The Silhouette and The Forge
Chapter 2
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As the sounds of my potential impending doom get closer to the door leading to the hallway I am in, I get out the potions I had in jacket pouches and start guzzling them all down as fast as I can. Ignoring the nasty taste of some of them and the textures I get to the last one I have as I hear someone start yelling on the other side of the door at the front.

“Unlock the door! We know someone is in there since we left this place unlocked,” the person shouts, loud enough for me to hear, then I hear muffled voices. Unfortunately, I can’t make out what they are saying as I finish the last bottle and drop it as I take notice that my body is blending in with the surrounding environment. I’m like the predator right now. I love chameleon now.

Then I hear a loud bang followed by heavy foot falls, as I get up to retreat down the hallway going to the storage area as I am making my way down it, I hear another deafening bang as chunks of what I assume of the door go flying by me as I press my back instinctively to the wall.

After a moment I take to collect myself after what I just saw, I look back down and see a hand come through the newly made hole in the door where the doorknob used to be grasping up blindly trying to find the other lock on it.

I don’t see if they find it or not, as I make my way towards the back storage area. Getting on the wall beside the hallway entrance and waiting for them to make it to me so I can sneak past them, but it has to be the tensest I have been. It doesn’t take them long, as I hear a lot of loud rapid footsteps echoing down the hallway.

“Hey, look a couple of vials?” one of them says while shining a flashlight across the floor.

“Spread out and find whoever is here. I am not taking any chances with this gang war starting up after those Sidewinder idiots decided to invade everyone’s turf.” Someone yells back from the front of the building, “Find them fast and kill them, we have to get this place secure and lock it back up!”

Oh shit. I accidentally started a gang war, feeling a tinge of guilt. But before that can take root, I stop it and tell myself that I had no way to know that would happen. Not to mention as the man said, those assholes knew they were going through other gang’s territories. They did this, not me. And now I am going to have to reevaluate my plan to sneak around them. I don’t know how effective the chameleon potion is when stacked with the others…

If I go through the hallway to the front, if they see me, it won’t be as difficult to shoot me in comparison to where I am now. It’s a narrow hallway, not that difficult to hit something in it when it doesn’t have much room to move in. Realizing what I am going to have to do, I am surprised by how easily the tenseness I was feeling fades to be met with an eerie calm.

As I am waiting on a few of them to come to me, I notice steps getting much closer and the beam of a flashlight reaching into the room. As it does so I reach into my knife holster for my main knife. Just as the steps stop just as I am getting worried that they knew something was up, they are around the corner quickly as they shine the flashlight barely over me as they point a pistol in my direction of the room as I hold perfectly still.

“Clear on my side you?” The man with the gun asks his friend.

“Nothing over on this side either, it’s clear.” He responds back. “Whoever did this blocked the back door with a pallet?” he says with some confusion as he goes to investigate leaving his friend behind him. Before his friend can add his two cents, I move with my knife going to him with his back turned to me and place my empty hand over his mouth and slit his throat.

All weight leaves him as he doesn’t even get a chance to make a sound, however his friend is alerted as his flashlight and gun fall from his hands and hit the ground the flashlight rolling along it as I let go of his friend. As he turns around to see what is going on I already have a throwing knife in hand and throw it hitting the man in his throat.

He clutches at his throat as he drops his gun and flashlight and falls like a puppet getting its strings cut. I move quickly getting both of their pistols and dragging both bodies over to the wall where anyone who walks down the hallway won’t see them immediately.

“Nick, CJ what the hell is taking you two?” someone says down the hallway, as I try to move back into position to ambush them again.

“Guys you better be playing a joke right now, I just heard you say it was clear a moment ago.” he says as he starts walking towards the room. “I swear when I get my hands on you two idiots for playing a joke right now of all times I am going-” before he can finish his sentence as he just makes it into the room looking over where the light of the two flashlights is coming from, I take my knife as I am right behind him and send it into the side of his neck.

That sea of stars decides to make its presence known of all times, though I don’t get anything for it. As he dies with a wet gurgling noise leaving his throat, I grab his body and drag it onto my side of the room. As I do this, I hear a lot of footsteps heading down the hallway rapidly. I let go of the body and head closer to the wall thinking the jig is up. I then notice that I got lucky taking the last guy out because he had a shotgun. I set the pistol in my hand down and sheaf my knife and grab it.

As they get closer, I lean out and aim hopefully in their general direction taking note that there is only three of them left. I fire at them, but it sends me falling on my back due to the recoil and a sharp pain in my chest. However, it would seem I hit someone since I hear screaming. Only to be met with rapid gunfire down the hallway. I scramble to get back behind the wall realizing to my horror that they have an automatic rifle I am assuming. Fan-fucking-tastic.

So, I wait for an opening to shoot back, which thankfully comes when the shooting stops. I peak back out and take one of the two pistols I had taken from there dead friends and take aim firing three shots. I hit the man trying to drag his friend who is currently missing part of his leg below the knee in the shoulder making him fall and scream.

The second shot hits the man with the rifle in the leg behind the other two. He falls but is scrambling to get back to the doorway of the front building. I fire a third shot hitting the man with the mangled leg as he twists himself onto his chest and tries to crawl to safety while calling for help in the back of his head silencing him. The man with the rifle manages to get to the safety of the doorway at the front as he gets up on his feet unsteadily.

I fire another shot into the one that was trying to save his friend in the back, and he falls screaming and calling for help. I try to shoot again but only hear a click. The man now on the ground is crawling to the door. I drop the pistol and grab the other one and took aim down the hallway and saw the one who got to safety was trying to get to the guy I shot in the back.

I take aim for the guy reaching across the doorway for his friend. I fire but this time I miss and instead hit the one crawling in the back again but this time he doesn’t get up. The man trying to save him gets back behind cover, while I get back behind the wall. Before I can think on what to do next, the sole survivor catches me off guard by tossing something down the hallway when I hear something bounce off the floor and roll a little.

I may not know what it is but I have played enough shooters to know that sound and in my focused adrenaline state I knew to get away, but by the time I made some distance I am thrown off of my feet and I am tossed into a wall across the room face first. I feel nothing as I am in a dark void where I don’t feel anything, and it was oddly calming because of that.

No pain, fear, or stress I just simply exist in whatever this is. It was nice, until I suddenly open my eyes as I am dragged back from that empty void. I find myself surprised as I open my eyes that I am not met with agonizing pain, but only soreness.

I laid there on the ground for a moment processing what just happened to me. I think I almost died. Then I remember the last guy and I can’t lay here. I slowly get up, realizing that I couldn’t hear anything for some time until I hear a pop from my ears. I reach for the pistol I got from one of these guys to only realize that I don’t have it on me anymore. Then I hear him.

“Motherfucker! You killed my little brother Danny, where are you?! I know I got you with that grenade!” the man continues to scream at me cursing me for taking his brother and friends lives. I look towards the center of the room where I hear him, whirling around everywhere with his flashlight as he is standing unsteadily as he is leaning more on his left leg.

He is trying so desperately to find me but not seeing me as he rapidly looks everywhere for me as his flashlight is shaking nonstop. In different circumstances I would have felt bad for him. Or I would have had it not been for everything that has happened to me so far, that and the grenade didn’t help at all.

There is only one small mercy I can bring myself to give him after killing everyone he seemed to care about, despite what they were going to do to me. I feel for the gun in my holster and feel it’s still there, so I take it out as I slowly start to get back up, noting that my body is not fully healed since I am struggling to get up. I need to remember to stock up on supplies for potions of regeneration and fortifying health considering that’s the only reason I can think of me being currently alive after what just happened.

I notice one of the flashlights on the ground broken and badly damaged from the explosion as its dented to hell and back. Picking it up, I toss it over to the other side of the room as it hits the wall with a resounding metallic ding as he turns his back to me taking his rifle and unloads into the wall spraying everywhere along it.

I slowly walk up to him, as each flash of the muzzle would illuminate the room. He stands there covered in sweat with wide panicked eyes being so fixated on what he assumes is the one who took his brother and friends lives.

I come up behind him, just as his shooting stops and nothing but clicks are the only noise in the room. “Did I get them?” he whispers out in fear to himself, to be met with something he didn’t expect to hear.

“I’m sorry.” I say calmly as his eyes widened in fear and panic as I fire the pistol I have inches from the back of his head before he has a chance to do anything.

I watch calmly as it sends blood and parts of his brain across the floor as his body falls forward onto the floor with a pool of blood forming under his head. I am once more grasping for another star. I failed to get it, but honestly after what just happened that is the farthest thing from my mind.

And I just stand there looking down at his body and then look at the torn apart pieces of his friend’s bodies and I am surprisingly calm through it all. As I ponder over this, I realize I need to scavenge what I can and get moving. I look around the room seeing what was salvageable. Some of the bodies were too badly torn up and I wasn’t even going to try to get something off of those. The only ones were the man I just killed and the others down the hallway.

The few things I managed to snag were their wallets which only two of them had some cash on hand which totaled around thirty-three dollars, most of the guns on the other hand were totaled after the grenade. I did get an old flip cellphone from one of the guys. After I check the phone over seeing it’s in one piece, I head over to the guns the others had.

The few guns that were intact were the man’s rifle, which apparently was an AK-47. Jeez, what the hell was my luck, a guy with a shotgun coming from the hallway with what I think were slugs loaded in it and a fully automatic assault rifle and a grenade as a cherry on top. The kicker is he only had the one grenade that he used on me. Can’t tell if my luck is really bad or good considering the beginning and how it ended in that series of unfortunate events.

The last guy had no more ammunition on him and had used the last of it trying to shoot what he thought was me. I give the guy this, the grenade was a good idea and to be fair if it wasn’t for the potions, he would have killed me. There is no doubt in my mind at that, showing how close I came to dying. Because I am pretty sure I broke a lot of bones and not to mention the shrapnel that had to have hit me.

The other guys just had pistols, looked like simple 9mm ones. As I look them over, I am reaching yet again for another star and I fail to grab it. Taking it in stride by this point, I check each of them taking notice that they only had about 3-4 bullets each in their magazines which amounted to two pistols with a handful of bullets between each of them.

I grab the magazine with four bullets still in it and grab the magazine from my own pistol and put them into it. I put the empty magazine back in and grab the rifle and the two pistols and make my way back to the hallway. Taking my key and opening the way to my workshop, I put them down along the wall after putting the safety on each gun. Then head back out and take my key back.

One thing that I am incredibly grateful for now that I have a moment to think is that unlike the Elder Scrolls games potions the ones I have don’t last a few minutes usually depending on what the potion is thanks to the memories and experiences placed in my head. Most of them can last for about two to three hours at least at my current level of skill. And right now, I need to get moving to get my plan rolling on getting some supplies to ensure I don’t have a rough start here.

So, I head back to the back door figuring going the way those guys just came running from may not be a good idea since someone may chase after them or check the front out, especially after all the shots fired and a grenade of all things going off. So, I head over to the pallet and move it out of the way of the door. I open the door and shove the dumpster and slowly get it to move just enough for me to slip past it.

I then head back down the alley and I hear gunfire all over the place and in some cases way too close. I make my way through the winding alleys and I’m on a street but make sure to stick to the sides and out of the way parts of it with lots of cover just to make sure I don’t get hit by a stray bullet.

Even if it doesn’t kill me, I rather not go through needless pain until it regenerates when I could avoid it otherwise. Keeping my eyes and ears open to anything that would pop out to me, thankfully with me having my sneaking boosted along with chameleon and it being night has helped immensely in keeping me hidden. After all those dead gang members can attest to that.

Making my way down the street as I take the phone out but realize I can’t see it except for a blur and shimmer in the air. Oh boy, well time to figure out a way to make this work. I set the phone down on the pavement next to a random car as cover and it immediately became visible. Alright, I can work with this. I think? I tap it to get it to go to the main screen and it stays visible and its apparently called a Lexphone. Really?

Ignoring the glaring name for this thing and being reminded of the guys named Joker and Penguin I bring my attention back to the phone. After a few moments of struggling to use it with hard to see hands, I managed to find an app called LexEarth which is a map app and get it to work after fumbling around like an idiot.

As I start to get frustrated at me struggling with a flip phone of all things, I feel my power activate. And I am flooded with knowledge and experience of making all kinds of traps. Simple ones to complex and horrifying traps meant to cripple, cut, maim or just burn people… and even monsters?

Not only that but images of small silver discs that can hold smaller versions of the traps in them. This was the last thing I thought would come out of my source of powers. Not that I am complaining because this gave me a new and very good foundation to make some weapons in my arsenal.

This is a slight game changer. With this new knowledge I can make all kinds of crazy traps. Not only make them to protect whatever I have as a home or base but even depending on the size of them and the environment I can put them into small disks and toss them at people as a weapon or even use as a makeshift melee weapon. I now have so many things to add into my arsenal against people. And not just them either. This gave me knowledge on things that can hurt and kill even monsters from the supernatural side. Which I consider as an ill omen.

But what makes it awesome is despite it being based off of Victorian era Van Hellsing and Dracula stuff it’s not limited to that. As in if I wanted to make an electric trap disk not far off from the ones in Dishonored, I could make it without needing whatever it was that those traps relied on and just use a battery of some kind. In fact, I could think of a few traps I could make from the Saw movie series. It’s something that will upgrade with the era I find myself in. Neat.

Now focusing on the map of where I am at and ignoring for now my new set of knowledge, I start looking for where I need to go to get to where the stores are at, such as clothes and flower shops or grocery stores. After taking note that they are a couple of miles from me and will take a bit to get there on foot, but I should have some time to spare with the potions in my system.

I also try to take note of any short cuts I could take to cut down on time. Before I could really start making some adjustments on what routes I should take I am stopped by rapid gunfire with the distinct sound of car tires squealing as I grab the phone and put it in my pants pocket and start heading out only to be met with two low rider style cars coming down the street I am on as they both open fire on one another and I take cover behind a car near me as they continue to shoot at one another.

And good thing I did because some of the bullets had hit around the area I am at and even hitting the car I am hiding behind. As soon as the cars pass by me and passed the street, I immediately go into a sprint realizing I can’t afford to screw around here, or I will die. The grenade was proof enough of that considering I don’t think it surprisingly hit a major organ or I would be dead regardless of the regeneration or me fortifying my health. Dumb luck can only get me so far before it runs out.

But for now, I need to stick with the original plan though I might make some adjustments to it to ensure I take full advantage of this. After I go back to running while keeping my senses sharp for any potential danger specifically gunfire for several minutes before taking a short breather. The fortify stamina potion is already proving its worth since I was running as fast as I could go, and I haven’t run like that since middle school so I shouldn’t have lasted as long.

I am not completely out of shape, though I am barely hovering above that line. Which once this is done, I am going to have to focus on fixing that as fast as possible since the more I look at this place the more I realize I am going to have to fight to survive in a place like this. I mean seriously, everything looks nasty and rundown like this city has been overrun by a creeping cancer mixed with so many other diseases and parasites for good measure and dying a slow agonizing death.

The roads were full of potholes, trash all over the place as I run and observe it all. I would be so disgusted with this place if it wasn’t for the fact how sad it all is in the end. I couldn’t even imagine trying to grow up in a place like this in comparison to the areas I knew as a kid. They were bad but compared to this they look tame; I mean it took me getting mugged and kicking a guy in the balls to start what I am pretty sure is a gang war right now.

I do have respect for those that try to fix places like this and try to help, but I mean if this really is Gotham from the comics which the more I look around and see the buildings around me with some of their aesthetics with the dreary depressing weather is making me believe more and more and what the guy said earlier combined with the phone drives that point further home.

If it is, I do respect Batman for what he is trying to accomplish but ultimately it can only do so much. You can’t combat all of this no matter how much effort you use. Hell, Superman can’t even do that. And he is Superman for crying out loud.

So no, as I take another stop to get my bearings and rest a little, I refuse to let this place chew me up and spit me back out like my old life did. Almost dying like I did not that long ago and going through several near-death experiences has put a lot into perspective for me. I worked as a janitor at a local high school when I was 24, so it was not exactly a bright future for me.

Constantly having the principle be up my ass and making my life miserable along with the little shits that you call students didn’t help. Making messes on me and any way they could make life for me miserable, and he would protect them if they screwed with me. So no, I am going to actually enjoy my new lease on life and if I can help a few people along the way that’s grand. But as of now, I am going to live for myself.

I check over the Lexphone as I think about what I want to do once I have a chance, when I see it isn’t much further to the area I need to get to. As I am about to pocket the phone my power goes off, with me getting nothing this time. As I get ready to go back to running, I think on the few good things that happened before I found myself here. I remember one of the few good things that happened to me about a week prior to getting here. Me being balls deep in the principles neglected buxom red headed wife as I am about to get off shift on his desk in his own office.

I mean I would occasionally catch her staring at me when she showed up at the school. Just never expected her to be that interested. That puts a big smile on my face at that night of me losing my virginity, one hell of a way at that. At that happy thought I notice I am almost there as I keep sprinting, taking note that there is surprisingly no gunfire in the immediate area, though it is in the distance.

Either way I can tell that I am getting better with my endurance since in between each pitstop the gap between stops is getting bigger. Huh, I should take note that the regeneration potion is a lot more useful than just saving your life from potentially fatal wounds.

I finally manage to get to one of the shops I needed which happens to be a simple clothing store. I needed stores for the supplies, that are not naturally a part of my workshop and just for surviving. Like clean food and water. One of the big things is going to be clothes. Because right now I am pretty sure my walking dead jacket along with the rest of my clothes that I have on are filled with holes. If not worse.

Considering the number that grenade did to me since I can feel holes along my clothes that were not there prior and especially the feeling of me being exposed to the elements. Namely all the cold air. As I move closer to the clothes store, I notice that it’s lights are off much like the rest of the buildings further along this street. That and it has just like every other store here it has a metal security shutter to keep people out. I need to get through that and get what I need.

First things first, with my knowledge on traps and to make them portable I have an idea on how to get through the metal fence or I can try to see if I can take a back way into it. Noticing the alley on the left side I head down it and notice the door on the back for the building. I head further down the alley to make sure no one is around. All clear, good.

I go back out onto the street and double check to make sure no one is around. Nothing but the wind, constant gunfire and sirens of what can only be the police off in the distance. Alright, I can figure out which way I want to go after I get what I need. And so, I head back down the alley and take out the key and put it into the door.

I am greeted once more by the entrance hallway and quickly make my way down to the workshop. Once there I take note of the things I am going to need and only need. I start making the compact discs of the traps I will need to deal with the current obstacles I have in my way.

After several minutes of me making the portable silver discs I manage to finish. I put them into my pants pockets. I head back out the entrance way and close the door taking my key back. Once I am back out in the alley, I decide to just go for the back door of the building since its closer and I don’t want to waste any more time especially having to cut a man-sized hole through the metal fence.

I grab one of the discs and bring it near the area of the door around the handle. I activate it and a round saw blade is exposed after part of the disc folds back on itself and starts spinning rapidly with a small buzzing noise. I place it against the right side of the handle in the middle and start cutting only to be met with sparks from the door and I immediately regret not bringing something to shield my face and eyes. Either way I don’t have the time for that, so I keep going.

Initially I had some resistance from the door but thanks to my knowledge and experience with these traps I knew the saw blade would prove stronger as it starts cutting deeper into the door and I start adjusting the angle of the blade and bring it down around the handle towards the bottom of it as it gets to the edge of its side. Then I pull the blade back out and repeat with it going the other way.

It wasn’t long before I finished cutting through around the handle and stopping the blade then having the disc seal it back up and looking normal again. These are going to come in handy considering how normal and non-threatening these appear initially. With that last thought and me putting the disc away in my pocket I try pulling the handle out of the door, though I am met with some resistance.

I continue to pull on it, noticing it’s not due to another lock, but because the angle of the door opening is caught slightly on the part I cut out. Great. So, I stop pulling for a moment and get back. As I am getting ready to kick the door, time slows down, and I am grabbing another star. My mind is bombarded with memories of hands-on experience of being a surgeon, first-responder and a pharmacist all wrapped together. Me cutting open people’s bodies to perform surgeries.

Staying focused and ignoring the sight and smell of blood and gore that normally would have me hesitate to cut someone open, along with some insane hand eye coordination with surgical tools as I deftly make precise cuts. Experiences with picking up on new techniques and tools flash across my mind from numerous faceless mentors and teachers.

I am caught off guard as memories of mutants is the only thing I can call them go through my mind as I become familiar with their physiology. Either way I have something to patch myself or others up with, and I will take what I can get.

When my mind comes back to the here and now, I find myself with my leg up and at the handle of the door and manage to knock it loose a little while my foots angle is off and I feel a lot of pain shoot into my toes that brings tears to my eyes. I grab at my foot as I jump in place with my other and fall back from the pain of my toes hitting first. I stay on the floor and feel what I assume are broken toes start straightening with popping noises and mending themselves. Fucking power just had to choose then to activate.

Once my foot was fully healed and I test if I can stand on it with no pain, I get back up and continue to kick at the cut section of the door far more cautiously than I should have any reason. I finally after who knows how many hits, knock it loose from the door. I open the door and step inside and notice I am not out of breath at all from that and I kicked that doorway way too many times and I haven’t been able to lift my leg that high since I was in high school.

What the hell is up with that? I’m pretty sure none of the potions influence something like that, even with the regeneration helping me get in shape quicker. The not getting out of breath maybe, but that is odd. As I make my way from the back of the store where they keep a few boxes for storage of the product and two doors along the wall of the room, along with a hallway leading to what I assume is the main display floor.

I make my way through the hallway and unlock the door and step through. Taking the key to my pocket dimension and opening it on the door I just stepped through, and I start gathering up as many clothes as I can fine that would fit me.

As I grabbed as much of what I would need in large bundles in my arms I would carry it to the door and just toss it inside of it and get back to finding more not even bothering what the clothes had on them or what they looked like. I can’t afford to waste time on cool clothes when I need to hurry.

I would have used something to help me get more like a shopping cart, but the store didn’t have any. I do a quick tally of what I have gotten so far in my head quickly, which so far consists of a lot of jean pants and shorts, t-shirts along with a few sweet leather jackets ranging from the typical biker black ones to my preferred brown leather dusters and jackets.

Then grabbing plenty of socks and underwear and shorts for relaxing if I can find a place to call home. I then checked the time and after seeing an hour and a half had already gone by since I drank the potions. Before I close the doorway and leave, I eyeball the cash register then I remember they usually take the till with the money in it out of it and put it into a secure place to store it in the store, not to mention I don’t want to waste any more time here trying to find where they keep the money especially if it’s not that much in the first place.

Close the door and pocketing my key I head back out the way I came. I then get to sprinting through the alley using it as a shortcut and hoping to avoid anyone out and about in case the violence makes its way over here with how much gunfire is going off you would think it’s the fourth of July.

I also take note that no police have come or anything. I had assumed they may have had a silent alarm or something but either they didn’t, or the police have their hands full with the gang war I kickstarted. I am going to go with the latter.

I quickly pull out the phone and pull up the map while slowing down a little to not run into something. It shows that the place I am looking for is about three blocks from me. I continue to sprint really starting to notice that I am barely getting winded from pushing myself this hard. Wait, am I getting faster? I am! Well at least I am multitasking albeit unintentionally. But I won’t complain, whatever helps me survive in this hell hole I will take it.

After that realization I focus back on just running and keeping an ear out for trouble. I stayed like that for about two minutes when I got to my destination. A grocery store by the name of Gotham Groceries. That is got to be the most generic name you could name something in Gotham, but then again, it’s a grocery store.

I find myself amongst the galaxy of stars once more as I near the store. And I manage to get another one. I find myself bombarded with knowledge and memories of building suits of armor that could make you immune to heat, massive hammer blades that can break even the toughest of rocks to get to the ore within. I even have memories of crafting bomb arrows that are made to not detonate to the ambient heat around the area these memories show me.

Hell, it’s not just the armor and weapons. It’s anything that the… Gorons?! As in Legend of Zelda Gorons! That puts a big smile on my face at the nostalgia of those big turtle guys and me having knowledge on everything they made. That is so awesome. But as exciting and as cool as that may be, I need to calm down my inner nerd and get this done then I can figure out what to focus on.

Which so happens to be canned food and a pharmacy with on the shelf drugs I could use, and maybe a floral department for ingredients to make potions. Much like with the clothes store, I don’t take the front of the building as it’s closed for the evening. I am surprised they don’t have a few lights on for a night crew, but then again, this place isn’t very big so who knows. Either way I need to get in, so I make my way across the small empty parking lot in front of the building, and into the sides of it looking for a back door.

Finding the door after a moment, I take my new favorite thing in the world and start cutting. Unlike last time I seem to be getting a hang of using the saw and cut my way through the door and find myself in a back area loaded with long carts filled with boxes of goods and pallets filled with them. Taking note that carts have signs on them indicating what they have loaded up. I immediately start looking for a can or soup cart. And after a moment of looking and moving between carts along with my eyes adjusting to the darkness, I find it.

Along the far left I see the cart I need with all the cans on it. Checking it over to make sure what it has is enough to hold me over and will be healthy for me. Looking it over and humming to myself in satisfaction at the good options I have to pick from I grab the cart. Not seeing a door near me I notice the one that leads to the main floor.

I pull it over there quickly and taking my key, I open the door and thankful I had the foresight to put the clothes to the side and push the cart in. Once it’s in I go back to grab a cart loaded with cans of pop and bottled water and place that in as well then close the door and as soon as it closes, I get back to the final parts of my little heist. The pharmacy, floral department, and wherever they keep the money!

Perks gained:

-Lunatic Trickster (Van Helsing) (100CP)

You will have peasantry frequently knocking at your door with their torches and pitchforks, adventurers dashing through your laboratories, and your creations frequently trying to escape. Now you can prevent all of this from happening with your knowledge of creating fiendish, murderous traps of all damage ranges & variants! Those not entirely dependent on the environment, such as pitfall traps, can be stored in small silver discs to be used as weapons.

-Medicine (GUNNM) (100CP)

You have the skills of a surgeon, first-responder and pharmacist, all roughly bundled together with a lot of hands-on experience with the worst injuries the wasteland has to offer. Your hands are steady, your focus unperturbed by the sight and stench of gore and viscera, and you have the precise and quick reflexes necessary to swat a fly with a scalpel. You also have a fair bit of experience with slightly inhuman and mutated physiology, and are very quick to pick up on new techniques and tools.

-Goron Crafting (The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - SB) (200CP)

You know the secrets of the Goron Craftsmen. You can create metal armors that can render the wearer immune to heat, powerful hammer-blades that can smash through the toughest rocks, advanced Bomb Arrows that won't explode from ambient heat, and more. Anything built by Gorons, you can recreate, so long as you can gather the right materials.