Fluff Chapter Seventeen - Homie and the Try Hards

Chapter Seventeen - Homie and the Try Hards

“Homie?” Emily asked.

She didn’t an for it to sound so surprised, but the word was just not one she’d associate with such a straight-laced looking person as Handshake. He looked more likely to complain about anyone using the na than anything else.

The information broker nodded. “Yes. You might want to take a seat, I have a lot of information to deliver.”

“You, um,” Emily said with a look around. “You won’t charge for it?”

“After what he did to ? No. The fact that he inadvertently put you at risk also ans that he basically waived away any decent thoughts I might have had about him.” Handshake rubbed at his stubble-covered cheeks with his uninjured hand. “It might make him want to co back at if he learns, but I figure we’re antagonistic enough at this point.”

“Okay?” Emily tried. She scooted over to one of the wooden benches lining the edge of the gazebo and sat down. A mont later, Teddy hopped backwards and plopped herself down next to her.

“Right,” Handshake said. “lanie, want to sit down too?” he asked.

The now-nad lanie shot him a glare, but stomped over to a bench halfway across from Emily’s own, a spot that forced Handshake to turn ninety degrees to be able to face both of them.

“Thanks. So, Homie. Twenty-seven years old, male. Drop out from the local college. Gained his powers on power day last year while in his last year in the engineering program. Went from a nobody to... honestly, he’s still a nobody. It’s a minor miracle that he hasn’t been locked up yet, but his rap sheet is pretty pathetic.”

“He’s a villain?” Emily asked.

“He started with Dealer as a morality. Technically grey, but as dark as grey gets,” Handshake said. “He’s still around there now. His gang, the Try Hards are a joke, on purpose.”

“What do you an, on purpose?” Teddy asked the question in the back of Emily’s mind.

“They recruit from disillusioned college students, mostly well-off sorts that ca in with a lot of mommy and daddy’s money and no idea how to take care of themselves. They want to feel and look tough, and the Try Hards give them an opportunity to do that.”

lanie scoffed. “Their worst cris on most days are things like painting shitty graffiti on walls and loitering. Sotis there are noise complaints when they listen to music too loud. To be fair, it’s shit music.”

“They deal drugs too,” Handshake said.

lanie’s brows bunched together. “Hard?”

He shook his head in denial. “No. soft stuff. Weed and a few party drugs. Legally grey stuff.”

Emily wondered what that ant. She knew that drugs like alcohol and marihuana were pretty dangerous but not illegal, and she knew there were worse drugs out there that were. If they weren’t selling the really illegal stuff, then were they really doing sothing grey?

“They’re directionless kids following so jumped up idiot with powers,” lanie said.

“You’d think that,” Handshake said, “but there’s a thod to their madness. This is the part that most people don’t know. The Try Hard gang, if you even want to call it that, is part of a bigger organization. One led by a Criminal who goes by the na Cent.”

lanie’s face scrunched up in distaste. “That guy? I thought he did white-collar shit? The occasional protection racket.”

“Homie is his top lieutenant,” Handshake went on to explain. “The Try Hards are basically a kind of cover. They’re also an arm of Cent’s... organization. I don’t like using the term though, it’s too strong. Cent has three or four knee breakers that work for him, but most of his inco cos from non-physical cris. Blackmail, extortion, a bit of information selling. The kind of thing that the average hero can’t punch.”

The woman sitting across from Emily shifted and glared harder, but she didn’t say anything to that.

“That’s, um, the man responsible for your...” Emily gestured at Handshake.

“That’s probably it, yeah,” he said. “I was snooping into his group. One of Homie’s little pets got a power last week and Cent seems to have moved a few things to hide soone, possibly another new mask. He might have clued in that I was snooping on him. Or he just decided to take a bigger slice of the information selling pie. Or maybe Homie’s too big for his britches. I don’t know.”

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“It doesn’t matter, does it,” lanie said.

“No, not really. Homie has a drive with a fair bit of information on it that I think both of you would rather not get out into the public. And now you know.”

“What... what are you doing about it?” Emily asked.

He shrugged his good shoulder. “Well for one, I’m telling you two. You’re the only masks in the imdiate area who are impacted the most.”

“Dammit,” lanie growled. After hearing Teddy’s growling it didn’t sound as scary as Emily would have thought. “Before anything else, give the low down on their powers.”

“Homie’s powers are the stranger of the two. They’re kind of hard to describe and can be rather esoteric. Also, he’s been a mask for over a year now, and even if he’s level one he’s been cultivating his power for a while.”

“I know how it works,” lanie said.

He pointed to Emily and Teddy. “They don’t.”

The woman crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat. “Fair. Go on.”

“So, Homie’s power allows him to... perate a room. The more ti he spends in an area the more he gets to know it. The location of items, where people and things are in relation to each other and so on. It sounds weak, but then most powers that sound weak have a kick to them. His big advantage is that he learns how to use things in a room he’s in. Spend ti in a class and he’ll learn from the books within, spend ti in a garage and he’ll know how to... I don’t know, change your oil? I don’t think the effects are permanent.”

“That’s kind of impressive,” Emily said.

“It gets worse,” Handshake said. “If he stays in one place long enough his control of the things there improves. He can set off lights, move things a little, operate machines and so on. He has a few boltholes set up across the city for his use that he visits regularly to reinforce.”

lanie nodded. “Kind of esoteric, but I can see it being a pain in the ass to deal with. Is that all?”

“For him, yeah. His boss is a bit harder to pin down.”

“Cent?” lanie asked. “He controls cent. It’s pretty simple.”

Handshake shook his head. “He’s level two. Cent control was his second power.”

“Um,” Emily said and imdiately regretted it when their attention turned her way. “Sorry, but level two?”

“Each level a person gets unlocks an entirely new power,” lanie said. “But there’s only one way to get a level, and that’s by winning an Endga.”

Emily shuddered. ‘Oh. Right.”

“Cent’s first power isn’t known. I can’t even pin down which Endga he was at. I can tell you that he only started moving in full after he got his cent control abilities. He tends to use them to cover himself in a foot or so of the stuff. It moves slow, but it’s heavy, and his power lets it stay liquid.”

“He’s a bruiser. Able to take a beating and dish one out, but not able to move fast,” lanie said.

“Unless his first power was a movent ability, in which case your assumption could be dangerous,” Handshake pointed out. “I suspect that his primary power is so sort of intelligence gathering one. He’s found blackmail material on so people who are incredibly secure about things. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Sothing like your own power?” lanie asked.

Handshake shook his head. “Mine’s more about social interactions. Anyway. His na tells us a lot of nothing, his real identity is properly hidden, and his activities keep him in the dark too. He’s a proper Criminal, the sort that are kind of rare in this city.”

“Criminals are rare?” Emily asked.

“They are here, love,” lanie said. “Us hero types outnumber the bad guys three to one. It’s not the place with the best ratio, especially not so soon after Power Day, but we’re still far ahead of the curve.”

“Oh, right.” Emily felt a cold sweat breaking out on her back. lanie was a hero then. A proper bonafide hero would break Emily apart the mont she learned what Emily’s morality was set at.

“You okay?” lanie asked.

Handshake sighed. “I was hoping to get you two working together,” he said. “It would make you a whole lot more efficient out in the field.”

“Ah, I’ll... I’ll see,” Emily said. “What... what kind of things did you have about on your... hard drive.”

“Just about everything I could learn about you,” he said.

***