Gratitude before tragedy...psych!

[Hmmm. It appears my first user is more driven by his heart than his head. Let's see if this pans out for him.]

…

'Ah hell, why the fuck did I do that?' SK mentally lamented as he continued to lead Rachel away from the fortune-teller shop and the boba shop right next to it.

Their original plan was to get boba after the fortune-telling, but with the way everything went down in there no less than five minutes ago, getting liquid sugar was the last thing on their minds.

"Hey."

"Huh?"

Eventually, SK came to a sudden stop because Rachel had decided now was the time to stop. She signaled by fully stopping her stride.

"I'm guessing you're upset that I put a stop to your vid-"

"Thanks for doing that."

"Huh?"

SK was fully expecting to get scolded for interjecting how he did and ruining Rachel's video, so he was a touch flabbergasted when she offered gratitude instead.

"Uh... you're welcome?"

"You don't know why I'm thanking you, do you?"

"Not in the slightest, no."

At this honest admission, Rachel let out a small laugh.

"Just like in college, always acting before realizing why," Rachel quietly mumbled in a pleased tone of voice.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing," Rachel answered. "I was just thanking you for defending my channel.

"Oh. Well," SK trailed off while leaning his head off to the side for a moment before correcting his posture. "I know you put in a hell of a lot of work into it, and I would hate to have some crazy fortune-teller convince you to throw it all the way for something so... uncertain."

"Right, you hate gambling," Rachel nodded.

"Yup."

"Yet you love gacha games and collecting booster packs."

"...that's why I hate gambling."

"Fair enough."

This lighthearted conversation did much to defuse the tense atmosphere that had plagued the young duo just moments ago. Unfortunately, it came with one unfortunate side effect.

Groaaa

"Ah."

It made them hungry.

"I just remembered that we skipped breakfast to get over here, huh?" SK realized as he rubbed his belly in discomfort.

"Well, I didn't want to risk there being a line at the fortune-teller's shop," Rachel defended herself. "Come on, I think there's a ramen place near here that would make an excellent video concept."

"How so?"

"They're one of the few places that do fish-head ramen."

"Really?"

With their minds now focused on food, SK and Rachel began to walk through the streets of Japantown, all while blissfully unaware that something was stalking them.

"Oh, hand me the gimbal and my phone. I'm going to record the walk to the ramen place."

…

'And there are the magic words,' Gamble chuckled as soon as he saw his target take the gimbal and start recording herself. 'Now then, what kind of accident would be the most appropriate... Ah! A true classic.'

…

Aside from the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most iconic things to see in the city of San Francisco were the Cable Cars, one of the last manually operated cable car systems in all of existence.

Using these cable cars, one can go all over San Francisco in a reasonable time frame at a more than reasonable price. And as an added bonus, one wouldn't have to worry about parking.

However, these cable cars weren't without faults.

Out of all the mass transportation systems in the US, cable cars were responsible for most of them.

Due to the age and scarcity of these cable cars, finding the parts necessary to repair and maintain them makes for quite the herculean task.

For example, the cable car connecting Japantown was notoriously old, with its brake system being about ten years out of date. Luckily, the car was set for a tune-up bright and early tomorrow morning.

But today, the cable car was still in operation and was just about to brake on top of a hill overlooking Japantown's center.

And it was the perfect place for a gremlin to cause some mischief.

"Attention! Attention! We will be approaching Japantown in ten minutes. Please make sure to bring all of your belongings, or they will be stolen by elves that live under the seats," the cable car operator said in jest over a loudspeaker, unaware that a strange being made of electricity and magic had snuck into the car via the electrical wiring of the rails.

'No elves in these seats, just me. Gamble!,' the bright blue gremlin mentally laughed as he began to travel the car's wiring.

In the 20th century, humanity invented a modern-day fairy known as the gremlin. These creatures were used as the scapegoat for airplane malfunctions.

However, in more modern times, they have long since been believed to cause electrical issues in general.

From computer glitches to phones suddenly going black to whole smart cars suddenly slamming into a whale, gremlins had gone from a mild nuisance to a modern issue.

And in this modern era, it is very easy for any old gremlin to mess with an electrical system that was younger than them.

'Time to go for a ride!' Gamble exclaimed before using their abilities to break the cable car's brake system.

"Huh? Hey, wait!"

Unfortunately(?), he had done so while no one was operating the vehicle.

Watching from a nearby lamp post after releasing the brakes, Gamble had a mildly annoyed expression on his little face.

'Oh well, I guess we'll just physically traumatize one person instead of many people... at least the resulting emotional trauma will be worth it!'

…

"What's up, everybody? Rey-Rey here with a special bonus video! " Rachel exclaimed as she held the gimbal and phone in selfie mode.

With a professional smile and a cheerful demeanor, Rachel appeared to have completely expelled the malaise that was caused by the fortune-teller just moments ago. This, in turn, caused her to run ahead of SK, so that they could get some better angles and lighting for her video.

Seeing his friend act in this way, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

'Man, I wish I could just bounce back after a bad day like,' SKKRRRTTTT'—what the shit?'

Right when SK and Rachel were about to cross a street via a crosswalk, the sound of metal scrapping against metal and concrete ripped through the air and grabbed the former's attention.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Barrelling towards the crosswalk and jumping off the crest of a hill two blocks away from the crosswalk was a wild cable car. 

While SK wasn't sure why this empty cable car wasn't properly parked, he was certain about one thing.

In a couple of moments, his friend Rachel was about to be splattered by the cable car.

When Rachel had walked ahead of SK earlier to keep recording her video, she had unknowingly walked right into the middle of the crosswalk when the runaway cable car had just cleared the first hill.

"Huh? AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It took her far too long to realize the danger she was in and far too long to realize what she had to do to escape this situation.

But...this was the perfect time for a hero to come and save the day.

"RACHEL!" SK shouted as he ran ahead to try and knock her out of the way, only to realize that he wasn't going to make it in time. However, this was also when the Superhero System decided to remind him that he had a better option.

[You have a hero in your pocket. Summon him!]

"RIGHT!"

Heeding the System's words, SK drew the card he had stuffed in his pocket earlier and instinctively threw it in Rachel's direction. As the card flew forward, it began to glow with a silver and blue light.

"Do not fear my liege!" SK heard Platiknight say in his mind. "It's time for a platinum rescue!"

As soon as these words were said, the card had fully transformed into a charging Platiknight.

...

"Holy shit!"

"Runaway car!"

"Hey girlie, get out of the way!"

Many people had noticed the runaway cable car as it started rolling down the hill and made sure to get out of the way before anything terrible happened to them. Unfortunately, this didn't apply to everybody.

'Oh, I'm going to die here,' Rachel thought to herself as a wild cablecar came barreling towards her. 'Just like that crazy fortune-teller said!'

In this exact moment, Rachel felt as if the universe was playing a rather cruel trick on her.

Just because she didn't want to listen to a fortune-teller and delete what was essentially her life's work, she was now going to pay the ultimate pr-

"Platinum Aegis, deploy!"

"What?!"

Moments before she was going to get turned into a pancake, a literal knight in shining armor suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a giant shield that shined like platinum and intercepted the cable car before it could make impact.

"Fear not, milady! I shall make sure no harm shall befall you!"

But Platiknight didn't simply block the cable car with his shield. Instead, he went above and beyond...at SK's instructions.