Chapter 8: Chapter 08: Landing

Should I have expected this? I mean, it’s not Gotham City, but it is still the DC Universe and one thing it was known for, was its ever-prevalent presence of criminals. Well, DC and any other reality in which superheroes exist, really.

Well, it wasn’t like there weren’t any criminals in my past life on earth, but I was personally never confronted with the underworld until I was sent to prison, of course.

I never encountered criminals on planet Vegeta either. If I had, then I would have been long dead or worse. Not surprising, as it took a lot for a Saiyan to be considered a criminal.

I had entered San Francisco after hiding my attack ball just a few minutes ago and now I was held at gunpoint. Just my bad luck, or is it the robber’s bad luck?

“I. Said. Give me all yo’ goddamn money, asshole, or I am goin’ to blast yo’ goddamn head off.” He punctuated by waving his gun in front of my face. Though I knew it wouldn’t be able to do me any harm, it still made me uncomfortable.

My face couldn’t help but scrunch up, but that wasn’t because of the gun aimed at me. The smell wafting out of his mouth was just too unbearable. It was even worse than shit. Sometimes it was a curse to have such excellent senses. Good thing I could control it rather easily.

“Why did you think this was a good idea? Shouldn’t you have a sense of danger with the many supers running around? I am literally dressed in armor-“

“What the fuck are ya talkin’ about?!”

*Sigh*

He was getting impatient and reached out to grab me. I doubt he noticed anything, even after it hit him. The second he wanted to touch me with his filthy hands, my tail that acted as a belt undid itself and smacked him into the wall next to us. Of course, no one was around as he had dragged me into an alley.

I couldn’t help but shake my head at the cliché robbery scene. At least no hero showed up. Now that would have been cliché…

I looked around but saw no one was interested enough to walk into a dark alley.

Okay, I thought someone would jump out of a dark corner any moment, but it seemed like I was mistaken, though it wouldn’t be too farfetched that I would have missed someone hiding. The humans are just so overlookable.

Their ki was so insignificant that I unconsciously ignored them. Seriously, they were at the level of the weakest fish on Arva. If I paid attention to just any being on that level, I would fry my brain of overload.

In fact, I had bumped into 2 people, including this robber, as I had paid more attention to the city itself. Hmm, maybe that was why he wanted to rob me?

I crouched down and removed the unconscious robber’s jacket and took his money. Although I was a bit smaller, I was still brawnier than him, so everything besides the jacket was too tight to wear. It would be like trying to put on children’s clothes. I would have to buy some oversized clothes later.

The robber had $134 and some drugs that I destroyed to make it seem like a drug-motivated crime. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

I read his mind, so I could orientate myself in this city. There were some things I needed to confirm before I made my moves that would dictate my future in this wretched universe.

I ignored the stench of smoke on the jacket and made my way out of the alley. My new jacket made me less conspicuous. My blue knee-high boots still stood out, but it was more in the sense of an unusual fashion choice, which I could live with.

The city was still asleep, except for a few people that seemed to be moving between clubs and the occasional jogger.

With the memories, I headed down the street for a while and made some turns before I arrived in front of a building with the words Public Library on it. It wasn’t like the robber had ever been inside the library, but he knew of it since it was on the way to a park where he sold some of his drugs.

At the door, I saw what I was looking for: the opening hours. After confirming the time on a clock at a nearby bus station, I knew I would need to wait a few hours before I could get inside. I figured I could find myself a suitable target to sponsor my stay in the city.

I flew up into the dark sky and crossed my legs in midair as I sensed for a life force fulfilling my criteria. With the many people in the city, it was a demanding task with the numerous minuscule life forces I had to comb through, but I found several targets in the end. Under the dark night sky, I aimed for a district that could only be described as a ghetto.

Barely hovering over this part of the city and I could already hear the several crimes happening at this very moment. I was no saint, but hearing all the pain, anger, and desperation coming from the many corners of this city was a bit much, so I did what most people were already doing.

I ignored it as I dialed down my sense of hearing. Out of sight, out of mind.

I chose a dilapidated building with a fading life force and entered through the broken window. I looked around and saw no pictures of any kind.

There were no decorations or furniture, just a dirty mattress and several used needles and spoons lying around. The life force of the thin body lying on the mattress had almost fully disappeared and was already balancing on the verge of death before I had fully entered the small apartment.

I looked around the apartment and found several notices from the government and the landlord. After sifting through them for a bit, I found an expired ID before I turned my attention to the curled-up body. I turned what I presumed was the owner of this apartment with my foot and saw him with a needle in his arm.

I looked at the ID, showing a face that seemed pretty average. A young man with black hair and eyes. Good enough for me. I pressed a finger on his forehead and read his mind until I got the gist of the last years of his miserable life. He was truly a pathetic human.

It could be seen as a mercy kill when broke his neck with my telekinesis. I raised the dead body with my telekinesis and created a ki sphere big enough to envelop the body.

The ki sphere quickly turned the body into ashes with its heat before I washed the ashes with the other dirt in the room out the window and into a garbage bin.

Telekinesis is truly convenient. I thought as I looked at the now dirt-free apartment. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it presentable, as the floor and walls were still falling apart, and it smelled like shit in here, but at least I wouldn’t step in anything disgusting now.

Obviously, I could have just chosen some criminal scum and taken over his place. At the very least, it would have been better than this place, but I didn’t want to attract any attention to myself just yet.

Even a lowly drug dealer had friends and druggies that would seek him out. Even the robber that had the bad luck to run into me had family and friends or their boss, who would ask questions if they disappeared.

The cops probably wouldn’t do much even if they reported him missing, but a druggy was still the better option to steal the identity from.

Usually, they would have pushed out all the people in their life to pursue the next hit and, except for their drug dealer, nobody would care if they disappeared.

That this one had an apartment even with its minuscule size was already more than most could show off for themselves, but other than that, he didn’t even have other addicts as ‘friends’.

I walked into the toilet and almost immediately threw up a little in my mouth. It was just too disgusting. I would rather choose a public toilet than use this. I even felt disgusted when I started to use my telekinesis to cleanse the place.

After having done that, the place was at least bearable enough to crash a few nights on. There were still a few hours until I could start my research in the library, so I might as well pass some time by familiarizing myself with the city and maybe earn some pocket change.

I flew out of the window again and searched for some robbers to free them of their burden, called money.

I again used the night as my cover as I flew above San Francisco. It didn’t take long until I found a figure nimbly running across the rooftops with a sports bag slung over their shoulder. There were even some people chasing them from the ground.

It was like watching a movie scene happen in real life, but I had no interest in getting involved with this many people already.

I quickly searched for solo robbers to take on and relieved them of their money. The first robber even had one of these bandit masks. I turned the mask inside out and wore it as I started to go on a robbing spree, targeting the low scum of this city.

I restricted my use of power to be purely physical enhancement, just in case I was seen by heroes. It would be more difficult to identify me.

Apart from being more difficult to identify me, robbing some thieves, robbers, and other criminals would make the hero types more lenient or even tolerate me. Besides, I wouldn’t dirty my hands with the blood of someone at the bottom of the totem pole in a place where I might be caught.

As long as I didn’t permanently cripple or kill these small-timers, the heroes would stay off my back or even have a favorable impression of me.

Of course, I read my vic- my benefactors’ minds to get a better awareness of the major powers claiming different districts in this city. Well, at least of the underworld. The lowlife had little interest in the companies and business wars if it didn’t affect them.

Unfortunately, even with all that, I didn’t have a complete overview of the underworld, since it took time to sift through someone’s memories. It was actually easier to go through an addict’s memories, as most of an addict’s memories were just messy thoughts with no value to them, which could be easily identified and discarded.

The more intelligent, or rather the better, their memory was, the more I had to go through in search of what I wanted. I couldn’t dig in deep in a short time either, as intelligent beings had more complex thoughts in general compared to the animals. I had tested my abilities on planet Arva.

It would take me too long to unravel their memories, so I just skimmed through them. Still, I couldn’t deny that they were excellent training material, which was something I would have to abuse in the future.

After I made enough money to pay off the notices that I have seen inside the apartment, I went back to my apartment with my haul and just dumped it in a corner.

I sprayed some air freshener and cleaned the walls and floor with some utensils had borrowed from a thief’s home.

I couldn’t help but appreciate the sight once more. The levitating cleaning tools reached any and every corner of this apartment. Truly convenient.

It didn’t take me long until I had finished cleaning and just plopped onto my newly acquired bed.

Albeit a bit small, the apartment was now habitable. I closed my eyes and meditated for a short while until it was almost time for the library to open.

After I did my research in the library, I would need to reissue a new ID with a new picture. The last ID was already long expired, so any changes in appearance could be written off with the passage of time.

The landlord wasn’t even in this city and hadn’t even bothered to check up on things. He only cared that the money came through. I doubted they would even know if their apartments had burned down.

I would need to pay off the debt on his debit card and pay the rent, but with that, I would have tidied up an addict’s life in a few days, tops.

Throwing my plans for an identity to the back of my mind as I entered the public library. I took some history books with me and ignored everything else and just headed for the public available computer there.

I glanced at a pillar with a camera mounted on it that pointed at the few computers they had. With a first look, the computers already seemed like relics of the past. Considering the fact that it was 2006, they were rather fitting for the time.

It was no surprise that they would at least watch their current precious computer, which they would only exchange in a decade from now, if at all. To be fair, it could be said that this library was already progressive by having ‘high-tech’ pcs for public use.

I daydreamed for a while as I waited for the computer to boot up. I raised an eyebrow in surprise when I saw the logo that popped up as the computer finished booting up.

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I was shortly confused before I remembered that windows might not exist in this universe or wasn’t doing as well. I honestly shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but it wasn’t like it was important right now.

I refocused and searched for a browser before my eyes fell on a red fox curling around the earth.

Huh. So at least that still exists.

I didn’t bother thinking about trivial differences as I started to comb through the internet for any mentions of superheroes running around in spandex.

…

I browsed for over an hour before I took a brief break. It wasn’t as fruitful as I hoped. I barely found anything of substance. From what I had gathered, there was no Justice League public or even hidden, since there were no major alien invasions that would warrant the formation of the League.

However, there were mentions of Batman. Of course, he was currently more like an urban legend. Superman’s and Flash’s presence were already confirmed multiple times by testimonies of eyewitnesses and the press publishing multiple pages about them with pictures and all.

There were even videos of them in action, though the internet forums still considered them to be hoaxes.

Talks about an angel fighting crime, other people with abilities, and demons were also floating around on the web.

It was already 2006. Shouldn’t the Justice League have already been formed? I think they were usually already a thing in the early 2000s or 90s or even during the second world war depending on the issue.

Either way, the founding of the league itself wasn’t that important. What was important was the reason for the founding, which was a planet-level threat, usually in the form of an alien invasion.

Who knew what threat would aim for the earth? But I needed to be at least strong enough to survive.

It would be a lie if I said that my resolve wasn’t shaken by the realization that I was in the DC universe, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hide away on a random planet and live my life in mediocrity.

So even though DC had a lot of weird beings with odd abilities, it wasn’t like the SCP Universe in which all kinds of weird shit happened that completely ignored physical strength.

At least in the DC universe, Superman could punch most of his problems away, and, if that was the case, so could I.

I resolved myself again. It shouldn’t- it didn’t matter what universe I was in. As long as I pulled out my Saiyan potential, I would never be helpless again.

I tapped my fingers on the wooden desk in a rhythm as I thought about what I needed. My primary focus remained on increasing my prowess, but I needed to build a base since I couldn’t siphon off Bulma. For that, I needed a lot of money and scientists willing to work for me.

I could go with blackmail and threats, but that would only invite resentment among the scientists… Great, now I won’t need to worry about Dr. Gero, but a whole plethora of genius-level scientists that could create all kinds of shit.

Oh, fuck me. Clones will be a thing as well, won’t they? Magicians, demons, aliens, and other planetary threats every other day. I would probably be stuck with an enormous variety of different enemies to engage in mortal combat for the rest of my life.

I looked back at the black screen which reflected my face. I was complaining in my thoughts the entire time, so why was I smiling?

I could only shake my head before I looked into the history book again. The page with information about the Second World War was still open.

If I wanted to blend in with the populace, I needed at least a bit of general knowledge. It wouldn’t do good if I said something about the Second World War even though it never happened or something like that.

I casually flipped through the pages and skimmed through the paragraphs before I stopped at a certain picture of some soldiers.

They stood farther away, but wasn’t that Superman in the background?

The quality was poor, but that should be him, right? I could have understood if another version of the league appeared in that time period, but Superman had already appeared in Metropolis for a while now. Maybe he just didn’t age and was superb at staying hidden from the general populace or...

It was at that moment that something clicked in my mind.

Right, time travel! I didn’t know why, but that completely slipped my mind. One of the most famous heroes, Flash, was a notorious time traveler.

Did he mess with the time again and brought Superman with him?

I rubbed my nonexistent beard. If I traveled back in time, I could use the inter-universal breach that brought me here to reach the DB universe... Maybe I can still use my plans for the dragon balls.

It might take me a while, but if I went through with this, I could start in early Dragon Ball as an absolute powerhouse. Maybe I could even revive my Saiyan parents...

Though even if I wanted to go through with that, I still needed resources and for that, I needed money and connections and I doubted something to create a time machine would be easy to procure legally.

The easiest way would be to just take over the underworld and use the black market or hire some criminals to fetch me what I would need. With my strength and the lack of supers currently running around, it should be easy to establish myself here.

If I wanted to do it properly, I would need a secret identity for all my dealings in the underworld. I guess it would be smart to create a hero persona as well, so no one would suspect me, similar to Dexter, the serial killer working for the police.

I was not too well versed with DC Comics, but I couldn’t remember someone doubling as a hero and a gangster with different personas. Ah, shoot. I would need a public identity as well. I had to legally earn some money as well, otherwise, anyone eyeing my expenses would get suspicious about my finances.

Obviously, I couldn’t have my hero or even public identity be active in the same city as my criminal persona. I also didn’t want to spend a major time as a criminal either. I just wanted to reap the results. Well, participating in a few fights wouldn’t hurt either…

If something went awry, I could just cut them off. Unfortunately, I seemed to have slept through the lesson in school about building up a criminal empire with no one finding out about it, but I already had some ideas. I would have to test them before I could see if they were applicable.

Which would make the identity I would have stolen from the addict a bit of a liability. I wouldn’t be able to use it as my public front of my hero identity.

If someone like another hero dug just slightly, he would know that the addict had just one day disappeared, and I suddenly showed up and took over his place, used his bank account, and personally issued a new ID. I would be the prime suspect in his disappearance.

Of course, I could just claim I was that person, but I didn’t want to forever deny my Saiyan heritage. One day I wanted to come clean with being an alien or at least leave the option open without having to announce that I murdered someone and took their identity.

Besides, a simple DNA test would out me as an alien pretty quickly.

It seemed like that idea was quickly thrown out of the window. I guess I would just crash in the addict’s apartment for a while. As long as no one knew he disappeared, it should be fine.

Pay everything in cash and issue an ID through a forger. At least that way I only faked an ID and didn’t murder someone and steal their identity.

The only problem was the disappearance of the addict, though, in a big city like this, someone vanishing wasn’t unusual. Someone squatting in the apartment, a common occurrence as well. I just would have to make sure to not leave any DNA or fingerprints behind.

Either way, I needed a new wardrobe and furniture. Though maybe anything I wanted should be stolen or else, I would be seen in the store’s footage. Geez, too many things to consider.

The easier way would be to just use a criminal’s abode, but I honestly didn’t want to inhabit a criminal’s home. It would only invite a vigilante to come and try to kick my ass, though stealing would do the same. Hmm, maybe I would have to abuse my telepathy.

Either way, I don’t want to engage any vigilantes. For the time being, the idea of killing someone trying to better the world didn’t quite sit well with me, even if it was accidentally-

I… I had completely dismissed that I had already killed someone. I- I wasn’t even on earth for 24 hours and I already was a murderer. My victim couldn’t even be considered a bad guy.

The addic- Aidan Lewis could be considered a normal guy, who fell to the bottom of society because of his addiction. Selling all his belongings so he could sustain his drug abuse until he had almost nothing left.

When I killed him, I just thought how pathetic he was to revel in his traumas and made no changes to better himself.

I didn’t even consider him a living, breathing, and feeling being. In fact, every human I encountered just felt so insignificant to me they might as well had not been there, to begin with.

I walked out of the library and headed to a little bakery at the corner of the street to get my head out of that particular topic. I lowered my ki as much as I could. It had been a while since I did that, so I wasn’t able to suppress it as much as I wanted to.

Maybe that was why the people in line parted ways for me and let me through without my urging. “Hello… Felicia, I want 2 of those and 3 of the one in the back…” I started rattling off my order, which could have fed a family of 4 for several days, until I realized that the young cashier didn’t move.

She was undoubtedly a beauty, and her white hair gave her quite the exotic look, especially since it didn’t seem like she dyed her hair. Though she looked somewhat sleep-deprived.

Well, it was Saturday. Most people her age would be out partying. No, wait, it’s America. 18-year-olds probably couldn’t even go to bars and clubs, could they?

Even after finishing my order, she was just dazedly staring at me. It took an awkward silence before she came to herself again. She tucked a strand of her white hair behind her ear and looked quite embarrassed before she started to just pack my order while loudly repeating it, so she wouldn’t get it wrong.

“That would be 103,32$.” She gave me a once-over before she settled on looking into my eyes.

I just gave her a few bills and told her to keep the change. I saw her rip off the receipt before she pulled out a pen.

“My shift doesn’t end for a few hours, but maybe we could-“

“I don’t need the receipt,” I said curtly as I slung the bag of food over my shoulder and made my way out of the bakery.

“Eh?”

The doorbell rang again when I opened the door to step out, still in thought about what to do next. I would need to get a new wardrobe and then take over a gang. Sounds easy enough.

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