Chapter 4

[Evening]

I can't sleep.

After writing down my plans for the future in my own self made code, I realised that to fulfill some of them, I required more advanced scientific information. This was something that I severely lacked with my high school level education.

I could continue scamming people to earn money and use that to invest in new companies like Uber and Airbnb, but being a billionaire isn't my end goal. Money is just a means to an end. The real power in this universe is superpowers, and I'm not ready to torture, nor outsource myself to be tortured, to awaken them.

All these bits and pieces added to my already high-strung mind, so I decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood to just...relax, you know? Take my mind of these things for a while.

Afterall the future is still uncertain, albeit to some extent cos of my foreknowledge, but my point still stands. As someone once probably said, it is better to just live every moment to the fullest, that way you have less regrets when at the end of your road.

So here I am. Walking around the neighborhood.

At some point I just felt like sprinting, to feel the wind on my face, and the liberating weightlessness of my body. And so I did. I ran and ran. Even after almost an hour of running, I still had enough stamina for another 30 minutes, but it was unnecessary.

My mind was clear and I knew what I had to do.

[An Hour Later]

Maybe running that far wasn't such a smart thing to do because even after an hour of walking, I was still more than halfway to my place and I ran out of energy just a few hundred metres away from the apartment complex.

My back was drenched in sweat and when I entered the apartment, I went straight for the fridge, guzzling water bottles like shots. When I came to from my hydrating frenzy, I felt a gaze on my back.

I turned around and saw a girl around the same age as me looking at me strangely as she drank a glass of fruit juice. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I said defensively, "What? I was just a bit thirsty."

Giving me a look that asked 'Only a bit?', she replied, "Who are you?"

Now it was my turn to look at her strangely. "Hasn't Ms. Janet told you that I'll be living here for a while? Anyways, my name is Leon Carter. You must be one of the kids that Ms. Janet told me about."

"What do you mean kid? You look the same age as me," she replied, a bit incensed at my words.

"Whoa, why you angry at me? Those are Ms. Janet's words not mine. Plus who are you anyways, I thought I was the only teenager here." I replied, throwing the water bottles into the bin.

She was a short brunette, about 5'5, and a goth too. That was first thing that caught my attention; her striking sense of style for a lack of a better word.

Smoky eyeshadow carefully lined with winged eyeliner contrasted against her alabaster skin. When she stood up, I could see her dressed in lace, corset, and leather, you know, typical extreme goth clothes.

She ignored my words and she picked up her fruit juice, as she disappeared around the corner, probably walking to her room as she shouted, "Marylene! The guy you brought over here is back!"

"Be right there in a moment, Serena!" came Ms. Janet's voice, after which she came out her room, making her way to the kitchen.

After a few seconds of looking me over with a stern gaze, Ms. Janet's said, "Where did you go, Leon?" By the tone of her voice, she sounded relieved as well as angry. It made me feel like I did something wrong, but I couldn't place a finger on what made her so angry.

"I went for a walk to clear my head. Couldn't sleep." I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

'What's with her anyways, I just went out on a walk. It's not like I'm leaving this plac- oh, I see.' I thought to myself as I realised why she was angry. From her point of view, it looked like I ran away after just spending a few hours at her place.

Not gonna to lie, hearing it from myself made me feel a bit shitty, but that doesn't mean that she can guilt-trip me. It's not like she's my guardian. I'm only renting this place for a bit. But it won't help to destroy the relationship this early.

Her stern face softened. "I see," She replied. "Just tell me next time, you nearly gave me a heart attack. Don't go disappearing without telling me like that, you hear?"

"Sorry for worrying you Ms. Janet, it won't happen again. Besides, I have nowhere else to go other than here. I don't plan on leaving anytime soon."

From the corner of my eye I could see the goth girl, now called Serena, peeking behind the wall. I could tell she was skeptical at my claim while at the same time not outright disbelieving. A weird familiar feeling came over me as I heard the name Serena.

'Did I know someone in my previous life called Serena?' I wondered to my myself.

'That person must be very, very close to me, considering that even through I got memory wiped, her name elicited feelings from me. Probably my mom; I don't see myself making girls my priority lol!'

"You must be hungry from walking that long. Why don't you go get showered and changed and I'll whip you up something tasty. Sound about right to you? I hope you don't have any allergies!" She said, her familiar jovial grandma persona back online.

"Cool. I can and will eat anything." I was indeed very hungry, and the thought of eating something nice did make me happy.

***

[One Month Later]

I walked out the café with a shifty smile on my face; I had just completed the transaction for my new identity papers. After nearly a month of accumulating funds in not-so-moral ways, as well as the constant back and forth negotiations with the vendor, we finally settled on a price of ten thousand USD in cash.

I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride in myself when I got my papers, as it was the evidence of all my hardwork. I was one step ahead of achieving my dream and ambition.

Having the appearance of a 16-year-old, made the process a bit difficult; I got a lot of stares talking to what looked like a 30-year-old man but I made it work.

That's New York City for you, a city with one of the highest percentages of crime among US states. This is probably why most superhero movies happen here, I mean why else would Marvel choose New York when Chicago is right there?

Then again Kingpin essentially ran this city, and since superheroism hasn't become a thing yet, people turning a blind eye to a suspected drug deal and stuff like that isn't rare here.

All in all, this made it ironically easier to get a job in the not-so-desirable despot areas of New York City, as any business that'd hire a 16-year-old without any papers must be either gang-related or in dire need of workers.

No one wanted to get in trouble with gangsters.

Not that I'd work for them cos, even if I did, I wouldn't have the time. Ms. Janet wants to enroll me into a high-school or college, saying that a bright young man like myself shouldn't be worrying about where to sleep and what to eat but on trivial teenage stuff instead.

Thinking of this, I run a hand down my face as I hailed a taxi back home. Maybe I should take her on that offer. Until Tony Stark makes his way back to the US and announces his return, danger should be relatively low.

I just needed to live.

[To be continued]

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