14 The Mask of Loki
"H-Hello?"
Alarms were already annoying but with alarms, you could at least snooze them.
But with calls?
"Hey, it's me!"
I nearly jumped from my bed.
"Gwen?"
I totally forgot about her.
"Yep, that's me alright."
I totally forgot to respond to her last night. And it felt especially scummy when she was spending so much effort with this project.
"I-I am so sorry that I didn't reply yesterday." I couldn't lie that I didn't see the message either.
I left her on seen.
"It's alright." She said with a small laugh, "But I hope you go over it today and tell me if it is viable. We don't have much time after all."
"I will!" I finally got off the bed and put on a shirt, "Give me a few moments and I will go over it."
"Thank you and I am hoping to finish this within the next three days. So tell me when you are free." She said, and well we were at a deadline.
"Sure thing."
"Alright then," I heard her say, "Bye and take care."
"You too." I said and she finally hung up –leaving me staring at the time.
Shit, it's already 12.
I even skipped my workout yesterday and I missed my morning routine as well.
I fell on my ass over the bed, trying to sort out my tasks for the day.
But first, water.
It was a good habit to hydrate after waking up and I did just that.
Extending my hand towards the glass of water that I kept over the table.
"Huh?"
But that made me surprise.
As I extended my hand over and wanted to bring the glass over –I saw the glass tremble.
It moved forward, very slowly and barely by half a centimeter, but it moved.
"What?"
Did I do that?
I was beyond confused and tried to test that out again.
But this time, nothing.
"Nah, I am definitely not fully awake."
Shaking my head, I grabbed the glass before chugging it down.
"Let's first go through her project idea."
And it didn't take long for me to read through it.
"Shock absorbing bridge?"
There were already bridges with shock absorbers but this idea was unique.
"Turning the shock into energy and using it, huh?"
It sounded cool and all, but I had no clue how she was going to change that shock into energy.
I mean, it was already a form of energy, but turning it into usable energy was totally different.
And I texted her the exact same thing.
But her reply was a simple, `Leave it to me ;)`
I asked her what I was supposed to do and she hit me up with, `Figure out a design for a bridge that can handle massive shocks, even explosions.`
What did she think I was? A genius?
Well, that I was, but she didn't know that and definitely no other guy can produce a design like that within three days.
`If possible, make it so that it can handle shockwaves formed during fights between heroes and villains.`
Oh, so that was her plan.
It is understandable, the amount of damage, mostly to buildings and structures dealt during every hero and villain clash is ridiculous.
I am not much into their stories and while I know some of them, to me, they are no different than police force and terrorists that go back and forth every day.
The only difference is that these cops and terrorists can flatten the cities with ease.
But well, they are still just that.
Good guys and bad guys, and me researching their life won't do me any good either which those stans think it would.
But as people who are neither heroes or villains, we are supposed to figure out how to handle those damages thanks to their shenanigans.
And this could be a start.
While it was tough, I had a few ideas.
"There are shock absorbing hammers which are totally different from a bridge but can help me with a starting point."
But yeah, that was one task for the day.
Figuring out a way to absorb shock without damaging the structure and to build a build that could stay standing even after the shock.
But the other was…
<<Equipment: Mask of Loki (B)>>
I had to test this out.
I have a good idea what it was, but I wasn't sure if it was exactly what I thought it was.
"I will try it out tonight."
…
…
[Baxter Building]
"Are you alright, Suz?"
Out of everyone around, if there was someone who could understand whenever someone was going through a tough time –it was Ben Grimm, the Thing.
"Yeah," Susan smiled, "Just a little bit of headache."
Ben had a body of rock and most were scared by his appearance, but he was the sweetest and kindest member of the Fantastic Four.
"I heard you came back quite late yesterday." He asked, "Was it something related to Reed."
Susan didn't reply and Ben understood.
"He is an idiot." He said, "He is too immersed in his work and considering we always have his back, he often takes us and the good things he have for granted."
"At least he can try to appreciate," Susan said, tired from crying for a man that didn't even care, "But he doesn't."
"It isn't until a man loses the person he loves that he understands their true value." His words held quite a bit of pain.
"Have you tried contacting her?" Susan asked, but Ben shook his head.
"She had been scared once, I cannot do that to her again."
This made Susan quiet. She knew that out of them all, Ben was the one with the most pain in his heart.
The woman he loved refused to identify him, she denied that the Thing was her lover.
That broke him, but he still kept his smile.
Susan respected him, and in a way she felt angry that how can two men be so different.
One was so in love with a woman that he refused to come in front of her to not scare her.
And the other didn't even have time to acknowledge her.
She wasn't asking for hours, she knew Reed was busy. But so was she. They were both researchers and scientists and they both had responsibilities.
But that didn't stop her from giving others the time when they needed it.
And it wasn't that Reed didn't know about her feelings either. He knew and he said that he liked her too once in the past.
But now?
She felt like she was being treated like she didn't matter, and that hurt her.
'Just a research partner.'
That was all she was to him now.
"You should talk to him," He said and she immediately bit back.
"I did. But he doesn't even have time to listen."
"That's not what I mean." Ben said, "I mean tell him what you are feeling and what you are going through. He should understand."
"And if he doesn't?"
He smiled, albeit a sad smile. "Then you know what is best."
They both went silent for a while, "I guess."
"Reed is going to MidTown University next week to judge a science exhibition." Ben suggested, "You should go with him and possibly talk."
"He is going there, isn't he?" Susan sounded amused, "He usually never attends such events."
"He was invited by his new 'friend'." Ben said, "Norman Osborn."
Susan frowned, "I still do not know what made him work with Norman. I know they are working on some 'cure' but I still have a weird feeling about it."
"I cannot say anything about this," Ben said, "You are the science people, not me."
"But what I can say is…" He looked straight at her, "You should talk to him by then or this will only get worse."
Susan looked down and stayed quiet for a while, before finally replying.
"I will try."
…
…
[Manhattan, New York]
Why was I in Manhattan?
Because this was possibly the best place to try out this mask.
Why?
Simple. Because of how crowded this place was.
'System equip Mask of Loki.'
<<Affirmative! >>
I learnt that I couldn't physically pull the mask out of the system and put it on. Similar to the Essence, it had to be an order.
<<Mask of Loki Equipped!>>
With that notice, I walked the street quite comfortably looking around the place.
And even, intentionally crashing onto people.
"Ugh! Look out you punk!"
Yeah, a punk.
I am currently dressed as a goth vampire guy.
This mask worked just like I expected it to work.
"Loki, huh."
Loki was a trickster, a master of disguised. And as this was his mask, it allowed me to disguise as anyone I wanted.
But of course, even this had a cooldown.
<<Item 3 48 time remaining: hours minutes>>
4 hours, but it worked perfect with the three hour cooldown of the essence, even leaving an extra hour to make an exit at times.
And this gave me an idea.
Walking to an unsuspecting and dark alley, I decided to use my powers.
'System, use the essence of Nosferatu.'
<<Affirmative! >>
<<Host has equipped Nosferatu's Essence!>>
<<Essence 2 59 Duration Left: Hours Minutes>>
I had an idea.
Looking around, I noticed a piece of tin scrap laying on the ground.
Exactly what I needed.
"This should work in theory."
Slowly walking over it and carefully standing on top of it –I tested it out.
"If I can move a knife, I should be able to…"
And it worked!
The tin scrap, with me on top of it, started to float.
And while it was wobbly and a little difficult to control, it still allowed me to…
Well in a way…
Fly.
And that was what I did, I made the scrap levitate above, slowly but surely it worked as I was already quite a few feet above the ground.
But just as I was about to make it move forward, something unexpected happened.
"Wow! That's quite an interesting show!"
And with that I immediately came crashing down, landing on my back and hurting it.
"Ugh!"
"Oops, my bad."
To make it worse, there was an annoying guy staring at me in his funny costume.
A red a blue costume.
"Spider-Man…"
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