Chapter 7

I hid once more to take my gear off, then got in my car and drove to my secret garage. Once there, I unlocked the hidden door, closed and locked it behind me then headed down the stairs to get to work. I texted Ian, telling him I'm busy running around for work. I wish I could tell him what I'm actually doing, I hate keeping secrets from him.

Unfortunately... he'd probably put me on house arrest if he knew what I do. Not only because of being protective and not wanting me to get hurt, but also because unfortunately he's still a little... behind... on the thoughts of what women can and cannot do. Ian's getting better, but he's still fairly sexist... No matter how much I fight him on it, he doesn't change much. Guess that's how it goes though.

I love him and he loves me, that's all that truly matters right? Besides that little... annoyance... he doesn't have any flaws that irritate me. He's handsome, strong, takes his work seriously, when he's happy it's the best feeling ever. His piercing gaze unsettles quite a lot of people, but it just draws me to him and sucks me in like a whirlpool.

The company he's with likes throwing parties, most of the time he calls them get togethers but they're fricken parties. There's a reason "company parties" was created. Ian has such a good reputation with them, they all love and respect him and he knows it. He does everything possible to keep his reputation, no matter what. I don't really get it but I support him anyways.

Getting off that topic, I flicked all the lights on and tossed my gear on the table. Then I grabbed tools and materials I knew I would need and started building the new version of my boots. Once I get these as fast as Axel's, my next upgrade is going to be continuing on figuring out how he made his item levitation ability. I've been trying already but I have yet to figure it out, which is incredibly irritating. I'm determined to learn how he does it, without help.

Thankfully I have dozens of boot and glove models ready to upgrade so I don't have to build them from scratch for a long while. The telekinetic wrist bands, however, I do have to build from scratch.

After a few hours of building up my new boots, I had to go for a test run so I put everything on and headed outside. I locked the door again then flew off. It was rough at first since I was successful in making them faster and I'm not used to the speed yet. Eventually I got the hang of it, practicing all the maneuvers I usually use. Once I had it down I flew back to my underground garage.

After landing I checked the time and sighed, annoyed that it's dinner time because I want to keep working on my gear. I contemplated lying to Ian more and staying to work on the levitation, telekinetic thing, but decided against it since we should talk things out instead of me avoiding him just cause he's pissy about my hair. I packed up and shut everything off, locked the door and hid it behind the bush branches then got in my car to head home.

When I got home Ian wasn't there yet–which isn't unusual–so I prepped dinner then tidied up any mess around the house. I ended up fully organizing and cleaning the entire house, it didn't take long since I usually keep it quite clean anyway. Then Ian finally came home so I put dinner on.

"You're free tomorrow night, right?" He surprisingly asked while we ate.

I finished what was in my mouth before answering, "Yeah, tomorrow's my day off. Why?"

"Company get together. It's at that fairly new fancy restaurant so dress nice."

"When do I not dress nice for your company parties?" I inquired, a twinge of annoyance going off inside me.

The hand he had resting on the tabletop clenched into a fist and he scoffed, "They aren't parties. And sometimes you aren't dressy enough for them, people still talk about it." My heart hurt a little at that, my jaw clenched and I stayed silent as I left the table. I went upstairs and locked myself in the closet so I don't lose my shit. We managed to build a walk in closet, so I was actually able to lock myself in here.

After maybe an hour of sifting through all my dresses trying to find one he'll approve of, I heard a light knock on the closet door.

"Can we talk?" Ian asked quietly from the other side. I let out a sigh before getting up to let him in. "Hey... I'm sorry... that attitude I had before was uncalled for... I know you try your best for me... and I appreciate it." He started, looking at our feet.

I sighed again and told him, "Its okay, I'm assuming work is stressful right now and that's why you're on edge." Ian nodded slightly, giving me puppy eyes.

We hugged it out and I added, "I'll go shopping before the get together, okay?"

"Okay. Nothing flashy, but nothing casual either." He responded, kissing my forehead then going back downstairs to watch T.V. which left me standing annoyed in our closet.

First thing in the morning I went to the mall, looking in all the higher end stores to find this "not flashy but not casual" dress Ian wants.

After three stores I finally managed to find one. It's a floor length V-neck with spaghetti straps and a leg slit, it's also dark teal in color, has a satin ribbon going around just above the hips and there's black lace on the part above the ribbon. Fancy, but not too fancy. Causal, but not overly so. It's perfect. It's also expensive. After purchasing it, I headed home to steam it before dinner.

Once I was done that, I actually got to enjoy sitting and watching Criminal Minds before I heard a large amount of sirens outside. Heaving a giant sigh I dragged myself off the couch to have a look out of the window, seeing a giant smoke cloud pluming from the inner city. I groaned in irritation and threw my head back before rushing out the door to do my usual thing, deciding on bringing my prototype levitation bracelets.

I got there so much faster now that my boots are upgraded, which means I quickly discovered he derailed a train. The front of it had burst into flame and most people had fled the area. Some citizens remained trapped inside the train which I saw with the help of the thermal imaging camera installed in my mask.

Instead of announcing myself to Axel, I silently found a way into the train and quietly gestured to the people who were stuck to follow me. They did so and I let them out before I made my exit.

However as I left Axel yelled at me, "Seriously! Must you ruin everything I try and accomplish!?"

I feigned thinking about it, looking off to the side. Then I looked back up at him and replied, "Yes, yes I must."

He seemed to notice a specific woman that I had freed, which made me realize she was the same one he was moments away from shooting in the head.

He started flying at her, but I flew faster and tackled him out of the air. We went crashing to the ground, which obviously hurt, then we rolled slightly before I flipped us and pressed my knee against his throat.

"Would you stop trying to kill me? I find it rather uncalled for." Axel questioned with a strained voice.

"I'm not doing this with the intention of killing you, asshat. Weaken you so you stop attacking people and blowing things up, yeah maybe." I retorted, keeping the amount of weight I had on his throat.

"Oh. Well... In that case you ought to get better at it." With that he tossed me off of him as if I were only as heavy as a cat then he flew off again, this time hovering in the air a ways away from me. Then, this asshole levitated an entire train car aND GOD DAMN THREW IT AT ME. This is how I learned I'm on the right path with my telekinetic bracelets, because they narrowly saved me from having half my body unwillingly amputated.

After I somehow managed to deflect it, I stood shaking and breathing heavily due to the shock as I stared at the train that almost killed me.

Once my breathing was under control I glared at Axel who was still floating midair, then I verbally ripped his face off. "WHAT IN THE MOTHER OF ALL HELL'S PENIS WAS THAT FUCKING FOR YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING SACK OF FUCKTARDED DICKS!?" Yes, immature and weird name calling I know, but I'm still in shock. I'm just livid on top of it now.

"I know you've been trying to copy me, your flying is faster and I saw those crap things on your wrists. I knew you'd defend yourself just fine. Isn't that what rivals are for, to push each other to be better than they were?" Axel responded calmly, not sounding remorseful at almost ripping my body in half with a fucking train whatsoever. In all our years of fighting, he's never really aimed to kill me before. Guess that trend is fuckin over.

"Get the hell down here so I can punch you in the goddamned face." I growled loud enough for him to hear.

He seemed to chuckle and did as I demanded, landing a few feet away for me to stride closer. I lifted a fist to legitimately punch him, but he caught my hand and twisted my arm behind my back. Naturally I fought him on it, which only made him twist it further. Pain seared through my shoulder and arm at it, but I refused to quit fighting and refused to let myself wince despite how disabling it was.

I felt him practically press against me as he tightly held my arm, then he leaned over my shoulder slightly to whisper, "Was that really worth the attempt sweetheart?" I would've bashed the back of my head into his face, but considering he has a full head helmet and I don't—it probably wouldn't be very effective. I bit my tongue so a whimper of pain wouldn't escape and just continued fighting to get my arm free instead of replying. Eventually he finally let me go, shoving me away from him before he flew off. After stumbling and catching my balance, I stood cradling my arm. That seriously hurt, I'm surprised he didn't dislocate my shoulder or elbow. He was probably pretty close to it though...

I did the best I could to clean up the mess he made then went home, my arm hurting worse than before now that I pretended it was fine and used it way too much. Thankfully Ian hadn't come home yet, so I was able to lay visibly in pain with a heating pad on my shoulder for a while.

Once I heard his car pull into the garage I put the heating pad away and started getting ready for his company party. I straightened my wavy hair and put it in a half up, half down style, then I started on my make up which is when Ian came into the bathroom.

"You're not ready yet?"

"Well... no. You never gave me a time to be ready by, closest I got was that this gathering is at dinner time. I'll be done in a minute, I just have to put mascara on and change." I sighed, irritated that he's annoyed at me. He didn't talk to me after that so I did what I had left while he quickly got ready himself.

Since I was ready before he was I stood in the living room to wait, unfortunately I ended up getting a call from Angela.

"Riona can you please get over here to the office right now?! Its urgent and I'm panicking." She spewed as soon as I picked up.

"Uh..."

"PLEASE?"

"Uh. Yeah, sure. I'll be right there." I hurriedly grabbed my things before going to our room to tell Ian, "Angela called, she's freaking out, I don't know why, but I have to go calm her down. Text me the restaurant name and I'll meet you there in like fifteen minutes." Before he could object or yell at me for it, I was already out the door.

After rushing inside my work building I was surprised to see all the people involved with the Newman project.

"Oh thank god you're here, help!" Angela pretty well cried, running over to hug me. "Why are you so dressed up? We're having a catastrophe not a party." She stated, backing up a few steps to take in my appearance.

"Ian's company party that I said I'd meet him at in less than fifteen minutes. What happened, why's there a catastrophe?" I answered plainly, itching to get this dealt with and fixed.

"Somethings wrong with the computers so I have to call in a stupid tech guy and spend too much money on getting him to fix it and Newman is trying to cancel every plan we've made thus far which would set us back a lot of money since he pre-paid and it is greatly stressing me out almost to the point of hyperventilating can someone find me a bag please? I'm not ready to be in debt I've been so good at avoiding it my entire life I don't want to be suffocated now!" Angela rambled, clearly panicked like she said she was.

"Sit. I'll deal with the computer problem in a second but right now I'll give Newman a call and talk him out of it." I stated, striding over to my desk. I didn't sit so I don't wrinkle my dress.

When I picked up my desk phone to start dialing his number Angela added, "Put it on speaker and call him with Axel, you two are the best sweet talkers in this whole building." I internally groaned at that, still irate at him for throwing a fucking train at me.

Then I yelled into the back at him, "Axel get your ass over here!" Everyone had parted immediately, seeming scared of my tone. Which I found quite amusing. Even Axel seemed unsettled by it when he cautiously came to my desk.

"Oh no, teacher did I do something wrong?" He ended up sarcastically asking, deliberately trying to get on my nerves.

"No. Sit your ass down. Everyone else go do whatever your jobs are. Angela, just go sit in your office and breathe." I barked out, changing my tone for Angela. Everyone did as ordered and scattered to the back.

"You get all dressed up for me? Aw you shouldn't have." Axel continued his button pushing, smirking at knowing it's pissing me off. Stupid bastard.

"Not for you. I'm going to a stupid party in ten minutes that made me waste three hundred dollars on a fuckin dress they're probably still going to hate on and gossip about. We're calling Newman to sweet talk him out of canceling everything, mkay?" I retorted, glaring over at him.

I picked up my phone again, started dialing and put the call on speaker phone, getting answered almost immediately with a confused hello. "Hello, Mr. Newman?" I returned sweetly, then explained who I am, added that Axel was here too and explained why we were calling. I leaned on my desk with my sore arm and instantly winced, lifting it to hold against my body.

"Ahh.... I figured you'd be calling at some point. Listen... It's nothing personal, I just lost the interest in it is all."

"Okay, fair enough. May we ask though, why did you lose interest?? If it's something we could help with maybe we can spark your interest again." I practically cooed, god I hate doing this. However it is saving my boss and friend from going into debt so it's worth it.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you. I loved the ideas but now I'm just not interested o–"

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but if you don't mind my asking... How can you love something and then immediately get bored by it?" Axel butted in smoothly, winking at me. I rolled my eyes while Newman pondered his question.

Then we heard a sigh on his end before he admitted, "Okay... You got me there... I'm getting a divorce and my soon-to-be-ex wife had liked most of those ideas more than I did. I don't need constant reminders of my failed marriage."

"Oh Mr. Newman we're so sorry to hear that, but... if you're still wanting upgrades and changes to your building we can just change up the ideas to things you yourself like."

"Yes we could, it's still very early in the project so we can order different things for you." I added fake excited, he doesn't know it's fake though.

He thought for a moment and sighed again, "Two against one isn't very fair."

"Can we take that as a yes to continuing with us?" I inquired happily. He agreed so we thanked him and said our byes.

As soon as I hung up I dropped the phone on my desk to start seeing what's wrong with the computers, Axel still here giving me a weird look which I ignored.

"What are you doing?"

 "Fixing the computers. Duh."

"Since when did you know how to fix computers?"

I could hear the pure surprise in his voice, rolled my eyes and started towards the door, saying over my shoulder, "Since goddamn middle school. Go calm Angela down with the good news, I have to go now that I've fixed both problems I was called here about."

"You seriously have a party you're going to?" Axel idiotically questioned.

"Uh yeah, why the hell would I lie about that? Though technically according to the incompetent people there it isn't a party, it's a "get together". Where they drink and mingle like nobody's business which is exactly how parties are but whatever. They're all obnoxious, stuck up, pieces of shit all of whom I fricken hate to no end. Bye." With that I went out the door to my car and drove to the restaurant after checking if Ian actually texted me the name. Thankfully he wasn't a dick and did text it to me so I knew where I was going.