Beck finally got to his apartment, only stopping once to take a
picture for a group of tourists. While he had been involved with
hacking government and hero facilities, the college student wasn't
evil-natured. He was merely a slave to his own money. He stepped
over a few piles of papers and laundry before collapsing in his
sofa, staring at the ceiling with dull, hazel eyes. Beck was
normally seen as handsome, but the purpling bags under his eyes
made him seem like a sorry soul. He yawned.
Finally, his phone rang. Darth Vader's Theme played as he looked at
the caller ID. The Joker. Beck should have known the maniac
was behind the robbery. He answered. "Hello?"
Beck laughed a boyish laugh, grinning lopsidedly. Of course
the Joker wanted to play games. "Hmmm. Get you out of the
nutter-house? Because I can assure you, man, you're never getting
out of that one." He ran a hand through his blonde hair lazily, an
energetic smile contradicting his sloppy appearance. Beck's eyes
shifted to the clock, realizing that he should be productive and
put the groceries away before they began to rot. He rose to his
feet, somehow keeping the phone on his face while dancing over a
labyrinth of boxes.
"Oh yeah? How about I give you leadership of the goons for a
month?" He replied, smirking, while playing with the phone wire in
his fingers. "And maybe a bit of cash?"
"Cash?" His eyes lit up. If there was anything that could take the
man, it was money. "Keep your goons. All I want is a bit of dough."
Beck plopped down at his computer, placing a peculiar-looking
helmet on his head. It served as an emergency protocol to awaken
him from his coma after he exited his own body. Having his body
never wake up and leaving him stuck as a bolt of electricity was
one of his worst nightmares.
"Anything else before I get in there? Information? Data? ...
Lasers?" He tried to egg his client on, for once Beck was in the
system, he could access anything with adequate wiring and a power
switch. The more perks, the more pay.
"Cameras everywhere, guards, and of course... Electrified bars. No
lasers. Think you can pull it off?" He was almost kidding himself
with the last question. Joker knew he'd done things crazier than
this for petty thieves.
(I assume he meant to get rid of the cameras and the guards,
right?)
"Of course." Though the two men had never met face-to-face, he
could hear the smile in the Joker's voice. Beck had never shown his
face to any one of his clients, and always concealed his identity.
The only pictures any client had seen of him were his filtered
profile pictures on social media. A college kid could have
some fun, right? "Where it exists, so can I." He clicked on
the helmet and a few programs to ensure that nothing could track
him. And so that he could wake up, of course.
"Here I go!" Beck dropped the phone, his physical body collapsing
lamely on his desk. A tremendous surge of electricity erupted from
his body, turning into a thin sliver of lightning as his
supercharged soul entered the computer. Racing faster than the
speed of light, Beck dodged firewalls and angry series of zeroes
and ones. The signal from Joker's phone was like music to him, his
wiry new form pulsing to the beat. Finally, he was there at the
facility. "I'm here. Brace yourself," a computer-generated voice
crackled at the Joker.
So the Joker's goons robbed a bank and then HE got involved in a
fight with Altessia. Eventually he loses, then these weird goons
that didn't really belong to the Joker came out of nowhere. They
wanted him for some reason, but they too lose the fight due to the
fact that Altessia turned into a dragon. The Joker was tossed into
Arkham, but now he's conspiring with Beck to break out. A building
also exploded, but that's taken care of.)
Beck knew that he would have to limit himself on this one. He was
very tired, and didn't want to risk knocking himself out and waking
up in a foreign power system. It wasn't worth it. Weighing his
options and thinking about money, the young man began to
concentrate. Cameras. Check. That was easy enough. The
satisfying click of dying power channels would've made him
laugh if he had a mouth. Next... the guards or the electrified
bars? If he did the bars first, then he could potentially smite
any guards who were currently touching the bars of any cell. That
would save him from having to spend the rest of his energy frying
them up with their own tasers and radios.
Beck made the bars vibrate with electricity. Power began to radiate
in the air as a few surprised yells echoed through the night. Any
other guards inside the building were now either paralyzed or
unconscious. A good, silent job. He would've patted himself on the
back if he had hands. His power levels decreased slightly, but
resurged with a burst of willpower. "Say the password and I will
open your door," he joked playfully to his client in the voice he
liked to call "male Siri".
Midnight stood up. He grinned, So the joker is in Jail? I need
to see this he said as he jumped onto his floating carpet and
zoomed off. He knew he was a last resort but shook it off.
"All right, all right! Have it your way. By the way, the password
was 'open sesame.' Easiest password out there." The robotic male
voice said choppily, holding none of the intended sarcasm. The door
swung open as if by magic, the electrified bars buzzing in
response. Beck, or Glitch as he was called in his superpowered
state, made sure to linger in the system in case Joker needed him.
Glitch double-checked to make sure that all guards in the vicinity
were down and that the cameras could not be repaired. "Anything
else?" the Google Translate-like monotone spoke again.
"Not that I can think of," The Joker grinned as he sprinted out the
door and leapt over the bars on his floor, climbing down by
dropping from floor to floor. Once at the bottom, he was confronted
by guards blocking the door. They held tasers. He laughed and
ducked as one of them fired at him. "Think you can do anything
about the tasers?" He called up, leaping out of the way of another
shot.
"I'll do my best." One by one, the guards began to collapse -
thankfully, Glitch had been able to electrocute them before they
could land a shot on his client. He could see his bank accounts
growing by the cent. At this point, Glitch was starting to become
fatigued and debated on whether to leave or not. Next time, he
needed a warning so that he can be properly rested. Even though he
had separated from the needs of his physical body, the soul also
tired at a slightly slower rate. Though it tired all the same.
An explosion fired at the door and guards in front of the side of
the door he was at flew out of the way. In the smoke midnight stood
there staring at the Joker. He grinned as a guard fired a taser at
him. It completely missed and went back and hit the guard. He
laughed
"Perfect," The Joker smiled from ear to ear as he rushed outside,
out in front of Arkham. The sun touched his face and he laughed,
stopping.
As soon as he stopped, he took a deep breath. "Midnight! Nice to
see you," He grinned. "Alright, kid, that was some good work.
$500,000?" He called back to Glitch.
"Sounds good to me, old man. Just leave it in the virtual mailbox I
sent you. I'll pick it up laterzzzz..." He mused before his
connection began to break. It was time to go home. "See ya," was
all Glitch said to the duo before tearing himself out of Arkham and
blasting the crazy race home. It felt like the longest journey of
his life, but eventually, he found the welcoming doors of his
computer.
Without hesitation, Glitch rocketed back into his physical body,
feeling the need to breathe again. Oh, how nice it is to have
lungs! He opened his hazel eyes and stated gratefully at his
pale hands. He looked again at the clock. Time for bed. The
hacker made a move to walk to his bedroom, but was only able to
stagger a yard before vomiting on the floor.
"Ugh." This was no new experience, though he had hoped that he
would never have to experience it again. His abrupt return has
caused an imbalance of electrons in his body, installing unknown
data and inducing shock. Beck fell to his knees, withstanding the
paralyzing pain that made his limbs twitch. He groaned.