After a few portals and one eyebrow-raising grocery store stop made hours too early, Ethan stood in front of the pristine exterior that marked Alex's apartment. All that was standing between Ethan and a nice bath was one long, groveling, way overdue apology to his best friend. It would be painful, but, in the end, hopefully worth it.
Or, he could go back to the hotel rooftop and hope Amber wasn't there to accost him again, but he really didn't want to have to explain to her that he still wasn't a Protector. She already had a much lower opinion of him than Ethan would like, and his current corpse-like appearance was not going to improve his standing with her, so back to his place it was.
Ethan took a deep breath to steady himself before walking into the lobby. He began to sweat when he reached the elevator, ascending the thirty-five stories to Alex's penthouse. He hadn't been face to face with Raz for more than five minutes since the day he and Rainey went down into the mines, successfully managing to avoid him every day for the past three months, which was no easy task considering their rooms were across the hall from each other.
In the early days of his training, before he found that hotel rooftops were not particularly well guarded, Ethan would even go so far as to take showers right when he got home in the early hours of the morning before Raz was up, sleep during the day, and then leave with Alex for training just after Raz went to sleep at night, purposefully putting him on an opposite schedule of his former best friend.
At best, he owed Raz an apology, one Ethan hoped he'd reluctantly accept. At worst, Raz had every excuse to cut him out of his life completely, and then Ethan really would need Quinn to act as his PAL. Ethan felt like it was probably a little early to ask her to leave his job and join up with him, so he was going to have to make things work with Raz.
As if his conversation with Raz wasn't going to be bad enough, Ethan also had to tell Alex that he wasn't actually a Protector after flopping in his evaluation. Three months of continuous training every spare minute she could afford him bought him nothing but an extra week before Amory swung her proverbial axe on his career. She had become extremely well trained in exercising restraint with her immense strength, but everyone was prone to incidents.
The elevator doors opened, putting him face to face with Alex's door. "Time to rip the bandaid off," he muttered. He pushed Alex's apartment door open and called out to them both.
"I'm back!"
Alex was setting out a few plates for lunch, but froze when she saw the state Ethan was in. He had cleaned himself up at Apex, but the bruises Hailstone gave him would take a while to heal.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, making a beeline for Ethan and looking him over with the same concern of a lioness looking over her cub. "Evaluations aren't supposed to be that physical! You're supposed to show you have some control of your powers! It's in and out!"
"Amory had me fight Hailstone and try to save a hostage," he told her.
"What?" Alex snapped. "I'm going to kill her."
"It's fine," Ethan waved her off like a kid who just fell off his bike. "It was actually…good for me, if you can believe it."
"Looking at you, I absolutely cannot, but whatever you say. So, where are you stationed?"
"I," Ethan took a deep breath, smiling wide, "am on probation."
"That's not good," she told him, shaking her head. Ethan started to thank her until her words sunk in. He felt like someone had ripped a hole in his sail, his momentum running headfirst into a brick wall. She wasn't finished yet, though, and continued to rain on his parade.
"I've…literally never heard of anyone going on probation," she told him, walking back into the kitchen, dumbfounded, "and Amory and I quite literally wrote the book on Protector processes."
Ethan opened his mouth, then shut it again, unable to find the right way to convince her to be as excited as he was.
"I thought this was…good?" he said slowly, unable to take another bite of his noodles. "I'm almost a Protector."
"But you passed your evaluation," Alex pointed out, spearing another piece of steak from her plate. "You should've been a full Protector from that moment on. Amory's still stringing you along."
Ethan shrugged. "I would've loved that, but instead Amory and I agreed that if I could capture Sola by the end of the week, I'll be a full Protector."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "The Altered who put Syphon in the hospital? That Sola?"
Ethan nodded confidently. "I already ran into her once without even trying. She might even be seeking revenge against me, for all we know."
"You what?"
"Oh, right, it's been a long day," Ethan said. "She fought me this morning."
"What? Why didn't you call?" Alex said, incredulously. "I would've helped you!"
"It happened so fast," Ethan shook his head, "she was breaking into a museum near Stillrock. An Apex employee needed help so I intervened."
Raz finally made an appearance, walking slowly out from his room. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Did you know about this?" Alex pointed at Ethan, specifically gesturing towards the burns visible on his arms.
Raz shrugged. "His heart rate was elevated, but it never stopped, so I assumed he was fine."
"And you didn't tell me what was going on?"
All Raz could do was hesitate, then shrug again, which was not enough of an answer for Alex. She pointed a finger angrily at Ethan, who flinched, then at Raz, whose shoulders slumped.
Alex accidentally crushed the metal travel mug she was drinking out of, displaying her disagreement and spilling coffee all over her floor.
"Damn it," she growled, "I just had these replaced!"
"Not because of me, right?" Ethan asked quietly. Alex ignored him, glaring at the both of them.
"You're wasting time not talking to your PAL, and you're only willing to speak up if he dies just because you two aren't friendly?" Alex shook her head dismissively. She stormed over to the balcony.
"Where are you going?" Ethan asked, taking a step to follow her. Alex immediately shot him a threatening glance that stopped him in his tracks.
"Out," she spat.
"Uh, right. Let me know if there's anything I can do while you're gone," Ethan nodded quietly, not wanting to draw any more of Alex's ire than he already had.
"Since you asked, fix this," Alex gestured at the two of them. Raz's eyes dropped to the floor. "Ethan, I don't have a way to keep you here, but if you leave without resolving this, I will fly you back here and hold you both two inches away from each other by the collars of your shirts until you do. Youtwo are going to work this out, now."
She took a hard look at the two of them, pointing to the spilled coffee, then again at Ethan.
"And clean that up!"
Launching herself off the balcony, Alex took off towards Apex Tower, leaving Ethan, Raz, and an immediately awkward silence that filled the room.
Ethan wiped the coffee up, grimacing at his lackluster job. He never learned to clean hardwood, despite his earlier mistakes. He scrubbed and scrubbed, but the stain never seemed to lessen.
Letting out a curt sigh, he felt like a balloon about to burst, unable to stand the silence any longer. He left the stain as it was, then pulled the six pack out of the grocery bag he had brought in, popped the top off a beer, and silently offered it to Raz who glanced at the clock, shrugged, and accepted. Ethan opened his own, sitting on the couch next to Raz and feeling, for the first time, all the bruises on his shoulders and chest from where the bones landed on top of him. He groaned in discomfort, shifting weight off his right shoulder.
"What happened?" Raz asked. "You look like hell."
"I've spent three months sleeping in various locations around the city, none of them my bed. Then, this morning, I got into a fight and I had a dinosaur skeleton dropped on me. When that finished, Hailstone tried to take her revenge for getting her kicked out of the Protectors even though that was not my fault, and now I'm here."
Raz grimaced, taking a long sip, then laughed quietly. "Remember when you wanted to be a paleontologist?"
Ethan laughed. "Now I hate those guys. Like, you were all proud you found those bones in the mountains, so you put them on the ceiling, and what'd they do? Fall on top of me. You're a danger, sir, and so is your work."
"You know what's weird? There's not a lot of other jobs where, if you're successful, your work ends up on a ceiling" Raz pointed out. "Michaelangelo, sure, he rocked it. I get it. But, like, accountants don't put their spreadsheets on the ceiling, you know?"
"True, but there are a lot of jobs where, if your work ends up on the ceiling, it's a real issue. Like, things have gone catastrophically wrong."
"Mm," Raz nodded, "chefs, for sure. Can't have that happen and expect to still be employed."
"No doubt. Pilots, too, can't have passengers end up on the ceiling."
"This is why I don't fly," Raz shook his head. "That kind of stuff can just happen."
"Oh, is that why?" Ethan laughed. "It's not the whole 'having no money to your name' thing?"
"Rich coming from someone who was so broke he threw himself down a hole in the ground."
Ethan tilted his beer. "Touché. Man, I missed this," he said quietly, his tone serious. "These last three months have been so…lonely. Alex yells at me all the time."
"As she should," Raz pointed out, "if she's too soft on you, you'll die on your first day as a Protector."
"I could've died today, and I'm not even a Protector," Ethan laughed.
"You survived, if just barely. You must've gotten better at controlling your powers. Alex has been updating me. In the beginning, she was so worried you were going to slam into a mountain."
"The snowpack saved my life more than once," he shook his head, shivering involuntarily. There was simply no amount of jackets that could keep you warm after being buried under several feet of snow. "Now, speaking about my powers…" Ethan gestured at his beer, and Raz opened his eyes wide.
"If you miss, she's going to kill you. She just got her floors redone, and if she has to get a new couch I don't think you'll live to see it."
"Come on," Ethan laughed, "I stopped Sola and recovered a powerful object Apex purposefully put away for safekeeping. I've got some rope, right?"
Raz shook his head. "It's your hanging. That said…try it."
Ethan took a deep breath, then opened a portal just beneath the ceiling and another just underneath his beer. He turned his head upward, opening his mouth and slowly poured his beer into the first portal. He completely misjudged the distance, spilling beer all over the back of the couch, laughing as he dismissed both portals.
"I see why Sola was able to beat you up so easily," Raz joked, "you can barely connect your portals."
Ethan jumped up, getting a roll of paper towels and doing his best to clear the spots. When they didn't come out, he sighed, then shrugged.
"Well, if she notices the couch is messed up, maybe she won't care about the floors, right?"
Raz sighed, his disappointment in Ethan evident. "Is making a second, worse mistake better than just fixing the first one?" Raz asked.
Ethan froze. Is that all I'm doing? He asked himself, glancing back at Alex's warped floorboards. The couch was beginning to stain.
Can't do anything about the floor, but I can fix this before things get worse if I move quickly.
Ethan rushed over to Alex's sink and pulled out her stain cleaner, flooded the wet stains on the couch, and blotted them. When he was satisfied they wouldn't do any permanent damage, he walked over to the balcony, choosing his words carefully.
Just three months ago he stood in the exact same spot, promising himself powers, a way out of the mines. Now he had them, and, as Amber had reminded him, he could go anywhere. His hand vibrated gently, power waiting to be unleashed at his command.
This time, however, he knew he had to stay put. He shook his hand out, turned to face Raz, his face glum.
"I shouldn't have pushed you, before I went down in the mines."
"No, you should not have," Raz replied. "But you did."
"And I'm sorry. But I couldn't risk having you down there in the tunnels with me. We had no idea what was going to happen if we found a breach point."
"I could've helped," Raz said earnestly, folding his arms. "We're supposed to be friends. No matter what happens, I should be there, to help you, just like when you saved me."
Ethan shook his head. "We both know that I only had to save you because I caused that accident, Raz. And I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you, but I had to get us out of Stillrock. I couldn't stay there anymore."
"Well, I shouldn't have let you almost die today even though I knew something was wrong, so we can call it even," Raz told him.
Ethan laughed. "That was pretty messed up, but I handled it. Now, going forward…I don't think that's the last time I'm going to find myself fighting for my life, so I need your help if I want to survive."
Raz clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm in, anything you need. In fact, I've already been doing some pre-work, but I ran into a wall."
"What do you mean?"
"I was looking into Apex's Protector and Altered database. Sola…isn't in there at all. They have a searchable database that is supposed to include everyone who got powers since the Surge."
Well, Ethan thought, rubbing the back of his neck, not exactly everyone.
Ethan clicked his tongue. "Well, knowing what Amory and I talked about, I would guess that they're keeping her out of the database because…she's new."
"New?" Raz asked, his voice confused.
Ethan nodded. "So, you know how nobodynew got powers for over a year?"
"How could I forget? You single handedly shut down the Stillrock mines and threw Apex into a tizzy. They just released new guidance on Protectors dealing with breach points, thanks to you. "
"Right, glad to draw attention to this important issue," Ethan said slowly, only mostly paying attention. He laid down on the couch, shutting his eyes. He could practically picture Raz's pained expression after he told him about Rainey and he really didn't need to see it. "Well…what if I wasn't the only one to gain powers after the Surge?"
Raz resumed tapping his knuckles on the table. Ethan was too nervous to be annoyed by the sound. "Are you talking about Rainey?" Ethan nodded. "Alex wouldn't tell me what happened to Rainey, but…if she also got powers like you did, and she knew how to give new people powers, there's really no way to stop her."
"I hate it when somebody smarter than me confirms my worst fears."
Raz stood up, pacing around the living room carpet. "In fact, if Rainey can help people get powers, then she could, in theory, give enough people powers to overwhelm the Protectors and throw Ascension back into chaos."
Ethan put the couch pillow over his face, his voice muffled. "That is so much worse than my worst fear."
Raz pulled the pillow off Ethan's face. "You've gotta find Sola," he said, his voice urgent. "If you accidentally released a 'how-to' manual about getting powers, that kind of information getting out could throw this city right back into chaos."
"That's exactly what Amory was afraid of," Ethan muttered, sighing "I'm on it, but, first, I really need a nap."
Raz rolled his eyes. "You're cutting into your probation time."
"If I get into one more fight without getting any sleep, I'm going to get killed," Ethan protested, walking to his bed. "Wake me up when the sun goes down. Nobody does crime during the daytime."
"There's two crimes going on right now!" he protested, gesturing to the map on his laptop. Ethan rolled his eyes.
"Sleep first, find Sola after. I need a few hours Raz, how much trouble could she really get up to by nightfall?"