Chapter 90: A Date?

Bonus Chapter at 2.5k stones.

...

"I mean, the success rate doesn’t have to be 100%, ju—"

"No, it has to be 100%."

For Natasha, just a chance was enough. But John cut her off; there was no room for negotiation here.

He didn’t want to take chances when it came to the brain. As for why he planned on fixing that issue as well, even if it wasn’t included in the original deal?

Because he could, and he wanted to.

Despite her shenanigans and his distaste for her sometimes handsy approach, John still respected her as a combatant and as a woman.

And even more so after seeing that level of grit. Honestly, he was surprised. Although he had wanted her to hold onto that part that was removed, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

Even in Gwen’s case, he could feel that her soul was slowly growing to catch up to her body, even against her will.

But this Black Widow in front of him was far more resilient than he had initially thought.

"I will not lie... I am really liking this side of you." Still, at the moment, Natasha kept the sly smile on her face, even showing a bit of fake dejection after he had let go of her hand.

’I was enjoying that teasing.’ Even if the connection was uncomfortable, it was a connection. At least to her.

"Was this all you wanted to talk about?" John moved the subject along before she could spin another web of words.

"Not really." Natasha removed her baseball cap, letting her silky red hair fall onto her shoulders for a moment. "The house you asked for, it’s done."

It had been a hassle to do this since she had to jump through several hoops to avoid SHIELD finding her involvement. The last thing she wanted Fury to know was that she had a secret arrangement with the target of her mission.

Still, it was a moment for her to brush up on her old skills and a fun little side project.

"That’s nice." John nodded, expecting the details, but she just smirked at him.

"Are you free tomorrow night?" The question came out of nowhere. Well, not exactly nowhere, since this was still Black Widow.

"Depends." John had some things to take care of, but he should have free time.

"Well, then I’ll pick you up at 8." Natasha stood up with a wink.

But instead of leaving, she stood there for a moment and stared at him. Like really stared at him as the slight expectation in her eyes fizzled out.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to speak, she did.

"Not gonna ask if it’s a date or anything?"

"Is it a date?" John tilted his head.

"On paper it is a date, I suppose." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But I have something else planned as well. Like a big surprise, if you will."

"Ok then." John didn’t see anything wrong with the invitation, so he accepted.

Natasha gave him a long look before putting her cap back on and walking out. It seemed that he had already adapted to her shenanigans.

Drinking the last sip of his coffee, John thought about the real reason Natasha invited him out tomorrow. There was no way it was something as simple as a date or a surprise, right?

’Is it to talk about something she can’t do here because of the Agents that were keeping an eye on us?’ John wondered what it could be while climbing the stairs to his apartment.

Maybe it was something she found out about Yelena, or something else regarding Charles Xavier?

Well, if it was a simple date or something else, he’d know when the next day came.

For now, the only thing that mattered to him was the number of registered readers on the website.

Registered Users: 11,678

After closing the door behind him and making sure to pull the curtains, he broke into a smile.

’It’s over 9000!’ John smirked to himself while doing the usual shoulder dance.

Even if the readers had gone over 9000 for a while, he just wanted to make that reference.

He had been acting so calm since morning that his shoulders turned stiff. And not just today; over the past few days, he had been in a protective mode over Gwen, and when Natasha showed up, he shifted into serious mode.

Feeling about her soul and tried to figure out a way to keep his end of the deal. Even now, before he checked the website on his computer, his mind was on why she had invited him out the next day.

But being too serious wasn’t his thing, and the dance really got the blood flowing.

After a few good moves that would make any dancer bleach their eyes, John plopped down on his chair and started spinning around in the middle of the room like an idiot.

The heat Fight Club got from the news and politicians, all name-dropping John Doe, only sent more readers his way. Although the real-world Fight Club had been silent since the Centurion Club incident, he still got a big boost because of it.

And the numbers were still climbing as he kept chuckling like a third-grade mastermind that had planned everything, even though he hadn’t planned shit.

But more EP was always welcome.

Another thing that boosted the audience numbers was the musical score for Princess Mononoke. That thing had caused quite the stir in the reader base, and these days it was trending in the music blogs, and there were even covers on YouTube.

The one thing that really blew it over the top was a short fan voice-over of the important scenes with the music in the background and pages from the manga setting the scene.

That part was going viral on the internet, and he even got dozens of readers sending him DMs about it. Most of them were filled with curses, and that made them even funnier.

Both old and new readers were still devastated by Look Back and 5 Centimetre Per Second. Some were even asking him to make an alternate ending for the stories in question.

One reader in particular was super unhappy with the way things ended for North No. 2 and Brando.

It seemed this guy was so obsessed with this that he had started writing a fanfic of Pluto. But that wasn’t the issue, and it wasn’t even the fact that there were many supportive readers on Rivulta reading this work.

What caught his attention was the username this guy used.

Things_we_could’ve_had_if_JohnDoe_was_hugged_as_a_child

’Yep, this is the shit I signed up for.’ This was internet humour at its finest; it didn’t really bother him since he wasn’t the real writer anyway.

He was more of a conduit bringing these stories from the other side, and most of the time even he had similar things to say about writers who loved killing off their characters.

"And I was hugged plenty of times as a child, ok?" He huffed as an interesting piece of news appeared on the T.V.

"A well-known European billionaire has shown interest in purchasing the Amazon Rainforest for the sake of preserving nature and the wildlife within from the aggressive deforestation. He has revealed in an interview that an online story he had stumbled upon had made him question how we as a species are destroying our own planet." The decent-looking news anchor continued with a half-smile; it was almost like he himself only found the topic amusing at best.

"Although there are some protests from the local populace, it is expected that the meeting between the special government committee and the billionaire would be facilitated at a Hellfire Club’s charity event, possibly gaining interest and contributions from other wealthy industrialists and elites..."

Just last week there was news of countries all over the world restarting the making of nuclear weapons, and today billionaires were working on preserving nature? And the Hellfire Club of all things was arranging the meeting at their supposed charity event?

’That’s Marvel for you, I suppose.’ Still, John supported the notion at least.

He would’ve loved to contribute a little if he had money, and he really had the money, but it wasn’t ideal to access all of it in his current situation.

’$5k a volume is enough for now.’ He could’ve charged more, but that was something he could scale up later.

There was no point in being greedy, not like the money was running away or something.

After listening a bit more, he turned the TV off and focused on the next thing he had to do.

Shopping for powers.