A New Acquaintance (Private: Ethereal)

The familiar feeling of dizzyness hit Derek as he was hurled into the more dangerous parts of Chicago. One of West sides seedier places. The one where cops wouldn’t even bother to go even if called upon, deeming their life too sacred to waste. And Derek didn’t blame them, okay, maybe a little, but unless one had powers to protect and serve, maybe they did best to stay out of this neighborhood. Someone getting beaten or raped around here wasn’t an unusual sight around these blocks and the alarming noises from the ground below did nothing to prove otherwise. But he could change that. Standing on the deserted rooftop, watching over the city, Derek actually felt like the hero he was dressed up to be. His white scarf that covered his mouth and nose, wavered by a gust of wind as the young hero looked down at a small, cheap looking mirror on the ground. It had a simple metallic frame and didn’t look like much. However, with his talents, even cheap items like that mirror could be invaluable. He had spent his first week in Chicago putting out mirrors like the one his gaze rested upon at certain locations all over town. Like checkpoints helping him be where he needed to be when he needed it.

Derek started heading towards the scaling ladder that was the only way down from the roof. It was also however, the only way up, which made it a good place to observe the scene from. With little effort he was limberly making his way down to the alley beneath. When feet once again touched solid ground, Derek was hit by the stench of various human odors. Quickly making his way out of what, by the smell of it, was an already inhabited alley, Derek soon found himself facing what looked like a town square, only shabbier. Graffiti on the surrounding walls sent unpleasant messages to its readers and the way the open space was rejected by all individuals around him, Derek got the feeling that they didn’t want to be seen. However, the same could be said for him. So, he continued moving, keeping his eyes open for anything. And that was when he heard it. A scream so penetrating, it actually felt like it carved its way into his brain. Instinctively, Derek’s body started moving, like of its own free will. His feet started running, sending vibrations through his entire body. It didn’t take long until Derek found a nice running pace as he followed the direction of the scream. Maybe this was the day his obsession would finally show some result.

He could feel he was getting close, the air filling with some kind of static suspense. Sensing this, Derek started to fumble in his pockets after some possible ammunition. After a time of his hands grabbing all the objects they could find, his fingers finally touched the extra mirrors he always carried during his nights of crime fighting. Its cold, even surfaces filled Derek with a calm focus. He peeked around the corner of a building that was leading into another dim alley. The scene he was faced with was far from ordinary. The two victims, at least that was what Derek figured they were, a man and a woman, probably tourists, were dancing through the alley. Their bodies moved passionately, but their faces showed discomfort. The man even cried as he dipped the woman’s head in a half circle to a melody that Derek couldn’t hear. Confused, Derek tried staring beyond the two victims, farther down the alley, but without any success. It was too dark to see, but he had to do something. Without a second thought, Derek charged around the corner and past the two dancers, keeping a firm grip on his mirrors. As he got closer, he managed to catch a glimpse of a grinning woman, dressed in dark clothes and who was gesticulating wildly in the air. Pain spreading from his right side made him lose his focus. But his attacker was already gone from his side and the hurting sensation he was feeling made it hard to focus. He could at least conclude from the kick he just received that the woman was apparently not working alone. Damn, that hurt! But a flash from a third figure caught Derek’s eyes, still glowing white from the lenses he was wearing. Because of his vision being blurry from a surprisingly strong kick, it was impossible to discern who the figure was. Though, the more important question wasn’t who the figure was, it was whose side is this guy on?

Ethereal had been in Knightwatch officially only for a small while, and yet he was already adapting to the crime of this time, even though it was not too different than the crime of his own time, but without the hover cars. Now he was on patrol, croushing on the edge of a roof with hands pressed against the cool material used to compose the rooft, yet the cold was not felt through the gloves of his fitting white suit. Bright green lines would run along the span of the suit, seeming to show the state of his ethereal energy and reacting when he used his magic. Yet his wings would attempt to bristle through the suit, perhaps not enjoying the feeling of being contained and his body trying to portray that it did not like it either. His stomping grounds this evening were the seedier part of Chicago, a place that had only marginally changed within his own time period, if only because it was half as dirty then. However something about justice not sleeping was to be incorporated into this scenario, and his not needing to sleep much also fir perfectly.

Ryan rubbed the back of his hand along his eyes as they glowed a low green color, scanning the area for any strangely colored auras. For the most part all he got was the usual human color, people walking around and some of them leaning against the wall as if that was where they planned to sleep. Homelessness was not a new thing in this sector, so he would not act too surprised by that fact, even though part of him was saddened by the fact, biting down on his lower lip as he continued to can and took notice of one thing, well one thing that was worth notice anyway. Taking in a deep breath through his nose, Ethereal found himself being hit by the stench of human odor, involuntarily gagging as he glared at the ground and with a jerk he would leap into the alleyway below him, hitting the ground with a low thud as he stood to his feet. It was times like this that he enjoyed the durability, let him fall from great heights without managing to eff himself up majorly.

His eyes focused upon the two energy signatures that were….dancing, as well as two more near them, one that was slightly out of the ordinary as well as another that was even more extraordinary. Yet with that two more figures would appear on the scene, seeming to attack a fourth, or so the untrustworthy extrasensory perception would allow him through the walls and such. ’Alright, lets see whats up with this.” Ryan said making sure that his hood was over his head and that no one could see the majority of the face being hidden. ”Alright….I should probably help.” Ryan muttered to himself.

With a flash he was standing on the rooftop overlooking the dark and crampled alleyway, as his clenched fists would become cloaked in energy and within a few seconds they’re were encased in deadly looking deadly gauntlets. Leaping down he would rear the gauntlet back, aiming to slug one of the villainous types in the face or somewhere on their bodies.

Derek almost immediately got his answer as the figure in a flash struck down the gesticulating woman. However, all he saw was a figure engulfed in green light of some sort. It was obvious that this guy was special like him. Thank god he was on his side. It was also possible he was just beating down the first best person he could find, but it seemed more deliberately aimed at the others, leaving him out of it. The punch had happened so fast and now the woman was lying on the ground, grunting as she tried getting up from the dusty, filthy alley. But he couldn’t risk her escaping or countering their attack. The mirrors that he was holding almost convulsively, suddenly fractured with a sharp cracking sound as he used his pain from the kick as a driving force. Like the calm before a storm started shards lifting from their places as pieces of a mirror and sedately started floating in the air. Derek gestured a lifting motion with his right hand to control their direction and when staring down on the woman, he made the pointy ends of the shards follow the motion of his eyes. In a matter of seconds, a small ocean of small glass shards and splinters was projected, unleashed, in an incredible speed towards the woman in the hopes to trap her in a dome of glass, forcing her to be still but also trying to avoid any lethal damage.

It wasn’t until he launched the attack that Derek actually thought of looking back at the victims. But they were nowhere to be found. The woman was probably behind the dancing puppets. Hopefully their vanishing act meant that the control over them had disappeared, leaving them able to run for their lives. There was also a possibility that the crazy looking woman still had the power to command their movements. Being too busy looking for the people they were trying to save, he also missed having his own back. As the sound of fast approaching steps reached Derek’s ears, he rapidly spun around, getting a closer look at the other attacker. He was a broad-shouldered, big, mean-looking man. Having no time to defend himself or avoid the attack, Derek just prepared for impact.

The gauntlet connected with a painful crack, one that seemed to disorient the female as the hero would quickly push himself to his feet, the gauntlets fingers curled still into a fist as his oddly colored eyes would begin to dart around for anyone else. It was in the wake of that attack that the male that was being assaulted would show a power all of his own, controlling glass and then imprisoning the female that he had struck in a dome of glass where she could likely not harm anyone else, leaving him with the remaining two. His lips curled into a smile as he continued to examine the alleyway for any other threats, which came in the form of another of the people trying to strike at the one that he had joined to help. This left little time for thought, and that was the kind of thing that he was best at.

With a rather seift motion, Ryan was moving with one fist thrown back and ready to be thrown forward. The ethereally crafted metal would rush through the air, and slam into the males gut, knocking the air out of him and causing him to stumble back considerably. He may have looked strong, and been stronger than Ethereal, but these gauntlets were tough enough that it did not matter really, so long as he put enough force behind, and of course these bad boys released a wave equal enough to harm superhumans if he wanted, not that he was letting them let out that much juice on what he assumed was a human. The guy he struck would be thrown to the ground as Ethereal composed himself into a combat stance, back to the male that he had come to help.

”Hope I’m not intruding or anything, but it felt like this party needed a blond.” He noted with a smirk, irish accent obvious.

Just moments before Derek would have been squashed like a fly, the same man from before came to his rescue...again. Apparently he couldn’t take care of himself as much as he though. He would have to work on that. That guy though, slamming his own arm into the guts of Mr Superstrength not only made him stop in his tracks, but also made him stumble backwards. And he didn’t even seem to have broken a sweat doing it. How strong did that make this guy? As the fight lowered in intensity, the adrenaline in his body did as well. The guy who saved him suddenly turned his way and made a joke with a strong irish accent.

”Hope I’m not intruding or anything, but it felt like this party needed a blond.”

Derek couldn’t help but to find this man attractive, especially the accent, even though he apparently didn’t know how to interpret the situation.

“Not at all, the opposite actually. Thanks for saving me back there. Though I wouldn’t call crazy criminals torturing innocents being a party. Speaking of which, you didn’t happen to see where the victims disappeared to, did you?” Derek said, sounding way too serious too fit the appearance he was presenting. Baggy, light-colored urban clothes, a scarf to cover up most of his face and the white lenses without pupils.

Seafoam eyes considered the male as he spoke, deadpan serious tone seeming to clash with what one would call an otherwise carefree tone, taking note of the strange lack of color within his eyes. Brilliant green lines glowed along his own white suit, perhaps only adding to the image of him being some kind of angel, minus the black wings that were contained within his suit. Which reminded Ryan that he would have to make them better suited for letting his wings through, granted it was basically a suit of ethereal fibers, so he could fix that with a thought. He slammed his two gauntlets together as they created some manner of booming sound through the alleyway. ”Victims?” He asked quickly turning around to where he had seen the dancers and seeing nothing, not even their auras.

He had no real time to react as a fist collided with his face however, a crack emanating from when it connected and sending ethereal to the ground with a slam. Ryan was expecting more than that but then again he was pretty tough, so even some of the superhuman mooks found him difficult to hurt. The male quickly reacted, pressing a palm against the ground and shooting to his feet, allowing the gauntlet to release another powerful burst behind his strike, perhaps enough to this tie floor the superhuman. ”That is just not cool, slugging a dude in the mouth.” he grumbled.

As Derek waited for a response, he was once again slightly distracted by the other man’s appearance, this time not only by his physical body, which was impressive, but also the suit he was wearing. He concluded that the glowing green lines on it must have been what he saw during the fight. Thank god it was a suit and not a tricot. Derek would never understand the fascination with superpowers and weird tricot outfits. He were about to follow that line of though further but was however soon interrupted by the other man.

”Victims?”

And Derek was about to answer him when a fist came flying out of nowhere. Mr Superstrength wasn’t down for the counting yet it seemed. That fist sounded very painful and Derek was about to return the favor by saving his savior. That way, he wouldn’t have to feel like he owed this guy something. But right as he was about to do something, the other superhero quickly reacted by shooting to his feet, literally.

”That is just not cool, slugging a dude in the mouth.”

Derek didn’t know what to reply to that, so he stayed silent and instead waited to see if the battle was really over this time.

His fist would collided with the stomach of the superstrength brute, drawing a pain groan from the man as he was sent flying into a nearby wall with a resounding thud, cracking the very material that he hit. He would let out a groan as he slumped to the ground, leaving the two heroes once again in a silent alleyway, Ryan popping his knuckles loudly while making sure that he had taken down the guy for good, or at least knocked him out.  The male seemed to be out for the count, which meant that Ethereal could let his guard down for a moment, as the gauntlets would begin to glow and fade away in a radiant mist. Turning he would consider the metahuman that he had helped only seconds ago, with a wide grin.

”Alright…I think that covers all of them.” he said with a sigh, popping his neck while felt a little sore from the punch that had been delivered. He would let his attention wander to the female in the glass prison, who had seemed to go almost dumb upon being captured, just sitting there and swaying side to side. ”So, is it about time we take these guys to the cops?”

Mr Superstrength was literally flying as the punch hit him and when he collided with the wall, it cracked where he landed. It made shapes similar to the cracks Derek usually makes when destroying glass with his mind. The force of the punch had rendered the man incapacitated and now he was left alone with this superhero who was grinning at him. Shouldn’t Derek be the one grinning at him, since he was the one who saved him against the villains? Or maybe he just enjoyed the thrill of punching people so much that he doesn’t really care. Derek grinned back slightly to show his appreciation. He was after all, grateful to be saved.

”Alright…I think that covers all of them. So, is it about time we take these guys to the cops?”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Hopefully they can find the victims to. The ones who danced against their will. But, what should we do with her?” Derek pointed at the woman in the glass prison. “If she can control people’s movements, what is to say that you, me or any of the police will be immune to her power?”

"Yeah need to find those victims…wherever they went.” He said with a nod, looking around as if that would help him find these victims. It would be a not very heroic thing of him if he did not find these people, and instead left them to perhaps a horrifying fate, whatever that was. His attention then turned to the female within the glass prison, raising an eyebrow as his mind tried to think over a way that would keep her confined, and yet there was only one thing that he could think of, and that was his eyes shooting to female and then her neck.

A wicked smile fell across his face as he walked over to her and with a motion, what would appear to be a small amulet appeared within his hand, glowing a strange color and releasing an equally strange feeling from it. Becoming a mist, he would slip through the glass prison and slip the necklace upon her, it releasing a powerful energy before losing the glow and leaving the woman as she was. ”Alright, so long as she has that necklace on, I don’t think she can do any harm. Can’t remove it herself or anything, but eh.” Ryan said with a shrug, becoming mist once again and walking through the glass cage outside once again.

”Puppet lady I think is no longer a threat, so we can get to tossin them in the slammer.” He said with a smile and a thumbs up.

Yeah, they did. Who knew what would happen to those two after a traumatic event like this. But at the same time Derek wanted to continue to search for more bad guys. Correction, he wanted to search for THE bad guy. The one with ginger hair who supposedly lived here and who could finally give him the answers he was looking for. But standing beside this guy who seemed to fit as a cover of “Heroic Role Models Weekly” or something stupid like that, he felt like he probably had to do the right thing. Annoyed, but also relieved to feel that way, Derek nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, this man whose name still was unknown to him, walked confidently up to the woman in his newly created glass prison and...magically created a piece of jewelry? But as if that wasn’t enough he simply transformed into a state of mist to get passed his proud accomplishment, putting the necklace around the woman’s neck. Then he simply walked back through the glass before materializing before him once again.

”Alright, so long as she has that necklace on, I don’t think she can do any harm. Can’t remove it herself or anything, but eh.”

What was this guy? Now when he knew which side he was on, it was starting to bug him to not know the answer. Derek had thought he was powerful, but meeting this carefree soul who wandered around and apparently could create weird glowing things out of thin air, maybe he would have to reevaluate. He felt how an envious expression was starting to emerge on his face that luckily was still covered by the scarf. Derek wondered how much of his expressions the other man actually could make out from his outfit.

”Puppet lady I think is no longer a threat, so we can get to tossin them in the slammer.” ,The other man continued and also gave him a thumbs up.

He didn’t need to be jealous of this man, but that didn’t stop him from showing a trick of his own. “Okay then.” Derek said while looking down at the mirror frame without the mirror. He then looked back up at his glass prison and by focusing on the small details in its structure, he felt how the glass pieces started to slowly move from side to side, like stretching after a long slumber. Then, like if pressing the rewind button on a remote control, the glass shards instantly hurled their way back to the mirror, repairing itself. Two glass splinters however almost seemed confused, trying to fit in like pieces of a puzzle, but with no success. Derek focused on those pieces alone and with a clicking sound, the mirror was once again complete. Focusing back on the woman, Derek found to his relief that she was way too shook up to even dare try and escape.

Even if the male were jealous of Ryan, he would have not likely taken notice of that as he was more worried about doing his heroic duty, helping people and just over all being a good guy. His attention however did find itself being drawn to the glass as it moved, returning to the mirrors that the male seemed to carry around with him and to even repair the mirrors. Ryan’s brilliant glowing eyes would follow this motion, noticing it even within the low lightning. Alright, he had to admit that the power was pretty awesome. ”That is just really awesome.” he said star struck slightly, smile still prevalent upon his lips as he turned back to the female that was sitting on the ground. ”Glass powers, right?” He asked flashing a bright white smile. ”So put these guys away and then find the victims…I think I can do that.” Ryan said with a nod.

”That is just really awesome. Glass powers, right?”

As his power was being admired by the other man, Derek felt a little more secure in his own ability to handle the situation. Not that he was still jealous or anything, because he wasn’t. Okay, maybe slightly, but that compliment felt good. He couldn’t help but to find this man’s smile to be contagious as a smile of his own started spreading behind his scarf.

“Yeah, thanks. Your powers are pretty awesome too.” Derek said, slightly disoriented as the man’s smile widened. He almost got the feeling that this guy was flirting with him, though he had always had terrible radar for that kind of stuff.

”So put these guys away and then find the victims…I think I can do that.” The other man said, nodding determined.

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem. Hey, by the way, my name’s…Shard” Derek said, hesitating as he spoke the name of his hero persona. He put forward his right hand in greeting.

’Shard? Nice to meetcha Shard, the names Ethereal.” He said in a friendly manner, extending one hand and shaking his firmly. Pulling his hand away he considered the female that they had yet to bring in, pursing his lip slightly and nodding to himself. He was hoping that the female was not the type to pack on the pounds, or the type that was heavier than they looked, because he was not the most physically inclined of heroes so lifting was not one of his main talents. With a shrug, he would approach the female and attempt to lift her, the attempt going well as he threw her over his shoulder, thankful that atleast he had the endurance to carry heavy things for a good while. ”So…umm….do ya know where the station is?” he asked with a weak smile and a chuckle.

Derek noticed how Ethereal’s handshake was firm and steady as their hands were shook. The other man seemed to be in deep thought as he looked towards the female that now was in their custody. However, his thinking seemed to result in the simple action of throwing the woman over his shoulder. Not that Derek had any better ideas, which worried him. He usually had more wit than that. But then again, it wasn’t like the woman could do anything ability related as long as that necklace continued glowing eerily. The glow actually gave the alley a faint light source.

”So…umm….do ya know where the station is?” Ethereal asked with a chortle.

Derek did. On his checkpoint tour around Chicago, he had figured it would be a good idea to memorize the places where some of the police stations in Chicago were. Of course, he also left mirrors nearby all the checkpoints he visited so that he could teleport there when needed. Derek didn’t expect them all to be left where he put them, but the ones that were would still give him the basic ability to navigate his way through the city. So, he did know the way to the nearest station.

“It just so happens that I do.” Derek said with a smirk covering his face, only partially hidden by his scarf. This guy somehow made him relax, a feat not easily accomplished. It was also a bit worrisome.  

The only problem would be to walk instead of teleporting as it would take some time getting there. Police still avoided this place like the plague, so the nearest uncorrupted station was further away than he wanted to think about. Derek’s smirk was suddenly replaced by a more thoughtful expression.

“Are you up for a walk?” Derek asked, uncertain if he was up to it himself. He may be durable, but the kick he had received wasn’t a weak one and sadly he didn’t have a gut made of iron or anything like that. Instead he could manipulate glass which was cool, though not very helpful at the moment. But at the same time he couldn’t just leave these bad guys behind. Remembering the plural in the expression bad guys , Derek’s gaze was drawn to unconscious Mr Superstrength in the corner and a thought that struck him with fear, entered his already active mind. Who the hell was going to carry HIM to the station!?