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….
In response, I got a nod. Impulsive, firm, and still without a shadow of doubt in her desires.
"Okay, let's calm down a little," I gently placed my hands on the girl's shoulders, immediately feeling through the clothes how she continued to be racked by strong tremors, albeit invisible in the gloom.
Yeah, we have clear hysteria here, and logic won't help the matter. Need something else, something that will switch her gears…
"Let's start with the fact that I am not human," and I fell silent, waiting for a reaction. No reaction followed. "I mean, not human at all, not even a mutant," waiting… looking at each other… reaction, zero.
"Right, okay…" I smacked my lips, realizing it wouldn't be simple. "My name is Loki, I am the Norse God of Magic, I am over a thousand years old, and I am one of the most famous bad guys in human history… you hear me, right?" Yuriko nodded readily, but the reaction was limited to that.
"I am eccentric, narcissistic, insufferable, shameless, disgustingly tactless, and if you come with me, there will be no turning back. Do you need this?"
"I agree," goddammit, what is this fanatical fatalism?!
"Agree to what?"
"To help you. I will be useful."
"Do you even know who Odin, Thor, Loki are?.. I mean, you understand what I'm warning you about right now, don't you?"
"Yes," the girl nodded shortly and succinctly once again.
Silently releasing her shoulders, I took a step back and swept a fresh glance over Stryker's former assistant.
The gloom of the night warehouse wasn't very conducive to a detailed assessment of facial features even for Jotun vision, but actually… If you look closely and remove those glasses…
Perhaps one could say this was the second beautiful girl I met in this world. Black Widow doesn't count, Scarlett Johansson isn't my type.
A-and… this beautiful girl wants to work for me…
Only the question arose: do I need this? Plus a number of others, like: won't she change her mind when she comes to her senses? Can she be trusted? Did Stryker's cocktail damage any brain functions?
Even if the latter was unlikely, since even literal frying of the brain with molten metal doesn't affect the sanity of regenerators, proven by Logan, but you never know?
On the other hand, just taking and abandoning a lady in distress… it's not that I couldn't, but damn, this is the second beautiful girl met by me in this universe, and I've already managed to scour a multi-million city with suburbs quite thoroughly.
Besides, she is Japanese. Not that I had anything against the Japanese, especially if they are pretty girls, but even in my past world, the number of their fetishes, oddities in behavioral paradigms, and simply the size and quantity of cockroaches in their heads made any European hiccup nervously and look for a tank of sacred promethium.
What might be happening in this world, and with a "victim of an experiment" to boot, I'm even scared to think, but for some reason, I doubt little that she might glitch out.
Fine, this question can be returned to and finally decided when she recovers. Right now, trying to dissuade her somehow is useless, and playing hide-and-seek and hasty flight, especially with Stryker's body on my back, I definitely won't do, for such an action would undermine my divine dignity.
Who said anything about laziness?
Glancing once more into the eyes of the huddled girl, I sighed heavily. Why the hell do I keep taking on extra headaches?
"Deal. Here," I pulled a box of chocolate chip cookies from my pocket dimension.
Yes, I go to the store sometimes; I can't just eat the kids out of house and home in Xavier's kitchen, can I?
"When you finish eating, you will commence your new duties."
"What is this?" Yuriko accepted the box in confusion.
"Cookies of the Dark Side," I smiled like the complete idiot I felt like. "If you've volunteered to be the handmaiden of an evil deity, we must observe traditions. And yes, I warned you about the eccentricity, but you can still back out. You can always back out until you eat the cookie!.. But after that, it is too late!"
"I understand," the woman nodded mechanically and, completely ignoring the warning, opened the package.
How I managed to refrain from facepalming with the full majesty of a divine hand, I have no idea.
Although, perhaps I was just ashamed to sink any lower. However, to avoid watching the poor Japanese girl chew the cookies with such focused intensity, as if the global sea level depended on it, I hastened to step away and deal with Stryker.
Gutting his memory, I didn't care much about the safety of the process for the victim; I was far more concerned that he didn't interfere or resist.
I had been much more careful with Erik Lehnsherr, and I viewed a noticeably smaller volume of his mind, only what concerned scientific research and the current situation on the front lines of his struggle.
The same situation applied to Stark, only without the struggle.
However, the Colonel's personal life didn't concern me either, nor did the first issues of Playboy that fell into his hands in his distant youth.
Nevertheless, the volume of "dirty deeds" was still very large. While Loki's brain endured this flow of information calmly, Stryker felt bad.
And he would feel bad for another week or so, with constant bouts of dizziness and loss of consciousness.
It would be bad for him after that too, but he wasn't supposed to be alive by then anyway. For my plans, his current state suited me perfectly.
Lifting the obese body by the scruff of the neck, I easily carried him to his own car and dumped him in the back seat.
Then I took the mobile phone from the colonel's inner pocket and, finding the necessary number, called the nanny of Jason Stryker, or Mutant 143, as his own father preferred to call him after giving him a lobotomy.
An audio illusion, a short dialogue, and now the last participant of the upcoming performance was ready to be brought to the set decorations, waiting only for the appointed time.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
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