Chapter 49 - Tracker and Prey
"Uhm... Excuse me."
A cute voice spoke up from beside Jason, and he turned to look at the girl sitting there. She was young, barely past eighteen, and she had on fashionable attire that exposed some cleavage and her thighs. It was obvious that she was either in high school or college, and Jason gave her a small smile when he saw the slightly shy expression on her face.
"Can I help you?"
The girl blushed when she heard his voice, and she quickly spoke up.
"A-Are you him? The superhuman from Riverdale that awakened as an A-Rank?"
The girl spoke in a hushed tone, and Jason was thankful that she wasn't making too much noise. He wouldn't have been comfortable if everyone on the bus suddenly started clamoring to him because he was a superhuman. Jason nodded to the girl, and her blush increased in intensity as she clapped with a wide smile!
"That's amazing! I read all the articles about you and I couldn't believe how powerful they were saying you were! To clear a Red Gate on your first day as a superhuman is amazing! Are you planning to join a guild anytime soon?"
Jason blinked in surprise at the rapid-fire conversation, and he just shook his head.
"No, I'm not joining a guild anytime soon."
The girl tilted her head to one side. She was a beautiful girl with a youthful, round face, so that action made her seem like a cute chipmunk in Jason's eyes.
"Why not?"
"I just don't like taking orders from others."
The girl was silent for a few seconds before she suddenly laughed while covering her mouth. She was a university student who had gone to visit her family in Riverdale, and she was on her way back to NYU. When she saw Jason on the bus, she immediately recognized him, but she was nervous about talking to him because she thought he would brush her off. But now that she finally gathered to courage to talk to him, she was shocked to see how easygoing he was!
The girl gave Jason a shove with her shoulder, and Jason just raised an amused brow as he watched her.
"You don't like taking orders. That's the best reason I've ever heard. I really think you'll make a great Guild leader."
"Is that so?"
"Uh-huh. You can trust me; the cute and adorable stranger on the bus can never lie to you."
Jason couldn't help but laugh as the girl raised her fingers in a cute salute. She brought out her phone and shyly presented it to him.
"Do you mind if we take a picture together? For remembrance. My friends in college'll never believe me if I tell them I met you."
Jason shrugged, and the girl smiled before taking an exuberant selfie. The bus finally stopped at the destination, and Jason excused himself to leave before the girl could ask him for his number. It was nice talking to her, but Jason didn't have the time to add more girls into his life right now.
The girl was a little disappointed that Jason didn't ask for her number, and she watched his retreating back with a small pout on her face. It wasn't her stop and she still had a few miles to go, but she quickly grabbed a pen and paper and wrote something down before she raced off the bus and shouted.
"Wait! Jason!"
Jason turned around when he heard her voice, and she stopped and put the paper in his hand with a smile. She winked at him and spoke in a low, inviting voice.
"My name is Tiana. Call me for anything okay~"
Tiana's tone left nothing to the imagination, and it was immediately obvious to Jason what she was proposing to him. Tiana laughed at his raised brow and then ran off to catch the next bus at the bus stop.
Jason looked down at the paper with a resigned look before leaving. He was going to have to find a way to hide his face to stop things like this from happening.
...
[Are you on his tracks?]
"Yes ma'am. He arrived in New York without incident, but I haven't been able to lock down his exact destination."
A young woman sitting in a dark Toyota watched Jason with calm, calculating eyes as he walked down the streets of New York. She was wearing sunglasses as well as dark clothes and a hat that would hide her identity from anyone who saw her, and she made sure to keep Jason in her line of sight even as she spoke to someone over her AirPods.
[Did he make any detours, or speak to anyone on the way?]
"Yes, ma'am. There was a girl on the bus who spoke to him, but I'm guessing she is just a fan rather than anyone important. I ran her background through the system and I saw she went to NYU, so we don't need to worry about her."
The woman in the car had been following Jason ever since he left Riverdale a few hours ago. She stayed a reasonable distance away to make sure that Jason didn't notice her, and she was regularly updating her superior over the phone.
She slowly coasted her car away from the side of the street and began moving it in the direction that Jason was going. Jason was walking rather quickly, but he wasn't looking back, and she was certain that he didn't know he was being followed. The woman was a superhuman as well, but her line of work didn't require her to use her power very often. As a tracker, it was her job to be as unrecognizable and insignificant as possible.
As Jason began heading towards the New York subway, she felt her brow furrow in confusion. Her superior's voice came through the comms again.
[Ensure he doesn't discover you. If there are any changes, then alert me.]
"Of course, ma'am."
The call clicked off immediately, and the woman finally parked her car at the side of the road and got off. She was wearing a black outfit that covered her body entirely. Black baggy trousers and a large black hoodie with a black cap prevented anyone from even knowing what sort of figure she had underneath!
She began to follow Jason at a reasonable distance, and they headed towards the New York subway together.
...
Jason walked down the subway stairs with a face mask on. After the entire situation with Tiana, he realized that he was far too recognizable and decided to start wearing a mask whenever he was out and about to prevent people from coming up to him. He also had a face cap that he bought at a cheap store, and thankfully, no one had approached him all this time.
New York was just as busy as Jason remembered. He had been here a few times with his mom and sister before, but they never went anywhere important. They mostly spent their time sightseeing and having fun.
New York was the sort of place where everyone had something to do. They never stayed still, and you would end up being a nuisance if you tried to stand in one place. Jason also felt like that now as he headed down the stairs.
Behind Jason, the woman in black was trying and failing to keep up with his pace as she was constantly being jostled and shoulder-tackled by the people around her. She cursed and tried to keep Jason in her sights. If she tried to push her way through the crowd, then she would cause a scene, and that would make Jason turn around. So she just had to bear with the jostling and pushing until she could get through.
From the corner of his eyes, Jason glanced back at the woman who had been following him. Jason would have never noticed her if he was the same as he was two days ago, but his new superhuman senses along with his impressive ability to pick up any irregularities allowed him to see her easily.
She had been following him for a while now and Jason was moving faster to make sure that she would lose him in the crowd.
All around Jason, New York buzzed with constant activity. Businessmen and women on their phones, along with students, travelers, and other people passed him quickly as they all made their way through the subway.
Jason watched as a man who was on a phone call bumped into another woman and then cursed at her as he continued walking. The woman gave the man the middle finger and shouted a curse back at him.
Another man was lying on the bench in the subway with a newspaper over his head and a bottle of whiskey in his hand, and a third man was sitting really close and glancing at the bottle of whiskey like he wanted to steal it.
Jason chuckled.
'New York is still as crazy as I remember.'