This was not a piece of cake.
Ethan pushed himself onto his knees, coughing and spitting to get the sand out of his mouth. As he crunched down on yet more grit, he realized it was a lost cause, and instead focused on catching his breath and planning another attempt to save his hostage.
None of his prior efforts had even come close to being successful. Hailstone had nearly killed him on the lake, and that was before she was getting paid to do so.
Each time Ethan teleported up to cut the mannequin loose, Hailstone immediately launched a barrage of ice-based projectiles that knocked him down to the sand. He wasn't sure how many more times he could land face-first in the pit without breaking a rib, but given how sore his midsection was, it really felt like zero. With his hostage just twenty feet above the pool and descending faster than Ethan liked, he was stuck on his knees, running out of time to pass his evaluation.
Hailstone, however, looked like she had all the time in the world. She was clearly enjoying the moment, her movements almost leisurely compared to Ethan's frantic attempts to get away.
As if just to keep things interesting, Hailstone crafted two thin ice spears, then chucked them at the hostage. Ethan's eyes widened, and he summoned a void right in front of the hostage just in time for the spears to shatter against them.
"What the hell was that?" Hailstone asked, indignantly. "You're supposed to teleport or whatever. Not…that."
"I'm starting to think," Ethan said, his voice strained, "that you're secretly enjoying this."
"Secretly?" She scoffed, shaking her head. "I guess I need to try a little harder because, to tell you the truth, I'm absolutely enjoying this."
Ethan tried, once more, to open a portal to the mannequin, now just fifteen feet above the pool. Hailstone made another series of seemingly infinite amounts of sharp, icy daggers and threw them at Ethan, forcing him to teleport back down. She laughed as he growled, frustrated.
"It's your fault I'm even here, you know."
Ethan brought his eyes up in between pants. "What?"
Hailstone twirled an icy dagger around her fingers. Ethan hated how she looked almost bored during the most difficult two minutes of his life. "You got me kicked out of the Protectors. Now I'm back to picking up contract work like beating up new trainees."
"You got yourself kicked out of the Protectors!" Ethan shouted. "You put me under a frozen lake and left me for dead!"
Hailstone rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "It's not my fault you slipped and fell under the ice. How was I supposed to know you'd be too stupid not to swim back up? Then your sister had to come rescue you and she got me demoted. I can't hurt her, but I can definitely hurt you."
"You deserved to be demoted," Ethan emphasized. "You were a failed Altered and a failed Protector. You're nothing but a failure!"
"And what are you going to be when you fail your evaluation? We'll be working together, you and me! Taking whatever jobs Apex gives us, hurting who they tell us to. Don't worry, you'll grow to like it. I know I did."
Ethan snorted a laugh that hurt his ribs. "Even if I fail, I'll never work with you. I would never be so desperate."
What little color remained in Hailstone's face completely drained, and Ethan's heart nearly froze with fear. That struck a nerve that he immediately wished he hadn't struck. Visions of being impaled on a frozen spear danced in his head, but instead of rushing him and beating him over the head with her signature frozen mallet, Hailstone then did something Ethan hadn't ever seen before: instead of creating a weapon to throw at him or hit him with, she instead created two icy whips, wrapping them around her palms
"You should've stayed at the bottom of that lake."
She threw the whips out before Ethan could move, wrapping them around Ethan's wrists which burned with freezing pain. She then pulled the whips back, tightening them around Ethan's wrist as he screamed.
Ethan breathed in slowly, fighting the pain to think. Hailstone was right about one thing: he was very close to losing everything.
The hostage was just ten feet off the ground, slowly lowering towards it and Ethan's inevitable end. Time was almost out, and quitting was starting to sound awfully good, especially compared to having Hailstone cut him any deeper than she already had. Fully ready to throw in the towel, Ethan sighed curtly, but took a moment to glance back at Raz in the stands. Instantly, his stomach sank. Raz wasn't worried, or angry. Instead, Ethan clocked his expression, one he had seen too many times over the years:
Raz was disappointed. Disappointed that Ethan had dragged him all this way for nothing, upended both of their lives so Ethan could live out his fantasy, only to quit the second things got difficult. If even Ethan's best friend, the person who had known him longer than anyone except for Alex, expected him to quit, then why shouldn't he? Lying in the dirt, bleeding from each arm and leg, he realized Hailstone was right: this was who he truly was. If gaining powers didn't change that, then nothing would.
He could teleport out of here anytime he chose. The observation deck undoubtedly led to an exit. But, of course, he'd have to walk by Quinn, which would be incredibly embarrassing. What would she even say to him?
"Why isn't he moving?" Quinn asked, leaning forward closer to the glass.
Kingston's voice was softer than it had been all morning. "Quinn, I've done fifty of these evaluations, and I don't think I've ever seen someone take the beating he has. If he isn't thinking about giving up yet, I'd seriously recommend he start soon"
Quinn, without thinking, grabbed the intercom from Kingston.
"Cheering them on isn't exactly allowed-"
"Ethan!" Quinn yelled, cutting him off. Ethan's eyes shot up, and Hailstone momentarily relaxed her grip, her head turning to the sound coming from the intercom system. "I know we don't know each other well, but in a moment where you had every reason to walk away, you chose to help me. I haven't met any Protectors yet, but if I had, I'd want them to be like you."
A sudden acknowledgement stuck out in Ethan's mind: Raz knew exactly who Ethan was. Maybe even better than Ethan knew himself. But Quinn didn't know the first thing about Ethan, other than the fact that he helped out in the museum this morning. The mistakes he made in the past didn't exist with her, the stains that marked the thread that comprised his and Raz's relationships were entirely nonexistent on the bond he could craft with her. But if he quit now, and gave up on his evaluation, that chance would be gone, cut short, and he wouldn't have a second one to show her, or anyone in Ascension, a different version of himself, one that he actually liked.
Hailstone already thought she knew who Ethan was, and her confident expression told him exactly what she thought of him. She expected him to be just like her: a failed Protector with nothing to look forward to. She expected him to stay there in the dirt and give up.
But Ethan worked in the dirt for three years, and he wasn't going back now.
With his mind made up, he knew he only had one shot at this. Ethan knew what he was about to do was going to hurt, and badly, but failing Raz and blowing his chance with Quinn would hurt far worse. Besides, he already broke thirty bones just getting powers, and despite being unconscious for most of that time, this couldn't possibly hurt worse than anything he experienced then.
"She's wrong," Hailstone shook her head. "You're nothing, and in a few seconds, that's all you're ever going to be."
"You've been talking a lot," Ethan shot back, forcing himself back to his feet, one hard step at a time. He let out a terse breath, trying his best to ignore the pain flashing from his wrists. "But you've yet to actually hurt me. So, I need to know: got anything tougher than these play-doh whips?"
Hot anger flashed across Hailstone's face, leading to a moment of panic: either his plan was going to work, or he was about to find out how powerful Hailstone really was.
Hailstone brought her arms up over her head, ready to slam them into the ground and nearly cut Ethan's wrists off in the process. But instead of running from her attack, Ethan ran toward it, darting towards Hailstone, running against the tension and using it to open a portal high above him, near the top of the pit's dome. He completed the portal, diving through and dragging Hailstone with him, who suddenly appeared behind him three stories above the ground. Just as nearly everyone who found themselves suddenly above the ground, Hailstone panicked and released the whips, just as Ethan hoped, freeing his wrists. Ethan opened another portal just above the mannequin, grabbing the rope, slipping down slightly as his blood-slickened palm struggled to grab purchase.
"This again?" Raz yelled, exasperated.
"Not quite again," Ethan answered, hoping he sounded confident. Hailstone flicked her wrists and sent two thick sets of whips down to the pit, reeling them in and slowing her fall. She turned, clocking Ethan's position, and grunted angrily.
"Need I remind you we only have a few more seconds before the mannequin goes into the lava and you fail your evaluation?" Raz shouted.
"You do not," Ethan shot back, tensing as Hailstone reared back to fire another dagger in his direction. "Good thing this isn't a real person, because this next part is going to hurt."
Ethan timed his plan perfectly and leapt off the rope before Hailstone's dagger had a chance to reach him. Instead of connecting with Ethan, the dagger's sharpened edge cut straight through the nylon and sent his mannequin into a free fall. Ethan sprung into action, opening a portal underneath it and then one more just above the sand, transporting him safely away from the lava pool.
While Hailstone's eyes were on the tumbling mannequin, Ethan opened a portal as high above him as he could and then opened one beneath him, sending himself falling from the top of the dome. He maneuvered himself into a dive, gaining speed as he plummeted towards the sand, then opened a portal just behind Hailstone and sent himself through it, slamming into her like a wrecking ball.
He immediately felt a burning pain in his shoulder, but ignored it as his weight drove her forward, sending her tumbling into the pool with a splash.
Ethan skidded to a stop a few feet away to her left, panting and almost entirely certain his shoulder was now completely out of place. He spied his mannequin, lying in the sand a few feet away, dusty but otherwise unharmed. Walking slowly and wincing with every step, he grabbed his mannequin, then walked back to the metal platform in the center of the pit. He pulled both their arms up, sweat matting his hair, facing the observation deck.
"Ta-da!" He said weakly.
Hailstone clumsily pulled herself out of the pool, black hair dripping wet. In a dramatic show, shevpulled her arm over her head and brought down her jagged mallet, letting out a frustrated roar and smashing the plastic kiddie pool to pieces, sending water spilling all over the sand. When she was done, she retracted her hammer and stomped through the mud, stalked over to Ethan, who was too tired to do anything other than watch, dismay on his face. She eyed his displaced shoulder, smiled maliciously, and popped it back into place as Ethan screamed in pain, grabbing at the white-hot burn that was consuming his shoulder. Hailstone pulled him in close, whispering.
"You're lucky there's people watching," Hailstone growled. "You embarrassed me again. You better hope they don't actually let someone as weak as you become a Protector, because when I see you, in the middle of the night, all by yourself without your girlfriend or Titan…"
Hailstone wrapped a thin, sharp piece of ice over the back of Ethan's neck, where no one else could see, drawing just a prick of blood that made him gasp.
"I'll tear you apart."
"That's quite enough, Hailstone," Kingston's voice boomed through the pit. "You're dismissed. Stop at the front desk to get your check."
Ethan released a breath he didn't know he was holding in as Hailstone slammed the door shut on her way out.
"God, she was terrifying," Raz said, shaking his head, dust falling from his black hair. "Great save, by the way. I really thought you were going to-"
"Quit?" Ethan cut him off, giving him a small smile. "Thought about it."
Raz nodded, a faint, pleased smile spreading across his face, the first genuine hint of happiness Ethan had seen from him since the accident. "Shouldn't we find out what you are going to be?" he asked.
Ethan nodded, clearing his throat.
"So?" he yelled up to the observation deck. "How'd I do?"
Quinn jumped as a woman's voice broke the silence in the observation deck.
"He's not bad," Amory said, nodding. Quinn wasn't sure when she had come in. She eyed Ethan cooly. "Not as strong as Titan, of course, but smarter than she gives him credit for."
"Agreed" Kingston said. Quinn noticed he was suddenly sitting up straighter. She did the same. "But…he did bang up his hostage, and technically he incinerated the Altered. Publicly, we don't exactly condone murder, especially when other Protectors could've stopped the Altered more easily. He's…unconventional."
Amory gave Kingston a thoughtful nod. She gestured towards Ethan. "What are you suggesting?"
"That was the sloppiest evaluation I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. He feels like a liability. You care a lot about the brand, and for Apex's Protectorate brand, it might be safest to just cut him loose."
"Cut him loose?" Quinn asked, more urgently than she wanted. She cleared her throat. With Ethan out of the picture, Quinn wouldn't be able to figure out what, if any, connection he had to her sister. She had to think fast. "Ethan has the power to teleport anywhere. He's immensely powerful, and you're just going to let him roam free?"
Kingston shrugged. "He's got Sector One ability, to be sure, but more sector five talent. He's…not easy to place. Then, there's the how he got his powers…"
"Well, he already has them, right?" Quinn's eyes drifted over to Amory, noticing a thin smile spreading across her face. "He's going to use them regardless. Shouldn't it be for Apex?"
Kingston and Amory went silent. Quinn's eyes darted back and forth from one to the other.
"I mean, you're not going to kill him, right?"
Kingston shifted uncomfortably. "The thing is-"
"Hello?" Ethan said. "Do I need to teleport up there again? I can't exactly see where you all are, and I'm very tired so I might accidentally teleport into something which Raz said I really need to avoid due to the energy released during a molecular displacement equating to that of a hydrogen bomb going off but I told him he's not a scientist but then he told me to go f-"
Amory pushed a button on the control board, cutting Ethan off.
"Thank goodness, now I can hear myself think."
"We do have an opening in Sector Five after Syphon was injured the other night," Kingston pointed out. "If you want to keep him, there is an opportunity there on the edge of the city where there shouldn't be a ton of eyes on him. And if you don't want to keep him, well…with his lack of combat skills, there's a chance this works itself out, if you know what I mean."
Quinn grimaced, hoping Amory wouldn't notice. Luckily, her eyes were trained on the somehow still-speaking Ethan. She folded her arms.
"Have him wash and then send him up, Kingston. I'd like to speak with him."
Kingston nodded as Amory left the deck, typing up a few notes on his tablet. He made sure Amory was out of earshot, then whistled.
"Wow," Kingston said to Quinn, "and I thought I was trying to get him killed."
Quinn frowned. "What do you mean? What did I just get him into?"
"Technically, you're giving him what he wanted," Kingston pointed out. "But, knowing Amory, I think he's going to find out pretty quickly he should've wanted something else."
About the author JFoster 1/18/2025, 5:30 PM 8/31/2025, 8:47 PM Colorado
Bio: Marvel nerd, amateur DND player
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