The shattered storefront window's glass on the sidewalk reflected the blazing oranges and reds of the rising sun and Ethan's growing anger with himself. If he was wearing a hat, he would've thrown it down dramatically onto the concrete, but at this point, having spent three straight nights awake until dawn in the cold he was too tired to do anything except groan and rub his hand through his messy hair.
After Ethan slept in his own bed for the first time in months, he set out to stalk the city and hopefully catch Sola before she caught him. Each night, Sola had managed to pick out an unguarded jewelry store clear on the other side of town from Ethan and Raz's vantage point and been gone before Raz could even alert Ethan that anything was wrong.
"How does she know to break in somewhere that we aren't every single time?" Ethan growled.
"I'm at a loss," Raz admitted, sighing. "This really shouldn't be possible. You can get anywhere in the city instantly, and yet we keep missing her."
Ethan opened a portal to a nearby rooftop and sank wearily, groaning loudly.
"Does she have precognition powers we don't know about?" Ethan asked. "Mind reading abilities? Time travel powers?"
"Those aren't real," Raz told him. "Well, at least…I don't think they are. I hope they aren't."
The sunrise currently blinding Ethan meant he had just four days left until his dreams of becoming a Protector vanished like the last traces of the night, and after coming up empty again it was looking increasingly likely that he wouldn't make his deadline.
"One thing at a time," he whispered, stretching after another long night of contorting himself to crouch, unseen, behind a concrete rooftop wall overlooking the shops below. He closed the portal he had left open all night inside the museum near one of the vents, acting like a makeshift space heater during his long, cold night of staking out the shopping center and draped his arms over the frozen stone wall, sighing heavily.
Like each of the past few mornings, the city was quiet, slow to wake in the pale sunlight. He was practically alone, unsure of exactly what he should do next.
"Another night wasted," he groaned, rubbing his tired eyes. "I'm running out of time."
"We're running out of time," Raz corrected him. Despite his frustration, Ethan smiled. "We'll find her. She'll make a mistake."
He nodded. "Have I told you how good it is to have you back?"
"Not nearly enough," Raz laughed. "You good to make it back on your own? I need to get some sleep."
"Yeah, man," Ethan told him. "I'm going to stay out a little longer, just see if there's anything I can think of, anything we missed."
"Sounds good. Call if someone tries to kill you."
His comm beeped in his hear and, as he had the past four mornings, he made his way down the street to his new favorite cafe, practically salivating at the thought of having a coffee to warm his hands before he crisscrossed the city again before anyone could waken to see him. He opened a portal and deposited himself onto the sidewalk in front of the colorful storefront, his hand gripping the metal handle when someone called out to him.
"Ethan Havoc!"
Ethan wheeled around to see a tall, shirtless man unaffected by the cold standing a few storefronts away from him, arms folded with a wide stance.
"Well, well, well," the man's gruff voice immediately sent Ethan's blood racing, waking him up. He recognized the brute as the Altered, Duclaw, a known mercenary who, much like Hailstone, took jobs all throughout Ascension, regardless of Sector. Aside from being nearly a foot taller than Ethan and seemingly twice as wide, his defining feature was, of course, the razor sharp claws jutting out of his forearms. They ran down to his hands, curving in, and were blood red and deadly if Ethan let him get in too close.
"Just who I was looking for. The new guy, all alone."
"I don't think we've met," Ethan told him politely, letting go of the door slowly and squaring up to Duclaw, his hands ready to summon a portal at a moment's notice. The void he could summon was really good against getting punched, but he didn't know if it'd survive an attack from Duclaw's razor sharp blades.
"We haven't, but we're about to get real personal."
Ethan gestured to the coffee shop. "Any chance I can get my americano first?"
Duclaw took off for Ethan as if shot out of a cannon, causing Ethan's heart rate to spike. He felt his legs tense to run, but instead he forced himself to think, rooting himself in the sidewalk.
Alex, knowing Ethan had the type of personality that would inevitably make him more than a few enemies, trained him for this exact situation, and he thankfully remembered the trick they came up with. This particular move didn't work on anyone who could fly, but he was fairly positive that wasn't the case with Duclaw, so now was the perfect time to test it out.
As Duclaw was sprinting recklessly towards him, Ethan flicked his palm and summoned a small, solid void just in front of Duclaw's shin. Duclaw slammed into it and was knocked off his feet, flying towards the pavement with a surprised grunt. Before he could hit the street, Ethan opened a portal onto a nearby rooftop and connected it to the void in front of Duclaw, sending him through the portal where he crashed face first into the rooftop.
Ethan closed the portal with a chuckle, his problem momentarily solved, then headed into the cafe. After he bought his coffee (which was free for getting rid of Duclaw), he came back out and opened a portal to the adjacent rooftop well out of Duclaw's range.
He trained his purple eyes on Duclaw, who was looking frantic across the alleyway from him, a caged cat searching for a way out.
Never quite known for his intelligence, Duclaw was looking over the edge of the roof, trying to figure out if he could make the jump down to the street below without breaking a few bones in the process. Most people affected by the Surge gained an increase in durability, but a four story jump wasn't something anyone wanted to do, increased bone density or not.
Ethan chuckled, then called out to him. "Enjoying the view?"
Duclaw wheeled towards him, then stalked to the edge of the rooftop. His claws were glimmering in the sunlight as he gestured wildly with his arms. "What the hell, man?"
Ethan was taken aback by Duclaw's sudden indignant attitude. He stammered until Duclaw continued yelling, his voice echoing.
"Why would you do this to me, man? How am I supposed to go get down?"
Ethan scoffed, throwing his hands up. "You were going to try and kill me!"
"Come on! I'm not a killer, I was just going to rough you up! You know, make you think twice about coming back to sector two."
"Sector Two? Who even cares about…" Ethan's eyes narrowed. "Did Vider hire you?"
"Yes, but he didn't tell me you were such a menace. I never would have agreed to face off with you if I knew this is what you were going to do! I have to drop my kid off at school soon! She has a presentation today!"
Ethan sputtered, truly at a loss for words.
"Dude! I've gotta go!"
"Should've thought about that before you tried to attack me in front of my favorite coffee shop. Now you're stuck on a roof and your kid's going to be truant. Double whammy."
Duclaw dropped his arms dramatically. "Come on, man, what's it going to take? I can't stay up here! I'll do anything!"
Ethan casually sipped his coffee, thinking. This guy's plugged in enough to get orders from Vider, who is currently incarcerated. Maybe he can get me some information on Sola if he's sufficiently motivated.
"I'll get you down," Ethan promised, "but I need some information first."
Duclaw looked up to the sky, muttering to himself, then retrained his intense gaze on Ethan.
"How about you get me down now and I don't cut you to ribbons?" Duclaw countered. He clashed his claws together, menacingly. At least, it would've been if he wasn't ten feet away and completely trapped. Ethan decided to change tactics.
"Right now," Ethan told him, slowly so Duclaw could understand the impact of his words, "someone might see you up here. It's early and Ascension is a bustling city, after all. Maybe you could even call one of your Altered friends to come bail you out. But…did you see how easily I put you up here? On this nice rooftop, in a visible area, where someone would hear you if you screamed loud enough?" Ethan summoned a void just in front of him.
Duclaw was quiet, his eyes transfixed on the swirling void.
Ethan pointed to the top of Quandry peak, several hours by car away from them, and that was before you got to the ardous hike that would get you a thousand vertical feet shy of the peak. Heavy gray clouds were gathering around it, signaling another snowstorm later that evening.
"Do you snowboard?" Ethan asked. Duclaw shook his head, pointing to one of his claws. That would make things difficult, Ethan thought.
"The mountains get over twenty feet of snow a year. If you go off the edge of a run, you can bury yourself in snow, making yourself completely invisible to anyone passing by. You can suffocate, or freeze to death. I can open a portal anywhere I can see, and right now Quandry is just visible enough for my naked eye. What if I drop you out there? What would happen to you first, I wonder?"
"I'll climb out," he told Ethan, his confidence wavering." Ethan cocked an eyebrow.
"Maybe, but who is going to find you once you pull yourself out of the snowbank? The only person who is going to know where you are is me. The only person who could reach you before you freeze to death is me, and I don't think I'd be in the mood to help you if you don't help me, you understand?"
"Okay, okay," Duclaw put his hands out, pleading. "What do you want to know?"
Ethan smiled, pleased with his gambit. This was a lot easier than all-night stakeouts. "There's a new Altered running through Ascension. So far she's stolen a lot of diamonds, and I need to know where she's hitting next."
"She's a lone wolf, nobody knows what she's after," Duclaw shook his head. Ethan sighed, then peered out towards the mountains. He guessed at the location, and managed to open another portal way up high in the mountains, coming within a few miles of the peak. Frigid wind suddenly roared through the air and slammed into Duclaw, forcing him off balance. He sputtered, wiping his face, and yelled to be heard.
"Wait, wait," he begged, "I might know where she's going next."
Ethan slowly shut the portal. "What do you mean?"
Duclaw pushed himself back to his feet, shaking against the cold. "I heard through the grapevine that after the Surge, jewelry stores invested in a moving depot to store their inventory in a roving, unpredictable pattern. Apparently it stays close to Sector Three, in the financial district of town."
Makes sense, Ethan nodded, if you have to house that much jewelry at one time, you're better off moving it so Altered can't plan to attack it. And you wouldn't attack the depot unless you needed a lot of diamonds at one time, which Sola clearly does. Of course, Apex would need to know where it was so they could organize protection for it
"Alright. Good enough," Ethan said to the visibly relieved Duclaw. Ethan summoned a void in front of Duclaw, then a portal onto the street below, gesturing for him to go through. Duclaw eyed it suspiciously, then tentatively put his foot forward, pulling it back after he touched the asphalt. He gave Ethan one last look before he stepped through the portal.
"You're a real jerk, you know that?"
Ethan scoffed as Duclaw disappeared into the morning crowd. With Duclaw gone, his eyes drew not to the new hotel rooftop he had made his home the past few nights, but back to his apartment. He still felt excitement bubbling up inside of his chest at the thought of tucking himself into the covers, but the feeling was broken when he felt his phone vibrate inside of his pocket. He pulled it out, smiling wide as Quinn's name popped up.
Busy?
Glancing at his apartment, he spun around to face Apex Tower.
I can make time.
He waited an eternity for her text back.
"Too cringey," he sighed, wondering if he could physically teleport himself into the rising sun. His phone buzzed again.
Come to the Tower? Might be a little dangerous, but I didn't think that'd be a problem for you.
Bed, as usual, would have to wait. He downed his Americano, ignoring his slightly burnt tongue, and opened a portal into the cloudless blue sky, heading off towards the tower.