System Wars: Here Comes the Heroes!-Chapter 26: Failures and Cover-ups go hand-in-hand

'Huh...you know, it actually makes a lot of sense that Tin Star doesn't have high strength or endurance, since I designed him with gunplay in mind,' SK thought to himself as he looked over Tin Star's status screen. 'Or are the lower stats due to the fact that he was made with a Gold Grade ticket as opposed to a Miracle Grade ticket like Platiknight? It boggles the mind.'

Ding!

"Huh?"

Just as SK was trying to wrap his head around the exact process that was Familiar creation and this whole ticket gacha thing that the System had going on, he suddenly received a notification from the Superhero System.

And it wasn't a good notification.

[Warning: User has failed to perform the daily quest or equivalent activities in an appropriate time frame.]

[Please prepare yourself for the penalty.]

"Oh...shit."

In the mobile games SK would play, missing a daily quest wasn't a bad thing per se; it just meant missing out on some daily resources.

Meanwhile, in the comics SK read, the Systems that would exist in them would have rather absurd penalties for failing a quest like death, stat reduction, or being forced to fight to survive a hostile gauntlet.

While he was fairly certain that the Supehero System wasn't going to punish him too severely, he couldn't help but feel nervous since this was his first proper quest failure.

Thankfully, the punishment wasn't too bad.

Several tense seconds passed as SK waited for the System to dole out the punishment, only to be pleasantly surprised at the results.

[The normal penalty has been lessened due to the mitigating factor that the user was almost killed by a psychotic fortune teller. Therefore, the User shall not be subjected to the Hellfire Gauntlet.]

"Woo-hoo!"

[However, the user will be forced to undergo electroshock therapy in order to stimulate the muscle tension necessary to make up for lost exercise time.]

"Say what?"

[Beginning the electrocution sequence in...three,two,one, ZAP ZAP!]

KERZAP!

"GAAHAHAHAAAA! WHY?!?!"

Before SK could even request a moment to go and get ready for bed or lie down somewhere comfortable before getting electrocuted by the System, the System proceeded to pump several thousand volts of electricity throughout his entire body.

At least SK thought it was several thousand volts of electricity; he honestly couldn't tell because of the sheer amount of pain he was in.

While this was happening, by the way, Platiknight and Tin Star were simply choosing to ignore their creator's suffering while still sipping on his sodas.

"You know, I feel bad that the fact that we're just sitting while the sheriff does...that," Tin Star commented. "How are you doing, sheriff?"

Incoherent screams of a man feeling his legs about to shoot lighting.

"That tracks."

"It is fine, my friend. Our liege will be coming out of this ordeal stronger and faster than before. We just need to be patient."

"I suppose...oh yeah, speaking of patience, you think we waited long enough to go and check if those cops are gone? We still need to grab that fortune teller chick."

"Indeed," Platiknight agreed. "Although, perhaps we should until our liege is done with his forced exercises."

"EVERYTHNG IS TINGLING AND I DONT LIKE IT!"

"Maybe a little after that."

Unfortunately for Platiknight and Tin Star, life wasn't going to stand still just for them.

...Meanwhile, across the street of SK's apartment...

As Miss Myster laid on top of the roof of an apartment building she had broken into, still unconscious from the fact that her familiars were defeated, something unexpected occur in the skies directly above her.

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"Notice: Unit-007 has detected a defeated User. Beginning identification process, now."

Strange mechanical drones shaped like eggs with gyrocopter bits sticking out of the top, descended from the sky and began to analyze Mise Myster's unconscious body via a special scanning tool that I as built inside of it.

"Analyzing...analysis complete."

"User Identity: Miss Myster has been confirmed."

"User Status: Unconscious but alive."

"Additional notice: Miss Myster's connection to the Arcanis System has been suspended."

"Reason for defeat: Inconclusive."

"Calculated next course of action: Retrieve User and bring them back to base."

Once the egg-shaped drone came to this conclusion, several dozen mechanic tentacles suddenly surged out from the bottom of this weird machine and grabbed the unconscious Miss Myster like she was a ragdoll.

"Returning to base, now."

Once she had been grabbed, the drone proceeded to ascend towards the sky and disappear into the night.

Where they were heading nobody knew, save for the the controller of the drone.

As to why they were being taken, well...some things are better learn from the mouths of others than from outside observations.

"Sending message to base: Prepare medical pod one and interrogation chamber: Sympathy."

Of course, not everyone needed to consult a direct source for information.

...Meanwhile, up the street from SK's apartment...

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Dispatch, we have an unconscious body. We're going to investigate whether or not the situation is live, over. Wait, why am I getting nothing but static?"

When cops come across body on the streets, the reason for this discrepancy usually boiled down to two possibilities.

The first possibility was that someone got in way over their heads and got knocked out due to either random acts of violence or substance abuse. While these weren't necessarily reasons for getting arrested quite yet, they were reasons for them to start investigating an area for possible criminal elements.

The second possibility was that the body on the street was a dead body, and that definitely necessitate the calling of additional law enforcement and a thorough investigation of the area.

Murder was never a fun thing to look into, but it was a part of the job.

However, because cops are usually mentally wrapping their heads around the idea that whatever they were investigating was probably the remnants of a crime after the fact, their guards at this time were usually lowered.

Not enough to not notice people approaching them from various directions, but their guards were lowered just enough that they could get surprised by, say, a body on the ground turning out to be a live person.

"Hey buddy, are you-"

ZAP! ZAP!

"GUH!"

"BAH!"

"Targets have been neutralized, I repeat. Targets have been neutralized."

Just as the cops were about to check on the person laying on the street, that aformentioned person suddenly rolled over and blasted them both with an incredibly advanced stun gun that made the ones the cops were carrying look like wind-up toys by comparison.

Needless to say, the two law enforcement agents were rendered unconscious once the electricity surged through them.

"Eagle Eye, this is Porcupine. Tin badges have been neutralized. I repeat, tin badges have been neutralized. Over," the person pretending to be unconscious moments ago said through a comm radio on her wrist.

"Porcupine, this is Eagle Eye. Confirming law enforcement neutralization and turning off signal jammer. Be sure to retrieve the footage and adjust the scene. Over."

"Copy that."

The person calling themselves Porcupine proceeded to go over to the unconscious coppers and flip them on to their backs. Once they were on their backs, Porcupine proceeded to deactivate their body cams and remove the memory cards.

Of course, she didn't leave it at just that.

From her pocket she extracted a stack of memory cards that looked exactly like the ones she had just pulled out.

"Let's see here, we got wild dog attack, drug bust gone wrong, prostitution ring break up, ah ha! Here it is, blackout robbery gets fooled."

Once Porcupine had the memory cards in hand, they gently inserted the new ones while pocketing the ones they had just replaced.

After that, Porcupine proceeded to drag the cops back into their car, seat them upright and left a little present in the shape of an air freshener on their dashboard. Granted, this air freshener was a little more advanced than the plastic stuff with a scented gel.

"I think ten minutes should be enough for me to get out of dodge," Porcupine concluded after adjusting the timer on their "air freshener".

"Okay now, have fun smelling the ammonia. Bye~"

Once it was prepared, Porcupine proceeded to get out of the area and disappear into the night, dodging through several alleyways and making erratic turns before arriving to an a white van covered in graffiti.

"Shave and a hair cut, two bits," Porcupine hummed as they knocked on the van's backdoor.

"You got the memory cards?"A man in the van asked as he opened the backdoor from inside.

"Of course I got the cards," Porcupine replied. "Now can I ditch this hobo get-up? It smells bad and I think whatever chemicals you used on this hat is starting to seep into my scalp."

"I think we used mustard oil for the smell and look."

"Oh...in that case, I'm keeping this on."

"Fair enough."

"Now then, let's see get a better look at these new offshoots..."