish my projects, it's a lot safer there anyway-
"Did you do that?"
Said a complete stranger behind me who placed a foot on my back, ready to push me off the edge.
"... Yeah, I did."
Code: Blitz
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