6 Chapter 6 - Eliminated

The chilly evening breeze blew Jason's hair back as he leapt from building to building, flipping and spinning through the air with remarkable poise and balance. Wheatley, still undetectable to the human eye, silently trailed behind him. With a single glance at the WayneTech phone in his hand, he always knew where the old man was. On the phone's screen, a map illuminated the old man's coordinates in real time, and the device suggested he should reach the old man in under a minute if he kept up his current speed.

However, the ping's location hasn't moved for a while now, so Jason concluded the old man must be at his apartment right now or must have left his phone while he went out.

Moments later, Jason reached the building across from the old man's five-story apartment complex. Opposite to him were the balconies of the building, and one of them was the old man's. Based on the phone's readings on his screen, it was the one directly in front of him on the fourth floor. From his position, he noticed the darkness of the old man's one-room apartment, which meant he wasn't home.

'Convenient. I could gather information and see if he has more footage saved in his devices here.'

[How are you going to get over there?]

"You'll see," Jason answered with confidence.

He surveyed the area and concentrated on his senses, making sure no people were nearby.

Having enhanced senses was far more useful than he thought. The only sounds he could hear were the snores of people sleeping and the sound of televisions, and he could neither see nor hear a single person nearby who could see him leap to the balcony.

There was the option of using his grappling gun, but he preferred using his own hands and feet when traversing buildings.

Jason took five steps back, and Wheatley took one look at him, the gap between the buildings, and the balcony before immediately coming to an understanding.

[Uh oh. I, uh, I don't think you'll be able to reach the balcony. The gap is *quite* wide. I know you're quite athletic, but this is just—]

Eleven meters of air separated the balcony from the building he was on, and the sound of a distant car horn echoed up five stories from the ground. Wheatley's warnings faded into the background as Jason sprinted forward, ready to take on the jump.

[—He's not listening to me.] Wheatley looked away immediately and closed his eye. [Oh, I'm not watching this.]

With one last step, he launched himself off the roof; the wind blowing back his hair and clothes as he rotated his arms to gain momentum. Reaching the end of his jump, Jason grabbed onto the edge, his fingers gripping the cold metal of the balcony's edge as he hauled himself up.

Well, that was easy.

Jason turned to glance at Wheatley. Even though he couldn't see him, their connection allowed him to sense where he was precisely. 'Wheatley, you can look now.'

[You made it?!] Wheatley whipped towards him in surprise. [Wow, now I regret looking away. I wish I could've seen that jump. It must have been marvelous.]

'Have more trust in my abilities.' Jason smirked as Wheatley floated towards him. 'You won't be disappointed.'

Returning to the task at hand, Jason retrieved from the ring a red mask that covered the bottom half of his face, including his eyes. It was equipped with multiple features, and a voice modulator was one of them, which would help with the intimidation factor. Along with the mask, Jason brought out and wore a pair of black gloves composed of a material that would leave no trace behind.

Carefully, he nudged the balcony's glass sliding door to see if it was locked. It wasn't, giving him free entry into the messy apartment. But because of his height, he had to duck his head to avoid hitting the top of the doorway.

'I definitely need to measure how tall I am when I get the chance. It feels like I grew a few inches.'

Jason surveyed the one-room apartment. Unwashed dishes piled up in the sink, random pieces of garbage scattered on the ground and bags of them stored in one corner, and some articles of clothing were haphazardly placed around the small, one person apartment.

Now he was really glad that he wore his mask equipped with an air filter before entering, because it seemed like if he removed it, his nose would not be thanking him.

[This room is so unhygienic. That guy will need to hire a janitor at this rate.] Wheatley commented with disgust as looked around the same room.

Jason agreed and disagreed. One janitor wouldn't be enough, and even two janitors wouldn't be enough for all of this.

A strange contrast in the room was a small, spotless area, so pristine compared to the rest. It was the area closest to the right wall. Set on a small table was a closed laptop, along with a box of tissue next to a pillow in front of it. A garbage bin filled with rolled up tissue paper was next to it as well.

It didn't take a detective to know what the old man regularly did in this area of the room.

After opening and booting up the laptop, Jason wirelessly connected it to his phone, which allowed him to see everything stored inside, including the footage he'd saved up and it was worse than what Jason expected. The earliest footage dated back to the last week of February, and because it was almost April, that meant he had been spying and recording footage of the girls for a month. Maybe more, because based on what his phone displayed, gigabytes of data were transferred into another device a month before the oldest current footage was saved.

[Ooh, hacking. It's quite different from what I normally do, though. My method's more... hands-on.]

Jason immediately deleted every single current video footage in the device. Including the ones stored in the cloud, because there would be no point in reprogramming this laptop after he was done.

Last, he checked any government websites the old man entered and found one. It only took a slight moment for his phone to hack into the website and find out the old man's personal info.

What he found only further disgusted him.

'Yoshihiro Shimoda. That pervert's actually the damn uncle of Shiori Futsuki and Yui Nakaizumi, the two highschool girls from the store. And here I was thinking he was just a run-of-the-mill creep, but recording your nieces and jerking off to them… And didn't Wheatley imply he was going to **** them?' Jason narrowed his eyes at the government photo of the old man on the phone screen. 'He's dead meat.'

-===-

Yoshihiro Shimoda's POV:

Standing in the elevator of his apartment building, Yoshihiro waited for it to reach his apartment's floor, carrying a plastic bag filled with instant ramen and microwave meals. He didn't think it would work, but he convinced the manager to let him have a day off tomorrow. He really needed to thank Yui-chan for giving him the excuse he needed. Unlike that blonde-haired bitch, she at least had good qualities. She was kind, polite, and thoughtful, and didn't insult him with every sentence that came out of her mouth.

The elevator stopped, a chime sounded out in tandem with the elevator doors opening, and he stepped out.

Grinning, he thought back to his plan. A plan which would give him the opportunity to make that blonde-haired bitch his. He'd plant an item from the store inside her bag, and blackmail her with the risk of expulsion from her school. And without her scholarship, how was she going to help her mother?

Oh, he could only imagine the look of despair on her face.

Entering his apartment, he kicked off his shoes and turned on the lights. While walking to his table, he opened his plastic bag filled with food, completely unaware of the figure looming behind him.

His plan was foolproof! If all goes well, by the end of it, he'd have her kneeling in front him, sucking his—

Yoshihiro was interrupted from his thoughts by an unexpected and loud click from behind. He whipped his head to turn around, only to have the barrel of a gun, fitted with a suppressor, shoved into his mouth and forcing him back until his head slammed into the wall behind him with a painful jolt. He shook like a leaf, eyes watering, as he came face-to-face with a large man that towered over him, covered by a red mask that hid his lower face.

The man's voice was deep and distorted, like something out of a sci-fi flick. "Listen here, you disgusting bastard. If you make a *single* cry for help, I *will* kill you immediately, so don't even try doing anything stupid."

'Oh my god, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die,' Yoshihiro thought to himself, his body trembling with fear. His heart felt like a drum in his chest, and he could feel the perspiration pooling on his skin.

"Now, I'm gonna ask you a question and you will either nod or shake your head. Nod if you understand."

Yoshiro shakily nodded his head, tears now running down his face. The figure took the gun out of his mouth and placed it close to his face.

"Do you know what this is?" The pistol in the man's hand suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a familiar black camera.

His eyes widened with recognition in response. He hesitated to do as the intruder told, but it seemed that one reaction was enough of an affirmation to the man.

"So you DO know what this is." The man hummed, then crushed the camera as if it was made of paper. He slowly opened his hand and the tiny bits of metal and glass, along with the wires, dropped onto the floor like powder.

Yoshihiro gulped and his body shook even more. 'Magically making things disappear and crushing a metal camera with one hand… Who — no, what the hell is this monster?!'

The masked man gave Yoshihiro a glowering glare that almost made him piss himself. His voice was low and menacing as he spoke. "Here's the deal. I know you have more footage than the ones on your laptop, so you either tell me where the rest of the footage is, or I will *twist* every limb in your body, and it will be *painful*. That, I guarantee. I'll let you go in three seconds, and by the time I lift my hand, you better have an answer. And let me remind you again that if you try anything, you're dead. Nod if you understand."

Yoshihiro rapidly nodded his head in response.

After three seconds, the man let go and Yoshihiro dropped to his knees, forming a dogeza. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you." He whimpered, his body still trembling. "The video footage you asked about is all on someone else's computer! An acquaintance of mine. I-I told him about what I did, and he wanted some of the footage for himself. He's the one who gave me the cameras! H-his name is Tsunetaka Kareki. I can give you his address!" He raised his torso up and looked at the man with desperation on his face. "Just please don't k—"

Not giving him a chance to continue, the figure pulled the trigger. With a sound that resembled a cat sneeze, a bullet tore through his head, blowing it to bits, and the life slowly left from his eyes. Bits of skin, brain matter, and bone scattered and his lifeless body fell with a thud.

-===-

Jason's POV:

Lowering his pistol, Jason stared at the body with cold eyes. He felt no remorse or guilt for killing Yoshihiro. Besides, he got the info he wanted, and that was enough.

This waste of human life was eventually going to do something to the girls in the store sooner or later. From what his body language told Jason before he interrogated him, Yoshihiro was excited in more ways than one. And when he saw that grin on the man's face, his intuition and experience told him it was the grin of a man planning to do something criminal soon.

It didn't help that when he asked Wheatley for confirmation of his speculations, Wheatley told him he was right. The day after tomorrow, he would likely blackmail the blonde girl and would start ****** the other girl as well.

It would all happen within a few days, so to prevent it, he pulled the trigger in advance.

Jason's motto was, 'Let the punishment fit the crime.' And wasn't prevention better than a cure?

The Yoshihiro from a minute ago didn't commit a crime heinous enough to deserve death, in his opinion. But in this case, he could make an exception.

Returning the gun into the ring, Jason asked, 'What happens now, Wheatley?'

Wheatley deactivated Stealth mode, revealing his white, spherical body floating right above Yoshihiro's dead carcass.

[Beginning absorption of Anomaly Energy.]

Absorption of Anomaly Energy?

Yoshihiro's dead body suddenly glowed blue, including the bits of him that got torn off his body, gaining the curious raise of an eyebrow from Jason. Strands of black, hazy energy rose from his dead body and the scattered bits. The strands of energy all headed to Wheatley, who absorbed the energy.

Moments later, it was as if the body had never existed.

[Absorption complete.] Wheatley floated over to Jason. [Hmm, a very tiny amount of Dark Primordial Energy possessing him seems to have been the cause of his disgusting human debaucheries.]

Wheatley paused for slight moment. [Actually, with what I'm looking at here, that might not be the case. You see, I've also absorbed his memories. Most of the recent ones aren't nice at all, and from what I can see, the man was quite the pervert, even as a child. He even attempted ****** one of his classmates when he was fourteen years old. So in this case, it's safe to say that the Dark Primordial Energy might've just been enhancing his perversion and would create the Stockholm Syndrome on steroids effect if he had gotten his hands on the human females.

Aside from the Stockho — you know what? I'm just gonna start calling it the SSS effect from now on. Too much of a mouthful. As I was saying... According to my analysis of this sample, after prolonged... intercourse, aside from the SSS effect, the subjects will experience abnormal pleasure and a reduction of their decision-making ability.]

A furrow formed on Jason's brow. So he'd been possessed by this energy, causing him to have abnormally dark desires and making him act on them along with a host of negative after-effects? Those barely told him anything and only gave him more unanswered questions.

Crossing his arms, Jason asked, 'What do you mean by Dark Primordial Energy? How can we use it to eliminate the source of this Anomaly?'

[Well… according to Joe's database, Dark Primordial Energy can only come from a being that has existed in the void *before* a universe's birth. Here, it caused Yoshihiro to give in to his dark desires, which were amplified by the energy. Huh, we might actually be dealing with something far above our level here. I'll contact Joe and see what he thinks about this.] Wheatley's eye grows a tad brighter.

That was a good idea. It sounded like he was dealing with a Darkseid-level threat. Even with his power-up, he wasn't stupid enough to assume that he could take on that kind of threat.

Wheatley continued. [And to answer your second question, I'll need more energy to start tracking the source and create a plan to eliminate it.]

'How much more are we talking about?' He had a feeling that it was gonna be a lot.

[Approximately… four thousand times this quantity of energy.]

Jason rubbed his forehead in irritation. 'Four thousand times… I don't even know how long that'll take to finish.'

[There's no need to worry.] Wheatley confidently assured. [With my help, it won't take long for us to get much more energy than this. For now, even though I can't track the source, I'll be able to sense and identify similar Anomalies that occur nearby by scanning for traces of the Dark Primordial Energy.]

'I hope that works, cause if I have to kill four thousand more Yoshihiro's, I might as well create a virus that's programmed to only target a specific group of people. At least that way is more efficient than wasting bullets.'

Wheatley leaned in closer with curiosity in his eye. [Can you? That would be quite the sight to see.]

'… I was joking.' He *could* do it, but he didn't have the resources or the capital to actually execute the plan. Might as well save it as a Plan B or C, then.

Looking around with a glint in his eyes, Jason quickly spotted the most valuable items in the apartment. Pieces of technology, food, and money. There might be more hidden somewhere.

Hmm. Now there's an idea.

No one else was going to use them anymore, so he might as well take them. After all, one man's trash could be another man's treasure.

-===-

Meanwhile, in the multiverse's sector governed by the One Above All, a being sealed within a separate dimension was roused from its slumber.

-===-

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading.

Capybara.