Ethan should’ve been absolutely miserable.
The ordinarily dazzling night sky of Ascension was almost entirely dark as heavy gray clouds blanketed the night sky, dumping heaps of thick snow on the usually bustling city. Even this deep into the night there should’ve been a symphony of life blaring in Ethan’s ears. Instead, it felt like everyone had collectively decided to head inside and wait out the storm, leaving him feeling even more alone in the unusually quiet city.
Despite not yet being a Protector, Alex had been able to snag one of their specially designed heavy jackets from Apex’s headquarters for him, and, after some testing, he had found out that, luckily, his powers still worked even through the snowboarding gloves protecting his fingers from frostbite. But even with the hood pulled over his black snowboarding helmet, complete with glasses that were typically used to block the glare of the sun off the snow, Ethan kept having to wipe the snowflakes off his lenses with a gloved hand to keep from blocking his vision.
The wind was blowing them hard directly into his line of sight, temporarily preventing him from keeping watch over the Ascension Sports Museum, a glass, two story building in the shape of a football directly across the street from the four story mall Ethan was currently perched on top of. He hadn’t slept more than four hours a night since the stakeout had started a week ago and this was the second blizzard he had to fight through without a shelter to utilize.
Instead of being miserable, he wore the same smile that’d been practically plastered on his face for the past three months. Since gaining powers, Ethan had never felt more alive.
Despite the storm raging around him Ethan was still practically giddy to be above ground, in the open air where almost anything could happen. Nothing had yet, of course, but still. Something could happen at any moment, and that was more than enough to excite him.
While she patrolled her home turf in Sector One and assisted with any vehicles stuck in the snow, Titan had ordered Ethan to surveil the Ascension Sports History Museum for any signs of an Altered known by the name of Vider who could turn himself invisible at will.
Her orders called to mind a time in high school where Ethan’s baseball coach asked him to go find the mound digger in the tool shed while they were getting ready for the first game of their season. Ethan had run halfway there before he stopped and turned back, his face red. You couldn’t dig a mound, and, he figured, you couldn’t really watch for an invisible man, but after protesting that Alex must’ve been playing a joke on him, Alex showed him proof that Vider was not only real, but had been a plague in Sector Two for well over six months now, stealing priceless object after object, evading capture each time.
Aegis, the prime Protector of Sector Two, set a trap she didn’t think Vider could resist: Apex purchased and displayed an autographed baseball from the Ace’s lone World Series win in 1924, exactly one century ago, in the Ascension’s Sports Museum. By Ethan’s reckoning, the ball was the most expensive and least secured item in the entire city, with little more than a locked glass display case over the top.
Ethan was keeping a close eye on the display case. Or, at least, as close as he could, given the storm. If Vider took the bait, Ethan was supposed to call Alex and have her take care of things from there, keeping himself out of sight per Amory’s orders until he could take his evaluation.
He was basically a home alarm system, but for a baseball.
Ethan winced as the communicator in his ear beeped twice, another thing he wasn’t quite used to yet after gaining powers. He tapped it, opening the line
“Can you see anything through all that snow?” Alex asked with more than just a hint of a smile. Ethan rolled his eyes, wiping his lenses again to clear them.
“I’m managing,” he told her.
“You should’ve tried to get fire powers,” Alex told him. “If I could do it all again, I’d try for that instead. Just think warm thoughts while running for my life.”
Ethan laughed. “I’ll try to remember that if I ever find another breach point.”
“Don’t even bring that up,” Alex chided him. “I’m in enough trouble for that as is, thanks to you.”
Ethan winced. He waved a glowing palm in front of his face, grinning to himself. “I’d say I’m sorry, but…”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t even bother.”
The wind picked up, blowing a pile of snow directly into his face. He sputtered, wiping his goggles off.
“This isn’t working,” he told her, sighing. “I can’t see anything from here. I’ve got to get closer.”
“You’re supposed to stay clear of anyone who might see you,” Alex chided him. “Even letting you operate in the city is a huge risk.”
“What are we so afraid of, exactly?” Ethan asked, frustration building. He and Alex had trained almost exclusively in the mountains an hour or two away from Ascension, often in heavily secluded, snow-covered valleys that only they could reach. He was thankful she had spent so much time with him and helped him grow control of his abilities, but if he was ever going to become a Protector, he needed to start gaining real world experience as well, and that inevitably meant being seen by Altered, something Amory wasn’t keen on letting happen.
“I told you already,” Alex sighed, “you’re new, and that’s not supposed to happen anymore. Everyone with powers got them from the Surge. If we debut a new Protector, everyone’s going to wonder how you got powers and, more importantly, how they can get powers themselves. You’ll set off a new gold rush, essentially, and we’re barely holding ground as it is.”
Ethan grumbled, but didn’t protest. “Fine. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Thank you, and try not to freeze to death,” Alex joked as she hung up.
“Easier said than done,” Ethan muttered.
He understood what Alex was saying, but, at the same time, wasn’t capturing Vider more important than potentially being seen? He’d hate to have Aegis’ plan completely go to waste, and for Apex to have spent all that money on the ball only for it to be stolen.
“It would be nice to get out of this storm, too…”
Ethan pulled back his hood and took off his goggles, the cold air stinging his eyes. He stood, then picked a comfortable spot where he could hide just behind a bronze, life sized statue of one of Ascension’s Hall of Fame players right where the ball was displayed. He opened a portal in front of him and stepped through, the warmth immediately permeating his frozen bones. He shook the snow off his hood, sighing contentedly, and settled onto one knee behind the statue.
While he was enjoying the building’s heat blasting through the vents, his eyes grew wide as the baseball lifted into the air, seemingly floating, then disappeared entirely. He tapped his communicator, whispering quietly.
“He’s here,” he said to Alex softly.
“Good catch. Stay on that building and I’ll be right there.”
“Oh, right,” Ethan cursed quietly. He didn’t want to disappoint Alex, especially not on their first joint mission together. Quietly, he opened a portal in front of him, but found he couldn’t see the building corner he previously perched himself on, blinding snow blocking his line of sight. He grit his teeth together. Until Vider left, he was stuck.
Vider tossed the ball in the air and smiled to himself, turning to walk away.
“Easiest job yet,” he laughed quietly to himself. He took one step towards the door, then paused as his shoe dipped into something wet.
“What the hell?” he whispered, pulling his shoe up to take a closer look. The water dripped off his boot and down into a puddle, splashing on the tile floor.
“Oh, no,” Ethan muttered to himself, looking down. The snow he tracked in had melted off him, leaking out onto the floor. Vider tracked the water, which was running towards the center of the room, back to the statue Ethan was hiding behind. Vider walked over and knocked the statue to the ground, but Ethan had already opened a portal to the opposite end of the room.
Vider muttered to himself, then made for the staircase, pushing open the door. With him out of the way, Ethan rushed to the window and carefully opened a portal in front of him, then another one as far back on the roof as he could see just to ensure he wouldn’t accidentally open a portal that would drop him ten stories down onto the street below. He dipped a toe through the portal, felt the snowy gravel of the rooftop crunch beneath his boot, and stepped through, whipping himself back towards the Museum.
“Where are you?” he muttered, his breath fogging up his lenses. He wiped them, futilely, then ripped them off entirely, his eyes stinging against the cold. Once he regained his vision, he scanned the rooftop, looking for any sign of Vider, anything out of place. Frustrated, he growled under his breath.
“You were wrong, Alex, you can’t watch for an invisible man!”
Cursing his lack of progress, a new thought occurred to him: maybe he couldn’t see Vider, but, with how quiet the city was in the midst of this storm, he might be able to hear him.
Instead of trying to spot the invisible man, Ethan shut his eyes. He tuned out the wind, tuned out the car alarm blaring faintly a number of blocks away, and listened, faintly hearing the sound of boots on fresh snow. He tried to identify where the crunching noise was coming from, but couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. He snapped his eyes open, aware of what to look for now and, on the rooftop in front of him, nearing the fire escape, he saw footprints appearing out of thin air. Ethan’s eyes widened, his heart pounding in his chest.
Vider was just a few steps away from the ladder that would’ve given him his escape when Ethan threw up a void right in front of him. Vider slammed into the void with a grunt, falling backward and turning visible once more. Ethan opened the portal in front of him and hopped out in front of Vider, careful not to slip. Alex landed on the rooftop behind them, slipping with a curse as she rushed towards them.
“Who the hell are you?” Vider yelled, trying to scramble to his feet but slipping in the snow. “I won,” he exclaimed. “This isn’t how things are done here!”
“Appears not,” Alex replied, grabbing him by the back of his collar and wrapping an arm around his chest to keep him tight.
Vider struggled briefly, then returned his fiery gaze to Ethan.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he growled.
Ethan scoffed. “Neither are you!”
“No, that’s not what I meant. This isn’t your territory,” he said, distressingly phasing in and out of view as his anger grew and waned. “Aegis. Curar. Kestrel.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes. He recognized the names, but wasn’t sure of their significance. “Sector Two’s Protectors? What does this have to do with them?”
“This is their territory. If I choose to do something, and I beat them, I win. I stay in my territory, and they stay in theirs. You are not supposed to be a part of this equation, and you brought Titan along? Slow night, huh?”
“You,” Alex gripped him tighter, “are not entitled to anything. You tried to steal, and we caught you, end of story.”
Vider stopped struggling, seemingly almost at peace. “It won’t be me, but there will be a response. You are new, and you should’ve stayed hidden. Where did you come from?”
If there was one thing that Alex had imprinted into Ethan’s mind, it was specifically to not answer that question. He was, in all situations, to provide, with as blank a face as possible, the following scripted response:
He shrugged.
Alex sighed heavily, checking her watch. “It’s late, or, early, I guess. I’ve called in transport for Vider. Why don’t you get out of here before you break any more rules Amory set for you?”
Ethan winced. “Sorry for…this,” he gestured to the still-wriggling Vider, then opened a portal to a rooftop a few streets away, then another out of sight of the Museum, trying not to let the sense of unease permeate too deep. Vider’s response validated everything Amory had said, and that left Ethan worried.
With his work done for the night, Ethan sighed curtly, his breath steaming out in front of him. Now, with the snow mercifully lightening, came the part he hated most.
He had to find a place to sleep.