Archdemon ascending [Alex]

Chicago, a place he had not been to in what felt like a long while. Yet her he was now, despite the better instinct to avoid it altogether. Already the wind was blowing insufferably as Jordan made his way through the crowded sidewalks, dressed in a simple fashion for the mission. Granted, he stuck out within a crowd simply because he was shorter than most of the people walking through it. In fact that may have explained why people tended to mistake him for someone younger than he actually was meant to be. If they knew his real age, then well questions might have been brought up from there. Those questions would be ones that he did not want to bother to answer, so in the end it would have been better to let people go with their assumptions. A small creeping feeling began to flutter along his spine, as if something had been watching him.

Considering his position that was a very likely thing, but then again perhaps he was just being paranoid. Paranoia came when things happened like they did with him recently, things that seemed to flash through his mind at the most inconvenient of times actually. However his Hyperion problem was not the reason he was here, but instead he was following something a lot more sinister than him. The whole being more sinister bit may have had something to do with the fact that someone was kidnapping random people, though calling them random was more something that the unenlightened would make note of. Jordan had dealt with these things before, and it looked more like something a cult. Cults were a thing apparently, and they popped up more than he would have expected them to. The presence of one was partially the reason that he was here in Chicago of all places.

The other reason was that they were holding someone that he actually cared for, which made this a little personal. Normally he would have expected Shael to be able to take care of himself, but then again things were not always as he would have liked them. The younger ethereal had their faults really, and one of them was making mistakes that his sister would have not, as well as managing to get himself into trouble. Hopefully this would not lead to something like him getting himself killed. That would likely be something that he could not so easily recover from. Adjusting the thick jacket, Jordan took note of how cold it was considering the summer climate and that made this all the more annoying. "What was I thinking coming all the way here?" He muttered to himself with mild irritation while his eyes would continue to dart around.

Being in the open would have done nothing considering that no proper criminal within their right mind would perpetrate a crime in broad daylight. With all of the metahumans around they would likely only be inviting a painful asskicking should they decide to do so. That was when the idea to stop looking in the open hit him like a ton of bricks, so that was what he would do. Not that he was expecting to find Shael in a back alleyway, but then again maybe he could find someone that would give him some answers. A little gentle persuasion was within heroic bounds as far as he knew, so there would be no moral code breakage happening there. So long as he didn't kill them at any rate, as that would have been pretty lame. Well that and he would have been no better than Hyperion.

Stepping out of the crowd of people, he could feel the rush of emotions they let of slip away from him like a wave almost as he was once again free from the sway of feelings. Yet, as soon as he felt like he was far away that only meant that something else would hit him. The feeling was sudden, a sharp pang of fear that bubbled up within his gut and made Jordan feel almost sick. This fear was powerful enough to reach out for him and that meant something was going on. So Jordan did the only thing that he could think of, forming the magnificent white wings upon his back. They were sufficient enough to propel him upwards with an impressive amount of force as the wind itself whipped past him. While not going as fast as he could, Jordan was going an exceptional speed as he flew through the air as graceful as any bird. Within a matter of seconds he landed closest to the area where that bad sensation was as a woman ran into him full force, knocking the male over.

She let out a scream that hurt his ears more than anything, though he could tell she was distressed. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying likely and what appeared to be make-up was smeared. "Woah woah woah. What's goin on here?"

What better way to spend a Saturday then by soaking up the rays. Alex was floating above the clouds, already in uniform. He never felt more free then when he was above the clouds. The sun warmed his innards, filling him with a fire that burned. Even after pushing his body and powers lately, Alex felt good. Real good. He opened up his eyes, looking up into the sky. Leaning backwards, Alex began to fall into a dive. Being above the clouds was nice, but he could hear his city calling to him. One hand forward, Alex dove downwards into the clouds.

He soared above the city, searching for problems he could help with. Alex wasn't quite sure if there was a better way to do this, but it seemed to working for him so far. He had even been mentioned in one of the newspapers! Though third page as a footnote. Still, it meant he was making progress. Today seemed peaceful though. Until Alex spotted something unusual. There seemed to be a young man with large white wings talking to someone. Looked like a woman. Alex hovered back a good distance, unsure if he was needed to intervene.

The woman seemed to remain within the grip of hysteria for a few more seconds before looking down upon the male that had landed before her. The first thing that she noticed was the wings upon his back which held an almost unearthly glow to them as they folded against his back. Something had been either chasing this woman or caused her enough distress that she had to run from it anyway, but the problem was that something was happening anyway. "An angel?" She seemed to mutter with a silent exultation that bordered upon reverence. It was that which reminded him that to some people angels were sacred, and perhaps this was one of them.

"Some people call me that but I don't think that's your greatest concern at the moment." Jordan started off before moving things back towards the more important issue at hand, which was her hysteric attitude. "Is something the matter? Were you being chased by someone?" Jordan would ask, eyebrows furrowing in slight concern. Something might have been a better word for it, but then again it may have sounded strange if that was not the case. This at the very least caused her to change expression as she looked down at him.

"A...demon. I'm being chased by a demon and...oh god it's still following me." She then returned to hysterics before turning around as if expecting something to appear from nowhere. That was when a slight tremor caused the woman to lose her footing, yet that gave him enough time to react. One hand snapped outwards and latched onto the woman's hand, as he wrenched her forward with all the strength that he could. Within a matter of seconds a hand would rip upwards from the concrete with sharp claws that looked like they could rip through flesh like wet paper.  

Landing against one of his wings which shot out to catch her as something seemed to claw through the floor itself. "I don't know if that’s a demon but it is still chasing you." It appeared like a large hairless dog, with skin that was the color of something burned and with a slavering jaw lined with sharp teeth.

"Nope. Nope, nope nope...."

Alex was not having any of that. Slobbering deathhounds was where he found his new line on the freaky scale. While the other two stumbled, Alex was already floating as luck would have it. But what to do? This thing was weird, weirder then even the angel. Flying upwards, Alex built up speed. He came down like a brick on top of the dog thing, packing enough force to create a small crater on impact. Maybe he would get lucky and stop the thing before it really got going.

This looked like a rather dangerous situation really, and considering that the woman as freaking out meant that he would have a little of a tough time reacting to the thing glaring at them. Luckily it appeared that a hero had taken interest within their plight as they flew downwards from the sky, slamming into the canine creature. It let out a pained yelp as it was pushed through the ground itself while Jordan looked to the female with a look that basically told her to run. She took that hint and turned around to make a run, while he would deal with the problem that likely stood at hand.

"Nice move." Jordan noted with a smirk as the thing slammed into the ground violently twitched, a shard of bone sticking out from one of it's forelegs. Despite the grievous injuries done to it, he could tell that it would not go down from one strike. "Might need to do a little more if you want to deal with it thought." he noted with a shrug while gathering a brilliant seafoam energy around his hand before launching it in a bolt at the creature that rapidly formed a sheet of same colored ice around it. It looked like something that would work but then again he was not too sure.

"Thanks for the help.....ummmm....what do you call yourself?"

"Oh hey, that actually worked. No it didn't!"

Alex leapt off of the demonhound as it twitched underneath him. He had hit the thing hard enough to create a small crater around it and it still was moving. Freaky... Alex was about to follow up with another punch when it was taken care of for him. He looked over to the angel next to him, finally taking in what the man was.. Even under his mask, Alex's face had a inquisitive look.

"Aegis. They have taken to calling me Aegis. What do they call you?"

Not quite sure what to make of this new guy, Alex kept his guard up. Not physically with his hands up, but a drawn back posture that spoke of caution. So far, Alex hadn't met another metahuman who hadn't tried to kill him.

So it appeared he was dealing with a fellow hero, something that Jordan was not all too familiar with to be quite honest. Just interacting with others heroes had been limited to Silus and Seraphim really, though he was not sure how often Silus did the whole heroic thing really. This metahuman had proven that they could hit pretty hard, suggesting some manner of superhuman strength and maybe a durability to match. Whether they would be helpful within the problem that he had was unknown, but something told him that he would need some help pretty soon. "I've taken to calling myself Gabriel but some people call me Archangel. So I guess whichever you think sounds better." Jordan noted as one of the wings folded against his back rustled restlessly.

Something was sending a dark chill through him, an almost ominous sensation that made him more than anything uneasy. This person's posture spoke suggested they did not quite trust him, but then again he did not blame them considering what had just happened before them. Leaning over, he pressed a single fingertip against the ice now encasing the creature. This was something, perhaps a manner of demon or something along those lines. Maybe it was just something that had been created through genetic experiments, as that sounded very likely. "Call this a hunch but I have a feeling this may not be the only of these things roaming around. Well, at the very least not in the immediate area." Jordan noted out loud, thinking mostly to himself about what this thing could mean.

"There had been a string of odd kidnappings in the city, so maybe this has something to do with that, but that only brings more questions." Suddenly the broken ground beneath the dead creature cracked, chunks raising upwards as what appeared to be a black hand reached through and drug the ice bound thing down into a black void. Making some distance between that sudden appendage, he would then walk forward with hesitant steps before peering down into the void. "Looks like I have a small lead, or something I may not want to deal with."