One of the Guys.

If she really worked for supervillains as a contractor, then she’d know things I could use. And it seemed the most likely to speed up SP gain. Plus, with Andre on a fucking leash, money shouldn’t be a problem for anything I didn’t have to tie to myself. He could hardly pay my rent, but paying for Asa’s mom’s house to be torn down was fine…

She took almost an hour to get there. The walk through was quick and professional, but she kept asking questions about Arkham, most of which I answered. She doubted my story about Zsasz, so I asked if she wanted to see where he cut me. She said she did. “Say please.”

She laughed. “Please.” +4 SP (Jenna: -20)

I showed her the cut to my arm. “I’d show you the other one, but--”

“Come on, it’s just us guys.”

“What? No. I’m not dropping trou in public!”

“Chicken.”

I glared at her. “I will if you will!”

She smirked and dropped her pants without hesitation. +3 SP (Jenna -17). That revealed…boy shorts and unshaved legs. Strong legs, but also pretty hairy. That would be the first thing to change.

I shrugged and showed her the cut. She whistled. “Not bad, gonna leave a scar, dude.”

“Yeah, well, so are the crushed wrists I gave him.”

“Nice!” we high-fived.

After a while, she tried guiding it back to security measures and building design, but I brought us back around to the job. She gave me what was probably a really good ballpark estimate, given she clearly wanted to talk to me more to get more out of me. It was still more than I wanted to pay.

”C’mon, we can probably do most of this with those sledgehammers in your truck!”

“Yeah, but that won’t level the ground, or clear the jammed pipes.”

I grinned over at her, “Then tell you what, you and me both grab up a sledgehammer, see who clears the most, if I win then you’ll remove that bit from the bid and admit I’m stronger.”

“And when I win?”

“Name your terms.”

“You have to tell me about that gorgeous piece of architecture and admit I’m the strongest!”

“Deal. Shake on it,” I extended a hand and shook, crushing her hand in the classic bully’s ‘I’ve grabbed your fingers not your hand,’ and grinned at her, squeezing. “Ask me to let go.”

“Never!”

I squeezed.

“Never!”

“Gonna be real hard to win our bet with broken fingers.”

“Fuck! Fine, let me go!” +8 SP (Jenna -9)

I released her and grinned. This fucking trait…so close to positive.

We headed over to her truck. I let her choose her sledgehammer first, then insisted we swap, so she couldn’t get an unfair advantage from her knowledge of the sledgehammers. +2 SP (Jenna -7). Then we debated work gloves, finally arriving at a deal where she gave me a lift to a hardware store, and I bought matching gloves for both of us. +2 SP (Jenna -5). But that was as close as I could get.

The contest began.

AN: The votes on this were not for this one, but I think that's because of a lack of clarity on my part on Eli's current financial status/goals. He's personally not in great financial shape, but given his current influence, he could be a lot better very easily, for anything he needs and is willing to take cash for. And he has limited interest in a secret lair, as his best bet is hiding in plain sight as a mid-level guard, with only his girls knowing who he is...hopefully folks will find this route fun.