there are no prophets.

It wasn’t uncommon for Hawthorne to be around town, striking up conversations with anyone who didn’t mind and jotting down quotes when he could.  If he couldn’t sniff out a story, there was always chance for an opinion piece story.  His gaze had wandered from the person he had spoken to and over to the distance.  In a quiet blink, he returned his gaze back to the person in question.  He chuckled, “Can I quote you on that?  On you opinion about S.H.O.T.?  Or would it be better if I just write you down as an anonymous source?”

“She has a thing for Castigador?” Parker tried to remember the details of the villain. When he did, he nodded. “Maybe she appreciates a different kind of justice? I don’t know… I guess the world comes in many different shades or something.” He turned to look at an action figure of the villain. Man, did that guy look intimidating, even as a pose able figure. “That’s cool.” He waved at Joaquin and smiled. “I hope your mom likes whatever you get her.” Parker nodded again and then quickly shook his head after. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend… One of them’s like my sister and the other one… I think it would be cool if we dated, but… I need to get her something nice so I don’t mess things up before I can… Maybe I’ll ask her.” 

the villain group called the diabolos had been in the inner sanctum files for as long as sky could remember.  castigador had been on there and sky could remember the jealousy he felt - this man had the ability to harness as many powers as he could, regardless of what it was.  

and sky?  sky wasn’t born with any powers.  no mutations, no magical abilities, nothing that could be considered to be outstanding or different;  nothing about him stuck out that could have made people look at him and say: ‘oh, that kid’s hero material’.  yet, when he was five years old, he decided that he was going to become a hero.  and heroes?  they never give up.  even when the deck is stacked against them.

castigador has to have an opening.  he had to have some weakness?  sky frowned, but what was it?

the red ranger wasn’t surprised when castigador avoided his assault of punches.  he took a defensive stance as castigador was blown back by the last flurry of kicks.  his arms were, fists balled and ready for the next attack.  sky kept his focus on the fight, not the insults or retorts that castigador would give to him.  he couldn’t afford to be distracted.  not one bit.  especially when he didn’t know what to expect from the man.

then the coolness of the air came back.  another ice attack.

the red ranger jumped back, avoiding the frozen lances that were aimed directly at him.  though the ranger suit was strong enough to withstand many attacks, sky knew better than to let it continually take damage from these attacks - repetitive hits from these frozen attacks would dull the sensors across his suit and with this heavy hitter of an opponent in front of him, he needed to be careful.  panic came across his eyes - he dodged the ice attack but in his attempt to avoid being hit, he lost sight of castigador.  his eyes widened as he couldn’t find the man in front of him.

“shit,” sky muttered as he felt castigador’s kick send him upward.  then he felt that round-house kick to his side.  as he sailed off, the red ranger twisted himself to land on his feet.  he needed to change his strategy.  he reached for the holster attached to him: the hilt of the power sword was now in his hands.  there was a slight tension that came through him - this was the same weapon that removed his eye.  he wasn’t going to be a victim;  he would reclaim his weapon.

without warning, he rushed castigador.  the drawn power sword sparked to life as he headed toward him.  with his left arm, he elbowed castigador’s side.  immediately after, he twisted his body to attempt to slash at castigador with the power sword - the energy in the sword crackled as it sliced through the air, ready to hit the villain with as much impact as sky could muster.  

Castigador never could stand the Red Ranger.  

Even when The Diabolos were functional in Hells Kitchen, the stories of the Red Ranger and the rest of the Rangers had trickled into their usual haunts.  While most people in his alignment detested the Ranger group as a whole, there was just something about the Red Ranger that everyone hated more.  Now that he was standing in front of that man, Castigador understood why:  that color of red spread a particular hope to the people he was protecting.  It was so irritating, so annoying to look at.  

At the moment, Castigador assumed that he had overpowered the Red Ranger.  An assumption he quickly learned was wrong.  As the ranger avoided the attacks, Castigador switched into the defensive.  He tried to recall that annoyance he felt from that man with the spiky red hair - red was becoming such a bothersome color to Castigador.  While he worked on activating that power, he had no time to dodge the Red Ranger’s attacks.  He felt the hit connect on his side, causing him to wince in pain as it did.  The energy from the Red Ranger’s power sword sparked through the sky - there was no time to avoid it, but that ability appeared just in time.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Castigador said as the sword’s beam pressed against his forearm.  The annoying man with the red hair whose powers Castigador had borrowed was someone who was immovable - the ability was to harden his entire body to the point where it felt as though he was entirely made of steel.  With his arms crossed in front of him to block the Red Ranger’s attack, Castigador shoved him forward, pushing his arms ahead and then separating them to begin an assault of punches.  He threw his punches hoping to hit the Ranger with as many of them as he could;  once he finished, he kicked his leg forward.

Castigador started to grow impatient.

“I guess I’m not interested in transformation magic. Bringing back the dead is just making sure something else different comes back in their place.” If Julienne really wanted to bring something back, she’d have to regurgitate it while in her monstrous form. She puffed her cheeks up and covered her mouth, suddenly feeling nauseous at the thought. “So gross. I’m not a fan of that.” 

“Gods were the most powerful before they started having contests with each other. When so much power is up for grabs, one of them is going to slip up and make something stronger than the rest…Some creations aren’t meant to be born.” She looked over at Desi with a wide grin. “So how many saints do you know of? Because if there aren’t any around us right now… I wonder how long it’ll take for us to hear a god fall.” 

“Things that are dead should stay dead,” Desi muttered bitterly.  During his entire time with the Diabolos, Muerte had been obsessed with returning the dead to life;  playing with life and death had never been a line Desi was willing cross.  Even when he donned the Castigador attire.  “No one’s a fan of that,” he agreed with her.

why was he a hero?

sky was frozen - fear seized his body, paralyzing him in place as he felt the echo of the incident shudder through him.  the red ranger had replayed the memory in his head.  for the few months he had been bedridden, sky had replayed the scenes over and over in his head;  he scrutinized, analyzed and criticized everything that he did.  he screamed and cried over the decisions he had made, the actions that he took and the ones that he didn’t.  the moment he stepped into ceres centrpolis, everything went into full gear without even a single breath.  now, he stood in front of castigador, a villain with all the powers he could even think of.  how do you fight against someone who can change his ability in the blink of an eye?

frozen, but this time it was the agents.  sky took a step back as he saw the ice cover the ground and wrapped the agents up, trapping them where they stood.  that was faster than he expected.  sky frowned, biting the inside of his cheek to try and keep himself focused on what he had to do next.  in terms of power, castigador outranked him, especially in his civilian wear.  sky didn’t even begin to formulate a plan when he saw castigador speed up straight to him - super speed, now?  he tried to step back, but with the man’s hand reaching for his head, sky had no time to dodge.  he felt the man grip his head and slam him into the ground.  too slow.

sky tasted the blood as he hit the ground.  his eyes closed tightly as he felt the impact vibrate through his entire body.  that was quick.  he blinked and castigador subdued him in one fell swoop.  the man switched from ice to speed;  sky knew his files had him down as a multi-power user, but he didn’t expect it to be this fast.  for a moment, sky stayed on the ground, not moving.  he needed to get stronger.  why did he even become a hero if he couldn’t fight against these villains?  his eyes stayed shut as he let his body get accustomed to the pain before he pushed himself off the ground.  as he threw himself upward, he threw a fist up at castigador then doubled back to create a distance between them.

“castigador, get out of my city,” sky said.  why did he want to be a hero?  the red ranger looked at the villain and understood why.  heroes weren’t always people with powers;  heroes were people that even if they were knocked down, they would stand up and fight for what’s right;  heroes were symbols of hope and peace.  sky’s glare deepened as he pulled his sleeve back.  he pressed the correct keys on the morpher as he brought up to his face.  "it’s morphin’ time,“ he commanded the device.

there was no such thing as a half-assed hero.  when the transformation ended, sky landed in his signature pose, braced for a fight.  "you came to the wrong city, castigador,” the red ranger said, “i’m going to make sure you leave.”  

without another notice, the red ranger took off heading for a full frontal attack on castigador.  he threw a fist at the man, followed it with an uppercut, then another uppercut.  as he threw the final uppercut, he pulled his leg back and then brought it forward hoping to hit castigador with enough force to throw him back.  after he threw the final kick, he stepped back, fists still held up as he said once more, “get out.”

Willpower has always played a part in any fight.  It seemed that the Red Ranger had willpower and determination in spades.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Castigador said.  Desiderio had never been a violent person.  At least, he tried his earnest to contain that but the moment he put on that mask and donned Castigador’s armor, he felt everything that he had gone through.  It was dangerous to feel its temptation but even worse when he wore it.  His initial plan tonight was simply to let the city know Castigador had move from Hell’s Kitchen and into Ceres Centropolis.  It seemed that fighting the Red Ranger was going to that announcement.

With the ranger’s thrown punch, Castigador deflected with his right hand before he jumped back.  He let the distance between them expand.  He knew what was going to come up next.  “Oh-ho,” Castigador grinned beneath the mask as the Red Ranger brought out his morpher.  As the Red Ranger’s power suit went on, Castigador cracked his knuckles.  So much for a casual stroll through the city.  “So, you’re finally going to be serious.”

Castigador had no time to throw out another insult as the Red Ranger rushed at him.  He dodged, ducking down but he felt the uppercut connect.  He winced under his mask but had no time wait for the pain to subside.  A second uppercut was thrown - he blocked this time, deflecting it with his forearm before felt the third uppercut connect.  The wind was blown out of him and just as he was about to hit the ground, the Red Ranger forced a kick at him.  Castigador slid backward, until he forced himself into a halt.

“Heh,” he said, rolling his back and letting himself straighten out.  “So, you can fight.  Good.  I needed some practice,” Castigador said as he tried to remember that incredibly annoying man again.  He always liked the powers of ice.  He bit his bottom lip until it bled, then licked the blood before he felt the coolness of that annoying ice mutant’s abilities come through.  He pressed his right hand into a fist and then slammed it into the palm of his left hand, “Ice Make: Lance.” 

At the words he said, ice shot out of his palm in form of a lance.  Multiple lances came, aiming directly at the Red Ranger.  He wasn’t sure if he hit him, but as the coolness vanished from his palm.  He feinted to the right, then headed behind the Red Ranger.  He brought his right leg up, kicking up as high as he could.  With his leg up, he twisted his whole body forward and followed with a round-house kick to the back of the Red Ranger.

“damn it,” sky muttered under his breath.  the shot agents seemed to be getting bolder with every passing day.  on the other hand, it seemed as if those who opposed them were getting driven into a corner.  the red ranger couldn’t stand it.  with vigilantes on the target list as well, the rangers had been unable to morphe;  they were vigilantes as was every single agent listed under the inner sanctum.  his face twisted in annoyance, frustration as he caught sight of the shot agents surrounding mutants.

“hey, sto–,” sky began to call out at the agents, hoping to get them to stop.  however, the red ranger’s movements came to a full halt as his eyes looked at the figure that landed in the center.  “no …,” sky muttered to himself.  the diabolos were supposed to be disbanded.  with more than half of them sent to maximum security prisons, sky didn’t epect any of them to show up.  not ceres centropolis.  “why i–why is castigador?”  the red ranger couldn’t even for the words he wanted to stay.

frozen.  sky felt frozen in place.  the last time he charged at villain, he wounded up so badly injured that he had to be sent overseas for countless surgeries.  his right eye was just put back by the final surgery from his brother.  he couldn’t even morph and yet …this was villain.  he was a ranger.  the thoughts echoed in his mind and yet, he couldn’t.  he felt frozen.  trapped but he was a hero.  he was …

“damn it,” sky said as he felt his body move on its own.  before he could think, he rushed forward to where castigador was.  sky ran forward, then jumped over of the shot agent (knocking it out in the process) before he stood in front of castigador.  he was ranger.  he wasn’t just any ranger, he was the red ranger.  he landed on his feet, slowly rising from it as he looked directly at castigador.  “castigador,” sky said the villain’s name, “your fight with me.”

sky didn’t introduce himself.  the red ranger’s identity had been compromised during that past assault.  those who paid attention to the news already knew who he was.  he might not be able to morph at the moment, but sky had been a trained fighter.  the red ranger rushed toward castigador, ready to land punches at him.  “ceres centropolis doesn’t need you here, castigador,” he said as he headed right over to him, “leave.”

The fight had begun as quickly as Castigdaor had expected it to.  These agents were the type to shoot first and ask questions later.  Their quick trigger fingers were easy to predict, but even easier for him to avoid.  Castigador evaded their attacked, tuck and rolling past them before he appeared behind them.  In quick maneuvers, he moved from behind them and then appeared back in front of them.  Their quick trigger fingers wound up harming their teammates rather than Castigador.

“Oh-ho,” Castigador said as he looked over to the younger man who showed up.  The mask covered his smirk, but Castigador knew who this was.  “The Red Ranger,” he said as he landed back on both feet.  He straightened himself out to stand as he looked over to the infamous ranger.  “I don’t think this is a fight you want to start,” Castigador warned the younger man.  The Red Ranger was strong, it was foolish to underestimate the man but it was obvious, there was a fear in his eyes.

“But, you hero types are all the same,” Castigador said as he lifted his mask up to look over to the Red Ranger.  If this man didn’t morph into that ugly red armor, Castigador would destroy him and honestly, he wasn’t in the mood darken the red stains that covered his hands.  “Give me a moment and I’ll play with you, Red,” Castigador said as he turned his attention to the agents.  He shut his eyes for a moment, letting the memory of a man he fought years ago.  There was a surge energy, power that swelled through him - a light blue covered his leg as he rose it up, then slammed it on the ground.  As his foot made contact with the ground, a slew of ice covered the ground;  as the chill licked the ground, it covered the agents’ bodies with the frost, encasing them in ice.  “They’re going to chill out for a second,” he said as he turned to face the Red Ranger.

“Ah,” Castigador muttered, tilting his head left and right.  He sighed to himself, stretching his arms upward and getting himself back to the feeling of donning the costume.  With the mask on, he looked over from building to building, calculating how far the jumps could be.  Ceres Centropolis’ layout was one that he had memorized over the three years he lived here.  The man hadn’t attempted to memorize for the criminal activity that Castigador had been known for;  paranoia had him remember where things were.  “Let’s try this again,” Castigador said as his eyes focused on the buildings in front of him.

The man pulled a step back before he took off, rushing toward the ledge of the building.  For a second, he closed his eyes and in that moment, he remember that irritating frog-hero - the fight against him didn’t last long, but his powers had left an impression in Castigador’s mind.  With the second’s flash, Castigador felt the surge of abilities rush through him.  The leap from building to building was easier than he could have expected;  each jump was accelerated, empowered by that annoying frog’s technique.  “Just like riding a bike,” Castigador said as he looked down from the building he stood on.

“Tsk,” he muttered as he caught sight of the SHOT agents surrounding mutants.  He wasn’t in the business of heroism, but this was a good chance to get back into the swing of things.  Without another second passing, Castigador descended from the building, landing in the center of the agents.  He grinned underneath the mask as he asked, “You know what I hate more than anything?  People who parade around with a fake sense of justice.”

“I’m not bringing back dead people. Who do you think I am?” She wasn’t interested in resurrection spells or similar ancient magic. Scarlett was more interested in things like that and in their ‘family’ everyone had strengths in different areas. “Atlantis isn’t dead, not entirely, but I do believe they’ve been sleeping for long enough. Some of the first God killers came from there and maybe what the world really needs is for them to come back. The Elementalists could be looking to kill a God. I want answers, don’t you?” 

“Necromancy is super popular with the evil villain types,” Desi said, shrugging at the woman.  Everything about her set off the alarms in him;  he’d met plenty of people who had the same wave lengths she did.  He might have been trying to pass off a light-hearted nature, but his defenses were up;  it was ridiculous to not be without caution to everyone he met.  The mention of Atlanis made his skin crawl.  It had been years since he had heard anyone even mention that.  He frowned.  Things were not supposed to go that way.

“Do it after you finish your task.” Even if she was at a weak point of her life, she wasn’t going to ease up on Desiderio. “My miscalculations often lead to disastrous consequences.” People died or were killed because of her mistakes. Her earliest mistake was believing that her father loved her and that pleasing him was the best thing she could do. She ended her mother because of him. “I try not make a habit out of my mistakes.” Angeline shelved it there and moved onto the next topic. “Did you want an explanation for that as well? What will Castigador do with that information? Try to use it to control the situation?” She shook her head. “Whatever it is you plan to do, a few words of warning, stay away from Ava Winchester.” That woman was a goddess who hadn’t quite filled in her shoes yet, but just a moment in her mind had been enough to make Angeline weary of her. 

At the mention of his task, Desi’s mind fell into a silent halt.  He frowned.  While he wanted to oppose the deal, a deal was a deal and he would have to follow through with it regardless.  He sighed, eyes focused back to the horizon.  It seemed almost untouchable now.  “I’ll make up for your miscalculations,” he said.  The frown seemed to deepen the longer he stayed in her presence.  This woman had always had an unsettling air about her.

“It’s a mostly dead city, I don’t think we have to worry about anything.” She didn’t have to worry anyways. If ancient curses or beings beyond anyone’s understanding showed up then so be it. Julienne didn’t think that she was going to die over a mistake. “Well that’s because your body isn’t capable of it, I can just smell how close it all is. You’re so puny even if you’re a badass, but it’s ok, we’ve all got our flaws.” She turned to look towards the ocean. “Magic, energy, and luck. I just need to get in contact with a few people.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m not shy of treating myself. It’s kind of my way of life,” Micah said with a smile easily showing up on her lips. The journey to becoming herself had taken a long time, physically and emotionally. After overcoming all that she had, Micah decided to treat herself to everything that she thought she deserved. Which, incidentally, was everything.  “Oh my god,” Micah nodded, “Tell me about. Shit, I honestly felt the same. Like, I’m feeling personally attacked by how quick the year is.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. Micah brushed her hair aside and looked over at Desi, “Ohhh, a present for your sister? Do I know your sister? I probably do. I know everyone. I am the Mayor’s secretary. Maybe I can help with that. I’m great at buying things.”

godrick looked over to the man in line with him.  he took a glance at the man’s basket and then at his own before he laughed, “you and me both, fella.  kings of procrastination, man.”  if godrick was serious, he didn’t have time;  between the events in the city and the mix of karneval’s sudden involvement, it was hard to find the time to do the little things like christmas shopping.  he nodded over to the other man, “at least, you’re not doing your shopping the day before.  i know some dumbasses who are going to do their shopping the day before and that shit’s not something i wanna deal with, man.”

“This isn’t for Christmas,” Micah said, blinking over to the man before she started laugh. She beamed at him before she said, “This is for me, because I had such a rough day at the office.” Micah believed in treating herself whenever she felt like it; she worked hard enough to spoil herself and her girlfriend loved to spoil her anyway. She looked over to the man before she gasped, “Thanks for reminding me about Christmas. I totally forgot all about it.” She flipped her hair back, throwing her locks over her shoulder as she looked over to the man, “Did you get everything you needed for whoever you’re shopping for?”