After waiting more than half an hour and hearing no more sounds coming from outside of the dumpster, the head of a young man hesitantly rose from the trash, looking all around the small alley he found himself in in order to make sure that no one would see him get out of his hiding spot. With that done, he lifted his body out of the dumpster and let himself fall to the hard, concrete ground.
Despite what anyone else might think in his circumstances, the young man had a brilliant smile marking his face. Finally, after all those years, he had managed to correct one of his worst mistakes. It took careful planning and execution, especially with how weak his body was right now, but he had managed to do it.
In the short moment of distraction during Scarlet Demon’s escape, the young man moved in accordance with how his perfect memory remembered the fight and rolled out of the hole made into the room’s wall, coincidentally behind the heroine’s back at that specific moment, falling right into the dumpster. If even a single part of his plan had not been done perfectly, it would have undoubtably failed and he would have been noticed by the Superheroine. Step 1 ‘Operation: Stealthy Ghost’, was finally done.
Still, now was not the time to gloat about what he managed to accomplish. He was a suspicious young man nearby the scene of a recent fight and it would do him no good to be found right now. It was time for the next step of his plan.
After his failure in his past life, he made sure to meticulously study what he could have done better in order to prepare for the future. With that, he had completely memorized the layout of the city he had found himself in, alongside every relevant piece of knowledge about this world’s history and geography.
Due to that, he knew that, less than 100 meters from his current location, the lazy waters of the river Hellen, that crossed all throughout Ace City, passed by. If he jumped into the river, he would both be cleaned of his current terrible smell and would bring him right into the location for the third step of the plan.
The only problem with that, however, is that he would have to cross an entire, heavily populated street in order to reach the river. With his current appearance, while not likely that he would be arrested in the spot, he was definitely suspicious enough that the people could remember him and possibly denounce him to the police. That would add unneeded complications, but he thankfully had a way to avoid that.
He simply sat on the side of the dumpster that saved his future and waited, meditating on his future actions. Four minutes passed in total, Alden’s internal clock working perfectly despite what happened recently. Finally, when only a few seconds remained until 35 minutes had passed since he arrived in this world, he put his body into a tensed position, ready to act at any moment. Less than a second after that, the world shook.
*ROAR*
An immensely powerful roar tore through the atmosphere. The very ground under his feet shaking like an earthquake. Despite that, he had already started sprinting before the roar had even reached his ears. While the normal people looked at the Kaiju-like monster that had suddenly appeared in the horizon, fighting many of the Superhero groups that protected the city, Alden took the opportunity to cross the street unnoticed by others.
Pushing his weak and untrained body as hard as he could, he jumped out of the alley and ran as fast as possible, avoiding the people on the sidewalk and the stopping cars more by reflex than by any conscious action. Some people obviously noticed his presence, but the sounds and shockwaves coming from the far away fight made them quickly forget the strange guy running desperately.
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In less than 20 seconds, Alden managed to reach the other side of the street and the only obstacle between him and the river was a stone wall, roughly 2 meters tall. In a feat of athleticism that surpassed anything he had done before in this life, the young man jumped as hard as he could and grabbed the top of the wall before throwing himself over, falling to the thankfully deep waters down below. The only witness to this feat was a young girl that, many years later, could only recall to others the time she saw someone commit suicide right in front of her eyes.
Alden, despite what he managed to do, knew that it was still not over. After taking barely 2 seconds to gather as much oxygen as he could, he dipped beneath the water, just in time to avoid a flying Superhero passing right above this part of the river, moving in the direction of the fighting.
With that done, the young man resurfaced and finally let himself calm down. The river was mostly obstructed from view due to reasons that could be explained better later, so he didn’t have to worry much about anyone else seeing him floating by. He knew that the rest of the city’s heroes were occupied right now fighting the kaiju monster, so they wouldn’t be a problem either.
So, with the confidence only someone with a perfect plan could have, he simply floated on the surface of the thankfully clean river and followed the waters, while taking care to clean his clothes as best as he could from the dust, trash and blood that had accumulated on it. After 1 hour of this, just as the sun started to dip below the horizon and as he was starting to get too tired to be able to continue floating like this, the river opened up to the ocean. With a bit of effort, he was able to swim to the white sands of the beach and bring himself ashore.
Confident in the obscurity that the quickly growing darkness of the night would give him, he didn’t bother moving from this position for quite a while, taking quite a long time to rest after everything that happened. Still, he was extremely satisfied. Step 2 ‘Operation: Clothed Skinny-dip’, has been completed perfectly. After he regained his stamina, it would be time for step 3 of the plan ‘Operation: Shadow Stalker’.
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Challenger Status
True Name: Alden Eldridge
Mask: The Sage
Title: None
Race: Human (Variant-3 Species, Carbon Lifeform, Animalia)
Class: None
Ability: R̶̸̷̵̵͔̣̠̙̞͒̂͗̅̄e̷̶̴̴̶̢̥̤̖̹̍̾͌̕͝b̶̸̷̷̶̖̩̩͉̖̅̂̄̐͝ĭ̷̴̵̷̴͉̟̩̯̭̄͗̐̚ṟ̴̴̶̵̵̺̺̘̼̀̆́̑̌t̴̴̵̸̵͉͓͖͓̥͛̊̉͗͗h̶̸̶̷̴̛͓̥̼͇͉͑̓͐͠ (Warning! Conflict in Ability! User has pre-existing Ability! Please contact Tourney Organizer!)
Legacy: None
Enlightenment: Undiscovered.
Stage: None
Health: 89%
Stamina: 9%
Under Status Effect: Wet
Challenger Characteristics
Might: 3
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 3
Senses: 5
Will: 10
Charisma: 8
Soul: 10
Arcana: 5
Ethereal: 10
Challenger Skills
None
Challenger Attachments
None