Marvelous Gamer - Chapter 2

AN: Hey Guys.

Two meetings and a bit more info dump in this chapter.

Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Chapter 2

I cleaned up the blood from my hands and looked around the empty hideout. It’s been a month since the start of my new life, and I did a lot of crime fighting since I got here. I spent most of my first two weeks patrolling around Bronx and Harlem, I decided quickly that I wouldn’t patrol only around my neighborhood, it would be almost a beacon, showing exactly where I lived, so I spread my patrols around, covering a lot of ground to stop anyone from tracking where I lived. I stayed away from Hell’s Kitchen, but I did dip into midtown every once in awhile, including a quick visit to midtown high; the field trip to Oscorp happened just a few days ago, so spidey should be showing up soon. Or at least, I’m hoping he shows up soon, it is exhausting being one of the few heroes focused on street level crime in NY.

Apparently there was a major fight between some gangsters and Daredevil about a week ago, and the kingpin was furious about the loss of people and merchandise, or at least, that was what one of the guys I performed… enhanced interrogation on told me earlier. I was quite happy that the devil was also bringing the fight to the gangsters, because I’ve been hitting them hard in my own corner of the city, and since Daredevil was more well known, his actions put the spotlight away from me; something I was happy with.

In the last month I hit a few supply depots belonging to the kingpin. His operation was a lot more organized than most other gangs; his dealers and the guys that worked ‘security’, which was just protection rackets, were actually supplied by organized warehouses, where they could get drugs or guns quick and easily; there was also some form of uniformization on his business, the guns were all Hammer industries models, and the drugs seemed to be well weighted, and from what a few addicts told me, after I dropped a few dollars in their hands, consistent quality. It was the height of organized crime, and I finally had an in.

I was finally able to get some information on one of his major warehouses, nothing like the little supply depots that I had been hitting in the last few weeks. The guys that I beat up earlier had told me about a warehouse in the my area, just a few minutes’ walk from my house, and it apparently supplied most of the minor depots in Bronx. I wanted to hit that warehouse, but it was well defended, dozens of armed gangsters, better trained than the ones I’ve been fighting these last weeks. I was a little scared, since even those less trained ones had managed to injure me a couple of times. The little bit of blood flowing from a cut on my left arm was proof of that.

I still haven’t been able to buy a healer companion, or a healing power for myself. But I was close. I found out how the system distributes credits, I get points from enemies defeated, not from crimes stopped; I realized that on my second night of patrol, when I stopped two guys from mugging a woman near the Harlem river, I got two credits from that, instead of just one. I did want to buy a healing power before anything else, but I realized that I needed a way to quickly get out of a place when I almost got jumped by for guys armed with pistols, it was only my serum enhanced speed that helped me run away from what could easily be my death. So I saved credits for three weeks and then spent all 50 of my saved credits to buy a transportation item, a reusable portkey from Harry Potter, it could bring me back to my apartment from anywhere in the city, a valuable item that provided me with a quick getaway from any difficult situation.

But now, because I spent all those credits, I only had 10 saved up, enough to buy some common items, but not enough to buy anything that could help me with this cut on my arm, my first major injury on the job, everything before that were bruises that healed in a couple of days.

My injury would take some time to heal, so I wouldn’t be able to do hero work for a while, not with a busted arm. At least I had a lot of money. After all the supply depots I hit, looting everything and selling it to the game store netted me a nice little paycheck from my ‘job’ at R.O.B Inc, a grand total of $43,261. Drugs and guns cost a lot of money, and I sell them to the game store at street prices, even after the ROB takes his 10% it still leaves me with a lot of money, clean money; hell I will have to pay taxes on that income. I definitely don’t want the IRS on my ass, normal IRS was already a nightmare, marvel IRS must be worse than HYDRA.

I was still living in the apartment I started this new life on; I could probably afford a nicer place with the amount of money I was making looting criminals, but I was saving my money for when Tony Stark returns and stops Stark Industries from selling weapons; stock prices should drop, but I know Tony will turn things around, so I will make a lot of money from this little bit of future knowledge. I was also saving some money for when I buy Sombra as a companion, a hacker like her probably needs a crazy expensive setup to do her thing. I looked up how much a PC costs here, and there are some crazy high level ones, developed by Reed Richards, that cost almost as much as a penthouse near central park. I definitely don’t have the cash to buy something like that, not yet; maybe after I hit that warehouse.

“I’ve been looking for you.” I hear someone say to my right, turning around I see a guy in an all red costume with little horns on the head. Daredevil himself came to see little old me, I’m honored, and scared.

“Really? I don’t think I was in your radar, I’m kinda small time.” I say, making him incline his head slightly.

“I heard there was someone new in this area, thought it would be nice to have a look around and see how you do things.” Daredevil explained, walking closer to me, no one would believe the guys is blind seeing the way he moved. He was confident, as if he knew exactly where everything was, and any movements I would make before I even made them, which he probably did, with his bullshit blind guy sonar.

“I also heard you’ve been looting all the guys you take down, as well as the depots. What are you doing with the drugs and weapons?” He asks, and I realize why he was getting closer to me, he is now close enough that he could attack me within a second. My fear grew a little, I still haven’t bought any martial arts knowledge, the guy could wipe the floor with me, even if I’m stronger and faster than him. So I decide to go with honesty.

“I have a way of safely taking them out of the streets, it is better than leaving them for the cops, they would just disappear after a few days in a ‘filling error’.” I responded, and watched as he tilted his head to the side again. My fear started growing again, if he didn’t believe me I would be in deep shit, I tried to control my fear since it was probably raising my heartbeat, and the devil would probably think that I was lying because of it.

“And where do you leave them?” He asked again.

“Another world.” I responded. It was likely truth anyway, the ROB was probably selling the drugs and weapons in another universe, is what I would do.

“I believe you.” He said, and I released a breath that I didn’t know I was holding. “You don’t have to be so nervous, I know it all can be a little scary, especially since you’re just starting now, but we take care of our own; and you are one of us now, one of the ones that help whenever they can, that have the power to do what is right, even if the law says we shouldn’t.” He said, walking closer to me and smiling a little, it was a little creepy to see him smiling in that costume.

“Not even going to ask about the other world thing?” I asked, genuinely curious. I wanted to know how much experience he had already.

“I’ve seen some weird things since I started doing my night shifts.” He responded, shrugging his shoulder and in a bored tone. “You got anything from those guys I saw leaving here?” He asked.

“The address of a large warehouse the kingpin uses to supply most of the Bronx, thinking of hitting it once I recover a little from this injury.” I say, pointing to the cut on my left arm. I know he can’t see, but he doesn’t need to know that I know. “But even when I recover it will be difficult, the place is guarded by dozens of well trained men, I haven’t done anything that big yet.” I added after a few seconds.

“Hmm… Mind if I tag in. I can help you out a little when you’re ready to raid the place.” He asked, and I did a little happy dance inside my head. My first hero team up is with Daredevil, one of my favorite heroes.

“Sure, the more the merrier.” I responded, trying to keep the happy tone out of my voice.

(Quest)

Raid the kingpin’s warehouse, with the help of Daredevil and others.

Reward: double credits +10

And others?Does that mean I will find someone else willing to help? Three or four heroes would definitely make that job a lot easier than if I did it alone. I tried to think who else was active in NY at the moment that could end up helping me, and came up with nothing. Most of the information I had was about the heavy hitters, and I don’t think that the Fantastic Four would help with this kind of thing, maybe Johnny Storm; I could see myself meeting him in a club sometime in the next few days, but the others spent most of their time in the Baxter Building. Maybe Spidey will already be active when I’m recovered, but I think that is unlikely, and I wouldn’t want to bring in an inexperienced Spider-man into this kind of fight, even if this one won’t be one of the arrogant ones, since uncle Ben is already dead, I checked, just to be sure. Uncle Ben is dead and aunt May is a MILF.

I still don’t know much about the street level heroes, so I don’t know if Luke Cage or Jessica Jones are already active. I know Jessica is supposed to be classmates with Peter Parker, but when I looked into it I didn’t see a Jessica Campbell in Peter’s class, so she is most likely older than him in this universe.

I should also consider mutants, like Cloak and Dagger. I didn’t look for Tandy or Tyrone when I did my little search when I got into this world, and I still haven’t looked since then, but it is possible for them to already be active, since this world is all over the place.

“You mind if I bring some more people? They are in the ‘business’ as well.” I ask. If the quest is saying others, plural; then I might run in into other heroes some time soon.

“It is your information, as long as they know the risks and aren’t a liability in a fight, you can bring as many people as you want.” The devil responded, shrugging again. “You should take a look at that arm; here.” He said, taking a card from… somewhere in his suit, and giving it to me. I didn’t see any pockets but I’m not going to comment on it. “Look her up if you want, tell her I sent you and she should give you a nice discount, or throw you out, depends on her mood and how pissed she is at me.” He added, chuckling a little at the end, it was still creepy.

I look at the card and saw the name of Claire Temple, as well as the hospital she worked on. I’m definitely not going to be using this, even if I still don’t have a healer of my own. I would probably have to reveal my secret identity to her, and even if I didn’t, I want to limit as much as possible how much of my DNA is out of my control, you can never be too careful with people like Nathaniel Essex running around. Not to mention the things that magicals can do with someone’s blood, that is definitely another huge concern, and a good reason alone to have a healer that is loyal to me and me alone.

I looked up and saw that Daredevil was about to walk out of the room.

“My name is Guardian. When I’m wearing the suit, that is.” I say, trying to get my hero name out there.

“It is a good one, shows exactly what you do and who you are.” He responded, and then walked out of the room, leaving me alone.

I did a little happy dance once I was alone again. I just talked with Daredevil, an actual marvel hero. I know I am in a marvel earth now, but doing my crime fighting alone, and even seeing all the familiar names all the time didn’t make it seem real like talking with an actual hero did. I looked around the hideout once again, to see if I missed anything, but it seemed like I didn’t, so I walked out of the building, and made my way home. There would be no more crime fighting tonight, it was time to go home, relax, and take care of my injured arm.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a week after my meeting with Daredevil, the cut in my arm still hadn’t recovered completely, but it was good enough to not interfere with my fighting too much, so I was back in the streets.

It was a moonless night, and the dark alleys seemed even darker because of it. I was tailing a well dressed guy carrying a briefcase, a guy dressed in an Armani suit, and carrying a briefcase at this time of the night in Harlem was definitely up to no good, especially since he wasn’t being stopped by any of the gangsters I could see in the alleys. I was following him from the rooftops, the buildings in this part of town were close enough that I could jump between them. The guys walked as if he owned the place, not a care in the world, which again made me think he was up to no good. As I continued to follow the guy, i lost myself in thought, thinking about all that I did in the last week.

Even with my messed up arm, I still found something productive to do. Can’t let the ROB think I’m not trying to entertain him, or else that bastard would kill me again. I spent most of the week learning more about the world I was in. I search for Tandy and Tyrone, and didn’t find anything about Cloak and Dagger; I did find them still in school, so they weren’t active yet. Luke Cage was already active, and the way I found out was pretty unusual. I found him beating up a gang member when I was coming back from the club one night. Jessica Jones was old enough for me to think she was already active, but I didn’t have anything to confirm it.

I was also keeping an eye on a few different things. Tony Stark still hadn’t shown up, so that was something that I still had some time. I would probably need to hit the warehouse soon, and then intensify my efforts on busting out some more depots. I wanted more money to invest into Stark Industries when he returns. And I also wanted to be living in a nicer place, with a few more rooms, and have a large amount of cash to spare in the next two months. Emma Frost turns eighteen exactly two months from now, it seems like that would be the kind of time she would run away from home, so I wanted to be in a nice position to help her and take her in. She will definitely be suspicious of me just showing up wanting to help her, but if I can get her to trust me, then I would hopefully have an omega level telepath to help me with my crime fighting. It would stop her from both living on the streets and joining hellfire, which would be a major change to canon, but I can’t let someone who is a good person deep down, go through all of that. Without Emma joining Hellfire; I would have to find some other way to deal with Sebastian Shaw, that guy can’t be left alone for too much time, or else he will be a nightmare to deal with later.

The guy I was following stops in front of a building and shows some kind of identification to the two guys in front of it, the two guys look at the card for a few moments and then the guy I was following enters the building. The building is one of the older apartment buildings in this neighborhood, it is not well maintained, there are broken windows, gang signs on the walls, and some parts of it seem ready to crumble, including the fire escape, so I will have to enter the lower floors of the building from somewhere else. I don’t like entering buildings from the roof, it takes too much time to get to the lower floors, and most of the time the entrance is defended, criminals are not that dumb to leave an entrance point undefended; or at least, the gangster that work for the kingpin aren’t.

I spend some time scouting from a rooftop across the street, the two guys at the entrance are armed, I can see the pistols from where I am, those Hammer build guns are always shiny to hide how crappy they are. Seriously, you can hardly fire a full mag before those things lock up; I can understand why Stark Industries has such a stranglehold on the guns market. If that is the quality control of their main competition, I don’t want to see what the others are like; they will probably fire backwards or something. There are also a couple of guys patrolling the alley, so no way in trough there. There doesn’t seems to be anyone guarding the roof entrance from the outside, but there are signs that the door was opened recently, so there is probably a patrol and defenses on the inside, those things are perfect spots for an ambush, and I’m not walking into such an obvious one.

I jumped into the fire escape of the building I was in and started to make my way down, I wanted to get I ground view since I wasn’t seeing any good point of entrance from the roof. Once on ground level, I made my way closer to the street, hiding in the shadow of the alley as much as I could. I couldn’t see much from where I was, not without stepping out of the shadows and revealing myself, and I wasn’t willing to do that, I’m not bullet proof, and I already have a small amount of reputation with the gangsters from this area, those guys would probably shoot me on sight. I was seriously thinking of trying to beat up the guys on the alley and enter the building trough an open window on the second floor, when I saw a woman walking on the other side of the street. She walked as if she didn’t have a care in the world, completely calm, she was even whistling. She was wearing jeans, combat boots, a grey shirt and a black leather jacket, with black gloves on her hands. She made her way up the street slowly, still whistling, until she was right in front of the door, between the two guards, and then she moved. She was quick, almost as fast as I was, she had the two guys on the floor within a couple of seconds, before they even had the chance to pull their guns. Once the two guys were out, she walked into the building, closing the door behind her. Well, I think I know who that is. I thought to myself as I quickly made my way across the street and followed her into the building, stopping at the door to collect the guns from the downed guards and quickly selling them to the game store. Can’t leave free cash laying around, nor can I leave those guys armed, since they could wake up while I was still inside.

Walking into the building I saw another two guards knocked out just inside, like I imagined, a perfect place for an ambush, most people would think that the only defenses were the two guys outside, it makes for a pretty good defense, and I wonder how she defeated these guys. Looting these guys as well, I continue my walk inside the building, just following the downed guards and looting everything I see, until I turn a corner and see her at the other end of the corridor; she is bending down slightly, looking over the other corner. Damn, she has a nice ass. I shook my head; that is not what I should be thinking about right now, even if it is true. I make my way towards her, trying to be as silent as possible, and I manage to get just a few meters behind her, she is so distracted with what is in front of her that she doesn’t look back, an amateur move, and something that can get you killed; there is always the possibility of someone coming in from behind. Constant Vigilance, if it worked in Harry Potter, it works here as well.

She suddenly moved, turning the corner and started running. I quickly followed her, she was almost as fast as me, but I still managed to close the distance just in time to see her knock out the first of the two guards. I introduce myself into the fight by hitting the other guy up a punch in the jaw, knocking him out in one hit, this time not breaking his jaw, I learned to control my strength enough no to accidentally break any bones, even if it took some time.

“You know, you should be more aware of your surroundings; I was standing behind you for almost a minute. You should also take away their guns, you definitely don’t want those guys to still be armed if they wake up before you leave the place.” I say, introducing myself, and giving some advice. Now in front of her, I get a good look at Jessica Jones. She looks to be around my age, maybe a year older, black hair and a cute face, the type of girl I would be trying to pick up at the club.

“Yeah, well. I wasn’t thinking about that. Who are you and what are you doing here?” She asks, with a guarded expression, subtly adopting a fighting stance. I don’t blame her, if some guy showed up and said he was behind me for almost a minute, I also would be nervous.

“I’m Guardian, at least that’s my name when I’m wearing the suit. And what I’m doing here, probably the same as you, stopping some drug dealers.” I responded, and she seemed to relax a little more. She was still guarded, but less willing to fight. “You should wear a mask, you don’t want those guys to recognize you when they wake up, they might track you down and attack you later, or your family.” I added after a few seconds. She seems painfully inexperienced, not what I expected of someone like her.

“I don’t have anyone to worry about… At least, not anymore.” She says in a hurt tone and with a hard eyes.

Isn’t that interesting. I thought. I don’t think I ever saw her origin story like that; she is probably still Jessica Campbell, since it seems her parents died recently, and it doesn’t seems like she was adopted, no need for an adult to be adopted after all. It also explains her inexperience, she probably started doing this hero thing just a few days ago.

“So, we should probably continue, there are more gangsters in need of a beating inside this building.” I say in a joking tone, and manage to draw a small chuckle from her.

“Yes, we shouldn’t keep them waiting.” She responded, also in a joking tone, although it sounded a little forced.

We started making our way through the building together, encountering no more guards for a few minutes, the ground floor seemed to be clear. Going up the stairs, we were about to turn a corner when I stop her from doing so since I heard voices. Hugging the wall, I looked around the corner and saw three guards walking away from us. None of them were armed with larger guns, no submachine guns or assault rifles, thank ROB for that, but I thought I saw a glint of something in the waist of the guys to the far right, so they probably had some of those crappy Hammer pistols with them.

“Three guards, armed with pistols. We sneak closer to them; I will take the one in the middle and the one on the right, you take the one on the left.” I whisper to Jessica as low as possible. I would have preferred to use military signs, but she probably wouldn’t understand. That is one thing I was happy I still remembered from my previous life.

She nods her head in agreement and we turn the corner, walking low to the ground, making as little sound as possible. We have to stop a few times, or else we would make too much sound and the guys would realize we were there. Once we get close enough I signaled for an all out attack and hoped she understood, and then started sprinting the last few meters towards my targets; Jessica coming behind me after a second of hesitation. The guards turned around when they heard the noise but we were already too close to them, they didn’t have the time to react as I knocked the middle one out with a single well aimed hit to the head. I tried to do the same to the guy on the right, but he ducked under my punch and started to pull his gun; I used my superior speed to kick his hand, making him drop the gun, and the guy quickly assumed what looked like a well trained fighting stance. I followed my kick with another punch and the guy deflected it, hitting me with a counter right in the solar plexus, which would have knocked the wind out of me, but only served to mess up his hand due to the armor my suit have there. I then used that little mistake he made to finish the fight with a well aimed strike to his throat, controlling my strength to not completely crush his windpipe, and when he is down on the ground, struggling to breathe, I finish it with a blow to the head knocking him out.

I look around and see that Jessica has already finished her fight and is looking at me in a weird way that I don’t recognize. I start looting the three guys, taking away their guns and a bag of weed the middle guy had on him. Jessica raises an eyebrow when she sees the guns just disappear from my hand, but doesn’t say anything. I’m not hiding my system powers, if anyone asks I will just explain as some magic bullshit, marvel has enough of that for my lie to be believable.

We start making our way again, but there doesn’t seems to be another patrol on the first floor, we were about to go up the stairs towards the second floor when we see two guys guarding a door. It is in a somewhat long corridor, and the door is at the end of it, right in the center, giving the guards a perfect, clean view of anyone approaching. I was still trying to think of a way we could approach when I hear Jessica doing something behind me, I turn around and saw her taking of her jacket, and then her shirt, until she is only wearing her lacy bra, which is surprising, since I would have expected her to be wearing something more comfortable. She then puts her jacket back on, messes up her lipstick and her hair, and then she turns the corner and starts walking towards the two guards as if she was supposed to be there. I can see the guards reaching for their guns and I’m about to walk out and try to protect her, when they stop and just stare as she walks closer.

“Hey boys, I was hired for some entertainment, I was told I was expected in this room.” I almost can’t hear Jessica say.

“How did you get here alone?” The guy on the right asks, his hand still on his gun.

“There was this guy that was accompanying me, nice guy, with blonde hair and green eyes. Said he was going upstairs to smoke a joint, and showed me the way to come here alone.” Jessica said, getting closer to the guards, she was almost close enough.

“Fucking Mark, man. He is always doing shit like that.” The guy on the left said, and Jessica suddenly moved, hitting him in the throat, and knocking out the other guy with a hit to the side of his head. She then turned around and waved at me, with a smirk on her face.

I make my way towards her, chuckling slightly. When I reach her I whisper. “You open the door, and I will run inside. I’m faster than you, and we don’t know if there is anyone armed inside.” making her nod her head in response.

I get in position and wait for her to open the door. When she opens it; I quickly run inside, my eyes scanning the room for any sign of someone reaching for a gun. There are four men inside the room, and not a single one of them seems armed, they actually seem scared, which I wouldn’t expect from criminals, or from people that have a two to one advantage.

“Hello Francis. You really thought I would forget about you?” Jessica says standing in front of the door, blocking the path out.

I look around and see the guy in the Armani suit that I was following earlier getting pale; I guess he is this Francis. The other three guys also seem really nervous; I look around the room again, expecting to see the usual drug and guns in one of the supply depots, but what I see are little mounds of cash and some gold jewelry. I then understand why those guys are so nervous, they are the money crew, not really expected to fight. I really start to question how smart the Kingpin is; he seemed smarter than to leave one of his money stashes with so little defenses. But then I stop to think, maybe he is operating in some security through obscurity idea. I would never even think of looking into this place if I didn’t follow that Francis guy.

“You can take the others, leave Francis to me.” Jessica says in a cold tone. I don’t respond, just going around and knocking out the other three guys, wincing when I hear Jessica kick the Armani suit guy in the balls. I wait for some time, just watching her beat up the guy, when she is done the guy is unconscious, with a bunch of cuts and bruises, but still alive; although, he might end up dead if those cuts aren’t treated in the next few hours. I wait for her to clean her hands on the guy’s suit and then say.

“You wanna grab any of this, whatever we don’t take I’m going to make disappear.” She doesn’t need to know that I will just be selling it to the game store. It is still a little weird to sell money and get it back, just with 10% less, but the ROB does what the ROB wants, and I get clean money.

Jessica nods and walks around the room a little, looking at everything and grabbing something every once in a while. When she is done, she has stuffed her pockets full of cash, and has a couple of gold chains on her hands, as well as a nice gold and sapphire necklace. I grab a few handfuls of cash and a couple of gold chains, it would seem weird if I didn’t after asking her if she was going to, and it would end up with her asking questions about my little disappearing act. I then start selling everything else, which ends up netting me $312,526, and that is not counting the cash and gold I have on me that I will sell later. This was a nice night of work. I then turn around and see Jessica just standing there, watching me.

“I’m planning to hit one of the Kingpin’s warehouses in a few days. Wanna help out?” I ask, thinking about the quest that the system gave me.

She gives me a grin and responds. “Sure, count me in.”

I tell her a time and meeting point five days from now, and then we both walk out of the building through the fire escape, knocking out the two guys on the alley before we part ways and I make my way towards another alley so I can use my portkey home.

AN 2: Isaiah got to meet some real superheroes.

He also got to plan a major hit on the Kingpin’s operation.

But that is for the next chapter.

I will see you guys in the next one.