Chapter 107 - No… More… Tasks...

With Lucas's mood nearly as elevated as the crushed vehicle he is carrying lifted over his head, Lucas finally makes it to the opposite sidewalk.

All of the random pedestrians in the area scatter, not willing to make any assumptions as to his goals while wielding such a weapon, leaving him and Jonathan a wide berth. Of course, no good samaritans try to help Jonathan up, nor so much as attempt to warn him of the approaching madman that is waving around a whole-ass car. Selfish jerks.

Back by the entrance of the alley, both Miss Calculated and Miss Masher are now standing by Willy. The still-recording office employatrix isn't far behind them, with her phone's focus on Lucas once more.

Willy lets out a long, low, whine, then runs in a small circle around Miss Masher, and then similarly around Miss Calculated. After sitting down on the sidewalk in front of Miss Masher, he looks up at her and barks once, then pauses a moment and looks over to Miss Calculated, barking once at her as well.

"Uhh… Sorry Willy, I have no idea what you want." Miss Masher squats down in front of him with a heavily confused expression, reaching forward to gently pet his head. Miss Calculated looks down at them, deep in thought for a few moments.

"...Do you want our help heading over to check on Lucas and Jonathan?" Hazarding a guess, Miss Calculated asks this in an uncertain voice, promptly being answered with an enthusiastic bark.

"Heheh, well, he did make it look pretty fun…" Cracking her knuckles, Miss Masher locks her sights on a small black general-purpose utility vehicle nearby, currently on its side with a woman pinned beneath it, who is sobbing loudly.

Deciding on her toy of choice, she casually lifts the upturned vehicle up over her head, inadvertently helping the suffering woman as a byproduct.

Whether it's out of genuine goodwill, or just wanting to make sure her sister doesn't just trip on the poor stranger, Miss Calculated helps the injured woman over onto the sidewalk, out of the way.

427 is quite amused by the fact that Miss Masher gave Lucas half-credit on the assigned minor GDV task by taking care of it for him, due to being inspired by his actions. But, he is a bit confused as to why Lucas also received a small amount of GDV from Miss Calculated's actions as well.

Now only a few steps away from Jonathan, Lucas absentmindedly dumps the silver sedan he was carrying off to the side, blocking off a large section of the sidewalk.

Jonathan looks up and notices him after finally sluggishly responding to the noise, his face instantly lighting up with equal parts joy and relief.

"Dad! You're here! I can't… I can't do any more... Tasks, I need… I need a break. I… I don't… I don't think I've ever f-felt so ex-exhausted… In my… Whole life." Still panting heavily, Jonathan's entire body is swaying with the movements of his breathing as he addresses Lucas.

While Lucas is still greatly concerned by Jonathan's state, confirming that it's just sheer fatigue lowers his worries enough that Lucas can focus on a different detail, leading to him gasping and smiling.

"D'aww, you called me 'dad'!" As Lucas cheerily points out this certain detail, Jonathan's face, which was already flushed from exertion, rapidly turns beet red.

As Jonathan is too tired to so much as lift an arm to shield his face, he settles for looking down and away, his overgrown hair blocking his face somewhat. Even still, there's no hiding his clearly visible ear that is a hilarious shade of red.

'Heheh… Wait, what the hell is his GDV up to that he's so damn worn out!?'

[...3.68.]

'The fuck? Wait, it was all minors right, wasn't that actually… A lot? Even still, why is he so wrung out?'

[As all of your enhancements are predominantly passive, so you wouldn't be familiar with power fatigue. Theoretically, if you used high amounts of your strength for an extended period of time you would start to experience it, but it still wouldn't compare to repeated large bursts of enhanced speed. The only thing that would have been worse would be if his powers were mental. Then he'd not only be just as exhausted, but he would also have a splitting headache on top of it.]

'Oh… But, how the hell did he get so many tasks? Wait, and why didn't 11 fuckin' stop once he started getting so obviously run down?'

[Keep in mind that the eligible range for GDV task assignments takes into account your ability to travel there. Thanks to his enhanced speed, his area is far greater than yours. One important thing to note is that overwork wasn't even remotely a concern pre-war. There were just so many heroes and barely any tasks to go around. I imagine 011 will begin taking these factors into account in the future, though.]

The two Sisters of Evil, accompanied by Willy, make their way onto the nearby sidewalk. Their approach is heralded by the honking of horns and the screeches of swerving cars slamming on their brakes, with no few people leaning out of their car windows and yelling. What they hoped to accomplish, who could say? If they had agitated Miss Masher, that would have only made their problems worse.

They were close enough at the time to hear Lucas's happy proclamation, causing Miss Masher to break out laughing. Well, intensify her laughter. She was already laughing quite a bit from flailing around her equipped vehicle at oncoming traffic in an effort to dissuade their advances. Needless to say, this methodology proved quite effective.

Deciding to 'park' her car alongside Lucas's, she hefts it over and noisily crashes it down onto the sidewalk next to his, such that it isn't really blocking all that much more of the sidewalk.

"Hmm, apart from how red your face is, you don't seem injured. Power fatigue, I take it, Jonathan?" Miss Calculated makes this accurate speculation while looking down at him, getting a flinch followed by a slight nod in response.

At the same time, Willy was doing his own inspection, stepping over to lick Jonathan's cheek once in an expression of contentment over the fact that he seems to be more or less all right. Ish. Just really needs a snack and a nap, basically.

"Looks like it, seems kiddo here just couldn't stop playin' around, eh? Seriously, we were up late last night thinking of org names, and then you were up long before me, you shoulda known better. All right, come on, I'll carry ya, let's go get some food in ya, that'll help, yeah?" Lucas manages to set up a compelling, and even somewhat accurate, cover as to how Jonathan got to this point. Towards the end of speaking, Lucas squats down in front of him, with his back facing Jonathan and holding his arms lifted a bit.

"Um, ye-yeah… So-sorry… To make you worry… Th-thanks..." Jonathan stammers this out every bit as awkward as ever, then slowly manages to pull himself up enough to loop his arms around Lucas's neck. Once he's assumed a piggyback position, Lucas then slowly stands up, looping his arms under Jonathan's legs.

'Uh, so, about those tasks…'

[...Congratulations on successfully completing all three for a total of .25 GDV.]

'Oh, sweet. We good to go then?'

[Jonathan still has one more pending, though frankly even if he wasn't in this state you'd be more qualified for it anyway. It is to do something about the few cars from the pileup that remain in the middle of the road.]

'How the hell was he gonna do anything about it?'

[...That's part of why he's so exhausted. It isn't the first task that he wasn't particularly well suited for.]

'I'm kinda mad at 11 now…'

[Don't blame 011 specifically. I'm already discussing how to broach the subject to Boss System with it. Much like exhaustion is now a potential issue, not having anyone suitable within range is a new issue as well. While you were technically in range, the fact that you were on a moderate task at the time meant you were exempt from the lesser task.]

'Huh, good to know. And uh, yeah, good luck with that. Even I can see how that can be a problem in the future.'

[Ahem, exactly.]

'...I distinctly feel like you just insulted me, somehow, with just those two words.'

[...You should be paying attention to your surroundings, you have quite the audience.]

'I'll accept that as an admission. But, shit, you right.'

Standing up with Jonathan shyly nestled into place, Lucas finally turns his attention over to the three other individuals nearby. He looks between Miss Masher and the vehicular wreckage out in the middle of the road, his expression thoughtful.

"Uh, I probably should have thought of this before I picked Jon up, but whatcha think about us cleanin' the mess a little, just to spite the little bitch? She wanted to cause such havoc for no good reason, yeah? Whatabout us undoin' it?" As Lucas more or less posits a reason to clear the street, Miss Calculated gains a thoughtful expression.

Miss Masher, on the other hand, doesn't waste any time before laughing whole-heartedly.

"Hells yeah! Let's throw all the smashed-up cars right on top of her stupid corpse!" It's good to know that Miss Masher is fully on board. She was even loud enough that the still-recording stream caught her loud and clear, all the way across the somewhat busy street.

Miss Calculated is hardly the only one that is thinking over Lucas's proposed course of actions, though.

-----

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 12.04 (+.05 +.01 +.1 +.1 +.01 = +.27 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 4* (Beyond just local, viral meme tier. Local levels are fairly high)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for some paranoid individuals)

Jonathan total kills: 6

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 3.68

Jonathan's fame level: 2.5* (Mostly just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (A few paranoid individuals are suspicious)

Willy's fame level: 1* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame as 'Xenoclast's dog')

Supervillain social circle size: 11

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, burrowing his still bright-red face in the crook between Lucas's neck and left shoulder: 'This is so embarrassing… At least Chi isn't here.'

Willy is looking up at Lucas carrying Jonathan, wagging his tail happily, and in full support of Lucas's action plan: Bark!

Lucas, belatedly thinking about how to actually do this: 'Uh, I guess I can just walk out into traffic again, and if any assholes hit us it should kill Jon for a rollback? I can just kick the cars over, yeah?'

427, a bit speechless about Lucas's thought process: [...You weren't just planning on making Miss Masher do it?]

Author, wearing a huge, evil, grin: Don't worry, it wouldn't take much effort to get Jon to trigger a rollback out of sheer embarrassment. Maybe just let him know this is all being streamed?

Mr. Quacks, already on top of one of the cars in question, hopping up and down as he tries to prepare it for Lucas's future foot-felt affections: Quack!