a man forgotten by time, gets a look at the heroes of tomorrow (Juney)

Gwharr had been walking for a long time, and it seemed that he was once again traveling through a large city. For some reason he felt drawn to the metropolitan hubs, despite of all the trouble that befell him whilst there, somewhat akin to a child that would eat a truckload of candy, despite knowing that the tummycahces would come along sooner or later. Luckily for our hero, the time of day meant that very few people was out and about just yet. Normally crowds where something of a trouble in locations such as this, but this time, it seemed as if he had been early enough to avoid it. He had decided to move on from chicago to take another trek across the country before returning to his little "Kingdom" in new york. After all, the whole fiasco with those boys in blue and the shooty boxes of armour and doom had made the caveman realize that he might need a change of scenery for a while. He had been walking for a long time now, going across the continent, heading towards the surise in a rather soppy, romantic fashion.

Gwharr had always liked the sunrise. Not only was it beautifull to look at, but it also symbolized a new day. Dawn was a time for new chapters and a chance to make a new beginning for a weary old soul like himself. Gwharr might not look it, but he was very old. These new, modern times with all their rules made him feel even older too. Age had not bothered him much when times hadn't changed all that much from one century to the next, but now, in these rather unstable times of massive thinling empires, he could see the flow of time everywhere he turned. He felt useless, somewhat akin to how a needle and thread must feel when being compared to a state-of-the-art sewing-machine. Or how a typewriter would feel if it was compared to a computer. Outdated and pointless.

The caveman sighed and looked up at the sun. Despite its harsh glare it was a welcome sight. At least the sun was as unchanging as he was. It had been there since before he was born, and it was not all that impossible that it would be there after he died too. He had seen empires rise and fall countless times, and he had spawned entire generations of people during his life. He had even managed to survive his own species, and so, the sun was pretty much the only thing that had remained constant in his extremely long life.

However, the heat it radiated made him feel uncomfortable. It might be the fact that he wore a heavy overcoat, but he refused to leave it behind. He had been walking for two days straight, so he might as well find somewhere to rest and maybe sleep before he had time to regain his bearings. A nearby stairwell seemed to be adequately equipped to meet his needs. He quickly made his way towars it, the locked door being no trouble for a man of his rather impressive physical qualities. He did, however take great care not to make too much of a sound. He didn't want those accursed boys in blue to come along in their noisy travel-machine and shout at him.

He took of his big backpack, and opened it, taking out a bedroll consisting of an uncured grizzly-hide wich he laid out just inside the door wich he had just broken open. At first he considered breaking into one of the actual apartments and chase the tenants out, but he ultimately decided against it. Doing such a thing would have been needlessly cruel, and he wasn't staying here all that long anyway. No need to make some poor sap homeless over a few hours of rest. He took out a rather large packet of chips wich he started to eat noisily whilst leaning back against the broken door. Despite his earlier worries about being an old, old man, life did not seem too terrible right now. Gwharr was a simple man, so simple pleasures where more than enough to appease him.

It was amazing how much life could change in the space of a year. Alice sighed, watching as wisps of shadow twirled through the air, controlled by the occasional twitch of her fingers. She was lying in bed, fully dressed in her “hero” outfit as she waited for her father to leave for work. She frowned as one of the wisps collided with another, and as she attempted to split them, the whole ethereal display fell apart into one big mess. Alice suppressed a scream of frustration. She had been practicing ever since she had been forced back to Texas, and while she had been here for less than half a month, it was still frustrating to see such a lack of improvement. Sighing slightly, she completely relaxed her hands, dissolving the constructs. No use throwing a hissy fit now, she still had time. And with that, the front door slammed shut… the cat was away.

Alice quickly jumped out of bed, her limbs automatically carrying her through her morning routine: Brush teeth, pour a bowl of cereal, eat, and then vegetate at the computer screen for the rest of the day unless she was invited to hang out with her friends… or if she felt like practicing with her newfound slingshot or power, which was actually happening quite often now. She didn’t want to be as “powerless” as she had been when she was attacked by that mirror lady and that crazy guy.

Taking a bit of her cereal, she typed “Teen LA shooting kidnapping” into Google with her left hand, clicking enter afterwards. As she perused the page, she continued to eat the tasteless bowl of food. Oh how she wished her dad would by something… different. How he’s eaten this stuff for ten years straight, she would never know. Well, it seemed the news was thinning, the last article being six hours ago at eleven pm. That was great; it meant she could get back to LA soon. As she moved to close the window though, a string of words caught her eye. “Police admits possible superhuman involvement…. Fuck.” Then, as if by magic, more new popped up. This time, it was about superhumans in general, with her case referenced. She closed the window, quickly, not wanting to see more.

“F my life.” She muttered before turning away from the computer all together. At least the police didn’t give her bloody name. Stupid police. Stupid press. Alice knew it would die down soon enough, just another of the string of stories about the rising number of superhuman conflicts… it still annoyed her though. And honestly, this whole thing was scary. The world was going insane, and this wasn’t the worst of it either. Years back… well… thank god for Pain. She could only hope that it would never get that bad again.

With all web pages closed, she resumed her now soggy breakfast. Right as she took a bite though, a rather loud noise sounded from outside, startling her. Alice coughed, trying to get the cheerios out of her windpipe. What the bloody hell was that!? She continued to sit there for a few moments, alternating between coughing and taking deep breaths. Choking was not fun to say the least. Once she was able to breathe again, she stood up, grabbing the slingshot beside her. She was going to see what the hell was going on out there, since no one else was going to. She could swear that everyone in her building could sleep past the apocalypse. Just in case though… didn’t want to be seen using her powers. She was planning to go out and practice her shooting anyways.

Quietly, she opened the front door. It was dark, but since when did that bother her?... well… since childhood, but that was besides the point. Alice closed her eyes, focusing until she could “see”. Nothing… nothing… nothing… there! Alice opened her eyes, not even thinking about the size and shape of the mass downstairs in her haste and general state of irritation. She slowly descended, slingshot at ready, a metal shot loaded in. The lower she went, the quieter she became, until finally, there was only one flight of stairs left. Alice could plainly hear the sounds of chips being eaten… a person. How did they get in? The gate wasn’t exactly flimsy and frankly, it sounded like they had literally broken in. Her steps faltered at that realization. ”Shit, it’s probably a su—“

A startled cry was ripped out of her as she found herself tumbling down the steps. Of all things… she had tripped. Each time she hit the ground, she let out another small cry of pain. It wasn’t a long flight, but long enough so that about halfway though, her powers kicked in, trying to protect her from further injury by surrounding her in a cocoon of darkness. When she came to a stop, the cocoon dissolved, leaving one bruised teen clutching her head and holding back tears of pain. She had hit her head right before protective measures kicked in. Her slingshot was somewhere, her metal shot, elsewhere, and her dignity was far away. Not that she cared. All she knew was that she was in pain and her head was swimming… she also knew that she should probably get up soon… before that other person decided to do something… she couldn’t bring herself to move though. She could only hope for the best at this point.

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

Gwharr liked the taste of the chips.They where stated to be 'barbecue-flavoured', wich of course was a lie, but they tasted good nonetheless. The bag was mighty difficult to handle with his oversized, melon-sized fists. All in all, this little picnic was turning out to be quite awesome. Gwharr was well aware of the fact that some poor human could inadvertedly stumble over him any minute now, but he was not all that worried about that happening. This time he had done nothing to aggravate the wrath, at least he didn't think so, and if they insisted on being angry, he was invulnerable and superstrong. He could probably punch this place to dust and pebbles in a few seconds. So in conclusion, what could small fry like them do to such a mighty creature like him?

The gargantuan caveman chortled happily to himself as he grabbed another handfull of chips from the bag, and literally shoving them into his mouth, his powerfull jaws and mighty tounge quickly chewing them up and gulping them down respectively, although the paperthin potatoe-shavings, no matter how crispy was not nearly enough to sate his hunger. He needed meat! Flesh! prefferably tasty, juicy and full of blubber, tendons and such buisness! Unlike most of the modern men, Gwharr had never seen much point in self-restraint. If you where hungry, you ate. Ate untill the hunger went away once and for all, and then you ate some more for good measure. Despite having been tired when he entered the building, he felt strangely rejuvenated already. Might as well head on out and find something to devour. Getting out and hunting down a dog or two sounded like a mighty fine idea at the moment.

However, his packing was interrupted by a particurlarly girly shriek comming from the top of the stairs, followed by a whole lot of bouncing and crashing as the shrieker made her way down in a less than orderly fashion, protected from breaking her bones by some sort of shadowy coccoon. Gwharr growled viciously as he quickly got to his feet, leaping towards the potential enemy. He had been attacked by superpowered goons to have much patience wit their ilk anymore. Why oh why couldn't they just leave him alone? This time he had not even done anything, and he wasn't going to hurt anyone either, but they just kept comming! Well, if they wanted a fight, he was happy to give them one! If he smashed this one up bad enough it would not dare to come after him anymore.

However, he stopped his hand in mid-punch when he realized what he had almost done. Fortunately the protective cocoon had melted away to reveal that this person was far younger than he had expected from a superhuman. It was not that she was a girl. Gwharr knew that such thinking was silly. Women can be just as dangerous as men, and deserves no additional pity, but children. . . The girl in front of him was still a child. . . sort of. . . She was somewhere on the rickety bridge over the deep black river that separated childhood from adulthood. He sheepishly lowered his fist as he snorted uncomfortably, extending a massive hand to help her get back on her feet

The first thing Alice saw when she reopened her eyes, was a massive hand. She blinked for a few moments, her muddles brain trying to discern its purpose. Was it hostile? Or was it… Oh. Alice laughed sheepishly before taking the help, using it to stagger back onto her feet. She rubbed her head both out of pain and overall embarrassment, wondering exactly how dangerous this person was.

”Um… thanks.” she said after a moment of silence, continuing to assess whether she should run, fight, whatever. Various things were factoring into this complicated mess of an equation going through her head: The ripped off door, giant hobo… fur sleeping bag… The main thing was the door though. It had been forced open, she could tell. She glanced back at Gwharr, the fear and nervousness starting to show itself as she became tenser and tenser, eyebrows scrunching with worry. She wrung her hands together, eyes darting from door to Gwharr and back again. Over and over. As he worry grew, slowly, the shadows around her started to move ever so slightly. Not in a menacing way though, more in a … protective manner. There was no doubt that this man was dangerous. Yet… he had helped her.

Alice frowned slightly. Yes he seemed to have ripped a bloody door off its hinges. Yes, he looked like an overgrown neathandral thrown into modern times, but he didn’t seem malicious. Perhaps it was how sorry he seemed to look, something that caused Alice to suddenly blurt out her own sorry. She winced, wondering exactly what she was sorry for. Falling down the stairs? Still, she relaxed slightly. Her guard wasn’t down though, and the shadows continued to shift, though now, it was barely even visible. The pain in her head dulled as well, so she used it to formulate her next, extremely eloquent words.

“So… did you… do… that…” Ok, so maybe the words weren’t so eloquent as she imagined them to be in her head. Still, Alice hoped that she at least got the point across as she motioned towards the decimated entry way. If he said no? Great. If he said yes? … well… Alice wasn’t too sure what she was going to do then.

The nervous, almost panicky laughter that escaped from the fallen-down child caused the Curiously Courtly Caveman raised a furry eyebrow, giving his ape-like face a rather quizzical expression. He figured she must be scared of him. He didn't blame her though. After all, he was a half-ton heavy ferocious, hairy warrior with fingers thicker than her forearms and biceps that was several times larger than her head. The fear was not nessecarily a negative thing in Gwharrs world, though. Heck, he took her nervousness as a compliment of sorts, since it meant that she recognized his strength and feroicity on a primal level.

as her dimunitive, dainty hand, grabbed a hold around the wrist of of his massive, hairy, ape-like arm to pull herself up, the Powerfull, Prehistoric, Primordial could barely feel the weight of her as she did. She still didn't quite seem to have caught her bearings, though. The way she moved right now suggested that she was rather close to doing something rash. Gwharr would rather avoid that particurlar event, since it meant that he might have to hurt her. He did not exactly relish the thought of hurting a child, even though it attacked him first. He was calmed somewhat as she thanked him for helping her, wich he answered with a slight smile and a friendly nod.

"To think door stoopid, not open. To fix door." He responded rather indifferently with a shrug of his massive shoulders as she asked wether the busted up door was his work or not. Not much point in lying, since it was pretty obvious that he was the one behind it.

He ponderously ambled back to his amassment of various furs wich he slept on, sat down, picking up the bag of chips and started eating. Partly because he figured that the girl was not a threat, but also because he wanted to show her that he did not consider her a threat. That he would not attack unprovoked. However, as his attention was no longer focused onthe child he made a most peculiar discovery

Gwharr either hadn't noticed it at first, or dismissed it as a trick of the light, but the shadows where moving. Not overtly much, but sort of warping or writhing slightly, seemingly independent of the light-sources that had spawned them. This caused him to grunt curiously before looking back up at juney, his face bearing an expression that was something of a mix between caution and curiosity. there was something fishy with this particurlar child. Something quite peculiar indeed.

Yup. He busted the door down. Now what was she going to do about it? … Alice thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of maybe getting into a fight with this primeval man that could no doubt snap her like a tooth pick. She doubted calling the police would be much help either… So the answer was nothing. Frankly, there were worse things on her list of things that counted as crimes than breaking down a door to find a place to stay. Way worse. This almost didn’t count as one… it wasn’t as if he was hurting anyone anyways, and the apartment owners could just reattach the hinges. She wouldn’t get snapped in half, no one would get hurt, this guy got some shelter, everyone was happy.

With that rationalization, she glanced around for her sling shot and hopefully, the silver shot she had dropped. Spotting the items, she quickly snatched them up, thanking whatever god that was up there that they weren’t closer to the intimidating caveman. Once that was done, she sat herself on the foot of the stairs. Might as well make sure no one came down here and screamed bloody murder. The shadows calmed as well, though they still curved protectively around her, just even less noticeably than before, reflecting the fear she still felt, despite deciding that she most likely wasn’t going to get hurt by him.

Alice watched Gwharr for a few moments, rather curious. She had never ever seen someone that looked so caveman like. Perhaps he was a super… well, that was rather obvious now wasn’t it? Considering he had broken down that steel door as if it was nothing. She thought for a moment, a twinge of déjà vu striking through her. She had read something about… something. Scientific discovery gone wrong, policemen searching for some Neanderthal… It had been around the net for quite a while, as these things tended to be. Lots of conspiracy theories and all that. Perhaps he was the target of all of those? It wouldn’t be surprising at all. She drew her knees in close, continuing to watch warily, though she occasionally glanced up the stairs before closing her eyes, using her powers to probe the shadowy passageways for movement.

During one such movement, as she looked back down at Gwharr, she realized that he was now watching her with an expression no doubt quite like her own, though perhaps with less fear. She froze, mind running through what possible could have drawn his attention. She came up with nothing, still not noticing the shadows moving around her. Said shadows seemed to become a bit more agitated as her fear once again grew. She coughed nervously, tensing at the scrutiny.

”Uh… what is it? She finally asked, no longer able to remain silent.

The Crude, Curious, Cautious Caveman's small, blue eyes looked out from underneath his, protouding heavy, wrinkled brow, in a manner that combined with the rather shoddy lighting culminated in making his eyesockets look almost skeletal, due to the fact that his eyes were laid so deep within their sockets. the edges of his broad mouth tensed slightly, causing small wrinkles to appear at the edges. Gwharr was quite a simple creature, and thus he was no great friend of subterfuge, in fact, the entire concept of hiding his emotions seemed strange and scary to him. He had indulged in it a few times, but he found it a bit debasing and sort of 'dishonest'. He considered the fact that he would not debase himself to perform such a dastardly, deceptive deed whilst dealing with a tiny creature.

The movement of the shadows where obvious now, even to him. They where moving, not slithering in that oily disney-esque manner that one would expect shadows to move in, but generally just slightly changing their shape, and it all seemed to focus on the tiny girl sitting there, glaring at him with eyes just as suspicious as he was. The Big, Broad, Brash Brute might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, compared to most knives in the drawer he was probably a spoon, but he was nevertheless able to realize that she was nervous about him since he was nervous about her. Being no great friend of subterfuge and deception the great caveman snorted at her words, as he took another handfull of chips and shoved into his mouth, chewing them thoughtfully before swallowing them down.

"To see the shadows moving. To see them move around you. For you. To know shadows Ill omen. Bad sign." He said, his face still suspicious and hard, yet not agressive or angry yet. After all, the girl had done him no ill deed yet, and she might be cursed by someone else, rather than be an evil witch herself.