Chapter 4

"Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion."

- Niccolo Machiavelli

=====

-- Archie's POV --

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"NO"

"Are we there yet?"

"NO"

"Are we there-" I couldn't take it anymore and cut Milo off

"OH MY GOD! WILL YOU SHUT UP FOR A SECOND! I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE FOR HOURS WHILE FLYING TO THE STATES, KEEPING US UNDETECTABLE TO RADARS! AND I CAN'T DO THAT IF YOU KEEP ASKING 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' LIKE A RETARTED MONKEY EVERY FUCKING SECOND, SO EITHER STOP OR HELP ME GOD I'LL TURN THIS SPHERE AROUND AND THROW YOU OUT OF IT! YOU CAN SWIM THE LAST THREE HUNDRED MILES FOR ALL I CARE!!!" I screamed, ready to drop him if he said-

"Fine… Sorry, it's just so boring," Milo said as he huffed a bit "We have been flying for 5 hours,"

"I KNOW! I am the one who is flying us if you haven't noticed. The one who is actually getting beyond tired every passing second, hell I should have dropped down half an hour ago if it wasn't for my absurdly high Will Power!" I rant about it before collecting my thoughts "Look we'll be there in 10 minutes or so, just shut up for now," I said

He didn't say anything but huffed a bit and turned around.

Once we entered the airspace of New York City, I slowed us down, "Ring, find an empty alleyway without security cameras,"

<<Affirmative>> she said <<An appropriate alleyway is found>> she mentally uploaded the location of the alley to me.

Good, now the hard part. I closed my eyes, imagined the light waves that touch the sphere to bend so that we would appear invisible. It took me a few tries to get it, but I was able to do it. It just required a great deal of concentration.

Once we landed I realized I was way too tired, "I'm just gonna close my eyes for a second," I said before laying next to a trash can and closing my eyes. I didn't even wait for Milo to say anything, I just embraced the warm embrace of sleep…

=====

-- One Hour Later, Archie's POV --

I slowly opened my eyes, only to see Milo standing there, he still looked the way he did, a Jojo character on steroids.

He was now wearing a shirt, although it was a size or two too small. It was so tight that you could see all his muscles bulging. He was also eating a sandwich.

"Morning sleepyhead," he said with a smile before taking a large bite out of the sandwich

"Morning… Where did you get the shirt and the sandwich? Also, do you have another?" I ask, I was quite hungry

"Well, you see, while you were sleeping a man tried to rob you, so I knocked him out, took his shirt and cash, left his body a few alleys from here, and bought myself a sandwich from a store around the corner," he explained as if that was such a common occurrence.

"*growl* Do you another sandwich?" I ask, I was really- really hungry

"Nah, but I got enough for another," he said as he took a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket.

"Cool, do they have pastrami sandwiches," I ask as my stomach growled once more

"Yeah they do," he said as he started to lead me towards the sandwich shop.

There was a short line in the shop, two college girls to be exact. They were practically salivating while staring at Milo.

He sent a wink at the girls and I could have sworn one of them nearly wetted herself. Then he said to me "Take note young padawan, this is the big dick energy,"

I sighed before ordering myself a pastrami sandwich, Milo went to talk to the girls, a few minutes later my sandwich was ready, I grabbed it "Milo, we are leaving," I said before walking towards the exit

"Sorry girls I need to go," he said to the girls, they look very disappointed

"Eh? Do you have to? We were going to this party and it would be far more fun if you came along." one of the girls said

"You can even bring your friend if you want to," the other girl added, getting my eyebrow to twitch in annoyance.

Milo looked at me. I glared at him, we needed to find a place to live and more importantly create identities for ourselves.

"I'm really sorry, but I need to go," he said

"Ah, at least take my number," one of the girls said as she took out a pen and small notebook, the other girl than did the same

"Forget about her, take my number and call me," the other said

"*sigh* If you are gonna be a Jojo character, try to be like Jotaro, not Polnareff," I muttered, he looked at me and shrugged before grabbing both numbers and telling them he would call them.

Once we exited the shop, I looked at him,

"So you gonna call them?" I ask as I looked at the two pieces of paper he had in his right hand

"Nah man, they were okay looking (7s) but nothing special, nothing like Storm," he said as he threw away the phone numbers

"Meh, Jean was far hotter," I stated

"Bitch please, Ororo has this noble elegance around her, plus she is a black woman with blue eyes, that's literally the most exotic look," he vigorously defended his choice

"Jean's a redhead, which is a bigger bonus than exotic look,"

"Only you would think that. Plus Jean is the worst girlfriend, she would make out with your rival every chance she gets, and if you even think about other girls, she would flip out-" he tried to compare personalities but I cut him off

"We are talking looks, not personalities," I stated

"That's… fair I suppose, but still Ororo has the better body, and her skin is so smooth!"

"You know, forget about two of the hottest women we have seen in our lives for a second. Yesterday, you would have to flip in mid-air just to get either of the college girls' numbers and now you don't care about it?" I pointed out

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, which is why we call it the present." he quoted the turtle sage

"Don't Kung Fu Panda me," I said before sighing "This is unbelievable"

"Are you jealous?" he asks with a smug grin on his smug face

"Of course I am" my admittance caught him off guard "I wish I had taken the Body Perk as well!" I said as a fairly hot girl walked past us, staring at Milo.

"I'm pretty sure being this handsome is a power on its own," he said with a smile on his face, I kept the urge to smash his face in with a giant boxing glove. "So are you going to create the identities for us now?" he asked as we moved to a place no one could hear us.

"Yep… Just give me a minute," I said before finishing my sandwich, which tasted okay but nothing to write home about. I took a quick look around, made sure no one was around "Alright, Ring"

<<Yes Sir>> the Ring replied as she glowed ever so slightly

"Can you create two fake identities for us, make us appear as legal citizens of the United States of America with birth certificates, driving licenses, and any other documentation we may need. Oh also create two bank accounts in Bank of America, one for each of us."

<<Affirmative>> a few moments passed <<Action is complete, I'm downloading the information into your mind>> she said and I learned the details of the identities she created for us. She used our original names, created everything I asked of her, and arranged it so hard copies of our ID's would arrive to a Post Office within three work days.

"You might not have this body, but you definitely have the biggest plot device" Milo said after I explained what just happened to him.

"Biggest plot device?" I ask

"Power Rings," he said

"Power Rings aren't the biggest plot device," I stated as a matter of fact

"Then what is?" he asks

"Reality Warpers, followed after a large leap by Magic-Users," I say to him without missing a beat

"Well… Fair point." he agreed

<<Sir, I have taken the initiative to transfer 500,000 US dollars into your account.>> the Ring voiced out

"Screw that point, I say the Power Rings are a bigger plot device than Magic" he changed his mind

I ignored him "Where did you find half a million dollars?" I asked Ring

<<A bank teller named Joseph Johnson was skimming the trust fund of a rich client for the past 8 months and I deemed it appropriate to transfer it into your account,>>

"Thank you Ring you are the best,"

"Hey Ring, did you transfer any money to my account?" Milo asks, hopeful

<<Negative>> she said and Milo sulked a bit

"Anyway this will make the next parts so much easier,"

"Yep, you don't have to go to space to find precious metals as you had planned, are you sure you could have survived in space in the first place?" he said as he looked up to the sky

<<Affirmative, with my assistance Sir can survive under any environment bar a few extreme ones>> she confirmed despite the question being directed at me.

"And space is not extreme enough?" Milo asks, slightly amused as just yesterday he would consider Space to be the harshest environment.

<<Negative>> the Ring replied

"Yeah, my power is bullshit incarnate, now than moving on, do you have enough for tonight?" hopefully he had, or else we would have to either pickpocket or I would try to do a Superman coal to diamond trick with my Ring.

"I got like 200 bucks left, should be enough for a few days,"

"Good, in that time we should be able to get a hard copy of our ID's and-" I was cut short as we heard an explosion "What was that?"

"I don't know, it came from there," he said as we ran towards the explosion,

Once we got there we saw a man who was wearing a yellow suit get out of a hole in a bank. He had two bags attached to his shoulders, brimmed with cash. It was a C-List Spider-Man villain who went by the name Shocker.

"I'll deal with this!" Milo said as he made a made-shift mask from his shirt. He then rushed at Shocker and punched him in the face without any banter Spidey normally does. As such a sucker punch to face by a man who is arguably stronger than Captain America.

People were staring at him, some his awe, others in spite (mutant haters), and some in bewilderment, I guess they expected Spider-Man, instead got… Kars. Still not sure about that name, does everything about

I willed my costume on, before looking around, "Ring, scan the area of any security cameras or any such device and destroy all the footage that has spotted Kars or me,"

<<Affirmative>> the ring replied <<Task is accomplished>>

"Good," I said before flying to where Kars is, I created a small stand connected to the ring.

"Hop on, we are leaving," I said with a tone that did not leave any opportunity for discussion.

He jumped on and we quickly flew out of everyone's range of sight.

Once we were high enough I glared at Milo "What were you thinking? What if someone saw you? Then goodbye secret identity we had just- JUST created!" I yelled at him

"Before I ran I had made sure no one saw me put on the mask," he said as he took off the mask

"What about the cameras?" I asked him

"What about it? I knew your Ring would have easily taken care of it." he said before smiling "Didn't she?"

"But why did you rush to fight him? Spider-Man was probably just around the corner buying groceries or something."

"..." He mumbled something in a very low tone that I did not hear.

"What did you say?"

"I WANTED TO. I wanted to see how well I would do against a supervillain okay,"

"*sigh* I get it, man, I half wanted to do what you did to see how well I would stack up against heroes and villains of this world but I think we should prepare a bit before taking on any more supervillains (however weak they may be), maybe got a bit more comfortable with our powers and get you a something to wear,"

He nods his head and we float towards a cheap motel…