Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 28– Lightning Strikes.
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Walking out of the Daily Grind, I take a moment to button up my coat as it is pretty chilly today. And then I looked up, and I was at a loss for what to do. Not wanting to go home just yet, I picked a direction and decided to just walk since I had a lot on my mind. I had sorted through some stuff whilst just sitting in the shop after Jessica's outburst, but I needed a bit of a shake-up and to clear my head so that I could think properly. Not about whether or not I am going to try, because I have already decided on that, but how to do so.
Jessica's outburst about how well off I am compared to a lot of other people, including herself, actually stuck with me, and I realised I was lucky. I have been blessed with this new life in which I have powers, a genius mind and good looks, as well as nothing holding me back or constraining me from doing whatever it is I want to do. I have just been focusing on the bad when the world is really my oyster. I can be whoever I want and do whatever I want. Within reason, of course, there is still the law and superheroes around, not to mention supervillains.
So yeah, I want to go home and try and be... whatever it is that Felecia and I could be, but the question is how. How do I get on to that without it being out of the left field? I mean, I know we had a bit of a revelation when we were both hopped up on weed and high, but I can't rely on that. I mean, I know I meant at least some of what I said, but I have no idea if she actually meant it. And that's not even mentioning the plan to leave New York together.
Nope, don't do that, Ben. Don't think about that. Do not go down that road. You always get so caught up in your thoughts, fretting over saying the wrong thing and the possible consequences. You can deal with all of that shit when it needs dealing with, but for now, just focus on the moment. Just go home, and then go for it. Make your move, and just get it over with. You can't keep pussyfooting around it, and it is better to just get an answer now and deal with it than to continue letting it be an issue and distraction.
If she says yes, then we can deal with Fisk. And then we can give that crazy idea a go and move away from New York together. I mean, it wouldn't be much different to our living situation right now, except for the change in location. I have gotten used to living together with her, and it would be weird to go from that to being absolutely alone. And if she says no... Well, then she says no. And then I will just wait until it is properly confirmed that Wilson Fisk will not be bugging her anymore, and then I will be on my way.
Hell, I don't even have to stay in the same place s her and can move out and live somewhere else until the Fisk business is confirmed over since I made a commitment to help her out of it. I don't even know why we have stayed together for so long, moving from place to place and staying at fancy hotels together. There was really no need for us to do that, and I never actually thought about it, and Felecia never brought it up. So I guess it was comfortable.
"Scuse' me, dude. My bad." I only just managed to sidestep the guy running past me, so lost in my thoughts that only my instincts saved me from that dude almost running into me and spilling a strawberry milkshake and what seemed to be half a big mac on me. Now paying attention to my surroundings, I realise that I have walked into an unfamiliar part of the city that I don't really recognise. I mean, I don't recognise it from down here. If I was up above, then I would know where I am since I have many memories of traversing through the air all around New York, but not really at the street level.
After giving up on recognising my surroundings and not being willing to risk anyone seeing me get up high to figure it out, I decided to ask somebody for directions. Looking around, I forget that for a moment when I see all of the men and women nearby walking hand in hand. These happy, lovey-dovey couples walk hand in hand, just throwing their joy in people's faces. I want to do that as well. I contemplate going to the old woman nearby that is walking her dog, who looks like she wouldn't mind an interruption. However, my gaze ends up focusing on one couple that seems to be on a whole other level, their lovey-dovey aura pretty much overwhelming the surrounding area.
"I've been thinking... It's spring. There's summer in the air... Why don't we go off somewhere, just the two of us?" I hear the beautiful black-haired woman of the pair ask her rugged, handsome blonde other half. Though, she seems to do so hesitantly, as if she is expecting him to refuse outright when all she wants him to do is say yes. For some reason, my eyes are drawn to them, and I end up listening in on their conversation, not that I could even help it since I have enhanced senses. Maybe, because I want to see what a proper happy couple seems like, to reference for my own situation.
"Jane... You know I can't do that. My responsibilities are much too serious for me to take time off. I have just returned from... home. I can't leave again so soon. I would be letting my colleagues down." The man returns, though his refusal doesn't seem to ruin their relationship or diminish their love. They still walk arm in arm, and though the woman looks a little upset and frustrated, there is also understanding.
"Why not? Tony does this kind of thing all the time. Even worse stuff than going on a brief getaway, and he's your boss." The woman says, still trying to get him to agree. It is as if she wants to spend as much time as possible with him, scared that he will suddenly leave and she can never see him again. This level of desperation and worry is way too much. Is this what love is like?
"Hey! He is not my boss! I just leave all of the stupid stuff to him while I handle the real problems. It's called delegation. All kings do it." So the man says, his rugged, tough looks looking at odds with his suddenly goofy behaviours as he pulls a funny face and starts deflecting in an odd tone. Though, if anything, that just seems to make him seem better... some guys get all the luck.
"Come on, be serious! We have been apart for so long, I don't want to share you with anyone. When I think how I almost died- without seeing you again..." She says, clutching him even tighter. Oh, shit, it seems like some serious shit must have happened if she nearly died, and he wasn't even there. Man, she must really love him because I think some people would be angry to have nearly died, and their boyfriend wasn't even around. I don't know what this guy is doing, but it seems to be working.
*Wee Woo Wee Woo Wee Woo*
I hear the sounds behind me, and I look back at the suddenness of it. I was so focused on eavesdropping on the couple that I didn't even notice the grating sounds of a police siren speeding towards me until it was nearly on top of me. I berate myself for forgetting my surroundings and look up to try and refocus on my surroundings. Note to self, enhanced hearing is so enhanced that it can block out other noises and focus purely on one thing, which can be just as much of a flaw as it is a benefit. Turning around, I spot a dark purple sedan speeding down the road towards me without a roof.
"C'mon, C'mon! The fuzz-mobile is gainin' on us, ya creep!" The man dressed a bit too smartly to be just an ordinary thug shouts to his compatriot from the back seat. He punctuates his words by turning around and leaning on the back of the car to start firing a pistol back at the police car chasing after them. No doubt these guys have done a big crime because they are dressed too nicely for them to be small time, and the police car is right on their tail, and I can hear more in the distance getting closer.
"Keep this hunk of junk movin' before those cops catch up, and we start fightin' fer real!" The bossy one says, still aiming back and firing his pistol at his pursuers. The chase is now close enough to me, and since I am at a street corner, the driver has the chance to stay true and carry on forward or to turn left or right to try and lose their tail. The driver seems to have a problem with indecision as he is already at the intersection and halfway through before quickly making his mind up and skidding to the left, rounding the street corner I am at.
Unfortunately, the driver's bad quick time event affected the aim of his shooting compatriot. Because of the car's sudden movement, the still-firing criminal was unprepared, and his hand uncontrollably jolted to the side, aiming at the streetwalk and- My body moves on instinct, and I quickly grab the old woman, shoving her forward to save her from a nasty injury. The bullet narrowly skirts by her arm and embeds itself in the brick wall beside us while I try and figure out why the hell I just moved like that when with my brain, I could see the trajectory and knew it would just graze her.
"Ooooohhh- Foofi, look out!"The woman cries as she stumbles forward, calling for her dog first before even caring about herself. She must be a massive dog person or a very lonely woman, as I can tell that she cares more about her dog getting injured than if she were to get hurt. The sirens and gunshots seemed to have freaked out the dog, and it was going crazy, being the case for the old lady's poor balance.
I realise that the woman had lost hold of her leash in the fall, and knowing I would be lambasted if her dog ran away, I quickly reach out and grab hold of the leash for the brown dog. Unfortunately, the woman turns out to be more unstable than I thought as she topples to the ground, and I am left holding the leash of her dog. Somehow, I think she would much prefer this to her dog running off.
"That woman, she's been hit by a stray bullet!" Then, I heard someone scream behind me, obviously getting the wrong idea since they saw the bullet was fired in this direction, and my back was blocking their view, and now the old woman was on the ground. Then, I hear someone rush over, and the black-haired woman I was listening in on earlier quickly skirts by me and slides to her knees as she quickly begins to check over the old woman who is face-first on the ground.
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"I think she's just been grazed. She'll be fine. I can handle this. You have to go, quick! They are still around here, firing that gun off in every which direction. Other people are going to get hurt. You have to go!" I panic a bit when her eyes shoot in my direction, and she begins to say all that, and I worry for a moment that she is a mind reader or something, and she knows something before I hear a response from behind me.
"Alright then, I am going then, Jane. Be safe." I hear behind me, coming to the conclusion that it is obviously the person Jane was talking to before. And then I see her muscly blonde boyfriend run past me without a moment to lose, and for a moment, I think maybe he is some kind of policeman and is pursuing the criminals. At least I did before he took a sharp left and sprinted into an alleyway, avoiding the whole situation altogether.
I stand there, flabbergasted, just holding onto the leash and looking on in shock. This motherfucker! He actually just abandoned his girlfriend and just fucking ran off to save his own skin, the absolute prick. And what is even fucking worse than that is the fact that his girlfriend told him to do it. She cared more about his safety than anything and told him to go and run away, and he listened. This is a good woman, and he doesn't deserve her, the piece of shit. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with... him.
I stand there flabbergasted, just holding onto the leash and looking on in shock as fucking Thor flies out of the alley, Mjolnir fuck spinning in his hand and propelling him forward at an intense speed. He is a fucking blur, and I only just manage to catch sight of him as he goes by, my eyesight being good enough to see him properly when others would see nothing at all. Finally, he lands on the sidewalk next to a street lamp and brings his hand back.
"Yonder villains doth run a rampage through this city! Methinks they must be stopped quickly-" He says in his old-timey god-speaking way, and then he lurches forward onto his forward foot and throws his hammer with all his might. "-and my mallet Mjolnir may well do the deed!"
And then, faster than the eye can blink, his hammer, Mjolnir, blasts forward and speeds forward through the air and as if teleporting, it suddenly appears next to the speeding purple sedan, and then it darts to the right and smashes through both of the cars front wheels, completely demolishing and pushing the tires out.
"The axle! What happened to the-" The car quickly skids out of control and spins to the right, crashing into a brick wall, and with a big bang, the vehicle comes to a stop, the front of the car absolutely squished against the bricks. Luckily, the car did not have a roof, and all three criminals were thrown out of the vehicle, which was good for the two fellows who were upfront, or their legs would have been crushed.
"Thor! It was Thor! 'Cause of him, we crashed into the fucking wall!" The former driver says, not really realising his situation and quickly finding the reason for their crash so his pals don't end up blaming him. The guy points, and that is when I notice that Thor has already moved and stands before them all.
"Damn it! 'Cause of him, we gotta fight the cops!" These guys are obviously fucking stupid because they, for some reason, think their biggest problem now is the cops and not the mighty over-six-foot Norse god that stands before them. As if to prove that they are dumber than a bag of rocks, they whip out their pistols and their one revolvers and start firing at Thor, expecting their bullets to have an effect for some reason.
"Ya creep! Ya, filthy creep! You're gonna get it, pal! You're gonna be a Swiss cheese!"These guys are genuinely idiotic, not just with their actions but with their words as well. Are they part of an old-time mafia gang or something? Why are they speaking so weirdly? Thor, as casual as you would like, just starts to spin his hammer around with a single hand, and all the bullets end up flattening against the magical Uru metal, and the few that slip through the middle where the handle is hit his chest plate and flatten against that. No bullets at all were allowed to deflect or spring off to places unknown.
"Okay, pal, okay. So you're pretty swift with that hammer. So you can bounce bullets by just swingin' that mallet. So, okay. I ain't no superhero, but I wuz a contender for the heavyweight title just a few years ago-" One particularly stupid-looking fucker starts to monologue after seeing the literal god use his big hammer as a fidget spinner and begins to advance towards Thor as if his fists can do the job that bullets couldn't.
"-and that makes me a YEEEEEOOOWW!" He screams as Thor lifts him high overhead with a single hand, making the idiot parallel with the ground. I hate to use the R-word, but I really can't think of another word to adequately describe this moron because he definitely has a few chromosomes missing. I mean, he thought he could take on Thor. The idiot actually pointed it out and said his name earlier, clearly aware of who he is and what he is capable of, and yet he ran at him anyway.
"No! Hey, listen- No! Don't do that! Don't-!" The criminal starts to panic as he realises exactly what it is that Thor is planning to do, and looking at how he has positioned him, I can figure it out as well. My opinion of the thug is worsening every second because he can very easily change his positioning and prevent Thor's plan, but he doesn't.
Thor throws the man forward feet first, and he travels through the air still parallel to the ground and slams feet first into his two buddies. His left foot and his right foot each slam into a face, and all three of the criminals topple to the ground in a pile, defeated.
"Did I just see what I think I just saw? I mean, did you really do that?" By this point, the pursuing cops had pulled up in their car and ran towards the commotion, though all they had to do now was arrest the defeated criminals. One cop, seeing what just happened, cannot believe his eyes.
"Dost thou doubt the evidence of thine eyes, mortal?" Thor responds, glaring down at the dazed group of thugs. Again he says it in that royal-like old-timey language, his handsome royal features making him seem a bit above the masses and hard to talk to.
"No- I mean, yeah- I mean-. Heck, that was the most incredible thing I've ever seen! And you did it all in a minute! A crummy sixty seconds!" The police officer says in awe, though I think deep down he is feeling a bit despondent in how useless he was and how much he did not matter in the equation, as his job was done quickly by someone else.
"'Twould have been done with greater speed... But in truth, my mind was on other things." Thor says, looking over in my direction at Jane and the old lady who was now sitting on the ground, Jane holding her still. Obviously, he is talking about the old woman who he thinks was injured by the bullet, but all she probably has is maybe a bit of a bruised hip from falling onto the ground. Otherwise, she is perfectly fine.
Though clearly, Jane doesn't seem to think so, as she is treating the old woman like she is made of glass. Actually, now that I look at her, she is holding a glass of water and helping the old woman to drink it as she holds her with the other arm. First of all, where the hell did she just get a glass cup of water from, and why is the old woman acting like she is dying. Overexaggeraters, the both of them.
"What do you do with a guy like that, Abercrombe?" The cops start to converse. Meanwhile, I am having a bit of a crisis as I see Thor come towards us, and I have a quick realisation. This man is the same man that had just run into the alley, and he came out as a Norse god. Before, he was talking like a typical American guy, and now he is talking entirely differently, so I surmise that he is playing it up for the public to have a bit of a normal life, and I can guess the reason. The reason is the pretty woman kneeling on the ground next to me, who is called Jane.
"You thank your lucky stars he's on our side, Finch." Of course, having knowledge of the MCU, I can guess that the woman is actually Jane Foster, and going off of that, I can suddenly make out a lot of what they meant in their conversation earlier. When he talked about home and him being away, he was talking about Asgard. When he mentioned his colleagues, he was talking about the goddamn Avengers. And when Jane was talking about his boss Tony being worse than him, she was talking about Tony fucking Stark, Iron Man.
"A guy with power like that could rip this city apart. And not even end up breathing hard." Now some people would be over the moon to meet someone like Thor, but I am not like most people. I am freaking the fuck out. I was just fucking walking down a normal New York street, and I bumped into Thor motherfucking Odinson out of the blue. Now, Thor is a friendly superhero, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that he has the power to level the entirety of New York. I just met someone that powerful, and all I was doing was walking down the street.
That is not the only reason I am freaking the fuck out because my Spider-Sense is going freaking haywire. And it is not the fucking god that is Thor that is setting it off because it would have done so the moment I saw him. No, something else is setting it off, something just as, if not more powerful than Thor. My Spider-Sense is telling me that whoever this person is can crush me like a bug, and my Spider-Sense is blaring so much that I can't pinpoint where it is coming from.
"My friend, are you healthy? It was a brave thing for a powerless mortal like you to do, to put your own vulnerable vessel on the line for another." I am brought out of my panic when I hear those words, and I look up to find Thor in front of me, looking at me with concern. I suppose they did see me push the woman out of the way, and as is his duty as a hero, he is checking on me now.
"Yeah, just fine. Here, take this. It was great meeting you. Bye." I say, shoving the leash for the dog at him and then turning around, not wasting time to see if he takes it and then I am off. I walk away quickly, heading for home, no longer wanting to be here. I want to go home. I want to see Felecia.
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"What's wrong with him?" Jane asks, watching the odd brave young man quickly hand over the dog and then rush off in the other direction, away from them all.
"He has realised his mortality," Thor replies, watching the young man rush away with a wry smile.
"His mortality?" Jane responds, confused on the matter.
"Aye, his mortality. I have seen it before across the ages. Being suddenly faced with the reality of how short and fragile their lives are. They panic and start to fear for their lives. Haunted by the experience." Thor says, turning away and looking down at the dog to which he now holds the leash.
"So he is scared? You should go bring him back then. He needs to get some help if this is going to traumatise him." Jane, the good person she is, quickly tries to find him help since she thinks he needs it.
"Well, that is merely one reaction. Not at all what our young friend there is experiencing." Thor says, remembering a time when he, too, was so young and inexperienced, and he also had the same reaction.
"What?" Jane still does not understand the normal biological reaction to such a situation.
"When faced with their own mortality and realisation of how short their life is and how easily it can be taken away, sometimes a natural biological reaction occurs. A ticking clock of evolution. All living things feel the need to reproduce and carry on their lineage, and this is enhanced when their own end is thrown in their face." Thor replies, smiling at the notion.
"Oh. Oh." Jane says, finally getting it.
"Yes, I believe our young friend is currently on his way to ensure his progeny... I do believe that my own life had flashed before mine own eyes moments ago. Perhaps I should also ensure my own line?" Thor says, smiling roguishly down at Jane.
"Shut up, Thor." Jane says, blushing. Thor throws back his head and bellows a laugh in response. Unaware of the immense threat lurking close by, watching, waiting. Readying itself.