My how things have changed...and how little too

Losing his legs and replacing them with robotic ones might not even happen. Well that was certainly supposed to somehow make him feel much better about his own future. Shaking his head Ranger smiled lightly when the boy face palmed and finally revealed his name only to tell himself that he kept saying too much. Although Ranger did not know too much about future events and what telling those people involved with them meant it was usually frowned upon, at least in the movies. Something about stepping on butterflies if he remembered correctly, change one thing here and it changed everything everywhere else. But there was the saying or belief in quantum physics that even if something was changed in the past time would re-align its self in some way shape or form so that the event would happen anyway, even if it wasn’t exactly the same way as it happened before.

His mind was still focused on this up until the point where Ryan mentioned something about ‘oh no it can’t be him’ which caught Ranger’s attention enough to ask. “It can’t be who? Apocalyptic problem?” Before he could ask any more questions to find out what was truly going on Ryan took off at the sound of a gunshot, which peaked Ranger’s interest even more. Something was definitely up and he didn’t like the feeling he was getting about it. Following the boy back to the ‘scene of the crime’ where he saw what appeared to be a being in blood red armor standing over the ‘Imperfect’ and running it’s hand along the unconscious monsters body.

Removing an electric arrow from his quiver and notching it onto his bow he held the thing at the ready but pointing towards the ground as he stood next to the kid. “I’d do what the kid says Mister…or Miss, step away from the unconscious Imperfect and walk away I don’t want to have to hurt you. There is nothing to see here.” He hoped the new comer would take the warning and do as he suggested, but a part of him also wanted the thing to test him. Ranger had not had a good fight in quite some time and that part of him was itching for a good fight something that tested his skill a hell of a lot more than the unconscious monster did that he took down with relative ease.

Raising his bow so his arms were stretched out in a firing position he pointed it towards the new comer in red. “Last warning, walk away now and nobody gets hurt.” Would the new comer heed his warning? Probably not, did it hurt to ask…not at all.

The one wearing the demonic red armor would stand to his feet, turning to the ones that had seemingly come to stop him and cocking its head to the side. The way that he seemed to threaten it with an electric arrow amused him, as he turned back to the Imperfect and considered it, a low metallic hum emanating from the helmet of the armor. ”And if I were to not walk away? Are you planning to somehow stop me?” The armored figure would question with an impartial tone, one that did not really show any sort of condescension as if they were not worth it. Ryan watched the being carefully, the armor familiar but the auea about him obvious as to who he was, yet he seemed weaker than when he last fought him.

”Raziel, what the hell are you doing here?” Ethereal would question, growling as he glared to the being that seemed to react abnormally to what he had said. Seemingly pulling something from space, a demonic screech following the wake of the blade being pulled from nowhere as the very dark aura of it bled into the air and made his skin crawl. Within an instant he was a blue of movement, too fast for Ryan to really react as a sharp pain radiated through his shoulder and sent a spurt of blood flying into the air. Standing a few feet behind him was the red armored being still holding Misanthropy, flicking some of the blood from it and turning to them.

”I don’t know how you know Raziel, but I won’t have you saying that name in my presence ever again.” A growling voice emanated from the helmet.

“Somehow stop you? You haven’t done anything that requires me to stop you just yet, but yes if you do not leave I will of course secure you and make sure you do not harm that creature or anyone else in this area.” The Ranger replied to the man in the armored suit. He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to follow up on that statement but it seemed as if he would have to follow up on it much quicker than he had anticipated. The armored watcher was no longer a ‘bystander’ as at superhuman speeds practically as fast as Ranger himself a blade was in his hand and he raced forward slicing into Ryan’s shoulder before continuing forward and stopping a couple of feet behind the boy.

Shaking his head he placed the bow back onto his back and took the arrow in his hand instead. Usually speed came with reflexes and if the armored assailant was as fast as he appeared to be than firing off the arrows at him were not going to be a good bet. Instead Ranger would have to get in close and personal. Sprinting forward at full speed the Crimson Archer moved towards the man, hoping he wouldn’t expect an act of superhuman speed from the one carrying a bow and arrow he moved past the armored assailant and moved down into a slide feet forward swinging the hand clutching the arrow backwards towards the back part of the armored ‘man’ in red’s knee. Hoping that like most armor that was a weak spot and the arrow would be able to penetrate the armor.

Sliding to a stop a couple feet away the hooded hero stood back up and removed another arrow from his quiver. He only had nine left but hopefully he wouldn’t have to use all nine of them to stop…this…whoever this was. He hadn’t had to use all of his arrows in quite some time, but he also had not used his quiver that held only twenty four arrows in quite some time. It was a bit of a step down from his quiver with sixty arrows but it was the only thing he had on him when things started to go to shit in Chicago once again. “Yea, I think I’m going to stop you. You okay kid?”

The injury stung, blood pulsing from the wound and staining his shirt. Ryan did not like this, but something about the male they were dealing with was different than the Raziel that he had encountered in the future, and that did not sit right with him. The masked individual turned to The Ranger, seemingly following his movements and already prepared as he darted off at his speeds. It seemed that he had somehow gotten into a battle between two speedy types, which meant that he would not be of much use to anyone at the moment. Considering that this kinda stuff was far too fast for him to even register, let alone deal with. The red armored being would slam his blade into the ground, right in front of where the arrow was to hit behind his knee, deflecting it and avoiding him any sort of damage.

”Well if you are, you're really doing a poor job right now.” The individual said condescendingly, removing Misanthropy from the ground and brandishing it.

”Uh..yeah i'm fine.” Ryan noted as he attempted to close the wound, a green light radiating from the slash upon his shoulder as the flesh slowly began to knit close. Of course it would not completely heal him, but it was enough to keep him from bleeding anymore, and kept the arm from being useless. Now the wound was just a small red line that had stopped bleeding,partially covered by his shirt. "Alright, I think I can do this.” he muttered slamming his fists together as the armored being simply stood there waiting for something, though that waiting would not last. In an instant he produced a black pistol, trimmed with gold, aiming that weapon at The ranger and releasing a powerful burst of dark energy lined with red, one that nearly spanned the entire alleyway. The Black Blade simply freed itself from his hand and then flew towards Ryan, aiming to slash him down, as he brught up his gauntlet adorned hands and protected himself.'

A loud ringing emenated from that, as he was pushed back a few feet and a large cut could be seen within the gauntlets, Ryan quickly rearing back a fist and throwing it forward with a powerful shockwave issuing from it. The blade was hit and would clatter to the ground before rising again returning to the armored foe.

“So far, but the fun has only just begun.” The Ranger gave a small grin as the black and red energy shot out at the gun hurtling towards him. Rushing forwards he slid underneath it back arched backwards in a sort of matrix style with his knees forward on the ground. Coming up after the strange energy shot from the gun had past Ranger loaded am arrow into his quiver, this one being a simple snare arrow, and fired it off at the armored individual. Knowing full well that it more than likely do nothing to harm the man he quickly followed it up by sprinting forward and removing an electric net arrow which he would attempt to jam into the armored individual while moving at high speeds, rolling to the side off him in an attempt to stay out of any line of attacks.

Ranger wasn’t too sure what it was this man, if he was even a man, could do but he wasn’t exactly going to stick around to find out that much he was sure of. With only seven arrows left now he was running low on options and strategies. Sure he could try to get in close and fight the thing hand to hand, but he knew in terms of strength he was only human and any normal bullet would pass right through him. Both of which were things he were sure didn’t apply to the individual in the red armor. “So, Kid you seem to at least know who this is, mind giving me some insight on who we’re fighting?”

Any help he could get on figuring out who the man behind the mask was would help the Hooded Archer to hopefully defeat the armored individual. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to know what else he could do besides keep up with Ranger in terms of speed, summon swords from nowhere, and fire off weird black and red energy blasts from guns. Not that those weren’t impressive feats in of themselves. It was just Ranger wouldn’t mind knowing that bringing out his exploding arrows wouldn’t be overdoing it against the man and after making it threw the armor blow him to little tiny pieces. That wouldn’t look good for anyone.

The crimson Archer would manage to avoid the blast, narrowly dodging what would have been his death and amusing the red armored individual even more. The archer would then unleashed an arrow from his quiver, one that was meant to entangle but only amused him, as he would move with an inhuman speed and grace, slicing through this arrow with The Black blade that returned to him and sending the pieces to the ground as his foe would already rush to attack him again. However it was his armor that was ready, as a black energy radiated from the armor, the arrow only bouncing from where it struck and Michael swinging full speed at the hero with his blade, aiming to kill him with one stroke. Whether or not that had managed to hit him, he would turn around and unleash a burst from the dark weapon, Ryan slamming his fist forward and unleashing a shockwave into the blast.

It did not negate the blast, but it weakened enough to only send Ryan reeling, flying backwards as he slammed into a car, which released a loud alarm.

This was not going in the good guys favor in any sense of the word. The blade came strikingly fast at him and Ranger barely had any time to move out of its way moving himself to block the strike with his bow in attempt to get out of danger. His bow barely held on and it was obviously cracked but still useable for one or two more shots before it gave out under the pressure, but at least he was alive. Taking advantage of the fact that he was alive The Ranger quickly moved away from the up close and personal attempt fearing that on his own he might not be able to defeat the guy, if he was a guy, in the red armor.

His next thought after clearing some room between himself and the armored individual was to see how the kid was fairing. After seeing him get blown backwards into a car from a shockwave, he figured it was probably not as well as Ranger was, and that was saying a lot. Sprinting over to where the kid was laying he kneeled down and helped the kid get to his feet. “You’re doing great, just don’t get yourself killed arlgith? How do you feel, anything broken?” The Ranger asked and when the kid got situated he spun around to face the armored man notching an exploding arrow onto his bow, aiming to the right of the man next to his feet he released the first arrow. The second one was aimed a little high in the air to the left.

This was of course done in hopes that the explosion and shock-wave of the first arrow as well as the angle at which it exploded would be enough to send the man into the air at least a little bit. The second arrow’s job was then of course to hit the man in the chest while he was on that trajectory. There was also a sort of element of surprise in his favor because to the armored man who had yet to see Ranger use exploding arrows would hopefully only believe Ranger had simply missed two arrows. But, that wasn’t the case as his bow heled on for just one last shot. His third exploding arrow was notched onto the bow and fired center mass at the armored individual, this was it…he could only hope to God it worked.

The Red Suited male would simply stand where he was, wielding his weapon with a flourish as he seemed to act with little interest to the ones that were standing against him. Ryan however was pulling himself from the side of a car, some of the glass falling from the side window and falling to the ground as he stood to his feet, shirt singed but otherwise he was fine. ”I'm alright, a little annoyed but i'll live.” He said rubbing the back of his head annoyed and then returning his attention to the one that had been giving them so much trouble. The Ranger would work on releasing what appeared like more of his arrows, though the armored male seemed to not really show any sort of reaction, granted his face was hidden.

There was little indication of his movement, but within an instant he was moving past the arrow that was shot at him and the other one as well, both exploding but he was far enough to avoid being knocked down by the shock wave. Ryan could barely keep up with hi, but he was sure that The ranger could do so easier. The last arrow was aimed towards his midsection, and finding itself passing through a light grey mist, the male seeming to disappear within a matter of seconds as the armor did its job, and he was standing atop the car behind them with the blade brandished. However within that instant Ryan began to radiate with a bright green energy, his gauntlets fading away and a powerful burst of energy escaping from his hand and clashing with the beings blade, sending him flying back, and destroying the car that he was standing on.

”Alright, I think its time I get serious.” He said simply cracking his knuckles as his eyes became the color of seafoam.

The Ranger was out of his league here and he knew it. Nothing he threw at the individual in the red armor seemed to affect him. Not even when he brought out the ‘big guns’ did the man seem at all phased in any sense of the word. The three arrows exploded like they were supposed to but he was too fast, to smart, and none of them came anywhere close to hitting their mark; not even the shockwaves from the arrows came anywhere close to touched thing armored individual and even as fast as Ranger himself was he had to admit he was impressed with the man’s speed. A grey sort of mist appeared where the third arrow had been fired and when it cleared the man was gone. Or so it seemed.

Ranger turned around quickly when Ryan did only to see the man standing on top of the car with his blade swinging down towards them in hopes of slicing them in two. Ranger went to react only to have no reason to as the kid unleashed a powerful blast of energy that clashed with the being’s blade sending him flying backwards as well as utterly destroying the car he had been standing on. “Time to get serious? Probably best you did, my bow’s broken and I’ve only got four arrows left.” He replied to the kid pulling out two of his four remaining arrows. Both of them were electric arrows and he wasn’t too sure what he was going to be able to do with them.

Twirling them he looked over at Ryan “Alright you can hurt this guy and seem to know a little bit more about him than I do. So, you’re calling the shots kid. Tell me what to do and when to do it.” He wasn’t so sure they’d be coming out of this fight on top but as they were totally unprepared for this fight and didn’t even know who or what it was they were up against. But, he was sure they’d be able to do enough damage to give them time to make sure everyone was cleared out and to safety, then stall the man long enough so they too could find away safely out of there. Right now he was really wishing he had found a way to make the Knightwatch teleporters go two ways, but as of now they still only teleported out not in.

The power of the pure ethereal burst was enough to thrown the armored make off, the blast sending him reeling as it pressed agaisnt The Black Blade known as Misanthropy, though it did no damage to it personally. ”Your bows broken? Well shit, this is going to be tougher then.” He muttered as the bright energy radiated from his body, radiating calm to any one close enough to feel the powerful, but pure energy that came from him. Within an instant more of the energy would form about his figners, creating glowing spheres that would rocket off of them and all ten would aim to come down upon Hyperion. He would quickly give his blade a push, dissipating the attack and preparing to deal with the hell that he was to deal with. The first one was coming down upon him, male slashing upwards at it, and splitting the thing in two as it slammed into the ground beside him.

Within an instant the concrete would begin to crack, and then the street would begin to give away, allowing the armored male to fall in as the other nine would slam into the immediate area, bringing down more of the street and drawing an annoyed curse from Ryan as he looked around for where the male was, though his Ethereal sight would not work while he was performing this spell. ”Ummm make sure we don't have any civilians still around.” Ryan noted actually having a brilliant thought for a moment, and trying not to say waffles out loud to balance things out. Within an instant the black blade would cut through the cocnrete beneath him, flying to hit his face and missing by a few inches as Ryan stepped back.

Within an instant it would spin, and then aim to slam down on him, Ryan creating a pure ethereal barrier and blocking it while while someone burst through the ground by slashing through it with a blade of both white and gold, nearly slashing through Ryans neck and hitting another barrier. Misanthropy would break through and return to Hyperions hands, just in time to allow him to cross block a blast aimed for his chest, pushing him back and being cut through as Ryan unleashed a barrage of blasts in the hopes of neutralizing him.

The Ranger nodded in response to what the kid told him, civilian duty wasn’t so bad and as long as they were safe and out of harm’s way it became that much easier to focus on the main threat at hand. That was one of the big differences between heroes and villains during a ‘battle’. The villains didn’t exactly care who got hurt during the conflict and thus were able to focus all of their energy to stopping whomever it was they were fighting while Heroes were a completely different story, having to have to fight off the imposing villain and protect the innocent caught in the cross fire. Sprinting off in about ten seconds, which encompassed the extent of the battle that was raging between the armored man and Ryan, he had cleared the city block.

No civilians were left around to watch the battle but Ranger continued on past the armored man, moving at his fastest speeds to make it look as if he was still focused on finding and helping the helpless. Except as soon as he was more than ten feet behind the armored man he spun around and then dashed forward. Hopefully being too preoccupied with whatever it was Ryan was doing to notice him Ranger rose the electric arrows into the air and swung his arms down in an arch. Attempting to stab the man in the back with the arrows, even if the tips touched the armor they would go off though. Electrifying him and thus hopefully knocking him out or something at the very least.

Due to wearing armor which seemed to be some sort of metal The Ranger hoped it would act as a conductor of sorts thus amplifying the power of the electric arrows. With that going on whatever was inside that armor would be getting the shock of a life time, if as he assumed they did not have super humanly durable skin. Even if they did it probably wasn’t anything on the level of Pain and the big bad caveman he’d heard so much about. No, the fact that he wore armor alluded to the fact that without it he wouldn’t be able to take that much damage. Hopefully.

While Ranger dealt with any civilians still within the area, Ethereal was trying to defeat the armored man that had begun to attack them, and with his relentless ethereal barrage he was doing a seemingly decent job, even though mostly the place that the male was standing was being clouded by a large amount of smoke from his attacks. He however he did not expect an attack from the man, in the form of a dark ethereal blast, three of them breaking through the smoke screen and coming towards Ryan, who barely had the time to defend himself and the defenses could not hold up against the onslaught. The bright green shields would falter and shatter like glass as the attacks came through and slammed into him, sending him reeling and rolling a little further.

Then came a burst of energy that blew away the clouds about him, revealing the armored male but with some of the armor destroyed, revealing most of a youthful with glowing emerald green eyes, irises depicting two dragons devouring each others tails. His eyebrows were scrunched into an expression of annoyance, a singe trickle of blood pouring down their forehead as the arrow that was aimed to stab into his back would collide with a small black barrier, one that seemed to negate the damage behind the strike, all electricity finding itself being drained into a small void that had opened before the armor itself. ”Nice try.” The voice of the male noted, though it was no longer filtered by the helmet, sounding more natural and young; perhaps even younger than Ryan.

A construct would form from his back with a bladed end and it would lash out at The Ranger, aiming to bisect him, though he did not expect it to. ”This entire thing is just a waste of my time.” He muttered crossing his arms over his chest as a dark energy would begin to coat The Black Blade and it would float beside him, as well as a bright energy similar to Ryans would coat the other blade that he had summoned, crossing with the other one.

“Yea well I had to give it a shot…” He muttered backtracking away from the young male, it was only obvious now that the person within the armor was a young male due to the voice. However young the person truly was Ranger didn’t know but it worried him that someone so powerful could be that young and so on the wrong side of things as well. When the blade came ‘flying’ out towards Ranger’s midsection he simple stopped, dropped, and rolled underneath it and came up only when the thing had soared past. Standing back up he sprinted a bit away from the man in the broken armor finding his way back over to where Ryan was. This was not getting any easier it seemed even with the broken armor.

“Well if it is all just a waste of your time why don’t you get out of here and no one will say anything about this.” Sure that was a complete and utter lie, as soon as they were able to get out of there and Ranger had asked the kid what he thought about maybe joining Knightwatch there would be thorough research done. Not just on the ‘Imperfect’ as the boy called the beast but on this armored man as well. Ranger wanted to know everything about him, what made him tick, who he was, what he was and everything he could do. Next time this man showed his face Ranger might not be the one there to see it and he wanted everyone on Knightwatch to be ready to face them or run if need be.

There was a new player in town and Ranger wanted to be able to step his game up and match him if need be. Knightwatch was created to deal with threats far greater than some puffed up kid in a suit of armor but if that was what they had to deal with to help the helpless and protect the greater good and all that stuff than they would.

Hyperion looked over the two rather annoyed, with the strange eyes boring into Ryans for a moment before turning towards The ranger that had run to his side. Without even saying a single word, he would disappear within a puff of grey mist along with his swords, to where no one could really tell, as Ryan looked on with slightly wide eyes that were glowing a bright blue. With that done, Ryan found himself rather drained, which meant that he could not do anymore fighting, but running away was a viable option. So that was what he did, the Ranger asking him if he would join Knightwatch and Ryan fanboying out over the opportunity to work beside his greatest hero.