Wish to read chapters ahead of here? Visit my Patreøn.
Link: Patreøn.com/Master4thWall
—
Chapter 29: Business Deal? (1)
—
Enrique went inside the villa with Anna, but as he had feared, he wasn't greeted by either Greer or Ava.
Holding back a frown, he tried to smell the two girls before reaching a conclusion.
His nose was sensitive even in his human form, using which he thankfully found the smell of the two girls hiding in the closest inside Greer's room.
"Those two have fallen asleep," Enrique lied to Anna, unwilling to confront them now. "Let's not bother them."
Anna quickly nodded and followed behind him as he climbed the stairs.
Anna's bedroom was the first after climbing the stairs. Enrique helped open the door and then turned around to walk to the second room right beside it, which was his room.
Before Enrique could walk away though, Anna gently tucked his cape.
"Um…" Anna hesitated when he turned around to look at her. "You are not coming today…?"
The villa was huge, so naturally both Anna and Enrique had a room of their own. Yet, even though this would be their third night in this villa, these two had yet to sleep separately.
"Ah, I am pretty tired today." Enrique looked at her. "You should just sleep too."
"I wasn't suggesting that we… you know… do 'that'." Anna shifted in her spot, uncomfortable. "We can sleep in the same room, just sleep. I feel safer if you are close to me when I sleep. Can you come?"
Enrique's eyes seemed to become unreadable for a moment before he nodded.
"Alright. Sure."
Anna smiled brightly.
* * *
Ava Ayala and Greer Nelson hid in the closet for five more hours, fearful that the suspicious men would come to search this room and find them.
Thankfully, no such thing happened.
Annoyingly, they found that Enrique and Anna had returned– yet hadn't bothered to warn them that everything was fine.
An annoyed Greer wanted to shout and wake those two sleep worms at once, but surprisingly it was Ava who suggested against it.
"Let's not do that, they worked hard, they must be tired." Ava hesitated before sighing and admitting. "....Especially that guy. It seemed he gave his all."
"Oh." Greer blinked. "You like him now?"
"What? No. Of course not." Ava scoffed. "Sure, he might be a decent 'Superhero' who cares for the helpless public, but that's not an excuse to neglect the people in his personal life. Let alone take advantage of them."
Greer watched her face for a moment, before shrugging. 'Oh well, she's always been a bit too annoyingly stubborn.'
"Anyhow, we should get some sleep before the sun rises." Ava yawned.
"I guess. Hey, let's sleep together."
"Huh?"
"Come on."
Even though Ava tried, she couldn't resist since she had given Anna her powers, so Greer easily pulled her to the bedroom.
* * *
The next morning, Enrique woke up earlier than the others. He had made that a habit in his last life to keep his health in check and didn’t plan to abandon it in this life either– unless he ever got the chance to earn a power that made him not need any sleep.
[“Good morning.”]
“Morning.”
Enrique exchanged greetings with Mut while brewing coffee, tilting his head to carefully pour a certain amount of the coffee powder into the boiling water.
Later, while drinking coffee, Enrique asked. “You don’t sleep?”
[“Time Zones.]” Mut replied immediately. [“You may notice my lack of speech from time to time, that’s when I take short naps when it’s daytime for you. As a deity, I don't need to take more than a nap."]
“Oh,” Enrique paused while drinking. “Even Gods are confined by time zones, huh? Such a scary thing indeed.”
[“Indeed. My heaven is parallel with Egypt's time zone, so it’s night here when it’s night in Egypt. My son Khonsu doesn’t need to sleep though, as a night-related Deity, he is immune to it.”]
“Aha,” Enrique sipped his coffee. “Good to know.”
If such a thing was possible for a deity, perhaps there would be certain magical items that’d allow him to skip sleep. He loved to sleep, sure, but if the 8 hours of sleep time could be skipped then he could increase his productivity by a few times.
That was for later, though. For now, Enrique would be occupied with his [Nova Games] company. He would need big capital for the future plans he has, so growing his company, fast, was a must.
There was also the problem with The Hand– related to Ava and Greer– but he couldn’t do anything about it without Hand approaching him first. So he kept that matter in the back of his head for now.
Just as Enrique finished his coffee, his phone, which was kept on a table to his side, buzzed with message notifications.
It was a message from Peter Parker, the kid who got his ass saved last night.
"Look at him contacting me now," Enrique licked his lips clean as he picked up his phone.
[Peter: Enrique? Thanks for the save last night. Really appreciate it. I am not good with texting, so maybe I am not able to properly express my reaction. Just thank you so much, that was such a tight situation for me.]
Enrique involuntarily smiled a little as he read the message. It felt quite nice hearing that, truth be told.
Enrique sent back a message saying if he was alright along with his friends, to which Peter replied immediately.
[Peter: Uh, we are fine. But… they found out. The three of them. That I am Spider-Man. That's why I couldn't text you last night, they had me busy all night. Don't worry, I remember your advice, I had them promise me to never leak this. I think they are trustable.]
"Hmmm…"
Enrique tried recalling who the three students beside Peter were last night. When he failed to recall them, he just asked Peter.
Peter's reply made Enrique blink.
'Aha… Ned, the knock-off MJ, and Liz. Eh, only Liz is the unaccounted one here. The other two would have learned about it at some point anyway.' Enrique thought to himself.
He came up with a response to have Peter relax on this matter, and then sent a text.
[Enrique: I don't know about this Ned and MJ, you speak of, but just leave Liz Allan to me. I doubt she'd reveal your secret anyway, but I will talk with her about this just in case.]
Peter thanked him once more for thinking about him and soon took his leave when apparently his aunt called him for breakfast.
[Peter: By the way, Aunt May wants to thank you sometime for saving me and my school. So don't mind dropping by if you have time!]
That was Peter's last text as Enrique hummed to himself.
'Maybe later.'
Right now, he needed to train with Greer.
* * *
Anna, Ava and Greer woke up not long after that.
Enrique had prepared coffee for them too, then when Enrique was cooking food Greer decided to join him and help. The two kids didn't know how to cook, so they just sat at the dining table and chatted amongst themselves.
There was a mandatory break time after eating, and only after that did the four of them start their training.
However, a minor problem proposed itself right then.
"So how exactly do you suggest I spar with Anna if touching her means I lose?" Ava asked while looking at Enrique. "Such a fight is unfair and also, we are not doing boxing so just covering our fists with clothing wouldn't work."
"Sadly, your points are correct." Enrique agreed to Ava's words. "For now, though it would be sweaty, Anna has no choice but to fight in her Super Suit, with her gloves on. At least, even if the suit may get her sweaty in no time, it's still comfortable to wear so she wouldn't have any trouble moving. You'd only have to be careful with her face since it's still open, but I am sure you can manage that."
Ava thought for a moment before sighing. As time passed, everyone here was realising the things Anna had to go through.
Anna herself didn't look that troubled, however. She looked rather excited to be able to learn to fight.
* * *
Soon, Ava and Anna started to go at each other while Enrique stood in front of Greer on the other side of the hall.
"You are not transforming?" Tigra asked while looking at Enrique who was wearing black loose trousers and a tank top of similar colour.
"No. I would not use either my Suit or my transformation." Enrique said. "Not at the start, anyway. I wanna start from the bottom, with close to zero powers."
He said 'close to zero' because just being Mut's avatar gave a partial physical boost even without the Suit. He also had a partial strength boost from his Mutant side, even in base form. He wanted to start training from here.
"I also want to slowly start spreading my beast Transformation through my body, in separate stages, instead of entering the final form from the start," said Enrique. "Let's call the current me 'Gear 0' and start from here."
Greer looked somewhat confused at why he was doing this, but she didn't really care about it and just went with it.
Soon, the fight started.
* * *
The training lasted for four hours, with short breaks in between.
There were a few instances when Ava's skin accidentally touched Anna's face, but since it was a very short amount of time neither of them were hurt.
The case with Greer and Enrique was a bit different, however. As the fight had progressed, Enrique involuntarily kept transforming into his beast form and at one stage he entered his full form, with huge spiky claws coming out of his elbows and wrists. So he had to stop the fight there unless he accidentally hurt Greer.
"This is annoying."
Enrique complained in a deeper voice than usual and then drank water from a bottle that looked too small in his now large hand.
"I am stuck like this until I sleep. Fuck."
He had, at least, pulled back his spiky claws back inside. After which, he had to enter his [Lightning Cloak] state to heal the gross, open wounds that the claws left.
The three girls were on the side, sitting on their butts and huffing as they sweated buckets and chatted amongst themselves.
– Bzz!
It was then when Enrique's phone buzzed from beside the girls, making him sigh a little. His hands were too big to use his phone right now.
"Ava, can you bring me the phone?" Enrique called out since she was the least tired girl here.
Ava hesitated for a moment before nodding and approaching him with the phone. Enrique thanked her and barely unlocked the device to find Peter's newest message.
[Peter: Also, uh, forgot to ask this before but do you know that cat-woman from last night? At least do you know if she's safe or not? She was last night's hero too, in the student's hearts.]
Enrique was about to reply that she probably was fine, but right then his phone rang. This time, it wasn't a message. It was an audio call.
'A call in my business number…' Enrique noted as he sighed once again, realising his voice was coarse and monster-ish right now. But he had to take the call since it was on his business number.
"...Ava, help me out here. Take this call and say the stuff I tell you to say." Enrique had no choice but to ask for help, to which Ava sighed but nodded soon.
Ava received the call as Enrique whispered to her right here while she held the phone on the loudspeaker in front of her face.
["Hello?"] a mature female's voice spoke from the other side of the phone.
"This is… Nova Games. How can we help you?" Ava replied as Enrique guided her.
["This is Lydia Hardy, owner and CEO of Hardy Corporations."] The voice replied with booming confidence. ["I wish to speak to CEO Enrique Nova, if possible. It is about a business proposal."
Enrique froze, failing to connect certain dots in this situation.
Soon, however, via Ava's help, Enrique agreed to a meetup.
**
**
**
Wish to read chapters ahead of here? Visit my Patreøn.
Link: Patreøn.com/Master4thWall
—
Chapter 29: Business Deal? (1)
—
Enrique went inside the villa with Anna, but as he had feared, he wasn't greeted by either Greer or Ava.
Holding back a frown, he tried to smell the two girls before reaching a conclusion.
His nose was sensitive even in his human form, using which he thankfully found the smell of the two girls hiding in the closest inside Greer's room.
"Those two have fallen asleep," Enrique lied to Anna, unwilling to confront them now. "Let's not bother them."
Anna quickly nodded and followed behind him as he climbed the stairs.
Anna's bedroom was the first after climbing the stairs. Enrique helped open the door and then turned around to walk to the second room right beside it, which was his room.
Before Enrique could walk away though, Anna gently tucked his cape.
"Um…" Anna hesitated when he turned around to look at her. "You are not coming today…?"
The villa was huge, so naturally both Anna and Enrique had a room of their own. Yet, even though this would be their third night in this villa, these two had yet to sleep separately.
"Ah, I am pretty tired today." Enrique looked at her. "You should just sleep too."
"I wasn't suggesting that we… you know… do 'that'." Anna shifted in her spot, uncomfortable. "We can sleep in the same room, just sleep. I feel safer if you are close to me when I sleep. Can you come?"
Enrique's eyes seemed to become unreadable for a moment before he nodded.
"Alright. Sure."
Anna smiled brightly.
* * *
Ava Ayala and Greer Nelson hid in the closet for five more hours, fearful that the suspicious men would come to search this room and find them.
Thankfully, no such thing happened.
Annoyingly, they found that Enrique and Anna had returned– yet hadn't bothered to warn them that everything was fine.
An annoyed Greer wanted to shout and wake those two sleep worms at once, but surprisingly it was Ava who suggested against it.
"Let's not do that, they worked hard, they must be tired." Ava hesitated before sighing and admitting. "....Especially that guy. It seemed he gave his all."
"Oh." Greer blinked. "You like him now?"
"What? No. Of course not." Ava scoffed. "Sure, he might be a decent 'Superhero' who cares for the helpless public, but that's not an excuse to neglect the people in his personal life. Let alone take advantage of them."
Greer watched her face for a moment, before shrugging. 'Oh well, she's always been a bit too annoyingly stubborn.'
"Anyhow, we should get some sleep before the sun rises." Ava yawned.
"I guess. Hey, let's sleep together."
"Huh?"
"Come on."
Even though Ava tried, she couldn't resist since she had given Anna her powers, so Greer easily pulled her to the bedroom.
* * *
The next morning, Enrique woke up earlier than the others. He had made that a habit in his last life to keep his health in check and didn’t plan to abandon it in this life either– unless he ever got the chance to earn a power that made him not need any sleep.
[“Good morning.”]
“Morning.”
Enrique exchanged greetings with Mut while brewing coffee, tilting his head to carefully pour a certain amount of the coffee powder into the boiling water.
Later, while drinking coffee, Enrique asked. “You don’t sleep?”
[“Time Zones.]” Mut replied immediately. [“You may notice my lack of speech from time to time, that’s when I take short naps when it’s daytime for you. As a deity, I don't need to take more than a nap."]
“Oh,” Enrique paused while drinking. “Even Gods are confined by time zones, huh? Such a scary thing indeed.”
[“Indeed. My heaven is parallel with Egypt's time zone, so it’s night here when it’s night in Egypt. My son Khonsu doesn’t need to sleep though, as a night-related Deity, he is immune to it.”]
“Aha,” Enrique sipped his coffee. “Good to know.”
If such a thing was possible for a deity, perhaps there would be certain magical items that’d allow him to skip sleep. He loved to sleep, sure, but if the 8 hours of sleep time could be skipped then he could increase his productivity by a few times.
That was for later, though. For now, Enrique would be occupied with his [Nova Games] company. He would need big capital for the future plans he has, so growing his company, fast, was a must.
There was also the problem with The Hand– related to Ava and Greer– but he couldn’t do anything about it without Hand approaching him first. So he kept that matter in the back of his head for now.
Just as Enrique finished his coffee, his phone, which was kept on a table to his side, buzzed with message notifications.
It was a message from Peter Parker, the kid who got his ass saved last night.
"Look at him contacting me now," Enrique licked his lips clean as he picked up his phone.
[Peter: Enrique? Thanks for the save last night. Really appreciate it. I am not good with texting, so maybe I am not able to properly express my reaction. Just thank you so much, that was such a tight situation for me.]
Enrique involuntarily smiled a little as he read the message. It felt quite nice hearing that, truth be told.
Enrique sent back a message saying if he was alright along with his friends, to which Peter replied immediately.
[Peter: Uh, we are fine. But… they found out. The three of them. That I am Spider-Man. That's why I couldn't text you last night, they had me busy all night. Don't worry, I remember your advice, I had them promise me to never leak this. I think they are trustable.]
"Hmmm…"
Enrique tried recalling who the three students beside Peter were last night. When he failed to recall them, he just asked Peter.
Peter's reply made Enrique blink.
'Aha… Ned, the knock-off MJ, and Liz. Eh, only Liz is the unaccounted one here. The other two would have learned about it at some point anyway.' Enrique thought to himself.
He came up with a response to have Peter relax on this matter, and then sent a text.
[Enrique: I don't know about this Ned and MJ, you speak of, but just leave Liz Allan to me. I doubt she'd reveal your secret anyway, but I will talk with her about this just in case.]
Peter thanked him once more for thinking about him and soon took his leave when apparently his aunt called him for breakfast.
[Peter: By the way, Aunt May wants to thank you sometime for saving me and my school. So don't mind dropping by if you have time!]
That was Peter's last text as Enrique hummed to himself.
'Maybe later.'
Right now, he needed to train with Greer.
* * *
Anna, Ava and Greer woke up not long after that.
Enrique had prepared coffee for them too, then when Enrique was cooking food Greer decided to join him and help. The two kids didn't know how to cook, so they just sat at the dining table and chatted amongst themselves.
There was a mandatory break time after eating, and only after that did the four of them start their training.
However, a minor problem proposed itself right then.
"So how exactly do you suggest I spar with Anna if touching her means I lose?" Ava asked while looking at Enrique. "Such a fight is unfair and also, we are not doing boxing so just covering our fists with clothing wouldn't work."
"Sadly, your points are correct." Enrique agreed to Ava's words. "For now, though it would be sweaty, Anna has no choice but to fight in her Super Suit, with her gloves on. At least, even if the suit may get her sweaty in no time, it's still comfortable to wear so she wouldn't have any trouble moving. You'd only have to be careful with her face since it's still open, but I am sure you can manage that."
Ava thought for a moment before sighing. As time passed, everyone here was realising the things Anna had to go through.
Anna herself didn't look that troubled, however. She looked rather excited to be able to learn to fight.
* * *
Soon, Ava and Anna started to go at each other while Enrique stood in front of Greer on the other side of the hall.
"You are not transforming?" Tigra asked while looking at Enrique who was wearing black loose trousers and a tank top of similar colour.
"No. I would not use either my Suit or my transformation." Enrique said. "Not at the start, anyway. I wanna start from the bottom, with close to zero powers."
He said 'close to zero' because just being Mut's avatar gave a partial physical boost even without the Suit. He also had a partial strength boost from his Mutant side, even in base form. He wanted to start training from here.
"I also want to slowly start spreading my beast Transformation through my body, in separate stages, instead of entering the final form from the start," said Enrique. "Let's call the current me 'Gear 0' and start from here."
Greer looked somewhat confused at why he was doing this, but she didn't really care about it and just went with it.
Soon, the fight started.
* * *
The training lasted for four hours, with short breaks in between.
There were a few instances when Ava's skin accidentally touched Anna's face, but since it was a very short amount of time neither of them were hurt.
The case with Greer and Enrique was a bit different, however. As the fight had progressed, Enrique involuntarily kept transforming into his beast form and at one stage he entered his full form, with huge spiky claws coming out of his elbows and wrists. So he had to stop the fight there unless he accidentally hurt Greer.
"This is annoying."
Enrique complained in a deeper voice than usual and then drank water from a bottle that looked too small in his now large hand.
"I am stuck like this until I sleep. Fuck."
He had, at least, pulled back his spiky claws back inside. After which, he had to enter his [Lightning Cloak] state to heal the gross, open wounds that the claws left.
The three girls were on the side, sitting on their butts and huffing as they sweated buckets and chatted amongst themselves.
– Bzz!
It was then when Enrique's phone buzzed from beside the girls, making him sigh a little. His hands were too big to use his phone right now.
"Ava, can you bring me the phone?" Enrique called out since she was the least tired girl here.
Ava hesitated for a moment before nodding and approaching him with the phone. Enrique thanked her and barely unlocked the device to find Peter's newest message.
[Peter: Also, uh, forgot to ask this before but do you know that cat-woman from last night? At least do you know if she's safe or not? She was last night's hero too, in the student's hearts.]
Enrique was about to reply that she probably was fine, but right then his phone rang. This time, it wasn't a message. It was an audio call.
'A call in my business number…' Enrique noted as he sighed once again, realising his voice was coarse and monster-ish right now. But he had to take the call since it was on his business number.
"...Ava, help me out here. Take this call and say the stuff I tell you to say." Enrique had no choice but to ask for help, to which Ava sighed but nodded soon.
Ava received the call as Enrique whispered to her right here while she held the phone on the loudspeaker in front of her face.
["Hello?"] a mature female's voice spoke from the other side of the phone.
"This is… Nova Games. How can we help you?" Ava replied as Enrique guided her.
["This is Lydia Hardy, owner and CEO of Hardy Corporations."] The voice replied with booming confidence. ["I wish to speak to CEO Enrique Nova, if possible. It is about a business proposal."
Enrique froze, failing to connect certain dots in this situation.
Soon, however, via Ava's help, Enrique agreed to a meetup.
**
**
**
