Hanging Out

What else would you call a father manipulating his own son against his family and only friend? Cruel, yes. Interesting, without a doubt.

'I need to think.'

With that said I stood up, thanked my parents for the meal, did my dishes, and went to my room.

'Okay, the main mission is to help Andrew not go all psycho on us. If I do that, Steve doesn't die by his hands. Investigating the mysterious object that gave us all our powers is optional but can be done. Helping Aunt Karen is a no-brainer, but helping Andrew's dad may not be easy.

As much as I want to get a free random ability token, I don't know if I want to help him. When a man stares into the abyss, it stares back. He might be too far gone. I'll have to gauge his reaction and thoughts when I implement a plan against him. So far, it looks like I'm going to blackmail him.

At the end of the movie, Matt uses Andrew's camera so it's safe to assume he found footage of Richard being abusive and turned it in to the police. I could do the same, but that might place an even bigger burden on Aunt Karen not to mention Andrew. Okay, time to put House's abilities of manipulation to use.

The easiest way so far is to catch Andrew's father in the act of abusing him and turn it in to the police. The downsides are as I stated earlier so that'll be a last-ditch effort. I need to think about who Richard is as a person.

A prideful, drunken, abusive, and resentful son of a bitch. He thinks the world has it out for him. He gets injured on the job and lives on disability. Then his wife gets cancer and he can't afford to pay for her treatment. His son is the only one he can take his anger out on. It's also possible the only reason he cares for his wife is because he can feel superior to her. Yeah, he's poor and down on his luck but at least he's not dying of cancer. It gives him an illusion of control that he can't have over his own life. He drinks to numb the pain and to try to forget how miserable his life is. He tries to hide behind a facade but deep down he knows he is pathetic.

It seems blackmail is not an option here either. He's too proud for blackmail to work. He'd rather lash out in anger than submit to any demands. No matter how much time passes, he still believes himself to be the man he once was. It would be much easier to just get rid of him and be done with it, but it would cause problems. I could make it seem like a suicide. Easily believable given his current state of mind.

An accident would be much better, however. I don't know if they have life insurance, but if they do and I make it seem like suicide, Aunt Karen won't get a payout. The accident also has to be done when he's sober, any alcohol in the system will give the insurance company reason to deny the payout.

On a rainy day where Richard goes out driving and somehow he loses control of his truck and dies. A life insurance policy cashout should be enough to support Aunt Karen and Andrew for a few years. Even if there is no life insurance, having him out of their lives is good. I can anonymously give them a donation with the money I got from the DGC.'

With that rudimentary plan done, I decided to read up on medical journals while I waited for Andrew to come over.

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My phone ringing snapped me out of my studies. I stood up to grab and it check who it was. To my surprise it was Andrew.

'Weird why is Andrew calling me? He should just come over. Ah, I guess I never did tell him what time to come over. Oops.'

"Yo Andrew, when are you coming over?" I spoke into the phone, eager to help my cousin, and finish the mission.

"Y-yeah about that, I c-can't go over t-today." said Andrew clearly with some trepidation in his voice.

'Shit! Looks like Richard isn't letting him come over. I have to speed up my plans.'

"Why, are you busy or something?" I said trying to get a clue as to what may be going on.

"K-kinda. Need to help m-my dad with something."

'Lies. He's either trying to hide his abuse or he has to take care of his mom. Neither of which I'm supposed to know.'

"Oh, anything I can do to help? I wouldn't mind going over. It's been a while since I've seen my Aunt and Uncle."

'His response will help me gauge just how bad his situation is right now.'

"No! I-I mean it's f-fine. You don't h-have to come help. W-we're fine. I'll see you at school. Later, Matt." he said sounding kind of rushed.

'Damn. I need to start my plan tonight. I need to create a timeline of what Richard does to find a good opportunity.'

With that, I started to look for clothes to use later. An old ski mask, a hoodie, and some black pants were my choice of apparel.

'Actually, I wanted to hold out on using my telekinesis until it got stronger but I might have a need for it tonight. Andrew lives in a pretty run-down area so I might need to protect myself. I obviously can't use it to levitate people and fling them away but I might be able to use it another way.'

I began to rummage around my backpack for what I was looking for, a pen.

'If I can propel the pen fast enough, it should work as a weapon. A flying sword as it were. Though in this case, the pen is mightier than the sword. Good, let me give it a try.'

Making sure to lock my bedroom door so as not to be accidentally intruded on by my parents, I began to try it out.

'Okay, I can move 16 lego pieces at once, this shouldn't be that much more difficult. I hope.'

At that, I began to focus. Focus on firstly grasping the pen and then moving it around, which was easy enough. Next comes the hard part.

'I can move it around easily enough, but I've always done it slowly. I need to propel the pen while being able to control both its trajectory and its momentum. I want to be able to stop the pen in midair. If that fails, I'll focus on propelling it forward as fast and as accurately as I can.'

It took me quite a while and a few dozen tries to get the results I wanted, but it worked. I had even tried adding a spin to the pen for more penetration. However, I wasn't able to get it battle-ready in time. Something I'll definitely work on later.

'Nice. My first, but certainly not my last, lethal attack. I should probably take more than one pen just in case I lose them. Okay, now all I need to do is wait. Might as well play Skyrim.'

As I turned on my console, I glanced at the textbook I had taken out of my backpack when I was looking for a pen. A chemistry book. That's when it hit me.

"Ricin."