Bobby felt like hitting his head against the wall until it bled for the third time that morning. He was not cut out for being a gang leader. In fact there were a lot more nuances to the job than he’d ever realised. It wasn’t just a matter of terrifying your men into subservience, you also had to make sure they were not overworked, had enough time to take breaks and have a full nights sleep, then you had to make sure they ate the appropriate amount and didn’t completely empty the larder before you found out where they were restocking the food from.

  And only once you’d ensured all of those tasks were taken care of were you reminded that everyone had quirks, and these mens quirks involved donning costumes children should wear and hitting each other with telescopic rods until someone was declared a victor.

  It was a miracle the gang was sixty years old, most of its current members were the sons of the delusional men who’d been in the gang when it had first formed. Although considering the fact that everyone in the gang was male, Bobby couldn’t for the life of him figure out how they had attracted the number of women to maintain their population.

  At least the chairs were cool to look at, even though they felt like you had a sword up your ass whenever you sat on them for any amount of time. Wistfully he rubbed his eyes and wished he could return to Lucinda’s house. He’d already been away for far too long, she was probably worried.

  Although… I could just return? It doesn’t have to be me in charge. Bobby realised he already had someone who was quite cut out for the role.

  Two hours later Mcgunkin had taken over his duties and he was heading back to the bastion with Michaela. Gary had stayed behind to continue releasing the mutants. They all were in a pitiful state, but the moment he’d asked them if they wanted to work for him for revenge they had leapt head over heels at the opportunity. It was probably more out of desperation of escaping their cells, so he couldn’t help but feel guilty, like he’d made them sign a contract under duress.

  If they did manage to escape from the gang though it wasn’t like he was going to hunt them down, that level of skill would be enough to keep them out of the hands of the other gangs.

  The skeletons had been transferred to the basement of the JJJ, now they had released most of the captives. It was a really good way to store them, especially as the men in the gang seemed to fear the basement greatly. Bobby didn’t think he’d need to resurrect more skeleton manpower for a while, taking over other gangs was probably more effective in the short term. So he didn’t really have an excuse to not put all of his time into honing his magic. After all the magic was personal power, everything else he had could be taken away, but magic would always be at hand.

  They came to a blockage and Bobby took out TODD, “TODD show me alternative routes.”

  The satnav pinwheeled a bit before its ever cheery voice piped up. “You have reached your destination.”

  Bobby scratched his head and looked around.

  “Err, no we haven’t.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Yes you have, perhaps you are becoming blind, YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPECSAV…zzz” The little hologram sort of fizzled out before it could reach the end of the advert, the voice speaking again to report one final message. “Low battery.”

  “Fuck.” said Bobby, shaking the device uselessly, he turned to Michaela, “Do you remember the way we came?”

  Michaela shrugged, “Gary told you that thing was unreliable.”

  “Yes, he did indeed.” Bobby sighed before eyeing up the roadblock. “You reckon we can get over that?”

  “We can try,” said Michaela, striding forwards and shimmying herself up, using her lack of weight and long flexible digits to easily go over. After making it look trivial she stopped at the top and looked round at him.

  “You’re basically immune to fall damage, I’m gonna take my time so I don’t break my neck.” Bobby said

  It was a bit of a dangerous climb, but he somehow managed it, eventually joining Michaela on the top.

  “What’s that?” Michaela asked him, pointing at a house sized column of a slightly bluish metal.

  “That’s one of the Bitanium city stilts, holding the overcity New New York up.” Bobby answered.

  “Bitanium?” she inquired, ignorant of most of the technologies beyond her time.

  “Yes, it's not an alloy, but three metals coexisting in the same place due to quantum overflow, each lending one property to the material. It has the flexibility of steel, the strength of tungsten and the weight of aluminium. A miracle material that's indestructible to any tools possessed by the average person, each one would need a small nuke from your century to demolish in any small time scale.”

  Michaela seemed to struggle to comprehend the absurd materials properties. Before coming up with a question. “Could your spell get through one?”

  Bobby felt like saying no to the question, but a small part of his brain went into overdrive. If his spell was capable of annihilating matter, then it made no sense that he’d be unable to get through the absurd supermaterial. In fact that spell of his had the potential to be the single greatest possible threat to the structural integrity of the city above.

  He clambered down the less sheer slope on the other side of the blockage before approaching the pillar and giving it a knock. Most of the force used by his hand was reflected back almost equally, sending the same jarring sensation you get from hitting something with a stick too hand back up through his bones. He winced before he began casting the spell, he wouldn’t destroy the pillar, but he had to know if he could damage one.

  A few seconds later the white ball bloomed into existence and after taking a breath he carefully brushed it along the surface of the Bitanium. Almost immediately there was an odd cracking sound and he watched three different metals push each other aside, blooming into great spear-like protrusions that shot out from the material and were immediately eaten by the light.

  He hastily pulled the spell away and inspected the damage. It was very bizarre, the material seemed to have come apart, the quantum effect it was under having been negated. Around the site of the slight brush there were needles of metal and an odd surface effect like someone had taken a piece of paper and scrunched it up.

  He absent mindedly brushed his finger across, wincing when a needle like protrusion drew blood.

  “I think it could get through one, if I had enough time to do it safely.”

  We could bring down the city above, said the intrusive thoughts in his head.

  +++++

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