Mark used the map function to monitor his family. Melly was already asleep. Marcus left for his house, and Rachel was moving towards her room. Bart, who decided to stay, was lying in one of the spare bedrooms.
Mark resolved to move; there was now a smaller chance of his family noticing his absence. The young man stood from his bed and walked to the small balcony adjacent to his room. With a mental command, he donned his Mirmidón armor with its new attachments. With another mental command, Mark activated the phantom veil. Only an outline of his form was visible as he moved. One final command activated the anti-gravity module, and his body slowly rose.
Once he reached a certain altitude, the young man pushed hard on the wall using his legs. His enhanced strength helped him to gain speed. Through mental commands, he regulated the anti-gravity module. That way, he controlled his altitude. With the zero-grav harness, Mark moved with ease. A combination of grappling hooks and bursts of compressed air helped him to move between the buildings of Riggan's Point. Because of the training he underwent in his previous life, these movements felt natural to him.
After hearing Jack speak about a possible gang war, the young man hoped to find something to relieve his frustration. Mark moved within a perimeter; blindly searching was not only stupid but also wasteful. With the expansion of the map function, he could see a larger area.
An hour later, his search bore results, and he finally saw three red arrows. Loosing no time, Mark moved to their location. He needed more information before acting. The young man landed on top of the building next to where the arrows were located.
Tapping on the building, he saw the information about the place. An appliance shop named Cooper Appliance. He watched as the three criminals tried to break the back door of the appliance shop.
This shop sold 3D printers. Mark saw in the map function that there was a small workshop in the basement. Probably to manufacture spare parts for the equipment they sold. With a loud sound, the back door of the store gave in.
The young man wanted to know more about the three criminals. He tapped on the arrows on the map function to see their info. Mark saw the name and street nicknames: Francis Tucker (T-Bone), Charles Barns (Barney), and Peter Kirk (Handy).
Next, Mark took notice of their weapons. Only T-bone had a pistol; the other two had knives. Since the pistol was a low-grade laser weapon, it posed no threat to the Mirmidón Armor. Mark also noticed that they belonged to the same gang, The Riggan's Vultures.
This was news to Mark; he never expected Riggan's Point to have its own gang. In his past life, he never took notice of Berant City's underbelly. Although he lived in a housing complex, Miller Hills never saw these kinds of things. Learning about this shattered his notion that his home city was a safe place.
Mark slowly descended towards the floor. He entered the building, moving silently after the criminals. He was waiting for them to talk. That way, he could get some information. With this bunch, he did not wait for long.
The one named T-Bone was the first to talk. "Handy. These machines are too big for us to carry."
The man named Handy spoke next. "Don't be stupid, T-Bone, we only need to print a few parts for the machines we have back at our place. Once we fix them, we'll be golden. Let's head to the workshop in the basement."
The one named Barney spoke after Handy. "Man, are you sure the heat is not going to come? I don't want to go back to the pen."
Handy had an expression of frustration. "I told you, man, my friend is a cyber-head, she turned off the Alarm, They wont know we were here until tomorrow. Now, T-bone, watch the door. Barney, follow me, we have to craft the parts and carry them out."
Listening to their bickering, Mark was able to gather a lot of information. This group had a broken production line. Also, they had help from someone else, a Cyber-Head; this was the slang used to describe hackers. This gang seemed to be organized and preparing for something. Taking the three men out will not help his cause; instead, Mark decided to use them to get to their base.
Entering his inventory page, he selected a tracking kit. The kit consisted of a display device that was about the size of a comm-pad and six small trackers, each one the size of a pebble. As he walked towards T-bone slowly, he turned the device on. Mark tried to insert the tracker in T-bone's back pocket.
Getting this close to someone else was a real test for the phantom veil. While at a distance, it worked flawlessly, but as you get closer to a target, there is a bigger chance of detection. To make it easier for himself, Mark decided to toss an object in the opposite direction. T-bone turned to face the sound. With bated breath, the young man got closer. Mark extended his hand and dropped the tracker in T-bone's back pocket.
Feeling a weird sensation, T-bone turned. But saw nothing behind him. "Come on, T-bone, don't get jumpy now, there is nothing there." The nervous man gave himself a pep talk.
Mark found himself hovering on the roof on top of the man. His quick reaction speed helped him avoid detection. Using a mental command, he lifted quickly as T-Bone turned. Now all that was left was to get them out.
Noticing T-bone was a bit jumpy, an Idea came to mind. He opened the system abilities page. Scrolling down, he found a voice modulator function. With this, he could change his voice. His eyes suddenly drifted to the ability above that one. Universal Translator, Ignoring the ability for now, he purchased the voice modulator ability for 5,000 TP.
The system screen never relented. "Your purchase has been confirmed. 5,000 TP has been deducted from your account. Your current balance is 68,119 TP. Your Bank Balance is 0 TP.
Mark moved behind a bunch of appliances and enacted his plans. Modulating his voice to a deep, thunderous tone. "Francis Tucker, I have come for you." Using his powered armor plus his enhanced strength, he lifted the appliance and tossed it near T-bone.
The frightened man could only run out of the shop, screaming at the top of his lungs. Mark found the whole event amusing. He considered it a worthy punishment for the other man's action. It did not take long for the other men to come out.
They examine the scene. Looking at the overturned appliance, they went to check on T-bone and exited the Store. Mark took the chance to activate the alarm using the system hacking ability.
As always, the system screen popped with the new balance. "You have used 200 TP. Your new balance is 67,919 TP. Your bank balance is 0 TP.
Before leaving the shop, two machines caught his eye. They were a 3D printer and an assembler. In his mind, they would be perfect to replace the two outdated machines in the ground workshop. He made a mental note to come by the next day.
Mark hurried after the three men. Once outside the building, he turned on the anti-gravity module and gave chase. The young man was about to take out the tracking display when a message from the system distracted him.
The pale blue screen displayed the message with the usual yellow letters. "Compatible device detected. Would the user like to add the tracking device function to the Map function? This has a cost of 100 TP."
Mark saw the Practicality of this. "Yes, system, I would like that very much.
The balance message followed once again. "You have spent 100 TP. Your new balance is 67,819 TP. Your Bank balance is 0 TP."
Ignoring the message, Mark placed the tracking display back on the inventory. In the map function, the arrow relevant to T-bone flashed once every second.
Once the three men boarded a vehicle, the young man had a little trouble catching up. However, once the vehicle left the area covered by the map function, a marker by the edge of the map showed the direction of the tracker. It took him about half an hour more to catch up to the three men.
Mark followed the tracker's signal to a warehouse on the outskirts of Riggan's Point. The building looked to be abandoned. The outer walls were full of graffiti. Trash and debris were scattered about. The young man saw a giant graffiti of a vulture holding two symbols of L-Credits, one on each talon.
Mark felt like face-palming himself. "Why not arrange a neon sign advertising your hideout next time?" It was clear to him that these people were not the sharpest tools in the shed.
Mark landed in the upper parts of the factory building. He looked through the windows. He saw dozens of people moving about. They were all working on reinforcing vehicles and putting together crude weapons. It was clear that they were gearing up for war.
Two large humanoid shapes caught Mark's eyes. As he looked at a corner, he saw two light mechs. He wondered how this rabble got their hands on these. As he observed them in detail, he noticed that they were put together from parts of different mech models.
He decided to enter and take a better look. Mark moved slowly; the last thing he needed right now was to alert a bunch of nut jobs gearing up for a fight.
Moving along the roof of the structure, Mark avoided the lamps hanging from the ceiling. After a few minutes, he was on top of the two machines. The young man lowered his body with a mental command. Reaching the two light mechs, he inspected the machines.
The mechs were a horrifying mismatch of parts. In his eyes, they looked like mechanical versions of Frankenstein's monster. The misalignment of the parts will cause a variety of problems. Some parts were grafted and assembled so loosely that they would come apart on the first step of the mech.
One of the things his inspections revealed was that these things were not operational. At the moment, they were nothing but grotesque metal statues. His attention was distracted by shouting coming from a room to the left of the Mechs.
Mark slowly moved to the container placed in the area. Peeking in through a hole in the container, he saw a woman screaming at a chained man on the floor. She was wearing a mismatched combat armor that looked like it was put together from stuff lying around. Her messy black hair reached her shoulders. A savage look edged on her face.
Her voice sounded angry and full of anxiety. "I don't care how you do it, make them operational. We don't have much time. The Blazing Hand is coming, and if we don't get these mechs working, we are done for!" She kicked the man in his ribs.
The malnourished man could only grunt in pain. With a submissive voice, he answered to her demands. "What you want is impossible; these things will never work. The parts were never meant to work together. They are not even from the same mech size."
The woman was about to kick him again, but stopped. One more kick was likely to kill the man. "I will send more people to the junkyard, make a damn list!" The woman turns and walks away.
Mark was about to intervene when a red blinking dot distracted him. "Why are these missions always appearing at the worst possible time?" The young man tapped reluctantly on the red dot.
The red system screen appeared with a new request. "Materials needed for repairs detected. System Request: Recover materials as soon as possible. Fulfilling this request will provide the following rewards: Inventory repairs."
Mark decided to comply with the system repairs. He could come back tomorrow night and take care of this base. Opening his map function, he found a marker pointing in the direction of the requested materials.
Without incident, the man left the place; he marked it as the vulture's nest. Moving east from the Vulture's compound. He found a junkyard. The thing was massive. There was everything from discarded droids to obsolete vehicles, and there was even a section for mechs.
Hovering over the junk and broken machines, Mark moved to the location marked by the system. He arrived at a wide opening on the floor. The sunken construction was hundreds of meters deep. It looked like an abandoned hangar. Moving down, there was a small lake forming at the bottom of the place.
The young man used the map function and tapped on the underground structure to see the details. To his surprise, this was an old military base. It had been abandoned for decades, maybe more. Mark had to shake his amazement; it was getting late, and he needed to go back to the droid boutique.
He entered what appeared to be a mech factory. The production machines had dirt and even plants growing on them; they were beyond saving. The best thing was to recycle their materials into raw materials.
Moving along the space, he reached a pile of broken containers. Sifting through the contents of the pile, he found a clump of unusual minerals. The minerals had a low, glowing purple hue; if the place was lit even a little, this hue would not be visible.
Mark used the scan ability on the rock. The screen showed the name, Makt-Psyolite ore. Mark had never seen this material. Even using his metallurgy skills, he had no recollection of it.
The young man decided to offer the upgrade materials and go back to the new house. He needed to rest before getting up in a few hours. He had to meet his friends and also start dealing with refurbishing the droid boutique.
On the way back home, he looked for information on the junkyard. He discovered it was a recycling center owned by a private company that went bankrupt. At the moment, it was owned by the bank, and it was on sale.
The Idea to buy the place jumped on him. He decided to deal with this after he dealt with the Vulture infestation problem. The gang was probably taking most of their hardware from the junkyard. Besides, they were also a problem for Riggan's Point.
Mark arrived at his house around 3:00 am. He was still pondering how to solve the problems. With his mind full of distractions, he landed on the balcony and entered his room. He closed the door to the balcony and removed the phantom veil and Mirmidón Armor. As he walked to the bed, a voice came from the desk by the window of his room.
"Young Man, you have some explaining to do." Bart turned on the lights while saying these words.