Chapter 5

Work has gotten so much more boring than when I first started, but... it having been like five years now and I got bored after a week, it's not surprising. Sure I probably don't really NEED a job anymore since Ian makes pretty good money now in his field of start up companies, but if I had to just sit around our cheap cookie cutter house all day every day I'd completely lose my fricken mind and have to be in an asylum. Although... if I got to stay at home all day I could go continue working on my Black Panther inspired suit... I would love that, I'd love to work on my passion 24/7. Alas... I stay at this place, working with my best friend and staying with what my parents wanted for me. I'm already losing my mind sitting at my desk though. I have a few tasks to get done, but they'll take no time at all and then where will I be? Still bored since that degree I have is bloody useless here. At least I have to leave for my hair appointment soon. 

I just leaned on my desk, head in my hand, as I practiced flipping my pen between my fingers. Then Angela came out from her office in the back and I heard the usual whispered gossip coming from behind her, talking about that pain in my side; Axel. I mean yeah he's easy on the eyes I suppose, but I've always found myself wanting to smack that stupid smug expression off his face. Yeah sure when I first laid eyes on him roughly five years ago my heart may have skipped a beat and several fantasies may have danced through my mind, but that was a long time ago. Things have changed and he's shown me nothing worth being around him for personality wise. My coworkers never shut up about how hot he is and I just don't get it. Looks aren't everything and as I said Axel doesn't even have a great personality either. Sure I don't know him know him, but from what I can see he's extremely arrogant and cocky. Wouldn't surprise me if he had a new "friend" every week. After this much time you'd think I would know him more, but since all we do is bicker I do my best to avoid or ignore him. Our classic argument is the "who's dick is bigger" argument, that's how it's always been and will probably always be. Just like with Myster Guy oddly enough... Probably why I hate them so much, the major annoyances in my life are basically the only ones that are mentally matched to me. They aren't stupid and they consistently test my mental abilities. 

As I was sitting talking with Angela, she of course brought up how all our coworkers think he's so hot, "They just don't stop talking about him, even with him right there! It's entertaining sometimes. Plus, y'know, they're kinda right."

I just rolled my eyes and stated, "I will never see it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get my hair done."

"You're still going through with that? I thought you said Ian hated the idea?" She asked, making me snort.

"I did say that, but I also don't give two shits. It's my hair and I'm going to do what I want with it."

"You go girl! Don't listen to that fucktwat." A new voice butted in from behind me.

I turned and scrunched my face in displeasure at Axel and inquired, "And why are you involving yourself in our conversation?"

He smirked and answered, "Well I was going to be rude and interrupt completely, but then I heard you're deliberately doing something that someone else doesn't like and decided against it. I also still have no idea who this Ian person is, nor do I care but judging from the name alone he sounds like a loser. What are you doing to your hair?"

Ignoring the insult to my boyfriend I scoffed, "You'll get to see when I come back. Now that I'm going to be late, I'll see you later Angela." With that I turned, headed out to my car and drove to my salon.

I got half my brown hair bleached and would've gotten bangs, but decided they would get really annoying and didn't get them. At least I look really good with a middle part and no bangs. In order to be done faster two women worked on my hair, going on about how surprisingly thick my hair is.

After my appointment I went back to work, feeling ecstatic with my new hair. When I walked into the building, the few people still here complimented my hair. I thanked them and got to finishing the last bit of work I had for the day. Thankfully Axel must've gotten off early because I didn't see him the rest of the day, which was fine by me. He doesn't talk to me overly often, though normally it kinda seems like he's flirting but I can't tell. What I can tell though is that he frustrates the absolute crap out of me and I can't quite place exactly how or why.

When I was finished working I was looking forward to going home and having dinner before relaxing, but Mystery Guy who likes destroying things had other plans for my evening.

On my drive home I saw smoke rising not far from where I was, so I parked, hid somewhere away from my car to get my gear on. My gear still consists of Iron Man's boots and gloves as well as a mask. I've upgraded everything, but upgraded my mask the most. It still doesn't go fully around my head, keeping my hair mostly free, but now instead of that band around the back of my head I have it covering my entire face and neck to rest comfortably on my shoulders. So it's kind of like a neck brace but functional and flexible. The tinted screen I see out of the mask with can zoom in and out like a camera, can alert me on flying objects that are about to hit me and can put trackers on things with the help of physical trackers that can be shot from my gloves. My gloves can still shoot plasma balls and my boots are still just rocket boots, but faster than when I first made them.

Anyways, I flew over to see the damage Mystery Guy created. When I reached the source of the smoke I discovered a car that had blown up, shattering the stores next to it.

The first thing I did was check and see if anyone was hurt, which naturally there were several people wounded from the blast but thankfully no one was in critical condition. Then I started my hunt of finding the asshole responsible so I could whoop his butt. I found him on the next street over, strangling someone with their own shirt.

"Hey!" I shouted at him, making him pause. After he looked over and saw it was me he heaved a sigh, harshly throwing the guy he was strangling face first into the pavement.

"Hey to you too, why do you have to ruin everything hmm?" He asked, tipping his head.

I scoffed and laughed dryly, "Why do.. I have to ruin everything? You're the one that blew up a car!"

"They had it coming, not my fault." He answered simply, shrugging.

"How did they have it coming?! They owned a car?!?" I exclaimed angrily, throwing my arms in confused rage.

"Hmm.. You'd like to know the heinous atrocities that caused them to deserve that special treatment, wouldn't you?" This guy inquired, stepping closer to me.

"Come any closer to me and I will blast your feet clean off." I threatened, getting ready to do what I said.

He paused before saying with another step, "I don't think you will. See.." another step, "you clearly like to consider yourself a hero." He stepped again, "and heroes... well, they're all bound by rules and certain beliefs that prevent them from ever truly harming anyone. Except of course, you indirectly always wind up hurting those closest to you." Another step, "and you heroes you will stop at nothing until us so-called villains get locked up." He took one more step, so he was directly in front of me. "But guys like me—made out to be the villain—don't have morals or rules holding us back, right? So we can torture whomever we like, kill whomever we like and destroy whatever we like. And you... can do absolutely nothing about it. Torturing or killing me would make you a villain... and you hero types don't want that. Besides, if you were going to shoot me you'd have done it years ago." He finished, way too close for comfort.

He tipped his head again, grabbing a small chunk of my blonde hair to run between his fingers as he cooed, "You changed your hair, why is that?"

"Because I felt like it." I snarled, reaching to smack his hand away only for him to catch my wrist.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Sweetheart. I am much stronger than you." He growled in a fake sweet voice, venom dripping from his words.

"And yet I'm much more competent." I stated innocently then flipped him with ease, foot on his chest. Learning several forms of self defense since the age of eight is quite handy.

"Well played." He shot back before yanking my leg, causing me to fall so he pinned me down. Lucky me though, he fully grasped my gloves which meant if I charged up a plasma shot it would burn him. Which is exactly what I did and he got off me, shouting in pain. I didn't charge them too much though, I don't need to give him friggin third degree burns. I immediately stood up, glaring under my mask at him. He probably glared back before flying off. Since we both continue to use voice modifiers in our masks, neither of us knows what the others voice actually sounds like. Obviously no one knows our identities either, thus the names with zero effort put into them; Mystery Man and Mystery Woman. Pretty lame ass names if you ask me, but I could never care enough to put effort in what people call me so it's fine. We've been at this same crap for five years now, I'm over it. I'm kinda over fighting with him too, it's getting a little old.

Since he left in a huff I went back to my car, hiding and changing back on the way.

When I got home I made dinner, ate some of it then went to bed purely exhausted. I didn't even deal with the pissed off Ian that was waiting for me to make dinner, he hates my hair but said eventually he might tolerate it. Pft whatever, it's my hair not his. I had a great sleep after that.

The next day I went to work, greeted everyone as normal and got started on my list of things to do. Later in the day I happened to see Axel walk by and freeze in his tracks to stare at me after doing a double take.

"Uh... can I help you??" I asked, weirded out by his blatant staring.

A smirk came to his face as he answered, "To imitate a taunting child; I know something you don't know~"

"The fucks that supposed to mean?" I scoffed, confused.

"Oh wouldn't you love to know." He chuckled before leaving, laughing the whole way.

I just sat, baffled by his sudden weirdness and laughing. Eventually I was able to forget it and finish working, still confused but I managed to mostly forget about it.

Angela came over to my desk and gasped, "Oh my god Riona! You look amazing!"

I chuckled at her and replied, "Thank you. Ian hates it."

She teasingly rolled her eyes and snorted. "Of course he does, but good for you for doing it anyways."

Shrugging I got back to work, us chatting while I did so since I was almost done.

"You wanna hang out tonight?" Angela asked, stealing a gummy candy from my drawer. She's the only one that knows about it and where my secret stash is.

I sighed, "I wish, I have plans with Celine already though. She wants to try this stupid new restaurant because they have ten different kinds of salad."

Cringing she responded, "Oh god, I'm so sorry for you."

I chuckled. "It's fine, her and I have been friends since elementary school. I learned many years ago how much she loves salad."

Angela chuckled at that and let me leave after I finished what I was working on, grabbing my purse and keys.

I drove to Celine's apartment to pick her up, having to wait several minutes despite her being on the first floor. When she did finally come out, I noticed her hair was a slight mess and shook my head.

"What?" She asked as she got in.

"Oh nothing, just couldn't help but notice how tousled your hair is."

A smile came to her face as she playfully rolled her eyes, replying, "I know right... God he's great in bed, too bad I can only have him a few nights a week."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you aren't talking about your husband." I stated, raising a brow at her.

"Of course I'm not!" She laughed, buckling her seatbelt.

"If you hate him that much why the hell did you marry him?" I inquired, baffled by this level of stupidity even though I know she cheats all the time.

"He's my high school boyfriend who's going to make serious money soon. Duh I'm gonna stay with that." She retorted, sounding as if I'M the moronic asshole. I couldn't say more without probably pissing her off so I just drove to this stupid restaurant, keeping my mouth shut.

God forbid we get fruit salad or anything with dressing that has any chance of having sugar in it, I ended up ordering a Greek salad. In doing so I had to confirm with three different people that there wasn't sugar in it because Celine was about to rip my head off and use it to decapitate the first two people. Even though they were probably lying since some amount of sugar is in practically everything and my friend just has some weird obsession with not touching sugar. When Celine wasn't looking I gave the three of them very apologetic faces and mouthed, "I'm so sorry". They gave polite smiles before walking away to do their jobs. Unfortunately for me, I only got to enjoy two bites of that salad before seeing what was suddenly on the news channel.

I internally sighed and cursed whoever that mystery guy is. I excused myself to go to the bathroom, just to fake getting an emergency call from work. I rushed back to our table and lied about what they needed, since she knows absolutely nothing about my job it was quite easy. I made our waiter hurriedly grab a to-go box for my salad then dumped it in, handed him the money for it and ran out the door.