I woke up feeling content.
Which was weird because I wasn't usually a morning person. Days, where I wake up happy and content, are so rare I could count them on one hand and have fingers to spare.
This turned out to be one of those rare days.
A small part of me wondered if it had anything to do with the petite shape lying next to me. I drew her body closer into my embrace and nuzzled deeper into her hair.
'Wait, what?'
'I don't remember getting lucky yesterday.'
I opened my eyes in a half glare and was greeted with a familiar head of raven black hair.
Seeing that head of hair brought everything back. Memories of me dying, being reborn in marvel, getting powers, and meeting Laura splashed over me like ice-cold water. And just like that, I was wide awake.
As I was thinking about all that, I distantly noted that my right hand was under Laura's shirt, slowly stroking the figure 8 on her hip.
Hearing something, I leaned my head back to see what was making that sound.
Laura's hands were balled in my shirt, and her face was pressed in my chest, quietly sniffing. At first, I thought she was crying, but then I noticed that she was taking slow, deep breaths.
She was smelling me...which was better, I guess?
Feeling me move, Laura stopped and peered up at me. I expected her to be flustered from getting caught smelling me, but nope. Her green eyes were clear of any embarrassment or shame as she looked at me.
Taking her clothes off in front of a stranger and getting caught smelling that same stranger doesn't faze her a bit, but call her beautiful and her face becomes a tomato.
What a strange girl.
"Blue," Laura said suddenly, distracting me from her lack of shame.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Your eyes, they were green before. They are blue now," Laura stated, staring deeply into my eyes.
"Oh that. It's a quirk of my power, like my transformation."
Laura hummed at that piece of information before looking down at my hand, the hand that was still stroking her hip.
Again, instead of doing the normal thing and asking me to let go of her hip, she snuggled deeper into my chest and closed her eyes.
We lazed in companionable silence for a few more minutes before Laura's stomach growled to let us know it was time to wake up. She wrinkled her nose in irritation before begrudgingly getting out of my embrace.
It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. It was hard to believe that this 5 foot nothing, 110 lbs girl had killed 6 ninjas belonging to a secret immortal organization just last night.
"Hungry?" I asked unnecessarily.
Sitting up, Laura nodded nonetheless. Following her example, I sat up and peered at my alarm clock for the time, only to find it sliced into three even pieces.
That explains the lack of blaring alarm waking me up for school.
I gave Laura a deadpan look, "really?"
Laura stared back at me unashamed and unapologetic, "it was loud and disturbing my sleep."
Why does it feel like I took in a stray cat?
I sighed. I couldn't really blame her. God knows I broke more than a few annoying alarm clocks that tried to wake me up after a late night.
"Go get ready. We will get breakfast at a diner," I paused, "unless you want to share a shower, to help save the environment and all that." I wiggled my eyebrows up and down.
This time it was her turn to give me a dry look.
"Is that a no?" I called after her.
She replied by closing the door in my face.
I unlocked my luckily unharmed phone and checked the time. It was almost noon, which didn't come as a big surprise to me. We did go to sleep well past 4 in the morning, after all.
There was no point in going to school this late on a Friday, not that I was planning to, at least not yet. Sadly I can't just drop out of school without getting into all sorts of problems I sure as hell don't want to deal with.
15 minutes later, a freshly showered Laura reentered the room with a towel wrapped around her naked form. Strolling up to my closet, I searched around for some old sweatpants and a shirt that fit her petite form.
"If you are going to stay with me, we need to buy you some new clothes." I said as I handed her the clothes, "It is regrettably frowned upon for a girl to walk around the city in ill-fitting clothes without any underwear underneath."
Laura dropped her towel and started dressing like I wasn't standing in front of her, getting the show of my life.
'This girl has absolutely no modesty.'
The X-23 from the comics didn't really understand how normal people interacted with each other. Having been raised by the Facility as a weapon her whole life, she didn't see a problem with being naked in front of other people.
I guess it is the same for the Laura of this world. She simply doesn't see anything wrong in being naked in front of me...not that I was complaining.
Done taking my own shower and dressing in front of a weirdly curious Laura, I catch a glimpse of the trash bag filled with Laura's bloodied clothes that I threw in the corner last night.
"Do you need anything from inside there?" I pointed to the trash bag.
Laura thought about it for a moment before shaking her head, no.
Making a connection with my core, which had broken sometime last night(another thing to train), I make a finger gun and concentrate ecto-energy on my index finger before shooting a ghost ray at the trash bag with incinerating it in mind.
Just like I had pictured it, the ghost ray incinerated the trash bag and its contents, leaving nothing except ashes behind.
No need to leave incriminating evidence lying around, even if it's mostly Laura's blood.
"let's go," I said, lifting my backpack full of ill-gotten spoils.
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(Paul's Diner)
Paul's diner was a dump, but it was a good dump. It was one of those diners that only the locals visited because we were the only ones who could look past its shabby outer appearance.
I, that is to say, the original Damien was a regular here. It had everything he loved in a diner, the food was cheap, everything was cooked in way too much butter, and the waitress minded her own business.
Laura and I chose a booth in the back, away from all the regulars that never seemed to leave. As soon as we sat down, Sarah, a 30 something woman and the only waitress that worked in the diner, came over to take our orders.
Seeing that Laura was still looking over the menu, she turned to me first, "the usual?"
I nodded my head.
Damien's usual order was toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, and a mountain of bacon. Absolute perfection.
"And what about you, sugar?" She asked Laura.
"Order whatever you want, it's my treat," I told her as she looked at me for instructions.
Whatever she wanted turned out to be enough to feed a small starving family of 4.
Sarah's eyebrows climbed to her hairline before turning to me, her eyes asking if I was going to stop Laura from ordering her weight in food.
When I stayed quiet, she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to Laura, "do you want anything to drink with that?"
Laura's eyes roamed the drinks section of the menu. She must have seen something she really liked because her whole demeanor became giddy, "chocolate milkshake!"
"Your orders might take a while," Sarah commented before retreating to the kitchen to tell Paul, the cook, our orders.
"Someone is a fan of chocolate milkshakes," I teased.
"I have never had one before," she confessed softly, "It was my mother's favorite drink. I promised myself to try one if I ever got the chance," Laura's voice trailed off as she got lost in her memories.
My good mood evaporated slightly. Here was a girl the same age as me, who has lived her whole life without having ever enjoyed the things I took for granted. Reading it into a comic book is one thing, but seeing it in real life was a hell of a wake-up call for the kind of world I had found myself in.
"So, why is The Hand after you?" I asked her after a while.
Laura's opinion of me must have improved overnight because she answered me this time instead of keeping me hanging like last night.
"They are not," Seeing the confused look on my face. Laura clarified, "The Hand isn't after me. I am after them."
Laura stared out the window at the busy New York streets, "I am searching for someone." Her claws slowly ejected from her hands before she noticed and resheathed them. I am going to guess that she wasn't planning to hug this person when she found them.
"My only clue to where he could be is his dealings with The Hand. I know that they have a base somewhere in New York but I don't know where." She gritted her teeth in frustration, "I'm sure that I can find the information I have been searching for in their base, I just have to locate it."
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"If you don't know where to find them, how did you get in a fight with a whole group of them last night?"
"I have been attacking gang members in Chinatown for information," Laura explained without a shred of guilt "The Hand must have heard that I have been asking around for them and sent a team to eliminate me."
"Okay, I will help you," I said casually.
"What?" Asked a bewildered Laura, "I didn't ask for your help."
"You didn't have to." I grinned, "What kind of man would I be if I ignored a lady in clear need of help," not to mention all the loot The Hand has squirreled away over the centuries. If I manage to get my hands on even a percentage of it, I would never need to work again.
Laura's eyes narrowed.
There it was, the suspicion.
She tried to hide it, but one look at her made it obvious that deceit wasn't one of the many things the Facility has trained her in. Which made sense if you think about it, teaching your weapon how to deceive you would be pretty idiotic.
She had been awfully trusting of a person she met only a day ago. I had been attributing her questionable actions to a combination of naivety, having nowhere else to go, and me saving her. It is good to know that she isn't simply a trusting fool and still had her guard up.
"And I would be lying if I said I didn't have my own reason for going after The Hand," I added.
Laura relaxed slightly in her seat after hearing that. People are more inclined to believe you if you have your own selfish reasons for helping them, instead of doing it out of the goodness of your heart.
Humans are selfish creatures by design. We just can't trust the motives of someone that would do something we can't see ourselves doing.
I opened my mouth before closing it again when I spotted Sarah returning with our meals from the corner of my eye. It was probably for the better, there wasn't much more to say on the subject anyway.
Laura had ordered so much food that Sarah had to return to the kitchen twice more before she finally had everything on our table.
Laura's eyes lit up with delight the moment she saw the chocolate milkshake. She lifted the glass and examined the milkshake from every angle before taking a hesitant sip.
"And?" I asked, holding my breath. My breakfast(lunch) was getting cold right in front of me, and all I could think about was whether Laura liked her milkshake or not.
"Delicious," Laura grinned, showing off her little whipped cream mustache in the process.
I felt my heartbeat triple in speed and quickly looked down at my meal before Laura could see my face flush.
I just took critical damage!
"Don't drink it all in one go, otherwise you will spoil your appetite." I didn't have to look up to know that Laura was pouting, "The milkshake isn't going anywhere, you can drink from it while you eat your meal."
Taking my own advice I started devouring my meal, it felt like I hadn't eaten in forever.
We ate in companionable silence. Once in a while, I would look over to Laura and watch how she gorged down half her body weight in food. It was like a car crash I couldn't look away from.
Where is she putting all of that food?
Even though she had ordered almost four times as much as me, Laura finished only a moment after me.
"Done?"
"Yes," Laura replied sadly, looking at her empty milkshake glass.
"We will order some more to go," that cheered her right up, she gave me a blinding smile in response. Seeing her enjoy her milkshake that much had given me a craving for one myself. It has been a while since I last had one.
We walked to the front where Sarah was sitting at the cash register, I ordered two more milkshakes(strawberry for myself and another chocolate for Laura) to take with us and paid for everything.
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"*Chime*"
The bell above the door rang as I opened the door of Jimmy's pawnshop. At least that is what everyone calls it. I don't even know if it has an actual name.
I had decided to go in and sell my spoils alone because...well, Jimmy's a rat. He would do anything to save his ass or earn a few extra bucks. The fewer people he sees me with before he throws me to the sharks, the better.
Normally I wouldn't be too worried but the stuff I was about to pawn off this time belonged to our kind of people, hoodlums, thieves, and gangsters. It is only a matter of time before one of them walks into the store and notices their bling up for sale. And when that happens, I can promise you that Jimmy will give me up for the first dime offered to him.
Which is why I left Laura to wait for me in the taxi I hailed to take us around the city. Not that she minded all that much, her mind occupied with enjoying her milkshake.
It was a little after 1:30 pm, and there was no customer in sight as I walked inside. The pawnshop was completely deserted. Which wasn't all that weird, 90% of Jimmy's business was selling to and buying from shady people, and those kinds of people don't come out until after the sun has gone down for the day.
Jimmy recognized me as soon as I walked in and waved me over to the counter. He didn't know me by name or anything but I have been here a few times before, selling off some of my more questionable goods.
I removed my backpack and dumped my spoils on the counter without further ado. Jimmy's eyes widened a bit at the number of chains and rings I brought him this time. Normally, I don't bring more than 3 valuable items to sell at a time.
His greedy, beady eyes glinted in the shop's cheap overhead lights. He took one look at my merchandise and knew exactly what kind of people they used to belong to. They were thick gaudy pieces made to flaunt your money. No more, no less.
We go back and forth on the price of each item until I finally agree to sell everything for a little more than a grand. The bastard had ripped me off good but there was nothing I could do about it. We both know that if I wanted to sell my merchandise at any other pawn shop I needed to sell them one by one over a long ass time. Which is why I came to him in the first place.
"What did you say your name was again?" Jimmy asked innocently after handing me my money.
I looked up from where I was counting my money, I wouldn't put it beyond him to cheat me.
"My name is none of your business," I kept my gaze locked with Jimmy's the entire time I was talking so that he could see the seriousness in my eyes, "What is your business, however, is keeping your mouth shut if you don't want to wake up with me looking down at you. Don't forget what I do for a living, locks, or no locks it makes no difference to me."
As I already said Jimmy's a rat, and rats are cowards. Even though he was a grown man and I was a 16-year-old kid, he was the first to avert his gaze away from mine.
Unfortunately being the rat he is, I have no doubt that he will forget this conversation in a few weeks and rat me out anyway at the first sign of money. I could be wrong and by some miracle, he will keep his mouth shut, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I gave Jimmy one last look before walking outside and to the taxi parked around the corner.
I opened the backdoor and got in next to Laura, who was still slowly sipping from her milkshake, "sorry for the wait."
"No problem, I had the meter running the whole time," the taxi chauffeur, an older man in his late thirties, replied, "where to now?"
"The closest mall," The taxi pulled out on the street and started driving to our next destination. I closed my eyes and leaned back in my seat.
Feeling something touching my hand, I opened my eyes and looked at Laura who's hand was holding mine, she had a worried look in her eyes.
"I am alright," I told her, squeezing her hand.
And that is exactly what was bothering me, I just threatened someone and I felt absolutely nothing while doing so. Even the thought of killing Jimmy if he rats me out doesn't bother me, and that more than anything scares me. I had changed, and I don't know why or when it happened.
We drove the rest of the way in silence, holding hands.
A few minutes later, we found ourselves walking into a newly renovated mall. It looked like a place where teenagers and young adults would come to hang out with their friends after school.
It had everything. A big parking lot, trendy stores, a food court, and even an ugly modern art statue that anyone in their right mind would consider a failure but was instead probably worth thousands of dollars.
Our first stop was a clothing store, where Laura bought an assortment of mostly leather pants and crop tops. We were about to leave, having finished buying a good selection of everyday clothes when Laura noticed a mannequin wearing a black leather jacket with high boots.
"Do you like them?" I asked when I saw what she was staring at.
"Yes," Laura answered, not looking away from the mannequin.
"Well, try them on," I urged her.
Needless to say, the leather jacket and boots ended up looking amazing on her, especially when combined with the leather pants and white top she was currently wearing. So we bought them too.
Our next and last stop was a place I had been both dreading and looking forward to in equal amounts, the lingerie store. After looking around for a while we found a store that had both nice looking and comfortable lingerie of all sizes, at least according to their advertisement.
Being one of the more upscale shops in the mall, the store had attendants on standby that you could call on to help with your shopping. The attendant took one look at our lost looks and immediately came to our 'rescue'. She took hold of Laura and dragged her further to the back of the store, and banished me to the boyfriend waiting area by the passing booths.
There were no other 'boyfriends' in the boyfriend waiting area, so I sat around twiddling my thumbs by myself, bored out of my mind. I sat there for almost 20 minutes when the attendant finally returned with a flustered and scared looking Laura in tow. Both of their arms were full with piles upon piles of lingerie.
"Help me!" Laura mouthed to me as the attendant pulled her into a passing booth.
"Why aren't you wearing any underwear?!"
Oops.
A few minutes later, Laura popped back out wearing a black sports bra that emphasized her decently sized breast. But rather than being on her bust, my eyes were laser-focused on the boyshorts that were practically painted on Laura's supple bubble butt.
What she lacked in the bust department, she more than made up by having an ass to kill for. Luckily for me, I have always been an ass and thighs man.
For the next half hour, the attendant had Laura model every single piece of lingerie to see how they fit and felt on her body. That day I saw Laura in every imaginable sort of lingerie, from normal ones like bikini panties and hipsters to more risque ones like thongs and garter belts.
It was both heaven and hell. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from dragging her into a passing booth before bending her tight little body in two.
Being the practical person that she was, Laura wanted to only buy the boyshorts and sports bras, not seeing an use for the rest. That is until the attendant took her aside for a quick girl's talk, that is.
After that, a blushing Laura sneakily added a few more articles to her pile of boyshorts and sports bras. I couldn't help noticing that the lingerie she added were of the more risque sort.
"That will be $439,99," the cashier said after she was done scanning all of the lingerie. My wallet cried out in despair as I took it out of my pocket to pay.
Finally done, thank fucking god. I don't think that my wallet could have handled any more shopping.
We were walking past the food court to the entrance of the mall, ready to leave, when the wall next to us exploded into shrapnel(I may be exaggerating) and a person wearing blue and red flew past us and out of sight.
Surprised, I looked at the hole inches away from my head and back to where my almost killer had disappeared into the mall. 1 day in this shit stain of a universe, and I almost get my head taken off. Not by an alien threat or by fighting gods and demons but by fucking accident.
Fuck this world.
How the fuck do the normal people of this world live like this. If I were them I would be too scared to leave my fucking house.
I look in the hole just in time to take a hold of Laura and jump back as the fucking Rhino comes barging through the hole in the wall, enlarging it even further.
I watch in slow motion as a piece of rock the size of my head hurls through the air before hitting a man, who a moment ago was peacefully eating his burger, on the head. His head cracks open like some sort of grisly watermelon, showering the people sitting behind him in blood and gore.
What the actual fuck!
I, wow, I wasn't expecting that.
Of course, I knew that the comics were bullshit, there is no way that superhumans fighting in the middle of a crowded city didn't lead to innocent casualties, but I wasn't expecting to witness such a brutal scene straight off the bat.
Finally realizing what was happening, the previous calm shoppers panicked and started fleeing for their lives. No doubt trampling over quite a few people, who were unlucky enough to fall down, in their blind panic.
I glanced down at Laura, her face was indifferent like the whole situation had nothing to do with her. Which it indeed didn't, nor did it have anything to do with me. It was too soon to get myself entangled in this world's neverending Superhero and Villain fights.
Instead, we stood there and watched what I'm pretty sure is Spiderman wearing pajamas lead an enraged Rhino on a wild chase away from the civilians.
I don't think he even knows that someone just died in the crossfire of his and Rhino's fight.
"Let's go," I said, leading Laura through the hole in the wall and into the parking lot. I don't want to be here when the police arrive. The less contact I have with them, the better.
Everywhere we went, we saw the destruction caused by Spiderman and Rhino's fight. The road was full of potholes in the form of Rhino's feet, making it difficult for cars to drive, and webs were strewn all over the place. We had to walk two entire blocks before we finally found a taxi to take us home.
It has been one fucking long day, and it isn't even 6 pm yet. I just want to lie down and nap the rest of the day away.
The door was barely closed behind us when the doorbell rang.
I thought about ignoring it for a second before sighing and deciding to just get it over with. How bad could it be, whatever it was.
I opened the door and came face to face with three people, Captain Picard in a wheelchair, a stormy goddess, and a wild caveman.
Murphy, you cocksucker!
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There you have it, a quiet relaxing chapter before the storm.
This chapter was meant to show Damien and Laura spending time together and getting to know each other better.
As you no doubt gathered from the ending of this chapter, the pace of the story will be picking up the next chapter.
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For those of you who have been worrying that fury would magically pull Damien's identity out of his ass, you don't have to worry about that, this won't be a super duper capable shield that somehow doesn't know it has a secret death cult hiding in its midst. They were just following the Hand at the time and got lucky as I have explained in the story
Xavier on the other hand can and has detected newly awakened Mutants all over the country and even further when using Cerebro. Making him not detect Damien awakening that close to his school would be giving Damien plot armor.
People have also been telling me that Damien isn't a Mutant and that Xavier shouldn't be able to detect him.
All I can say to that is: It gets explained in the story, have patience!