Chapter 487: Back on the road.

A loud buzzer filled the corridor with an unbearable noise. Josh was never the kind of person to pick an annoying ringtone just to wake himself up in the morning. He liked to take his time, and whether he was late or not never mattered.

Unfortunately for Josh, for the last three months, he had no say in what ringtone played each morning. He had no say in what hour he had to wake up, and he had no say in whether he stayed in bed or not.

Groaning, he got off the not-so-comfortable mattress and stretched. His body had been a little stiff lately, so he was considering exercise. Living in that three-by-four room had left him even less motivated than usual, so he was unlikely to muster the energy needed.

His room had no door. To be more precise, the door had slid aside soon after the annoying buzzer went silent, leaving the entrance open. Checking his fit, plain orange shirt, and pants, he stepped outside and stood inside the yellow square on the floor.

Something felt a little different today, and he understood as soon as he looked up. The back facing him was much smaller than usual. It was a few seconds later that he remembered Cory had been stabbed in the yard a couple of days ago. No wonder someone new moved in.

John lost interest not a minute later, and he started his usual routine of going through the motions. He followed the line of orange-clad misfit, ignored the noise, and ate his breakfast, then sat in a corner outside until it was lunchtime.

The trick to finding a peaceful life at such a place was to try to be invisible. In a place where people are constantly looking for trouble, standing out was a very bad idea. It wasn’t like people would just leave you alone if you didn’t stand out, either, so you had to find the delicate balance where messing with you was so pointless that people would start seeing you as a part of the background.

The new guy clearly didn’t get the idea. Going by the tattoos on his face, he seems to be a part of Black Skull—a sergeant, from the looks of it. One only needs to look at him one time to know he was too full of himself. Black Skull might have been one of the bigger gangs in Neo-Vatra, and they might have their own corner in this place, but a first timer thinking he was hot shit was like asking to be crushed.

Surely enough, soon after lunch time was over, a fight took place, and he was turned into a cheese grater. John was thankful. Avoiding fights right before meals was just an unwritten rule, so it was always good to see people follow it. It would have been great if people avoided fighting altogether, but that was asking too much.

Back in his cramped room, John grabbed one of the books he was allowed to keep and read through it. The thought of sleeping until dinner time occurred to him, but he didn’t want to risk staying awake through the night. No one wants to stay awake once the lights are out.

Though he was never big on reading, entertainment wasn’t something those in his position are afforded, so he had to make do with what he had. About five pages in, he heard a knock on his door.

“John Mallark. You have a visitor.”

John looked at the door with suspicion. He hadn’t heard a word in the three months he had been here, yet now he was getting a visitor? Something was off. It wasn’t even visitation hours anymore. Looking at the book in his hands for a few seconds, he quickly tossed it aside and got up.

The guards took him to a private room. He hadn’t been in one since he had that pointless meeting with that worthless pubic defender. His visitor didn’t look very familiar, but at last he didn’t seem to be one of those stuck-up lawyers. Still, the fact that he was dressed in casual street wear made him look all the more suspicious.

“Hey!” He said, acting all cheerful. “How have you been?”

“Awful.” John smiled as well. “I really don’t recommend this place.”

They were playing the role of old friends who hadn’t seen each other in some time, and though he had no idea who the other guy was, John just went along.

“I guess Ralf didn’t come check on you.” The visitor said.

Though he was sure they were having meaningless small talk, things changed when that name was mentioned.

“Yeah, he hadn’t dropped by in a while,” John said. “I was starting to worry he forgot all about me.”

“His last job had him occupied for some time. You know how busy things could get.”

“You don’t say.”

“Plus, he got a girl now, too. Kinda a pain in the ass with all that astrology BS.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” John said.

“Jeane Gregers.” The other guy replied.

“I fucking knew it.”

“I hear they’re moving pretty fast. The wedding is at the end of the month.”

John gave a doubtful look.

“I thought you said he was busy?”

“Yeah, and what do you think made it that way?”

“Shame I wouldn’t be there.” John shrugged.

“Sorry, man, can’t do much for you.” The other guy replied. “Just hang in there. Maybe they’ll let you out for good behavior or something.”

“Yeah, right.”

The visit ended, and John was escorted back to his room. He spent the rest of the day reading, had dinner, and then went to sleep. He went through the same routine the next day. The day after that, a fight just happened to take place right after breakfast.

John didn’t mind being stuck in his room the entire morning, since it allowed him to work through what’s left of his book. After having lunch, he returned the book to the library and got a different one. His interest in astrology had grown as of late, so he picked a title on the history of the topic, written by a prominent personality in the field—Jeane Gregers.

He returned to his room but didn’t start on the new book right away, instead choosing to work his way through another title. He continued to do so after dinner time, and once it was time for lights out, he decided to check the new book before going to sleep.

John took the thick paperback and stared at it for a moment. He then cracked it open and started flipping through its pages. He stopped at one page in particular and read through it carefully. Placing his hand on the page, John followed the lines till the last one, then grabbed the corner of the page as if to tear it. Instead, he ripped the page right away, revealing the contents of the next one.

In truth, the book ended right then and there. The following pages were mostly there, but their center was cut to create a small hidden space. Inside that hidden space, a small object has been placed—a blister pack filled with nine blue capsules.

~[ ]~

March 04, 2099.

Another EI incident shook the city of Neo-Vatra. The Vanguard Correctional Facility was breached from within. Several prisoners gained Genome-like abilities, which they used to attack the guards, eventually breaking out.

The incident was a callback to the attack on the city hall in December the previous year, with the main suspect behind it having been found guilty of inciting the riots of that day. Flame Guard and other hero teams interfered, leading to the arrest of several escapees. A few were still at large, but it was only a matter of time before they were captured and thrown back into their cells.

That said, the continuous emergence of Genomes of unknown origin was starting to raise a lot of concerns. If criminal organizations now have access to power on par with heroes possessing high Threat Level, how long would it take before wars involving superhumans would become the norm?

~[ ]~

The prison break caught Dante’s attention right away, and he was quick to conclude that Catalyst had been used. Though he wanted to investigate it for clues on the source of the miracle drug, he decided to leave that to Viktor and went on with his life.

Things had calmed down after the battle against the Daggers. With no big battles in the foreseeable future, as long as the NVPD and BEO left him alone, Dante decided to take care of a few things he had been putting off for a while.

“The frame was mostly intact, so all I had to do was replace some of the outer shell,” Megan explained. “I gave it a fresh coat of paint as well. What do you think?”

One of the things that had been bothering Dante was what happened to his trusty bike. After looking around for some time, he found out that it was collected as evidence of the accident that knocked him out a while back.

Though it was scheduled to be disposed of as junk, one of the officers took a liking to it and decided to keep it instead. Dante found the guy, paid him a large enough sum that he could buy a brand new bike, then took the wounded crow to Megan for repairs. Just a couple of days later, the Raven was ready to go back on the roads.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep