The Enchanted Ones

“I’ve got the time.” He wasn’t about to admit to how empty his schedule actually was. While Peter was technically the one benched from going out in the field, at least he could actually do the job he’d been assigned and work behind the scenes. Johnny, though? What was he supposed to do with the dork squad? He knew how to operate a computer, sure, like practically anyone under the age of forty, but beyond that he was way, way out of his element. So he could linger, have some coffee, and talk to the kid who was at least enthusiastic about seeing him.

He glanced briefly down at the menu, but usually got the same thing regardless. “Hit me with your best shot, stranger.” He hadn’t got a name from him yet. “My day’s about as dull as Ben Grimm’s wit, so it can’t get worse from here.”

☪☪☪

“Great.” Ezekiel nodded his head, with a bright smile on his face. He was glad that the other was able to give him a bit of help and insight. He felt Johnny was pretty up with the entertainment, more than his brothers who were tired of Zeke asking them opinions on characters and plots. So this would be great for him to get some opinions on this subject matter. He sat up more and looked at the other with a curious expression when he glanced at the menu and not really took much of it into consideration. He figured that the other would just pick something that he normally got off the menu. 

arms stayed up, just in case. she had been friendly with people before & they still hurt her. so this was just for her mostly. the riots were on the back of her mind, she semi regreted stealing during a busy period regardless if she had work, but work was work in her eyes. “ – do i look like i’ve seen high levels of action ? i’m a in a catsuit, trying to stay away  from the action. so thats a no. ” as blunt as she was, she was trying to say as little as possible, the more time she was here the easier he would be able to pick her out from a line.

☪☪☪

“sorry, i’m not going to hurt you!” Eric reassured her, but knew that his threat from earlier was something that could have anyone on high alert. “You do have a point... but I meant in passing  or somethi-...” He was saying, but a demon yanked him by his hair and tossed him into a wall. “Ngh.... get out of here now!” He yelled to the girl, as his body his the ground with a thud. He was used to this, so he wasn’t too worried about it - unless it was an upper level demon, because those were a lot harder to vanquish. He shot his arm forward and tried to blast the demon, but the demon jumped out of the way and the blst hit the wall. 

Thor gave a long, withering look to the men in NOVA armour, eyes still crackling white with electricity. Though they paused, flustered, they did not back away. Nodding, as if he understood, Thor outstretched his arm, hammer pointed in their direction. The lightening struck true, sharp as a blade it sliced right through the centre of their battalion and sent them scattering like pins.

Thor straightened himself up, in time to see the young man edging closer. He smiled, ever polite, and said “-Is that who they are? NOVA?” Thor turned his attention away briefly, if only to memorise the scattered NOVA troops. “You seem to know more about it than i.” Thor kept talking as he strode of, long legs meaning only a few strides to the nearest troop, which he picked up by the scruff of the neck to get a better look at “-Agard.” he paused, glancing over his shoulder at the boy “-Space.” Thor turned his attention back to the soldier “-so what is going on? I find a city in ruins and naught a familiar face among the crowd.”

☪☪☪

Ezekiel watched as the NOVA agents halted. He could ‘feel’ the hatred that they had for the man that just landed, but he could also feel their fear which caused them to halt. He looked back towards the other with a smile, watching the hair flapping in the wind and then it hit him. Thor. Was he actually standing face to face with a God? 

“Yeah. I am not sure what NOVA stands for exactly. But they have been attacking anything and everything non human.” He stated and looked at the other, watching the agents running off. “It’s all a huge thing - that’s why the mortals are rioting, because they are tired of the scrutiny from NOVA.” He looked up at the taller male. “So You are Thor, then?” HIs face lithe up. “You are much h-....” He stopped that sentence and cleared his throat. “Well for years they had a superhero registration program - which stopped superheroes from doing what they do... and after years it worked, so NOVA got high and mighty and started to think they could control everything and monitor everything highly. I could be missing a few details...” He shrugged. “So they probably are going to try to attack us soon.” 

Jebediah doesn’t know whether to be embarrassed or not but decides to go along with trusting Ethan not to judge him. Crowd control? What does that mean? It wasn’t everyday that you find out your doctor is some kind of vigilante. “Mah powers, ah’m still learnin’ and they’re kind o’ tied ta mah emotions.” He admits as his eyes spark a little, electric energy wanting to be released that Ethan probably noticed. He doesn’t need to be starting any electric fires around the city though. “Ah’ll be okay ah think … ah hope so at least.”

☪☪☪

Ethan looked at the other and felt so bad. How could he not know that the younger male was gifted. Made sense why some of his blood work came back a little different at times. He looked at the other. “Okay, well... since the NOVA agents seem to be attacking supers, we should get you out of here....” He looked at the other, believing he could trust him. “... and I can teach you how I learned to use mine.” He stated softly, giving a soft smile, but it faded when he saw some agents walking their way. “... shit. okay you are going to get in my car there.... I am going to try to tell them we are just passing by and hopefully that goes smoothly.”

Teddy looked around for a moment. Freezing everyone in place certainly gave him a few moments to get his bearings at least. “An interesting feat, to be certain. I… used to date a magi but I don’t recall him ever actually just freezing time before.” He remarked. He and Billy had gotten into so many entanglements together that it all started to blur together after a while. 

“I was… in space. I had some business to take care of up there and only just now have I found the time to return home.” Teddy explained, answering as truthfully as he dared in this moment to the stranger. The idea that these riots could have been spurned by demonic influence was somehow more understandable to the young man than a breaking tension with this NOVA group. “That makes things worse..” He sighed. It meant there wasn’t an easy ‘fix’ for the situation.

☪☪☪

“Oh it’s not actually stopping time... I am an Enchanted One, universe most powerful group of brother witches. So it’s like an innate power I was born with. It’s... I slow down molecules to the point of them looking like they are frozen in time. But I do have a mutation of time manipulation. It’s actually really weird being a witch and mutant hybrid.” He shrugged softly and looked at the other, then watching the frozen forms in front of them. 

Why did everyone insist on fighting him? It was aggravating; especially when he didn’t want to cause anyone any undue injuries. That would only make things worse, he felt. Teddy let the men’s knife swings strike his skin; the blades glancing off of the scaly surface When the teenager suddenly rushed on the scene, Teddy shook his head. “Hey, it isn’t safe he–” He stopped his words of caution when the male took to the sky and struck a couple of the men square in their skulls. “–re.” He finished with a small ‘oh’. “Convenient.” The larger male chuckled out before brushing aside another knife swing and giving its wielder a sharp shove into the wall across the alleyway; watching them topple in pain. 

Normally, he would have put on the facade of a Hulk-like anger - but his opponents weren’t anything but run-of-the-mill street thugs. There didn’t seem cause to ‘play the part’ right now. “Stay down!” Teddy commanded the man he had shoved as he was trying to climb back to his feet - only to turn and shuffle away down the alleyway in defeat.

☪☪☪

Kate didn’t think she would ever get used to unnatural abilities. Put her up against military, hired mercenaries, or elite swat teams and she felt perfectly at ease. When people - like the man that came hurrying onto the scene - showed up and starting throwing people around with the wave of their hand, well, needless to say she was reminded just how much went on that most people were never aware of. It didn’t make her hold a grudge against the powered individuals, however.

“Didn’t plan on stopping.” She spoke up when practically barked at to continue fighting - following the statement up with a sharp stomp on a man’s toes before jabbing his throat with a quick job, gripping him by his neck and shoulder, and crashing his head into the nearest trash bin. She turned her attention to the men that had been hurled into the wall telekinetically, letting them clamor back onto their feet and regroup with the third that she had introduced to the trash bin. When they seemed to finally understand it was pointless to fight Batwoman, she turned her attention to the… thing, that had materialized. “What the hell is that?” She questioned sharply; drawing a handful of batarangs between her fingers and moving closer to the strange man.

☪☪☪

Ethan walked up towards the demon like a fierce lion. He had learned to be headstrong and fearless with demon after a year or two. Learning that it was best to get them before they got you. He looked up when he saw the woman walking next to him. “A demon.” He nodded towards her, but then turned his glare back towards the demon because he was sure that the demon was going to try something in this area, but he was going to stop him.

Linda was well aware of the riots currently going on in the main city. Fortunately, the chaos of them all hadn’t seemed to have reached much of District X, if anything the place was rather quiet since so many people had moved to the main city to make their voices heard. Linda would’ve normally been worrying about all the people she knew who were out there but Anton’s appearance with the kids had been enough to distract her, keeping Lily occupied was something of a full-time job. She’d whipped up her meager supply of DVD’s with an old TV at the shelter and currently Cinderella was keeping the girl happy while Anton dealt with the rest.

Her phone rang and she nodded to Anton before moving back into her office to take the call; it wouldn’t be uncommon for these events to perhaps trigger one or two of her patients and they’d need her. “Dr. Linda Martin, how may I help you?”  she asked, voice cool, calm and professional as she tapped on her laptop mouse-pad to wake the machine up, sometimes patient files needed to be accessed to be sure the right actions were taken. It wasn’t easy to be ‘officially’ professional since the government had so little impact on the District but she was doing her best.    

☪☪☪

Ethan sighed looking at the panicking young man. He hated when silly things like this that had big affects on the kids that he had with him. They were innocent and didn’t deserve to be caught in other’s mess. He sighed and looked around him and tried to see what he could do to have the young boy calm down. He was still rummaging the other’s bag, as he called Linda. And what made him call Lina was that he had anti-anxiety meds and that led him to think that she would be able to help them. He soon felt the other run to him and give him a tight hug. “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t stress, bubba.” He sighed, knowing that his son would have been this age, but he tried hard not to dwell on it.

“Hey, Linda - it’s Dr. Blackwell at Blackwell Pediatrics.” He stated softly, moving to hug the young boy back with one of his free arms and softly caress his head. “I have a Travis Underhill hear with me.” He noted. “I was wondering if you could tell me where his parents are.” But the whine from the boy signaled that maybe the boy’s parents were dead or not around. “Or if he was in a foster home.” He offered up. “He was about to be mugged in the street by a few men, so I came to my office and tried to see if you’d know anything. I haven’t had him here before.” He looked at the young man and was instantly bonding with him.

He heard the doorbell and rushed to open it with a bright smile. “Hey... you came.” He laughed and shook his head, moving to open the door and let the other into the house. “Uh, I am just about ready! Have to do come my hair... it’s a mess.” He stated softly, which was his decoy, because he was going to go set up the crystal circle in the attic - to capture demons that tired to break into the house. He still had to have a talk with Nathan about who he was and what his life consisted of - but he just wanted a nice date with him before he opened up the nest of mess that is his life. “Give me two seconds. My brother made you cookies, so eat like ALL of them, because he doesn’t think you are real.” He rushed upstairs. 

@kidcable​

Nathan: everyday? don’t tell me that i’ll start worrying about you all the time!

Nathan: you’re so sweet. i’d send you a photo of me smiling but it might be inappropriate considering everything going on.

Nathan: i was afraid you’d say that. nova doesn’t care who you are. if you appear to be different in any way they‘ll go after you. more people are going to get hurt if they’re attacking them for no reason.

Zeke: I need more than trying!!!

Zeke: I can not tell you this... but I will explain when we get to see each other again.

Zeke: No it wouldn't. Let me see! I think that would actually be super useful and helpful during all of this going on.

Lucifer was not sober as he stepped outside of Opulence into the fresh air so thickly charged with rage and aggression and pain. It smelled like Hell, in some ways. It wasn’t comforting, per se. Just familiar. He idly wondered if Illyana felt the same way. Or was she vastly uncomfortable with being reminded of Hell or the hell dimensions she had traveled to in her teleporting experiences. It didn’t wholly feel like Limbo, but he wasn’t as familiar with that realm as she was.

He had just lit a cigarette when someone approached him and he raised a brow. Power in that one. It was one like he had felt before, but not in this boy. “Ah. I had wondered when three more of you would show up,” he commented, sucking in a deep drag of the cigarette before blowing it out. “And no,” he added. “This is no demon. Believe it or not, humans are completely capable of causing chaos all on their own.”

☪☪☪

As he got closer he could smell the alcohol on the male and wondered if he could even get drunk. Which could be bad depending on what kind of drunk Lucifer was - because he could put up combat fight, but if Lucifer decided to use his powers on him - then Ezekiel would be useless unlike his brothers. Something he hated with a passion. Being called the ‘weaker’ Blackwell sibling. Or the non-factor, because his powers weren’t aggressive, offensive, or hell even defensive like his brothers. If Lucifer threw a fireball at him, he couldn’t stop it with a premonition or use levitation to deflect it, and he was still getting a hang on his empathy power. So he proceeded with a little caution. 

“Yeah, been around for a few years now.” He nodded and looked at the other with a curious expression. He found the other very intriguing and fun to watch. “I know... now.” Ezekiel stated as his hand was over his heart, as if he was in pain. “These are pure human emotions.” He sighed, trying to get over the hurt that they were putting his own emotions through. “God. I hate this.” He looked back to Lucifer. “Looks like you’re having a fun night? Just getting started or just ending?”

Nathan: you’re hurt? try and take care of yourself out there, please. injuries can become serious if gone untreated.

Nathan: wouldn’t want anything to happen to you before i can see you again!

Nathan: how is it looking in the streets anyway?

Zeke: Me toooo. So that means be safe and make it back to me

Zeke: Oh it's nothing, honestly! I get these types of injuries everyday!

Zeke: Trust me, nothing is going to stop me from seeing that smile again

Nathan: but you could say that i’m okay for now.

Nathan: i’d love some ice cream after this is all done though.

Nathan: are you okay?

Zeke: Oh, so we are keeping secrets already? KIDDINg!

Zeke: I am just happy that you are okay!

Zeke: Ice cream date it is

Zeke: Are you alright, during all of this?

Zeke: Please tell me you're alright and I'll make you ice cream when this is all done.