[Deleted]

The evening air was crisp, the transition from summer toward falls made sure the days were warm enough but the evenings could turn crisp.  Not quite cold, at least not to him since he was from further up north.  But cold enough that dressed as he was he wouldn't be roasting.  As for how he was dressed, black was the theme of the night.  Black boots and pants, black shirt, black hoodie, black leather gloves and a black ski mask that he'd cut eye holes out of.  He didn't even bother cutting out a hole for his mouth because he didn't intend to talk.  This was all really new to him still, the last year he'd mostly been practicing in his studio apartment, or out of town where he could have some privacy.  He'd done a few forays into the city over the last month, and every time he felt his chest tighten, his palms turn clammy, and his chest fill with butterflies. 

Bouncing on the heels of his feet he looked down from the rooftop to the streets below, people walking down the street either alone or in small groups.  The sound of music drifting through the evening wind when the door to a bar or club opened, briefly revealing the vibe within.  Under his mask he had a single air pod in one of his own ears, his personal spotify playlist playing to hype himself up.  It wasn't the first time, hell it wasn't even the third time he'd done this in public.  But he still half expected to wake up at any moment.  

Steeling his nerves he'd slowly step back from the edge of the roof before running forward full sprint.  Leaping off the edge of the roof as he focused his power to fold in and through the space between him and the next roof.  His foot suddenly connecting with solid ground as he stumbled forward, though he was able to keep his footing.  Running toward the edge again he'd leap from building to building, cutting out the distance between, his footing growing more sure each step as he patrolled East End.  The poorer side of Los Eurosia but it was also where he lived.  It was home, and someone had to look after it, the cops didn't seem to do a great job, especially once it got late.  And so he has taken it upon himself, stopping a few petty crimes over his first few nights patrolling, but he was starting to feel the drive for more, a vision of origin stories emblazoned on countless comic book pages.  It was how all the greats started, and maybe... just maybe he had what it took to be one of them?

A scream pierced the night air, distant and deep into the East End.  Without thought or hesitation Eric shifted course on his rooftop patrol, running and shifting from roof to roof toward the alleyway where the cry had come from.  Another night, and another person that sounded like they could desperately use some help. 


Someone needed a hero.

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

How much time had passed since he had been attacked? It didn't matter, what mattered was that he had a new power to deal with. Mh, maybe not a new power, Acker believed it was more like an evolution of his original power. Another sign that Karma didn't actually exist because if it did then Acker would have died during that attack instead of having his power evolve. Acker was a man in black, after all he always wore black, sometimes tinted with red, the colour or the blood depending on the context.

This night was one of the worst. He was in pain. He was still learning to deal with his renewed power and his headaches did not want to stop. Not even painkillers helped. The only way for him to deal with the pain was to deal with his power, he was aware, but how could he deal with his power when every piece of technology spoke to him? It was especially worse when the voices were in his head instead of coming out from the device or machine.

Since he had to deal with his power, the mad doctor decided to walk around town and let technology communicate with him, not that he could actually stop it. Perhaps, he could shut the voices up in the future, once he could control this new power's feature better, but for now he had to deal with unwanted interactions.

Acker was walking down the street with his two Dobermann dogs, Zeus and Apollo. They were machines dogs, although they looked like the real deal. The mad scientist actually felt attached to them, especially now that they could communicate with him. Acker frowned when he heard some music coming from afar, he had ended up in the Nightlife district, an area that he always tried to avoid, it wasn't his scene.

All of a sudden, Acker stopped and grabbed his head then he let out a scream. He couldn't help it. The headache was too strong. The dogs barked "Someone is coming" their barks turning into words in his mind which only added to the headache. The mad scientist couldn't deal with people, not right now, he almost wanted to order the dogs to deal with the problem. But, he didn't. All he could think about was the pain and how to make it stop.

A hero helping a villain was kind of ironic. Not that the hero could know. Acker's public figure didn't have anything to do with his mad scientist persona. He was a Villin, a family known in Los Eurosia for their philanthropy.

@eric

[Deleted]

His mind was strangely calm as he raced through the neighborhood, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.  Space folding for him so they were little more than hops between steps.  And the more he did it the more natural it felt.  By the time he reached the source of the scream he felt that his groove had been reached.  His hand slipping into his pocket to silence the music playing in his one earbud as he approached and looked down at the source of the scream.  What he saw was not what he expected in the least.

He didn't know who this man was.  He didn't know him as a fellow super powered individual, a mad scientist, or even as a philanthropist.  He certainly didn't know him as a would be super villain. Though that last one would be the one title the man could wear that would have caught his attention outside of his studies or girls.  Frankly rich people doing charity was boring, important probably, but boring.  He didn't read up on it or take much of an interest in it. Not when he was juggling so many different things from his life to his grades and now his gifts.  The world was too exciting to waste reading the thirteenth page of the newspaper.

Looking down the masked man would glance around the streets, expecting to see... well something.  Attackers, blood, signs of struggle.  Not just some guy and his dogs.  It didn't really seem like his kind of thing.  Certainly not something he would have imagined getting involved in.  But then again maybe the guy was having a heart attack or something?  He felt his chest tighten, he tried not to talk when patrolling, he was worried someone might recognize his voice, but what else could he do?  He'd drop his voice, obviously masking it with a deeper pitch and gravelly throat, like Batman really.  

"Do you need to get to a hospital?" 

He could call an ambulance or get him to the hospital quicker than a car probably if it was an emergency.  Though he wasn't sure about jumping with the dogs, he had never moved that many beings, and he wasn't sure how the animals would react.  But if he did need to jump he couldn't just leave them there to be lost in the city and running loose right?  How come comic books never went over this stuff? 

Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker couldn't believe what he was seeing. A fellow man-in-black with a covered face. Smart. Not even the glasses could scan the face. By the voice it sounded a man, if he hadn't been in severe pain Acker would have laughed at the man's try to hide his voice Batman style.

No matter. Acker's attention was elsewhere, and he could review the footage from the dogs' prospective later. It wasn't important right now. What was important was how to stop the pain. Acker almost believed that the man was going to try robbing him, but instead he was asking about the hospital.

Acker almost nodded, but then stopped: hospitals were filled with technological devices. If he misused the power there then the hospital could malfunction and the patients would have to pay the consequences dearly. Not that he cared about that of course, but he couldn't handle all that technology talking to him at once.

It was odd wearing dark glasses during the night, but that wasn't the reason why he suddenly took them off: his eyes were itching. So, he put the glasses in the jacket's pocket and robbed his eyes then he looked at the man in front of him. Even though he could still see, although a bit blurry, his eyes were bloodshot.

The dogs put themselves between the man and Acker, they didn't trust the man hiding his identity. The dogs had noticed that the man's face was covered, thus his identity was hidden, thus the dogs concluded that there was something wrong. Sometimes, the dogs could smell Gifted, but it seemed that this wasn't one of those times. The mad scientist would have found it interesting if he hadn't been in severe pain.

Acker tried to speak, but another burst of pain stabbed his mind which shut him up. Perhaps, the man was going to involve the hospital now considering the situation. Acker had tried to protest against it, but unsuccessfully.

@eric

[Deleted]

One thing that Eric really wanted from the moment he realized that he actually had super powers was to be a super hero.  It was like all of his childhood dreams had come true, and with it were all of these fantasies of saving people.  There was something appealing about the fantasy of being the one to solve all of the problems that he came across.  To singlehandedly save the day, and god did he want to do that.  He wanted to be that kind of hero, the kind that he grew up dreaming about.  And he felt like it would be easy to drop down, grab the guy, and rush him to the hospital.  Even step covering blocks, they'd be there in no time.  But something stopped him, a nagging feeling in the back of his head asking himself what a hero was.  And if he wanted to be a hero to help people, or for the glory, the attention and the fame.  Or infamy.  

The man didn't appear to be injured, but he was clearly in a lot of pain.  The way his dogs moved to stand in front of him in a protective stance signaled that he might be being seen as a threat.  The man was wearing dark glasses at night, perhaps blind or suffering from some other impairment.  The man removed his glasses before another wave of pain seemed to wash over him and that sealed it in his mind.  Something was wrong, and it could be some kind of brain thing, and if that was true then he would need immediate medical care, and he didn't know if rushing him around with his power would worsen that.  Let alone what would happen with the dogs.  

He'd pull out his phone, blocking his number before calling 911.  Keeping his voice low and gravelly in his best Batman he'd tell the dispatcher where they were and that someone needed medical attention.  He'd hang up however before giving any of his own personal information.  And he would squat up where he was on the roof, looking down at the man and his dogs, nearly blending in with the shadows of the night sky.

"They will be here soon."  

He'd say, in what he hoped was a reassuring gravely voice?  Look he hadn't thought this all the way through, but he didn't want the guy freaking out.  So he was going to try and play this out as best he could.  At least until the ambulance arrived.  Then he could leave in good conscious knowing that the man would get the attention that he seemed to need.  And they could figure out something to do with the dogs to make sure they were taken care of. 

Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Using any kind of tech right now was unwise, but the wannabe superhero couldn't know that. There was a chance the call hadn't gone through. His power had shut out to the device and disrupted the call. Technically, it looked like the call worked, but in reality it had been tempered with by the power if it had worked. The power had acted based on Acker's instinct.

Unfortunately, Acker didn't exactly have control of his power at the moment. So, the power kept reaching out to any piece of technology in proximity. The villain and hero's phones started quickly heating up, so much so that smoke started coming out Acker's jacket. He quickly grabbed the smartphone and threw it away from him. After a few seconds, Acker's phone exploded due to the battery getting too hot too quickly. The smart-glasses started malfunctioning too, but luckily the glasses couldn't explode.

Acker had to take the gloves off because its components also malfunctioned, every tech device was malfunctioning "Bischero!" Italian slur "I can't go to the hospital!" the headache got worse and there was blood when he rubbed his eyes again. He was crying blood, although technically he wasn't crying.

"Who are you?! And that Bat-voice is ridiculous!" due to the pain and sudden blood coming out of his eyes, Acker hadn't thought about the Lads, but the dogs started malfunctioning too like every other piece of technology. At first it seemed like Zeus and Apollo were about to attack each other, but instead focused their attention to the villain and the hero. Zeus focused its attention on the hero, but Apollo jumped at Acker.

Acker tried to dodge, but he was already in pain and it was difficult to see when your eyes were crying blood. So, Apollo pinned the mad scientist who had created him against the floor and was about to bite him in the neck. Oh, if only there was a hero to save the villain in distress.

@eric

[Deleted]

OOC: My apologies I was hit with a double whammy of some intense work crunch followed by catching COVID and have been dead to the world.

IC: He didn't have any reason to think that the call didn't go through, or anything about what was going on.  Not the truth of the matter however.  But even still it quickly became clear that waiting for the ambulance was not an option.  He watched as the man tossed his phone to  the side before it exploded, Eric's own phone heating up well beyond normal.  It was only because he saw the other guy's phone explode that he thought to do the same and toss his own phone before it too exploded from the battery expanding.  He winced at that, not a cheap thing to replace for him.  He didn't have a lot of money and this super hero gig didn't exactly pay.  

He couldn't see what was going on behind the man's glasses, but the blood that seemed  to be running down the man's face even as he swore about going to the hospital made him think that the man was having some kind of an aneurysm or something?  He didn't know why he felt he couldn't go to the hospital, but  this didn't seem like the kind of thing one should just ignore.  And whatever trouble he might think he'd get at the hospital, at least they could hopefully help his condition.  And as if that wasn't enough to worry about the dogs seemed to be going nuts as well.  One of them facing off  against the perched hero growling and snarling, waiting for a chance to rip him to shreds while the other one turned on it's master pinning him to the floor.

There was no more time to think, no more time to wait.  Now he had to act, and so he'd leap down from the roof, folding the space between the roof and the ground so he'd almost just shift there without crossing the distance between.  Springing forward toward  the man pinned by his less than faithful companion intent on trying to grab Nicholas and fold space once more to shift them across the street, and from there a block, and another, and another in a matter of steps.  There should be no scent or trace to follow if he could reach the man and get them out of the alleyway.  Just brief spots where they would appear and vanish with each step as he shifted and folded space to match their momentum and direction.  Though the direction he would pick would be toward the hospital's direction at the very least...

He wouldn't comment on the man's earlier quips about his voice, feeling kind of silly for using the deep batman voice.  But he still didn't  think using his normal voice was a great idea.  And he certainly couldn't tell him his name.  At least not yet, maybe when they were safe he could say something, but he wanted to make sure the dogs were not following him, and that the man was okay first. 

Priorities Phronesis. Priorities!