"Projections" was the word that flashed in Dave's mind, as he shut his eyes and brace himself for impact.

The hands split off in a pincer attack, with both striking Dave simultaneously on his side and cheek. The attack floored him, and had him breathing hard, while a bruise forming on the chameleon's cheek. "I am a hard counter to you, you see?" Both hands grabbed him by the ankles and, after a few rotations, spun him around like an Olympic hammer. "Anything you can do, I can stop." The hands released Dave mid-swing and launched him into the apartment complex garden's concrete wall. "Where you can't stop a single thing I do."

All of the air and strength left Dave's body as he hit the wall. He didn't even have enough in him to fall and had resorted to leaning against the wall as he tried to regain whatever breath he could.

"If I didn't have to take you in alive, I would've killed you by now," The cloaked figure said, silently commanding the two hands to return to them. The cloaked assailant sat on a nearby bench as their sinister grin grew three sizes. "Doesn't mean I can't rough you up a bit. If I bring you back hanging by a thread, Scarlatto will be satisfied."

The second pair of spectral hands suddenly appeared over the cloaked figure's head. Together, the 4 hands flew around their head and merged together into a single, enormous hand. The giant hand closed into a fist, turned solid green, and flew towards Dave across the street. Dave could only lean against the wall as the air pushed aside by the giant fist made his jacket lapels flap.

With a crash, the punch knocked Dave right through the wall, leaving a large hole behind as Dave fell into the apartment complex’s back garden. As he lifelessly lay in a pile of rubble, the cloaked figure's grin disappeared, and their eyebrows rose suspiciously.

"Surely, my Projections didn't hit him hard enough to punch through concrete", they thought. Closing their eyes, a pair of green eyes appeared above the cloaked projector. They floated over the street and glanced at Dave's downed figure. "Let me see what you're up to." Among the grey dust and rock that lay over the chameleon, the eyes landed on a pair of metal balls clinging closely to his hands. "What? Wrecking balls?" The projector exclaimed.

Dave's eyes shot open and, in a panic, the projector ordered the giant hand to squash him flat. But the hand's open palm movements were too slow, and Dave found it in him to roll backward and avoid the attack completely. Despite the dark, Dave's pink eyes landed on the assailant across the street, and he threw something small and obviously sharp at them.

The projector's line of sight from the floating eyes was directly above Dave, and in all likelihood, believed that his little projectile was bound to miss. But they were not keen on taking any chances with him, Dave had a habit of slipping through one's fingers if they did. The eyes and giant hand vanished in a puff of smoke as the projector opened their eyes and leaped off the bench, raising their hands to block. The projectile, a small chunk of concrete, landed harmlessly in front of them, much to their annoyance.

"So," Dave said with a chuckle, as the cloaked figure glared at him from across the street. "You can't use your limbs and your projections at the same time, can you?" Doubling over and clutching his stomach, Dave half-smiled as his heavy breaths got heavier and somehow wetter. Pointing to the projector, he said "It was dumb of you to let me find a flaw in your jewel, especially so quickly."

"It's nothing to laugh about," The cloaked one said with a stomp, furiously sitting back on the bench. "All I have to do is keep you at bay, and you're a sitting duck!" The giant green hand appeared over their head and floated towards Dave.

Dave summoned his Wrecking Balls and twirled them as he waited for the hand to get close enough. Taking a deep breath, he leaped through the hole as the giant hand hit the ground he was just covering with a boom. "I'll give you this, you were right about me using my wrecking balls to break the wall behind me. Your punch didn't do nearly as much as you think it did." The giant hand broke up into four and all chased after the charging Dave. "And if I outrun your hands, then—"

He tried to run but his leg gave weigh, and he fumbled hard onto the floor. Immediately committing to crawling, it wasn't long until the green hands hovered over Dave's head like vultures. "Now this is a laughing matter!" Combining into the giant hand again, the projection turned an opaque green color, and crashed down onto Dave's body, crushing him like a fly against the asphalt. If there were anything left in his body, it had just been forced out.

The giant hand broke up into four smaller hands again, and each grabbed one of Dave's limp limbs. They raised him like a carpet and carried him back to the clocked projector. Thankfully for them, the roads were barren tonight, and a wayward car had not appeared to ruin their plan. What did appear to ruin their plan, however, was a perplexed and tired looking Zed Hawkins. From across the streets, he stood in his striped yellow pajamas and nightcap.

The sight before him had taken some time to register. He had seen the green hand flatten Dave from his bedroom window, and could not get down the stairs quick enough. Dave was obviously in danger again, and Zed was, once again, the only one at the scene who could do something about it.

Summoning his courage and overcoming the dryness in his throat, Zed spoke out. "He-hey!" He weakly stammered, "Let him go!"

The one in the cloak looked at Zed with a blank expression. Without giving this green person a second thought, they dispelled the pair of hands holding Dave's feet, stepped off of the bench, and walked away. Flummoxed, Zed looked both ways before feverishly crossing the street in pursuit. His slippers kept him from running at full speed, but he was more than able to keep up with the Projector’s brisk walk.

"Hey!" he called again, with more strength in his voice now. "I told you to let him go!"

The cloaked assailant groaned with the extra work placed before them. Sitting down on the sidewalk now, they summoned a new pair of hands and shot them towards Zed. They clasped his neck and tightened their grip, choking him. Furiously, Zed grabbed the hands and tried pulling them away, but to no avail. Their grip was like a vice. "You ever hear of minding your own business? This’ll teach you to meddle in other people’s affairs," the cloaked person said, grunting as they increased the pressure around Zed's neck. Zed fell to his knees and croaked aloud, trying to suck air in.

Hanging by his hands behind the projector, Dave saw what they were doing to Zed. This stranger was trying to save him again and was putting himself in danger. With the cloaked projector looking away from him, Dave formulated a plan. "Both hands and legs were used to create these hand projections," he thought to himself. "Which means there's no way to defend against…" Without even finishing his thought, Dave raised both of his legs and wrapped them around the projector's neck in a Triangle Choke, raising his hips to increase the pressure and choke them as they were choking Zed.

All four hands disappeared, those holding Dave up disappearing and making him fall to the ground like a bag of dirt, the back of his head bouncing against the sidewalk with a thud. He gripped the back of his head, as the projector summoned forth a pair of their hands and proceeded to pummel Dave's torso with quick, hard punches. As Zed recovered from the choking with a few loud coughs, he continued to surreptitiously approach the projector.

"Why won't you just give up?" the projector bitterly asked Dave through grit teeth, as they laid punches into his bruised and bleeding body. "The Boss promised that all of this pain and all of this suffering would end in a snap if you just gave up." The projector stopped the punches to take a breath. "How kind is he to do that? After all that you've done to him, he wants to you walk a free man. You're spitting in his face by being so stubborn, and I won't stand for it."

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The spectral hands wrapped around Dave's neck now and squeezed as they had for Zed. "That man," they started, "He gave me a reason to get up in the morning. He gave me this power that turned my life around!" Dave gasped for air and placed his hand palm down on the sidewalk. He summoned his wrecking ball and a piece of the sidewalk cracked under it, but it wouldn't be possible to do anything more. The world was fading before his very eyes. "And you had to come in and ruin him! The man I knew and respected so much before is gone, and it's all your fault! You turned him into that paranoid, bitter mess of a man!" Dave's eyes began to roll in the back of his head, as his throat burned. "And as soon as you're out of the picture, he'll be back to the way he used to be. Confident, kind, and happy!"

Zed slowly got to his feet, coughing just loud enough to get the projector's attention. "So that's it. Your boss wants you to hurt people he doesn't like, huh?" His brows were deeply furrowed, as he pointed a finger to the projector, as they turned to face Zed now. "That sounds to me like your boss is nothing more than a thug!" he shouted. The projector released Dave and raised their green hands over their head, but froze when a bright green glow covered Zed's body. "A man who shows you a warm side, only to change into a jerk because a person he hates is still alive? Promising someone freedom, and hunting them down when they don’t obey?” The glow got brighter, the projector having to dispel one of their hands to shield their eyes from the light. "That's a villain if I've ever heard one!"

"You think you know everything?" The projector asked in a loud voice, sitting down in front of Dave's body. A new pair of hands shot out from behind them and floated overhead. "You know nothing about that man, and I won't have you speaking ill of him!" The three hands shot towards Zed with their sharp fingers bared. "The boss doesn't need you alive, I'll show you what happens to people insult him!" Stonily, Zed's eyes bored into the projector.

"Your boss sounds like the dirt worst. He doesn't sound like a leader at all, he sounds like a coward who has fooled despicable people into following his will. If you were nothing before him, then you were better off living as nothing. Working for him makes you worse than nothing." Zed remained pointing at the projector like a statue, as the hands dove for his head. "And when justice prevails, and he's defeated, you’ll be lucky to return being nothing!"

The bright light engulfed Zed's body in a flash so bright that the projector needed both hands to shield their eyes. When they looked back, a hot, heavy blast hit them in the forehead and knocked them over to their back. All of the hands dispelled as the projector scrambled to their feet to see what exactly was hurling these burning attacks.

Much to their surprise, the interfering sleepyhead was gone, and in his place was a suited wolf wearing a helmet with a star-shaped visor. He was wielding an oddly shaped gun with a smoking barrel. The wolf didn't move but pulled the trigger again to keep shooting the projector’s head and body. Each blast was like getting punched by a burning fist.

Desperately, the projector created a pair of spectral hands and solidified them to use as shields. The hands were effective at blocking, but the impact made the cloaked projector step backward with each hit until they tripped over Dave's leg and fell on the cement sidewalk. Their head bounced with a thud as Dave's had. They gripped their head and faced away from Zed, audibly sobbing.

"Stay away from me!" The projector demanded, resting their hands on their head. "This doesn't involve you. Dave is the only one I want."

Zed silently walked forward; his weapon still trained on the projector. "So, you're just gonna play hero, huh?" the projector asked, "Have it your way then." Four hands shot up from their back and immediately merged into a giant, solid hand again. Zed fired another shot, but the giant hand blocked the attack with its palm and approached Zed. Backing away, Zed kept shooting at the hand in an attempt to destroy it, but to no avail. "You aren't so tough now, are you?" they asked, looking at Zed with one eye, and commanded the hand to quickly wrap around Zed like a tennis racket. "Where’re your little speeches now? Where's your justice now, huh?"

"Right here."

Those were the last words the projector heard before something heavy smashed into their arm. They let out a cry as their arm bent in an unnatural way, a bone jutting out from under their cloak. They jolted upright and threw their head back to shout. "My arm! What have you done, you idiot!? You’ve ruined everything!" They cried, grabbing at their broken arm. Failing to realize in their panic that they had dispelled two of their four spectral hands.

Next to them, Dave provocatively lies while twirling a wrecking ball smiling despite the bruise on his cheek and the blood dripping from his mouth. With the giant hand out of the way, Zed now had a clear shot. He aimed his weapon at the projector's exposed head and fired. The blast struck them on the side of the head and floored them almost instantly.

Dave dropped his cool pose and laid on the floor next to the unconscious projector, watching in amazement. This had been Zed? The same guy who had given him a meal, and offered him a place to sleep for the night? As he got to his hands and knees, he recalled that Zed mentioned that his jewel power had yet to manifest. This guy had something like this in him the whole time?

Meanwhile, as Zed stared at the downed projector, he finally began to come back to reality. What moments ago had felt like a realistic daydream induced by a strangling was becoming more and more realistic. Glancing down at the weapon, the green gun with a silver fin on top and emblazoned with an encircled star, he could feel the heat that it was giving off. His hand ran to his body and he felt at the tight bodysuit and the white vest he was suddenly wearing. His eyes were drawn to a nearby car's side-view mirrors, and he squatted in front of it to get a look at himself and his spiffy outfit.

"Is that me?" Zed slowly asked, looking at the reflection in the mirror. On his head was a green helmet with a star-shaped visor. It covered half of his head, and it left his mouth exposed. Hearing himself speak and watching his lips move while wearing the suit just didn’t feel right, but Zed couldn’t help but smile and laugh at he stared. “Hey, that’s me! That’s actually me!” He turned to Dave, only to see him pulling the cloak off over the projector's head. Beneath it was a tan-colored dog of sorts, who was dressed in the body armor that matched those of the Scarlet Saviors Dave had run into earlier in the night.

"Had to be sure," Dave said, reaching into her pants pockets and withdrawing a cell phone and a yellow card. Pocketing the card, he produced a wrecking ball from his free hand and smashed the phone with it. "Now she won't be able to call for backup. I’ll have some time to skip town."

Zed stared at the woman's armor and sighed. The sense of frustration and betrayal formed a lump in his throat and a tear in his eye. Proudly, he stood tall and put his fists to his hips. "You mean we have some time to skip town!"

Dave stared at Zed with a blank expression. Slowly, a smile appeared. "I guess it would be smart for me to travel with someone. But I have to ask, are you sure about doing this?" Dave pointed to the apartment complex. "If you run back home, you could hide and pretend all this never happened. Go back to living your life however you were." Pushing himself to his shaky feet, Dave reached for a nearby bench to balance him. Zed approached him and put his arm over his shoulder to help him stand. Dave looked into the black visor in search of Zed's eyes. "The Scarlet Saviors will be too busy looking for me. And if you join me, they'll be after you. For whatever reason, they want to keep me alive, but I'm sure they won't pull any punches on you. This ghost-hands person is only one of the dozens of Jewel users Scarlatto has employed." Dave paused took a deep breath before asking Zed once and for all. "Are you willing to take that risk for me, a guy you've just met?"

Zed blindly rubbed his helmet and found the release latches on it. Undoing them, he pulled his helmet off and put it under his arm. The two boys stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Zed spoke. "Rob Scarlatto had me fooled," he said, helping Dave walk across the street. "I was under the impression that this was a legitimate group of… well, superheroes. Good guys fighting evil wherever they went. Protecting the weak and delivering justice when needed." The two stopped in front of the apartment complex front gates and Dave pulled himself off to stand on his own feet. "With what I've seen and heard tonight, these guys are the lowest of the low. I'm thinking now of other people like me who only wanted to help people with their new powers, only to end up getting beaten up or worse at the hands of these scumbags. It's not just for you, Dave, these guys are dangerous, and need to be taken down. I want to do everything I can to bring these guys to justice. It's everything I've dreamed of."

Tears slowly formed in Dave's eyes, and he looked away from Zed, but Zed was quick to grab Dave by the chin and turn him to show him is own crying eyes. "You're not alone," Zed added.

The two hugged, in spite of the pain it brought Dave. "You’re right. Thank you," Dave quietly said, his voice giving away the happiness he was feeling.

Zed suddenly began to glow in a green light again. Dave let go and backed away against the fence for balance. When the light faded, Zed was back to wearing the pajamas he'd left the house in. The two boys looked at each other and laughed.

"We’d better get out of here, and fast. If you can pack a bag, I'll find my car and we can be out of here by sunrise." He pointed to the unconscious projector with his thumb. "Her phone is gone, but that doesn't mean some other agents aren't hanging around so make it quick, alright."

Zed nodded and ran for the apartment complex's doors. From his pocket, Dave withdrew his key fob and pressed the alarm button again. In the distance, a car alarm began to blast into the night.