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"Hawk, check these readings."
"One-oh-eight."
"Hawk, I've got to run down to the SL lab. Can you file the papers on my desk for me?"
"No problem."
Today was Hawk's twentieth day as a summer intern at Oscorp Industries.
And he still hadn't found an opportunity to get to Dr. Connors's lab.
In fact, forget Dr. Connors's lab, in twenty days, he hadn't even set foot outside the Bio-Electricity Engineering department.
From the moment he clocked in to the moment he clocked out, he was busy. He was either reading data for someone or on his way to read data for someone.
Or, like right now, cleaning up someone else's desk.
Hawk watched the engineer hurry out of the office and walked over to the man's workstation.
Even though it had been twenty days and he was no closer to his goal, he wasn't worried.
For one, good things come to those who wait.
And for another...
This place might be a madhouse, but the pay was incredible.
Eight hundred dollars a week, plus a free all-you-can-eat buffet in the 18th-floor cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
He might have briefly considered robbing a bank last month, but he hadn't actually done it.
Most importantly.
A line in the sand is meant to be crossed, but until he was forced to cross it, Hawk wanted to stay on the right side of it for as long as possible.
Because he was afraid.
Hawk had no idea what kind of person he would become once he finally broke his own rules.
It's a well-known fact.
Transmigrators are a species with a particularly flexible moral compass, and a deep, instinctual detachment from the people and events around them.
Hawk was no exception.
That was why he avoided socializing. Sometimes, when he looked at other people, he couldn't help but feel like he was looking at NPCs in a video game.
It was a feeling of... being the only sane person in a world of lunatics.
The reason he was still willing to play by the rules, even after awakening his Cosmo, was simple.
The values he'd been raised with in his past life were still ingrained in him: Be a good person. Or, if you can't be good, at least don't be evil.
That was why, even with his incredible power, Hawk still lived a relatively humble life.
Any other transmigrator, on the first day they got powers, would have probably declared themselves the new God of this world.
The most important reason might just be that he was a genuinely good person.
Unfortunately—
Hawk had a feeling that this line he was so determined not to cross would have to be crossed soon, whether he wanted to or not.
But until then, he was happy to follow the rules.
Having been at Oscorp for a few weeks now, Hawk was familiar with the department's rhythm. He quickly organized the scattered papers on the engineer's desk, carried them over to the filing cabinet, and put them away in their proper place.
...
Just then, the office phone rang.
"Haw—"
"I'll get it."
Hawk cut in, walking over and picking up the receiver. "Bio-Electricity Engineering."
"Oh, Hawk?" A familiar voice came through the line.
Hawk raised an eyebrow. "Gwen?"
He hadn't seen her since she had brought him to the department on his first day.
He was busy.
She was even busier.
Even from his isolated post in the engineering department, Hawk had heard the rumors. For the past few weeks, Dr. Connors had been working like a madman.
They weren't just ordering lab rats by the dozen anymore, they were ordering them by the crate.
It was insane.
"Yeah, it's me," Gwen said. "Hey, the voltage in our lab is fluctuating again. Dr. Connors wants you guys to send someone over to take a look."
"Okay, right away."
Hawk hung up and relayed the message to the department supervisor.
The supervisor—a fifty-year-old man with a completely bald head and the Zen-like calm of someone who had given up on life—glanced around the nearly empty office. "Every lab on this floor is reporting voltage drops today. It's probably the resistors again. We just replaced them yesterday... whatever. You, what's-your-name, take Hawk and go down to Dr. Connors's lab. Swap out their resistor."
Hawk followed the supervisor's gaze to a man standing nearby—a quiet, unassuming man with dark skin and a gentle face. The future Electro.
Yep.
A genuinely decent guy.
Max Dillon was a truly good person. He didn't have any of the sly, cunning traits that Hawk had come to associate with others.
In the past twenty days, Hawk had seen it firsthand. If the Bio-Electricity Engineering department had an "Employee of the Month" award for hard work, Max Dillon would win it every time.
If Max had even a shred of office-politics savvy, he wouldn't still be the guy his own supervisor couldn't remember the name of.
But Max himself didn't seem to mind. Maybe he was just used to being called "what's-your-name." He simply nodded at the supervisor's order and headed to the supply closet to get the parts.
A little while later.
Hawk was waiting by the department entrance when Max walked up. "Mr. Dillon."
Max's entire body jolted, and his pupils seemed to contract.
His voice trembled as he looked at Hawk. "You... you know my name?"
Hawk smiled warmly. "Of course, Mr. Dillon."
He had no intention of getting too close to the future Electro, but that didn't mean he couldn't be kind to the Max Dillon of today.
A little kindness goes a long way.
Hawk looked at Max, who now had tears welling up in his eyes. "Mr. Dillon, we should probably get going. Dr. Connors's lab just called again."
Max snapped out of it and nodded eagerly. "Right, right. Let's go."
Hawk smiled to himself and followed Max toward the elevators.
Finally. A chance to get to Dr. Connors's lab.
As they stepped into the elevator, Hawk looked at the floor indicator lighting up, a sense of irony washing over him.
For the past twenty days, he had been racking his brain, trying to figure out a way to get into that lab.
And he had failed, every single time.
This wasn't the local grocery store.
Did he really think he could just waltz into a lab that Oscorp had poured millions of dollars into, a lab that was on the verge of developing a revolutionary regenerative technology that could monopolize the market?
But the moment he had decided to just let it go and let fate take its course, an opportunity had fallen right into his lap.
Patience is a virtue. You can't rush things.
Hawk silently reminded himself, completing his daily moment of self-reflection.
...
Soon.
The elevator doors opened.
"Hawk!" Gwen was already waiting for them. Her face lit up as she saw him step out. She rushed over. "What took you so long? Dr. Connors is about to blow a gasket."
Before Hawk could even say anything, Gwen had grabbed his arm and was pulling him urgently toward the lab.
Hawk was stunned.
But as he looked past her, toward the lab at the end of the hall...
His heart skipped a beat.
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