Chapter 15 Res Ipsa Part 5

Later on, Noa, Jen, and I sat together watching the Little Mermaid. When we got to the scene where Ariel signed the contract, I could practically feel the distaste from the lawyers at my sides.

"Bad?"

"VERY bad," Jen agreed immediately. She'd changed into a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. Simple clothes, so of course she looked supermodel hot.

Reminding myself not to look when I was dating a version of her was a test in willpower I barely passed.

"I mean, she barely negotiated! She hasn't had anyone look at the contract with any sort of experience. Hell, she already knows what happens to people who make deals with this witch! They turn into squidgy guys!"

She waggled her fingers as she said 'squidgy', mimicking their movements. "Seriously, I love this movie, but goddamn does this girl need help."

"I didn't get to see it in theaters," Noa mumbled, hugging a throw pillow to her chest.

"Too busy?" I asked idly. "I know lawyers get into some long hours."

"Way too busy," she groused.

As I spoke, I looked at the omnitrix and brought up the holoscreen, the small light drawing Noaverse Jen's eye. "What's that?"

"Warehouse I visited," I said simply, reading the report. "So, what kept you from watching one of the best Disney movies in theaters? Classes or work?"

Jen read along with me while Noa explained how she wound up working a case that was big enough it shut down sports for months.

"And when she says sports, she means even the Super Bowl got delayed," Jen added.

"The SUPER BOWL!?" I asked, genuinely shocked. If you aren't American, that's the equivalent to shutting down the final game of the World Cup. "What sport were you involved in that shut down every other sport? Was Michael Jordan accused of being a mutant?"

The police had arrived at the warehouse. I watched through a camera as they walked in, but was mostly paying attention to Noa.

"Winner of the US Open got accused of being a mutant," she said. "… the tennis one, not golf."

"Thank god. I'd have rioted if I found out golf of all things shut down all other sports… wait, what about hockey!?"

"Stanley Cup playoffs were delayed. I got to see a playoff game on my birthday!" And now her tail was wagging. God, that was adorable.

"Awesome sauce. Who was playi- Oh, sorry, hold on, I need to check in on this."

"What is that, anyways?" Jen asked as I leaned forward.

"Sex trafficking ring. I went in as Diamondhead and shut it down."

Noa hopped off the couch and pressed pause on the VCR. "Do we need to call the FBI?"

"Cops are called already. Officers are moving in to clear the scene, all the relevant authorities are being informed, and I'm gonna work on getting the girls and guys who were brought in… um," I glanced up at the two lawyers sitting with me. "Oh my, it seems the people who were illegally brought into the country have mysteriously disappeared. Such a shame."

Jen snorted, crossing her arms. "Yeah, you probably shouldn't have said that next to a prosecutor."

"Okay, but is any jury going to believe he did all that from here?" Noa interjected. "He has two lawyers as his eyewitnesses, saying he was sitting on a couch the whole time. And it's not like either of us could explain how he did it."

"… fair." Jen leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs. "Still don't like it."

On instinct, I went to pull her in for a hug, only to realize what I was doing and pulling back, getting a smirk. Goddamn it, I miss my hot girlfriend!

Jen's smirk just grew bigger, followed by a wink. God damn it, did she know?… stupid fourth wall breakers.

"Jen, stop eyefucking the other dimensional guest on my sofa," Noa said with a glare from over by the TV.

"Fine, fine! I'll just take him back to my hotel later."

I coughed, trying to focus on the screen and not the temptation in gamma form next to me.

The cameras I'd taken over thanks to Upgrade continued to stream footage. Crappy footage. Even with Upgrade improving the tech, it was all very primitive. The inside of the warehouse was almost destroyed. I'd removed the diamonds (Didn't need another Blood Diamond situation) but holes still covered the place.

So did bodies. I didn't kill them in order to avoid complicating things for the cops even further. But fucking hell it was tempting. They were tied up in steel girders, pipes, and more. The leader of them had a bucket placed on his head, filth pouring down over his shirt.

On the floor in the center was as much evidence as I could find, all useful for FBI, CIA, Interpol, all that good stuff, with enough opium to make 1839 Britain nervous.

"All right, nice routine finish," I said at last, sighing. "Seriously, every time I shut one of these down it's somehow both horrifying and oddly boring in the worst ways. You guys get days like that," I looked over at them. "Lawyer stuff that is important, but you've done it enough that it's more boring than sad or scary?"

"Yes," both women answered.

Thank god, I'm not a heartless monster. Just jaded.

"No, I'm jade, you've just been at this for a while," Jen quipped.

"..." Fourth wall is very tattered nowadays.

"Anywho," I put away the screen and waved at the VCR. "Let's finish the movie. We all gotta sleep early for tomorrow's meeting, right? Unless you've retracted the 'no' on me flying you there at superspeed?" I asked Noa.

"Not a chance," she said, voice flat. Then she pressed play on the VCR, hopped back into her armchair, and wrapped herself up in a blanket with just the end of her tail sticking out.

"You're adorable," Jen and I said in unison, grinning at her.

"So my girlfriend tells me," she said. "Now shush, stop talking over the movie."

All in all it was a quiet and cute night. Until, you know. The girls fell asleep.

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Before I left Noa's dimension, I had to deal with someone.

I headed to the rooftop and stood for a moment, looking out over New York City. I pressed on the Omnitrix, shifting in a flash of light.

"Sandrass," I mumbled quietly out of habit. I looked down at myself. Seriously, if Jen thought my normal form was buff, this version would give her a heart attack.

With that humorous thought, I focused. I could feel it now. Sand. The connection wasn't perfect. While I controlled sand, I was in truth the Asgardian of Change at heart.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Thankfully, I was in a city. If there was anywhere that was forever in motion, it was New York City, and I could pull power from that. Sand from across the city flew towards me, flowing like air to spin around me. Through that strange sense of awareness, I could feel my target. He was in a warehouse, at the edge of town. And as I felt him, he felt me.

Rising up onto a cloud of sand, I zipped across the city, the lights of the city below me highlighting me as I flew, the sword Ares had gifted me bouncing at my hip.

My target must have thought of running. But instead, he waited after a hesitant moment. The closer I got, the tighter the connection felt. I flowed down on the sands towards an open window on the rooftop, landing on a concrete floor below.

"...Hello Flint."

He stepped out of the shadows, a prominent scowl on his face, that familiar striped green shirt on his chest. One of his hands had shifted into a bowling ball sized mace of spikes, held at the ready. "Who… what are you?"

"Dial. I helped Spider-Man fight you guys," I tapped the Omnitrix on my hip meaningfully.

He raised his fist more menacingly. Hesitated. I knew he could feel me. Through whatever mental link gave him control over all sand, he could sense me as well. "You… aren't here to fight."

"Not unless you want to spar, I guess. Can I sit?" Without waiting for a response, I moved over to a set of pallets, kicking some away with the casual strength of an Asgadian before plopping myself down. "I just want to chat."

"Why?" Flint snarled. He approached me, still scowling. "And what the hell is… this?"

"The connection between us?"

"What kind of homo bullshit is that!?" He scowled further.

"First, I know it's the nineties, but tone down the homophobia man," the hardened fugitive from the law just glared at me, so I moved on. "Second, I'm an Asgardian in this form. Like Thor. And my domain includes the sands."

"Thor. Like a God."

"Well, little g." I said quickly. "And as a part of that, I can sort of… link, with you. And because of that, I gotta say man. You are wasting your potential."

He clearly hadn't expected that. The man hesitantly sat across from me. "So what? You my parole officer? Gonna try and rehabilitate me? You know how often I've heard this speech?"

"How often have you heard it since you got superpowers?" I leaned forward, meeting eyes with him. "Flint. You have a level of power that can make you an Avenger. You were robbing banks. You could be boxing with gods."

"Like you?" He smirked, an ugly look on his blocklike face.

I waved a hand and stopped the tendril of sand he had been sending towards my back. For a moment, our control of the sand struggled. A lot.

I could control sand. But I was a very young Asgardian, and it wasn't my true domain. It was Flint's. Even with all my power, Flint Marko was a man who had the potential to survive the heat-death of the universe, to turn entire planets worth of sand into his domain.

Seriously, what was it about Peter that all his villains were fucking ridiculous?

I struggled to hold onto control, but kept my face from showing it. Bluff, bluff for your life, Dial.

"Enough," I narrowed my eyes at Flint, who flinched. He looked shocked at feeling his control over his sand pulled away from him. Hopefully enough not to realize he had a stronger claim than I did. "I came to talk. And I'm serious."

Flint relented, lowering the sand. I gave control back to him gratefully, returning to the conversation. "Even if you don't want to be an Avenger, you could be making massive amounts of money with your powers. Screw going legit. You could turn this sand thing into a whole enterprise. One week of work would leave you on easy street, legally, without needing to fight Spider-Man."

"I want to fight Spider-Man," He scowled.

"What, to play Goliath to his David?" I grunted. "Flint, Spider-Man just wants to protect people. You really going to spend the rest of your life trying to beat up a man who would kill himself to protect innocent people? Children?"

"He's a punk!"

I rested my head in my hand, staring at him. He seemed to realize on his own how petty that sounded, but he just glared back at me, crossing those massive arms of his.

"Well… I can't force you to find a better path," I rose up.

"You gonna take me in?" He asked, rising up as well.

"No. Just think on what I said, man," I stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. For a moment, our minds were more connected than before. I tried my best to use that. To send him some semblance of how I felt, that I meant it, the hope I had for him.

"Some of my best friends were thugs, bruisers, and killers. They found happiness in a better path. I found happiness that way."

Flint shrugged off my arm, but I could still feel I was having an effect. I continued. "Look. William."

He stiffened at the sound of his name. His real name, the one he pulled away from. He looked at me, eyes haunted. For a moment, just a moment, the Sandman seemed just a bit more flesh than he was before. "You've got the power to gain everything you ever wanted, without worrying about going to jail. There's a hundred mercenary outfits, hero groups, that kind of thing, that'll happily pay to have a powerhouse like you. So you can build a safe life for your daughters-"

I cut myself off, realizing what I was saying to late. "Uh, I mean-"

"Daughters?" Flint asked, shocked.

"Spoilers," I snapped out. Goddamn me and my big ass mouth. "Just, think about it man. Hell, reach out to Silver Sable, she'll take you on if you're honest."

I removed my hand from his shoulder and stepped back. "All right. I'm going to head out. Think it over, all right."

"..." Flint's skin faded into chunks of sand, then grains. Slowly, he drifted off on wind that didn't exist, floating away. The last part of him to go was his eyes. They searched me for a moment. Then they drifted away.

"...That was pretty fucking cool," I mumbled. I looked out into the city, thinking. I was still pretty awake.

"Well. New York can always use more protectors."

With that, I leapt up and out of the roof, flying out into the city to give heart attacks to its criminals, even as I felt Flint Marko disappear.

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