Superhero, Won't you come save my day? [open]

[Evangeline Walker]

This was so cliché. The guy wearing a ski mask in broad daylight, the stealing of a purse from an older, defenseless, older woman, who was preoccupied with the outdoor fruit when the act was done, along with the screaming for help and telling people to stop the man, villain, fiend, thief, and a whole list of other names. And somehow Evangeline got herself tangled up in it all and became the most cliché thing that she could have become; the hero that ran after the jerk and made him give back the purse before ushering him off to the police station. Yep, it was just one big ball of cliché unravelling at a moderate running speed down the streets of Lower Manhattan in New York City and it didn’t appear that the thief involved was going to just give up anytime soon.

Musing through the facts and irony described above, Evangeline took note that the thief was speeding up just as bit before turning into an alleyway—great, now he was just taking the cliché situation and making it even more typical. Seriously? A dark alleyway was the best this guy had while in bustling daytime of the city. Regardless of the commonplace and slowly declining situation, the nymph pushed herself a bit harder and made her stride shorter so that she could sprint for just a moment after the person. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the alleyway was just large enough for a human and a few trashcans on either side, she would have most definitely just given up on the chasing on foot method and simply teleported in front of the guy in order to retrieve the woman’s purse.

Vangie had managed to turn into the alleyway and not lose much of her speed during the sharp direction change, but the thief was already a good ways, maybe halfway through, away. Since she had been the only person who had actually taken off after this jerk and, even worse, was the only person who appeared to care about the older woman’s predicament, Evangeline was determined to catch this masked person, return the purse, and escort the jerk in the process of thieving to the police station. What they did with him after that wasn’t much of her concern. Despite the thief being maybe twenty-five yards in front of her and the alleyway being pretty constricting after inhaling the garbage smell, the unclean New York City air, and having the walls or items piled up on either side, the young sorceress kept her eyes on the target and maintained her concentration.

With all of the training that she had done and was doing to condition for volleyball and surfing and a few other physical things, catching the villain in front of her shouldn’t have been too much of a problem—although, he did get a head start and appeared to have quite the set of legs and lungs of him—but with certain odds in his favor, Evangeline was not sure that apprehending him was in the cards. The nymph broke into as much of a full sprint that she could through the alley and attempted to avoid the trash and cans and other obstacles, which proved to be futile on a few occasions of nearly tripping and getting a scratch or two. As the man came close the entrance of the other opening of the alleyway, Evangeline found one of her feet planted onto a knocked over trash can before being self-launched into the air a few feet. Before she could think, the sorceress’ arm reacted almost immediately and emitted a sphere of pure eldritch energy that collided with the criminal’s back.

Her fraction of a second rejoicing was cut short as her feet came crashing down onto the hard earth floor and caused her to stumble and stagger several paces before skidding a few inches on her hands and knees. Well, there went the desire to refrain from hurting herself. The abrasions on her knees and a few raw, sensitive parts on her hands stung for a moment as they were exposed to the air and Evangeline pulled herself to her feet. The sharp pain in her legs and the dull throbbing in her wrists made the young sorceress whimper a bit as she walked with a slight limp towards the culprit. A crowd had already gathered around the groaning man and the purse that was lying before him. One person asked what was going on and a few others were shouting out possibilities as Evangeline approached the man and bent down to grab the purse and a few contents that had rolled from the bag.

"Thank you, I’ll return this to th—… uh, can someone call the police? That’d be a lot of help, yeah."

Looking up and scanning the face of a few faces in the crowd before springing to her feet, the nymph slung the purse over her shoulder and watched as a balding man towards the front raised his hand and informed that he was taking care of it. Evangeline nodded, quite satisfied with the cooperation and confident that no one had seen the glowing ball of energy hit the man and cause him to go down. Identity? Protected. The day? Saved. Mission? Accomplished.

Before she could completely inflate her ego and hero worship herself, the nymph took note of something odd when she looked past some of the admiring and perturbed faces in the crowd. Though the sight was eerie enough to catch the attention of most, the noise was enough to clue in anyone that something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t particularly deafening, but it also wasn’t easy on the auditory sense either; the crumpling and groaning and twisting sounds of metal never were. Evangeline took it upon herself to push through the crowd and watched at a few cars and lamp posts and other hodgepodge metal objects were gathered into a sphere about a yard in diameter and hovered in maybe five feet away from her. Yeah, this was never a good sign. The nymph let a sigh escape her lips as she heard the crowd behind her slowly starting to take notice and elicit their worries in whispers and gasps.

"Scield!"

The next words from the sorceress’ mouth allowed a large shield-barrier to erect in front of and around the entire group of people just as the giant metal sphere started to move backward and then swung forward to collide with the purplish barrier. So, perhaps she was going to have to remove the identity thing from her list of accomplishments for the day. The shield-barrier then dissipated and left Evangeline with a look on her face that was all but amused. How had this thing formed in the middle of the street? And better yet, who had formed it? Her sigh of relief ended just as the ball swung backwards again, much like a wrecking ball, and began to oscillate back in the direction of the bystanders. Before she could really formulate the Old English in her head, the nymph closed her eyes, muttered some backwards magical words, and managed to place a personal shield around herself via eldritch energy.

By the time that she had opened her eyes and was actually able to assess her surroundings, Evangeline was lying on her back in a pile of trash bags that had broken her fall. Her knees, hands, and wrists were starting to sting and throb again. It was borderline unbearable. The people whom she had attempted to teleport out of the vicinity, hopefully to Central Park like she had hoped, were no where in sight, which gave the nymph a bit of a satisfaction point. Lying there in the assorted trash pile she had landed on, Evangeline couldn’t help but note the silhouette figure that had appeared before. Friend or foe, she didn’t know and honestly she didn’t care. The main focus was figuring out who the hell had hit her that hard.

"Ah, and here I was thinking that I wouldn’t find a hero at this time of day. Nice magical display you gave back there."

Obviously this was a bad guy, or a good guy. Okay, in truth, Evangeline still couldn’t tell; from the sound and look of it, the purse-snatching thief had managed to come to his senses and was now saying something to her about finding a hero and all that jazz.

”You see, in order to prove that I am worthy to my master, I must eliminate one of you to keep my own well-being and safety secured. So…”

Without a second thought or a second wasted, the figure raised her arm and immediately caused a piece of long, barbed wire from an ignored fence in the alleyway to coil around the sorceress’ neck and slowly choke off her air passage. Despite the fact that Evangeline knew she wasn’t going to do, thanks to the whole super-immortal thing she got from her mother and father, it didn’t make the process of death by suffocation any less painful. Along with the barbed wire cutting into her flesh and causing some serious bleeding, it was almost unbearable… that is until the deathlessness kicked in. Sure the pain was still there, but her body ceased to struggle for air after a good three minutes and continued with a modified process of exchanging air and extracting oxygen and so on and so on. Now all that Vangie had to do? Regain consciousness.

[Carl Kent]

It was always a strange sensation, watching someone else do what you often felt should be your job. Since moving to New York Carl had done little in the way of freelance superheroing, infact he'd been so busy with keeping up on his rent that running around foiling purse snatchers and bank robberies had completely slipped his mind. It was weird how being normal could take up so much of your time. But here he was again, watching someone else do all the work. The young woman was lithe and athletic looking having just run down the purse snatching thief through the obstacle course of a littered alleyway, and even though he seen her lose her footing on the discarded bin she'd still managed to stop him, regardless of his substantional lead. As it was he was happy to just stand on the otherside of the street and snap off a few photos, no doubt some local tabloid would enjoy having pictures of some small time heroics to let people know that even the little people were being looked after.

He'd avoided joining the crowd around her as the thief was overseen and the woman picked herself to her feet, dusting off her hands and checked the grazes on her knees from the earlier stumble before making sure her catch was still on the ground.

What happened next was all of a blur. With his camera snapping away he failed to see anything except the crowd ahead of him. But that noise, like scraping metal was coming from somewhere. His camera scanned the crowd and then there he saw the look of concern spread across the heroines features, but before he could take his eyes from her whatever had created all that noise was already on them. The big metal like wrecking ball construct struck whatever kind of barrier the woman had erected again and again, before rearing back one final time and crashing against her with massive force. With that final crash the people that had gathered around her vanished into thin air before she herself was flung across the street by the constructs last impact, crashing down into a pile of garbage bags some way off.

Dropping his camera on its straps his eyes quickly took in the surrounds watching as the new figure approached from one end of the street, its arm raising even as it spoke. He could hear words like hero, magic, master and eliminate in the brief speech the attacker gave before the stray barbwire coiled like a snake around the young heroines neck, the barbs piercing her skin as it constricted. Carl found himself willing her to do something to save herself even as her body went limp in the garbage pile.

His camera and bag on the floor safe across the street he was by her side as if he had just appeared from nowhere, the dustbin lid in his hand spiraling off down the street towards the strange figure like an oversized frisbee. His aim was probably off but he didn't care to much he just needed the distraction to help the woman,

"Hang in there Miss, i've got you"

Strong hands closed round the strands of barbwire and simply pulled the steel wire apart as it ment nothing to him, the barbs bending under his skin where they tried to bite his flesh aswell. Instinctively his fingers went to her neck, checking for a pulse before scooping her up in his arms and making to turn and run...

[Evangeline Walker]

Everything that she had heard from that point on, everything that she felt, everything her eyes managed to catch a glimpse of had been muffled echoes, faint sensations, and blurred, dull displays respectively. She could sense that there was someone speaking about something and, even though her physical form was in the process of recovering from the moments without air, at first she assumed her attacker was simply making more explanations and including information that she couldn't clearly make out and probably would never hear again. However, once the echoes dispersed, the nymph could feel the barbed wire being pulled away from her neck and, despite the feeling being faint, someone checking for her pulse. Was that jerk already expecting her to be dead after such a short amount of time?

Air immediately rushed into Evangeline's lungs as she ceased to contemplate the intentions of the person who had spoken to her. It wasn't like it was much of an issue anyway. If this person turned out to be a problem, she could just magic them into another dimension or turn them into an object if necessary. Until the moment where she would have enough strength to do so, however, Evangeline was forced to play along with the person who had come to her rescue and simply watch the events before her unfold. And even though she had only regained her consciousness for a little while, it appeared that not much had happened from the time that the giant, metal, wrecking ball had crashed into her and the time that she had wound up in some strangers arms.

Blinking a few times just because and fix her gaze on her rescuer's face, the nymph furrowed her eyebrows and pondered his facial features for a moment. He was young, or at least young looking. He looked like he wasn't very frazzled, which would obviously point to the fact that he was experienced in terms of disaster striking. While Evangeline personally wouldn't have called it determination, there was a bit of something that she sensed. It was partially his facial expression and partially the fact that he had already began to make a run from the attacker. Based on all that, the first guess that came to her mind was a volunteer fireman/first responder. People like that had the level of expertise to remove someone from an area without being too caught up in the emotion of the moment. But then again, he wasn't wearing any insignias or equipment and there were no ear-splitting sirens present.

Well, all things aside, at least he didn't seem like he was trying to kill her.

"Were you planning on sacrificing yourself or…?"

The nymph attempted to make eye contact with her "savior" and make herself seem not as helpless and weak as she probably appeared at that moment. That utter damsel-in-distress moment. While she would have said something like "I could have handled myself, you know?" or "I appreciate the help, but I didn't really need it", the situation she was in didn't really warrant for that type of ungrateful tone and completely self-exalting context. Plus, the guy had taken the time out to help her out of a less than pleasant situation. And he had risked harming himself by removing that barbed wire. And now he was taking all of that labor just to carry her and run at the same time. (No, this does not mean that she was overweight or oddly heavy!) Oh, and not to mention risked his life. Yeah, that typically called for respect and kindness and thankfulness from the party being saved.

"Wait. Hold that th—"

Quickly holding up her index finger and nodding, Evangeline placed a hand on the shoulder of the person carrying her and lifted herself up enough to glance back towards the original aggressor. He had started yelling about something or just screaming in pain but Eva wasn't completely sure. Continuing to evaluate the scene behind her, the nymph also noted that the villain in this situation brought his hand upward again and flicked forward a couple times. Several pieces of metal, including the trashcan lid that had been tossed in his direction just moments ago, were given a projection towards Evangeline and her "savior". Not good, but not too much of an issue either. The teenage sorceress, trying to seem as harmless as possible and not compromise her identity any further than she had,—although it might have just been worth it to give up on that goal—faked a light cough and managed to toss the backwards version of barrier into the mix.

Probably a fraction of a second passed before a dark greenish wall appeared in front of the projectiles and stopped them from proceeding any further. What was the only problem with this? Well, nothing was a problem from the magical barrier's disposition. But, there was a problem with what was ahead. As far as Evangeline had been aware, the person who had saved her from a pseudo-death had been moving forward from the time that he'd started running?—jogging? walking quickly?—But, as soon as the sorceress had coughed her spell and turned back to see what was in front of her, an entire wall of metal scraps, some pipes that must have been pulled from the ground and other materials was starting to obstruct the path. Well then. It didn't seem like this was going to be as easy as she'd hoped. Plus, she had a civilian, or whatever this guy was, to account for as well.

You just had to help that old woman and become subject to the cliché, didn't you? Honestly, you could have just poofed it back to the old woman and keep your identity under wraps and had a simple walk back to Hokus Pokus. Now I'm going to get a perfectly good human being and upstanding citizen maimed or murdered. Why did I have to get stuck with living forever AND living with my failures forever? … No, no, no, no, no. You can do this. Figure something out and get out of here. Consult with the hero guy. Salvage success from this mess. Beat the crazy guy and go home. …Where did that crazy guy come from anyway? Now that I think about it, where did this heroic guy come from? Why am I still resting in his arms like a damsel in distress? … Ah, Evangeline stay focused.

Shaking her head a few times and biting her lip, the nymph pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked at the person carrying her again. She was definitely thankful for his help and all that jazz, but it would probably help him out a whole lot more if there wasn't someone occupying his arms and hands.

"I pretty sure that I'm oriented enough now. Thanks though."

Since that seemed like enough of a warning, the teenage sorceress did her best to slide off of the man's arms without seeming too awkward or disoriented and felt her feet hit the asphalt under her. It was going to take Evangeline a little while to formulate any course of action. And since time didn't appear to be in her favor, maybe her "hero" could come up with something on the fly.

"Hm. A human to the rescue? Not sure I'll get much recognition for you. Why couldn't you have just left the girl?"

The aggressor licked his lips a few times and squinted so he could see Carl with a little more clarity. The person that he worked for was looking for a certain type of hero: the type that could not necessarily be broken in the tradition ways of a human, but could have their spirit and faith shattered. Hence, why he was instructed to kill or torture one or two of these heroes for the sake of breaking the spirits of others that saw. Humans, according to his boss, were weak and insignificant creatures, even when using the few extraordinarily talented ones as examples. Their will was easily broken and their loyalties could be altered with a simple mental or subliminal or even outright suggestion. They were not to be feared and they were not to be taken seriously either. They were practically harmless.

Easing his squinting gaze and turning his attention away from Carl and onto a more important obstacle, the magical wall, the magnetic force manipulating villain brought both hands upwards and flicked them forward in quick succession. The force he had taken control over was a car and a moving van that have been abandoned on the street when Evangeline had magicked all of the people away. They each crashed into the barrier two times before the van struck against the wall of magical energy again and caused it to shatter and dissipate. Naturally, the van tumbled to the ground and continued to slide with impressive speed until it ran right into the metal wall and came to rest as a hunk of almost unrecognizable metal with a small blaze on what used to be the dashboard/front seat/hood.

Next came the car, since it was still of good use. But this time, it was aimed at the two teenagers and was intended to pin them against the hodgepodge metal wall.

[Carl Kent]

Carrying the girl was for all intents and purposes not much of an effort on the part of the young would be hero, watching where he was going and looking behind him however was slightly more difficult as he tried to shield as much of her body as he could with his own and put distance between him and the assailant with the interest in heavy metal without giving his real identity away completely. As they moved together further down the street he heard the rushing intake of air into her lungs and breathed his own sigh of relief, having been worried he'd gotten there to late to help her escape from the barbwire choker she'd acquired.

He wasn't looking at her when she came round, his focus on where he was going, eyes flicking back and forth searching for a safe place to drop the woman off and try and deal with whatever was behind him. From what he had seen the man had considerable powers of his own, either some innate ability to manipulate metallic objects, some sort of telekinesis or in the worst case a student of the mystic arts. Carl didn't relish the idea of facing someone with magical talents, the last thing he needed was to be playing hero when some arcane bolt fried him from the inside out. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Were you planning on sacrificing yourself or…?"

"Wait. Hold that th—"

Carl let out the unconscious breath he had been holding as she began to speak, even if it wasn't in complete sentences, she was awake and well at least. He still wanted to get her to a hospital but it looked like the worst was over, and as she spoke his eyes flicked over her in a somewhat lingering stare. Good. No broken bones and no internal bleeding he could make out. Both good signs. His pace slowed enough for him to glance over his shoulder at the figure they had left behind them down the street, his arms waving and moving in odd shapes and patterns, moments before deciding that speed was probably a good option here as the metal missiles rushed towards them. His pace quickened before he half skidded to a halt, the mass of twisted metal suddenly blocking their way out, which only moment before had been clear. As the woman coughed he cast a quick glance back over his shoulder and couldn’t help but let his eyes go wide with surprise. The projectiles that had been hurtling their way had impacted some kind of barrier, slamming into the mass of shimmering energy/force and stopping dead, dropping to the ground as though someone had just cut the strings that guided them.

Whatever was spilling from the mans mouth wasn't in any language Carl could understand and with his senses open now it hadn't been hard to hear it all...and what was odd in amidst her coughing fit the damsel he had carried out of harms way had used more words he couldn't understand.

Crap. What have you jumped into now Kent?

His mind raced a mile a minute as he considered his options, he could jump it, or simply fly away but that didn't seem like the best option right now. The woman in his arms had had the perfect opportunity to see his face so anything out of the ordinary would come straight back to him. By now he’d put two and two together and figured out that somehow the barrier had something to do with the woman he was carrying and while he was thankful for the assist just now, he wasn’t sure what kind of state she was really in after her near death experience, and he wasn’t completely sure how he was going to deal with mage with a thing for metal behind them.

Just brilliant

"I pretty sure that I'm oriented enough now. Thanks though."

Her voice broke his train of thought as he realised he’d been stood still for a few seconds now just staring at the big wall in front of them without actually doing anything. Even in their current situation he managed to look bashful as he helped her back down to her feet, his hand on her arm making sure she was stable enough to stand-alone. It was then that the man spoke directly to Carl for the first time, the young man turning to face their aggressor, taking a half step in front of the still unsteady Eva.

"Hm. A human to the rescue? Not sure I'll get much recognition for you. Why couldn't you have just left the girl?"

Carl didn’t bother with an answer, who ever he was the man wouldn’t understand, Carl could no more watch someone in harms way than he could stop his heart beating, it was in his blood and his upbringing. You helped those that needed it when you could and you certainly didn’t leave people to die when you had the power to do something about it. It made the young man uneasy as the sorcerer squinted at him, a look of almost boredom dancing over his features, almost as if Carl wasn’t even worth bothering with. That wasn’t always a bad thing he’d found out from experience. People thinking you were human sometimes had its advantages. What bothered him was the way the man spoke of recognition...recognition for what? Taking out heroes and heroines?

“Can you still do that vanishing thingy you did with all those people?”

It was a simple question and despite the situation there wasn’t any undercurrent of fear in the boys voice. He didn’t know what she was capable of but he was going to give her as much time as he could to get away and get help or friends or whatever she could muster. The idea of running now seemed stupid, there was nowhere to go and someone needed his help, he could deal with eh fallout of someone knowing who he might be afterwards. Right now it was time to act like a part of the family. His head turned to cast a quick glance at the young sorceress slightly behind him.

“When I move, get out of here, I’ll slow him down as much as I can”

His voice was still calm, confident, as if someone else were speaking other than the young Carl Kent, shy, bumbling, nerd, putting as much of an authoritive tone into his words as he could. The slamming of the motor vehicles against the shield caught him by surprise with his focus on Eva for the moment, the van catching light as it slid across the tarmac and slammed into the metal wall behind them, leaving an impressive wreck only feet from them. The car however wasn’t going to miss them. Without thinking he pushed the girl, probably harder than he needed to, with one hand, shoving her roughly out of the path of the speeding car, putting himself fully in its path as it rushed on.

His mind made up, Kar-El set his feet and stood his ground, his open palms crashing into the cars bonnet and crumpling the metal like paper until his fingers were imbedded in the engine block, steaming and hissing, the road under his feet broken and cracked from where he had slid back a foot or so. The entire car had buckled as it impacted with him, almost halving in length, the glass shards from the shattered windscreen shearing and slicing through his clothing but leaving his skin unscathed and untouched. His radiant blue eyes never left the man who had rushed them with the cars, staring down the street into the figures own.

Slowly, deliberately he extracted his hands from the crumpled car and flexed his fingers, giving it a push with one foot, causing it to screech on its damaged tires off to one side leaving the path between them clear.

“I’m going to give you one chance, to give up and come quietly. No one else neds to get hurt here”

[Evangeline Walker]

Vanishing thingy? Really? That was the absolute best this kid had to describe the teleportation phenomena? Teleport had to have started being a household word ever since heroes made the public aware of zeta beam technology, magic and others. Though she was mentally milling over the young man’s choice of words, Evangeline did acknowledge the fact that something had to be done; however, the option of leaving a civilian all by himself to face the super powered enemy was far from her mind. Sure, the young sorceress could muster the strength to move all the way across the country to the Titans or to the nearest police station or to the JLA Tower in hope that she would some form of assistance, but in the short time it might take there could be a loss of life. Even with the young man “moving” as he called it, there was no real chance of him surviving without someone more hero-like at his side—unless he turned out to be a modern day, incognito Batman or maybe even Spider-man. The idea of death alone was enough to make Evangeline push the thought of teleporting from her mind and causing her to answer in a way that would give her reason to stay.

"I’m not too confident in the teleportation you’re mentioning. It might end up sending my halfway across the world or a couple feet from where I am right now. There are no guarantees and it wouldn’t be wise to take the risk."

Before Evangeline could get into the obvious protest of “I’m not leaving someone powerless to deal with a guy like that” or even erect another shield to parry the next flying car, she felt a push on her arm. Maybe it was meant to be light—you know, something that was just supposed to get her out of harm’s way—unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t as gentle as she would have hoped.Though she wasn’t focused on it, Evangeline could have sworn that her feet had left the ground when the young man applied some force to her arm. There was a moment where she felt as if all the air in her lungs had left her for a moment and returned just a second later. Managing to close her eyes at the right time, Evangeline’s gaze fell on a highly unexpected sight. The car had made impact, but that kid, young man, had the front end of it in his grip. He had caught it. With his bare hands.

So much for protecting a normal civilian.

Rubbing a couple places on her legs and arms, and discovering that she had picked up a raspberry near her elbow, Evangeline pushed herself up and stood. Aside from the sting of debris hitting a few minor wounds, she was all right. And, as long as her vocal chords still functioned, she could still help out. Yes, Eva could have easily gone forward with the “fleeing the scene” instructions she was given, but she was convinced that magic could help a great deal and, obviously, two heroes were better than one. Part of her was really hoping to go with the nagging route and ask why this person hadn’t just told her that he was packing super-strength. Heck, she could have gone about this whole thing a different way if that had been on the table. Of course, that wouldn’t have gotten much of anywhere in terms of progress, so she’d have to remember to do that later.

+++

As the nymph took the moment to gather herself, the villain stood at the other side of the field of battle in complete shock. So, the human boy turned out to be not-so-human? And he was able to catch a high speed car without any signs of pain or harm? This was, needless to say, a turn that hadn’t been in his favor. To be honest, he was only told that he had to find some lesser hero, even the lowest of the low, and he could be considered for the bigger job that his recruitment had plotted. Of course, the magical girl seemed to be the right candidate. She didn’t appear to be as focused as other superhero-types and, it was assumed, that she would die pretty easily after a brief moment of asphyxiation. That would that and he would be in. Unfortunately, with the entrance of a new challenger, he could tell that everything was about to fall in on him.

"Get hurt? No one has been hurt… enough. I wouldn’t mind seeing what else you’ve got anyway. The car catch was rather impressive."

Writhing his arms for a moment, the villain let an unconcerned smile form on his features and raised an eyebrow. He needed to come up with something to incapacitate the two and maybe get a little more favor with the people had sought him out. This boy thought he was going to get somewhere with that talk? Hardly. Yes, the villain had been surprised by the amount of strength that he had been displayed, but, no, he wasn’t about to be intimidated but an immature and inexperienced young hero. At least from what he could tell, both the female and male were rather unpolished. Hoping that the wall was going to obey the “command” he had given it via the motion of his arms, the villain cleared his throat and continued to keep the two distracted, or at least try.

"What exactly are you two going to do anyway? You don’t seem organized enough to take on someone like myself. Inexperienced! Why don’t you call someone who can offer me an actual challenge? Huh?! Then perhaps my bosses would be impressed with my performance. Bring you two wouldn’t even be worth someone like Iron Man or Superman."

The whole "tug at your opponents strings and pluck their nerves" had always been successful for heroes like Spider-Man, so why not rogues like himself? To add a few theatrics, he even threw a few points around or added in a couple, disgusted facial expressions. It wasn’t his usual act, but the point was to keep them distracted, so he didn’t care too much. The wall behind his opposition groaned. It looked as if the trouble he had tried to build was finally starting to take form. Letting the smile grow a bit wider, the villain hoisted another vehicle into the air and tossed it towards the two again. This time, however, he also ripped a light post clear from its foundation and made it hover over to the male hero. Perhaps it could wrap about him, squeeze the life out of him, restrict his arm movements, or whatever would make things a little easier.

+++

Evangeline had hardly been listening to the conversation, if that was what you could call it, between the young man and the attacker when she heard the words "actual", "challenge" and the phrase "wouldn’t even be worth…". Was this guy crazy? Insulting the people who outnumber and outpower you wasn’t a way to win a battle; especially if those people could keep their cool. Plus, wasn’t it a part of the villain code to not monologue in situations like this? The bad guy always lost when he gets caught up in his own voice. Always. And, on top of all that, obviously there was no way Evangeline could ascend to such heights as any former heroes being only in her teens and spending most of her life in the magical lands of somewhere other than the United States of America.

Glancing over at the wall and sighing, the young sorceress looked down in a moment of thought. What were they going to do in order to subdue this guy? Yeah, Evangeline could have popped into the Titans Tower raving about some madman on the East coast or even pleaded for the Justice League of Avengers’ help, but that was just making a mountain out of a molehill. Things had turned in her side’s favor and, personally, it was already bad enough that two people were now aware of her secret identity and could probably connect p and q if given enough time. She preferred for most of this to stay as far under wraps as possible. The lack of news crews or helicopters hovering above made her a little more relaxed, but it could be any moment before those things started to show up.

"Let’s get this over with, shall we?"

Her voice was just loud enough for her "hero" to hear it.

Hopefully he had some course of action in mind that wouldn’t interfere with her’s, but would try to get the same job done. The wall groaned again. Perhaps it was going to come down. And another flying van came at them with impressive speed. That hadn’t worked last time though, so why try it again? Letting a simple ‘ffo esruoc’ escape her lips, Evangeline watched as the vehicle made it about eighty-five percent of the distance and suddenly flew into the alleys between two apartment buildings. Better the alley than one of them, right? Only problem? Evangeline just prayed that the disappearance spell she had used to make everyone in that one group disappear didn’t neglect any people who were scouring the alley. There was a distant crunch as the car rammed into the back of the alley. Thank goodness it hadn’t been open or that would have been ugly.

The light post appeared to have another purpose, so Evangeline prepared herself for the first phase of attack. Ducking, stumbling, and rolling to the opposite side of the wall, the nymph came to a stop and muttered something about being so uncoordinated while on the job.

Definitely didn’t mean to do that.

Getting to her feet once more and wincing at the agitated raspberry on her knee, the young sorceress took in a deep breath and disappeared into thin air. Since the guy who had helped her turned out to be ‘super’, Evangeline didn’t have any need to be as concerned with his well-being. Since Evangeline didn’t have to be as concerned with his well-being, she was given much more leeway on doing something about the issue. And since she was given more leeway on doing something about the issue, the ideas that were running through her head could now be let free. Perhaps not every single one signified that she was a genius, but they were certainly worth a try. Whenever your job description included a “super” anything and involved restricted entrance and classified information, trying just about anything non-lethal was almost a recommendation.

Using a little spark of magic in order to get to the roof of the building, the nymph landed in a crouch on the concrete rooftop. Yeah. It was a much better view of everything from up here. Just looking over the ledge gave her a whole new perspective of the field of battle. On the other side of the wall, which wasn’t as thick as she had thought it was, the street had been cleared out except for a couple people standing and examining the wall. Did people neglect to call the police nowadays or something? Anyway, Evangeline turned her gaze to the villain. Part of her hoped that he hadn’t been terribly worried about her while part of her felt like he was staring right back at her. Needless to say, it was creepy.

Evangeline closed her eyes and focused on the Old English she had stowed somewhere in her head.

Fire… Fire… Fire… What was the word for fire? Or maybe even heat? Did mom ever teach me those words? How else would I say ‘Fire burn and cauldron bubble’ in Old English? Of course she did. But I forgot that phrase too…

A couple choice words came to Evangeline’s mind. Basically, if this guy was a magnet or could manipulate the magnetic fields around him, then heat would, or should, be a weakness for him. Naturally, fire was the thing of choice since she could create a ring around him and mess with the magnetic fields in that area. Or, that was what she thought her chemistry teacher had gone on and on about that one time in class. Thank goodness for science, but a lack of attention for the subject kind of ruined Evangeline at the worst of times—like tests and what not. Regardless, the fire would just serve as a way to suck all of the oxygen out of the villain’s breathing space and incapacitate him anyway, so it was a win-win situation. And in the heroes’ favor.

Waddling to the edge of the rooftop, still in a crouched position, Evangeline kept her eyes on the intended target and made her final attempt at remembering the Old English word for “fire”. Of course, she would be lacking the ring part, but perhaps the imagining a ring around a person and saying the word fire would be enough to do the trick. To add a little more to it, the sorceress even made hand movements in a large circle a few times.

"Àl…"

The word came out as a whisper and actually caused a sudden blaze of fire to form almost immediately and was in the form of a ring around the villain. The wall of fire rose at least seven feet, which meant that the aggressor was completely concealed and probably choking off his oxygen and magnetic fields. Of course, Evangeline wouldn't keep it up for too long, just enough to subdue him, not kill him.

Jackpot!

Taking no time to head back down the stairs of the building as she had before, Evangeline simply hopped from the roof of the building and caught herself with levitation. She eased herself to the ground and gave the other "hero" a simple nod. It seemed like their job was done. That was the beauty of magic. With sigh here and mental pat on the back there, the nymph turned to magick her communicator to her and request pick up of some kind when the metal wall groaned again. This was groan was like all of the other ones, except something came with it. Parts of the wall began to jut out and, after stopping, began to fire small, jagged, metal projectiles in the heroes’ direction.

Evangeline hit the ground as soon as she could; only hearing the faint whiz of the metal objects over her head. Looks like chemistry had failed her.