New Plan

"Ryuk, I have a question about something Death Note-related." I asked the death god as he lay on my bed, kicking his feet while eating apples. "Ask away." he said between chews, spewing some crumbs from his mouth all over my bed.

I frowned before telling him, "Could you please get off my bed if you're going to be a fucking glutton." I could tell by the smug look on his face that my words were meaningless to him, but then I came up with a great idea. "Ever heard of an apple cobbler?" I asked him, immediately causing his eyebrows to perk up. "No, but it sounds quite delectable."

"Oh, it is." I teased him. "Never touch my bed again and I'll have my aunt make you one. Is that a deal? In fact, I'll sweeten the deal even further. Every week you go without touching my bed, I will give you a new way to eat apples? Deal?" It was as if Ryuk suddenly had super speed as he shot off of my bed, opting to sit in the chair I had off to the side, though I wondered why a god who could levitate even bothered sitting...

"Deal." he told me as he sat in the chair, legs crossed. "Now, what was that question you had for me?"

"Okay, so I cannot have any of the heroes kill each other, right? But can I make them fight each other?" Of course, even if I could kill them in this way, I wouldn't want to. As I said, that would be boring. A god such as myself deserves a much better plot to his story. Legends aren't one-page-long stories.

"I guess that's allowed. Though one of the rules states that a human cannot do something that they would not otherwise do. So if they wouldn't actually fight that person under any circumstances, it may not work. For example, a hero may never punch a baby under any circumstances, therefore you cannot make them do such a thing using the Death Note itself. They also can't do anything impossible or out of the realm of reality. For example, you cannot make a regular human fly into the sun."

Ryuk's explanation brought a smile to my face. It's a bummer that there are limits, but that also lets my creative side have more fun. Though it makes me wonder...

Does that mean Sue Richards's chances of cheating on her husband without the influence of the Death Note were more than zero? If that's the case then I was right in saying that our little sextivities were one hundred percent consensual. Not that I had my doubts or anything before hearing this, as it was clearly consensual anyway. She loved it too.

Enough of that, back to the main point of this chapter of my godly legend. "That doesn't change any of my plans. In fact, the people I want to control would love to do what I have planned." As I spoke, rubbing my chin, I was smiling from ear to ear. I'm a literal fucking genius and the ideas I was cooking up.

"It's a shame I killed Reed Richards already, but someone else will do. I'm thinking someone along the lines of..." I hadn't really chosen exactly who I would use to begin phase one of my plan, however, I knew it had to be someone with tech I could use. "Got it." I swiveled around in my chair and began writing, making sure to craft the perfect death for the man I would be manipulating.

"Bolivar Trask. Wanting to eliminate all mutants and superpowered beings, Bolivar Trask will supply Apo-" Immediately, as I wrote, I stopped in my tracks. 'Shit, I almost fucking killed myself.' I thought, realizing that writing my name would have killed me despite it being in the middle of a sentence. It didn't matter what the context was, if the name was written, that person would die. Quickly, I scratched off the first few letters and continued. "Bolivar Trask will supply this Death Note's current owner with anything he requests, starting with a device that allows the Death Note's current owner to shapeshift into any human he wants. Bolivar Trask will never reveal the identity of the Death Note's current owner, even if tortured. To contact the current Death Note owner, Bolivar Trask will reach him via his untraceable, disposable texting number. Bolivar Trask will die once the current Death Note owner says the words 'Bolivar Trask, you are no longer of use to me.' or if he reaches his destined death date beforehand."

I read my message multiple times, knowing I had a few minutes to make any changes. Ryuk, looking over my shoulder, laughed. "Wow... I haven't seen a death this elaborate in a long while..."

"I bet. The peons you've partnered with in the past probably aren't close to me in intellect anyway. With this, I will be unstoppable." The grin on my face only grew larger as I imagined myself killing every single last hero by simply writing their name in my Death Note.

"I don't understand. What exactly is your plan?" Ryuk asked, still looking at my elaborate death planned for Trask over my shoulder.

"Well, if I am going to learn the identities of the Avengers, I'll need to join them. There's two options for how I could do so. Option A: I can somehow get powers and join them directly. I was thinking I could have Tony Stark's wife give me access to his suits or something, but there's one big issue with a method like that. Why would Iron Man's wife give me access to his equipment? That's an easy way to put myself in a position of suspicion. Only an idiot would actually go through with something like that. As for getting actual powers, I cannot simply tell someone to give me their powers, right? I can only make people do things that they are capable of doing. They cannot simply snap their fingers and bestow powers upon me, except for gods, maybe. However, based on the fact that Thor seems to still be alive, the Death Note doesn't work on gods at all. Also, if I were to get powers, the new kid on the block with the same exact powers as someone who just died would be pretty suspicious. Keeping them alive for a while would only complicate things further for me... The other issue is that it would be pretty boring to get powers and kill everyone.

Now, for option B: I can join SHIELD as an agent, being close to the Avengers, but not too close. As of now, the believe someone with a sort of mind control ability is killing their precious heroes, they will be less likely to suspect that normal human is doing all of the killing. You see, that is where Trask comes in. I could work my way up the CIA or FBI to become a SHIELD agent myself, but that would take years. If I could simply replace a member, wearing his face on mine, I'll be right where I want to be. Not only that, but with Trask's money and abilities, I have access to some of the world's most advanced technology!"

As I explained all of this, Ryuk was staring at me blankly. I probably said too many words for him to follow. I doubt Shinigami have an sort of education so it made sense he couldn't follow. However, despite his lost look, he began to smile and cackle. "This sounds interesting, Apollo. You're becoming my favorite already."

"You haven't seen anything yet." Just as I spoke, I received a message from one of my untracable burner numbers. With this, all conversation between Trask and I would be anonymous and erased from existence, sort of like Snapchat but way more private.

The message was of course from Trask, letting me know that the device would be ready by the next day. Seeing this brought a smile to my face as I responded to him, letting him know that I would be there to pick it up the next evening.

Of course, I am not an idiot, so I will not show him my face. Ryuk will be the one to pick it up for me. Seeing as he can interact with the apples that I have been giving him, it made sense that he could interact with the device and bring it to me. Ryuk mentioned that he and I had to be a certain distance from each other at all times, so I'd simply wait down the street for him while he picked it up for me.

And so, the next day came and went.

Ryuk picked up the device, which took the appearance of a small wristband that I could hide under my clothes and it was also undetectable by any sort of metal detectors and the like. The two of us then headed to coffee shop nearby and waited at one of the booths. In case anyone is lost, Ryuk is invisible to anyone but me, so as we sat on opposite sides of the booth, it appeared as if I was all alone.

However, my appearance had already changed. Using the device that Trask created for me, I took the appearance of a beautiful young woman, one that looked like the type that a SHIELD agent would fall for. Speaking of which, just as we sat down, our agent walked into the coffee shop, and greeted me, his hot date, with a smile.

His name was Phil Coulson, former director of SHIELD. He stepped down from director, giving Nick Fury his position, but he still worked closely with the agency. He had the longest tenure with SHIELD out of anyone currently active, so I chose him as I felt it would be the least suspicious.

As for why I chose to meet him at a coffee shop, it's simple. I wanted to see if anyone was watching. Of course, it wouldn't be simple to find that out by just looking, but that is what Ryuk is for. He circled the building multiple times, finding nothing of suspicion.

Knowing we weren't going to be followed put me at ease, and so I asked Phil to invite me over to his house after the date. He of course said yes, as the instructions for his death in the Death Note said that he would do anything that the woman he was on a date with would tell him.

Before long, he and I were in his bedroom, fully clothed of course. If he were a woman agent, I would've went to pound town but I have no interest in men, especially old men like him. There, I asked him to tell me everything he knew about SHIELD, and I mean everything. For hours he explained to me the ins and outs of the agency, along with his duties. As he spoke, I studied his mannerisms and use of vocabulary, recording the entire thing as well using a tape recorder.

Now, this is where my real genius shined. I had a second device created for me, along with fake passports and a plane ticket for Phil to use. However, he wouldn't be going as Phil, he would be going as Ashley, the woman I was pretending to be. In other words, he and I swapped bodies. I became Phil and he became Ashley before leaving what was now 'my house' to take a flight across the country where he would then die peacefully.