Rewind With A Superstar System

Chapter 177: Agent Loki

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Area Codes by Kalii>

...

The moment Von nudged his silver necklace, it immediately morphed into a ball of black fur.

Loki landed on Von’s legs stetching her body for some long seconds. Once she was satisfied, she jumped right onto the center of the bed, curled up into a tight circle, and closed her eyes to sleep.

Von walked over and tapped the cat’s head. "Yo, I’ll be sneaking out of here for some time to handle something and I’ll need your help. I just need you to go out there, find a janitor or something, morph into them, and find me a staff uniform. Then you’ll bring it back up here in a nylon bag, drop it outside my door like I sent for it, and then return back into the room as your cat self. After that, I’ll tell you what follows."

Loki lazily opened one of her violet eyes. She looked at him as if he had been talking to the wall this entire time.

"No."

"Huh?" Von’s face immediately morphed into a deep frown hearing the flat rejection. "What do you mean, no? You literally do nothing for me all day. You just sleep and eat. This is the absolute least you can do to help me out of a life-or-death situation."

Instead of answering, Von began hearing soft snoring sounds. Loki simply closed her eye again, clearly losing all interest in whatever Von had to say.

Von sighed in heavy resignation. He could clearly see that appealing to her sense of loyalty wasn’t working at all, so he resorted to the only real weapon he had left in his arsenal. Bribery.

"I don’t know if you know this," Von started, pacing the floor slowly, "but this is a really big, five-star hotel. If you help me out with this mission, I can order a lot of premium sushi for you. I’m talking top-tier salmon. A lot more than you can even finish."

Von saw Loki’s violet ears immediately perk up at the promise of food. A second later, the cat got onto her legs and stretched.

"What’s the plan?" Loki asked, her tone suddenly very attentive.

Von smirked. He had finally gotten the greedy cat attention. He leaned in and repeated exactly what he had said before about the janitor disguise, but this time he added a few strict rules.

"Try your absolute best not to speak to anyone while you’re out there. And evade anyone that tries to catch you when you’re moving around in your cat form. Just get the clothes, drop them, and come back. There’s only one more thing to do after that, and then I’ll order your sushis."

"Sure, man..." Loki replied smoothly. "But remember, this is an equivalent exchange, Von. Don’t be full of yourself, and remember the exact promise. You said more sushi than I could finish."

Loki glared at him with an intense look that made Von instantly regret exaggerating the reward, but he couldn’t back out now. He needed her.

"Yes ma’am," Von gave her a mock salute. "Now go show your skills."

Von smiled as Loki immediately sprang into action. She began running erratically around the hotel room, jumping off the desk, bouncing off the walls, and scratching at the wood. Von rushed to the door and acted completely terrified by her sudden wild behavior. He clumsily pulled the heavy room door open just slightly.

The cat took the perfect opportunity and slipped out of the room, bolting into the carpeted hallway.

Just a few doors down, a masked hotel security official saw Von’s door swing open and rushed over, placing his hand on his radio. "Sir, please stay in your room! What’s happening?"

"My cat!" Von pointed down the hallway in absolute horror. "She just went crazy and ran out!"

The security guard quickly apologized and ran down the hall to catch Loki so the guest could return to quarantine.

Of course, catching her was impossible. The small black cat was just too fast and evasive. Just for the memes, Loki even stopped in the middle of the hallway, letting the grown man think he was finally going to catch her. The guard lunged forward with his hands out, only for Loki to effortlessly slip out of his grasp at the very last second, causing the heavy guard to trip over his own boots and crash hard onto the floor.

’Hehe, you humans are so pathetic,’ Loki laughed to herself in her feline mind as she kept running down the corridor to find a janitor and carry out the master plan.

With Loki finally out of his sight, Von quickly closed and locked his door. He returned to the bed to wait for her to complete the mission. With absolutely nothing else to do, he picked up his phone and continued rehearsing the script, trying to memorize Aiden’s lines.

***

The Grand Beverly Hotel was operating under extreme lockdown conditions during that period. Only the essential employees were allowed to move about freely, and they all followed strict schedules. But there was definitely a staff room somewhere in the massive building filled with equipment and clothing, and that was exactly what Loki was looking for.

Loki moved silently around the hotel for about thirty minutes. She navigated the service stairs and the back hallways, eventually finding the basement staff room after trying to evade multiple bored staff members who tried to catch the stray cat, causing numerous embarrassing falls in the process.

When she finally reached the heavy door marked ’Staff Only’, she leaped up at the metal handle, attempting to pull it down and unlock it. But she quickly figured out that the heavy spring mechanism was just too stiff for her small feline body.

"Dang it," she muttered internally.

She dropped back down to the floor and ran off into a dark, unmonitored corner by the laundry machines. She focused her energy and changed into a female maid that had accidentally brushed past her in the lobby earlier.

Loki stood up on two human legs, adjusting the black and white uniform. She looked over at a small reflective glass panel on the wall.

"Dang, I touched the ugly one," Loki complained, clicking her tongue in annoyance as she looked at her new face.

She turned around and confidently walked back to the staff room door. She grabbed the handle and pulled.

Unfortunately, the door still didn’t budge.

"It’s locked," Loki concluded with a sigh.

It took another ten minutes of her snooping around the breakroom bulletin boards to finally find out the truth. They had a strict schedule, and there were only specific times when the supply door would be open for the night shift to use. Right now wasn’t the time for that.

With nothing left to do but wait for the shift change, Loki’s stomach gave a soft rumble.

"I remember him saying they have a lot of food here," Loki whispered to herself, licking her human lips in a strange, predatory way that looked completely out of place for a normal person.

She immediately turned back into her small cat form and happily ran off to find the hotel kitchen.