“5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Happy New Year!” Fireworks boomed in the sky and cheers filled Times Square and made a certain young woman on the way to her local bar pause and reflect on what she had seen.

The bright lights of the New Year’s celebration bothered Lena. Maybe bothered was an understatement, more like she despised them. She turned a corner before taking an angry look back at the spectacle behind her.

Lena had a chip on her shoulder, one that had managed to last from her childhood all the way into her adult life. It was a deep seated hatred of the current state of society, and came from only one word: “no.” It was always, “You’re too young to do this,” or, “Girls aren't supposed to do that!”

“What a fucking joke.” Lena spat out as she walked into a dingy bar tucked in a grimy alleyway. “The holiday literally celebrates the fact that you’re a year closer to the end of your life.”

Clicking her tongue, Lena made her way to the back of the bar. The sound of soft Jazz pierced her ears and annoyed her even further. She didn’t have time to leisurely wait around, Armando had aimed the proverbial cannon at her, and now she needed to find cover.

Lena flinched as the stench of alcohol and sweat assaulted her nose and permeated the room around her. Such uncaring souls! She couldn’t stand the frivolousness of the customers that lined the bar stools like mindless drones.

They reminded her of the two government sent guards she had to put up with while she settled back in to New York after taking part in one of their experiments. They were every bit as mindless as the people she saw here, drained of their own will, convinced that the hierarchy they were in was natural, and all will for rebellion snuffed out. It’s too bad she found out the truth after-

Lena shook her head as she came upon the bar’s dimmed V.I.P. section. Now wasn’t the time to curse God for the mistakes of the past, but rather to make a deal with the Devil in order to secure her future.

Stopping in front of a table enveloped in darkness, Lena spoke to the abyss, “It’s been a while. I believe the last time we saw each other was when you warned me about using my powers in the city.”

“Oh yeah, I remember you. Took nearly all I had to beat some sense into you... what are you doing here, Lena Flores?” A gravelly baritone voice called out to her from the darkness.

Lena sighed. “Believe me, I don’t want to even come within ten feet of you but I need your help. The city is in danger.” Or more specifically, Lena was in danger and she just wanted a reason for him to act.

Emerging from the darkness was a tall black man in a blue satin suit. His black tie complimented the white dress shirt he wore. He had a clean-shaven head and a silver stud pierced into his left ear. Adrian Hudson’s calm amber eyes bore a hole right through her and she flinched upon receiving that gaze.

“Hello Adrian, it’s been a while.” Lena sheepishly looked up at him. He had been the first one to discover her powers after she left D.C., and he definitely didn’t let them go unchecked. They had a brawl that almost saw Lena kill her first victim, but he had managed to overpower her in the end. He had revealed his lineage of supernatural investigators to her, and since then she had helped him on occasion more than once.

“What happened to you? You used to be so calm, so smart… so prideful.” He signaled to a waiter who was walking nearby. “I’ll have bourbon on the rocks with a twist.”

Turning to Lena, he gave her a toothy grin, “Do you want something to drink? Clearly we have a lot to discuss.”

Lena nodded and followed him into the darkness. She wouldn’t let General Armando’s scheming hurt her. Not again, at least.

———

Rob looked out the window of the bus and past the bridge to where New York stood, a strong empire that managed to persevere through relentless assaults time and time again.

“I wish I was that resilient…” He glanced over in the direction of Central Park, where only a few years earlier Rob and his sister had been assaulted, and she had gone into a coma due to the shock and fear of that occurrence.

He was on his way to visit her now, not having seen her face since before he was drafted to carry the Walker Gene. “... Katherine.” He cursed himself for coming back to this godforsaken city, one that had too many shitty memories.

He thought back to his sister hooked up to a machine in the hospital room, wires going in and out of her like she was just another piece of machinery. The time his parents had abandoned him and Katherine, leaving them only 1000 dollars to survive the harsh winter of the northeast. All that lead up to when the doctors told Rob that his parents had stopped funding Katherine’s recovery and it broke his heart.

Just when he thought all was lost, a General he had never heard of came into his life and offered to pay the medical expenses for Katherine until she recovered or his service ended.

“Last stop. Last stop, St. America Hospital.” A mechanical voice resounded throughout the bus and brought Rob out of his mental relapse. Stepping out into the harsh winter air, Rob thought about his journey after he went to the capital of the United States.

He followed General Armando blindly, not knowing that Armando’s greatest aims weren’t to protect the humans from Dimension Eaters, but rather to gather enough research on how Photons and Black holes interacted to kill his nemesis, Leo Jones.

Rob shook his head and smiled as he stepped out of the elevator and onto the penthouse floor. Where had Armando's drive lead him to? Instead of taking pride in his work and becoming humanity’s shield from outside threats, he was now stuck smack dab in the middle of a silly war between two humans,,, well, one human and a seemingly indestructible monster.

Rob’s heart clenched as he stood at the foot of Katherine’s bed. Although it had only been over two years since he had left, she looked drastically different to what he remembered. Her once sunken cheeks had regained some weight, and her body had become larger. Her body had grown and now her feet almost reached the foot of the bed.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you then, but I’m here now.” Rob started to tear up but stopped when he felt a chill go up his spine and turned to see a black hole form in Katherine’s room. Rob cursed his lack of a partner and watched as a figure stepped out of the void.

“Is that… is that you, Leo?”

———

I stepped through the void and into the hospital room, and looked down on Rob, after which my eyes moved to his comatose sister.

“That’s her huh?” Rob’s mouth was opening and closing in exasperation, but no words came out.

Instead, he gave up and collected himself before asking me one simple question. “How did you know where I was? I was sure I wasn’t being followed.”

I smiled, snapping my fingers and showing off by willing a palm-sized black hole into existence. “When you have as much control and comfort with the void as I do, some things you think are impossible suddenly become possible. However-”

I looked over to the still woman lying down in white silk sheets, and to a solitary rose that was starting to wilt in a vase by her bedside. “No matter how omnipotent we may appear to be, the power to will photons is not, and never will be one of healing. I’m sorry about your sister.”

Rob started to cry, no longer blinded by the thin line of hope that maybe he could save his sister by himself. As unreliable as it could be, he could only entrust her to our ever-evolving medical technology.

“You know,” he started, wiping the tears from his eyes, “I was once so poor that I considered committing suicide so my sister’s medical bills could be paid.”

I raised an eyebrow, to which he smiled and continued, “Of course, I was young and stupid, and didn’t realize that she wouldn’t get anything because it would have been too soon since taking out the insurance for her to collect it.”

That dark humor of his only served to make him cry once more at the helplessness of it all. “It’s hard to keep hope, you know. She’s been like this for so long that I can’t remember what her voice sounds like.”

His lips trembled, “I hate this city, yet when I have to return I become sentimental and buy the old house by the river that my family used to own. All because I thought it would make me feel better. Of course it didn’t.”

He kneeled next to Katherine and held her hand. “I have no doubt that I will die an early death in this line of work.” He paused, and sniffed, “But if she could be cured before I die, and I get to hear her one more time, I don’t think dying would be so bad.”

He softly wept once more, but this time with my hand at his back to give this tenacious soul the support he might not have realized he needed.

———

“Adrian! Get your ass over here!”

“Coming grandpa!” A young Adrian Hudson walked out behind his grandfather’s farm to the barn he forbade anyone from going into.

“Ugh! Grandpa, what is that!?” Upon opening the door, the sight of a giant reptilian head greeted him, and the stench of dead fish attacked his nose.

“This, this is your heritage, my boy.” His grandfather shoved a foot-long machete into the basilisk’s head before turning to Adrian once more.

“Strange things walk the streets of New York at night, and it is our job as Enforcers to make sure that the lines between these realities stay where they lie.

Hobbling over to the corner of the shed, Grandfather Hudson picked up an ivory machete and slowly moved back towards his grandchild. “Adrian, I need to know,” his grandfather held out the hilt of a blade towards Adrian, “are you willing to uphold our family’s legacy?”

———

Adrian always remembered where he came from, and that pride was something he carried with him every single day. His path had not been an easy one, but he succeeded nonetheless.

Part of that pride was due to the difficulties he had to endure, and the other part came from his prowess in battle. He could hold his own, and inside the ring known as New York, he had never been bested in combat.

“So that’s it, huh? Leo Jones… seems like he’s gonna be a tough catch.” Adrian grinned as he walked out of the Hard Rock cafe. Thinking back on their conversation last night, Lena was definitely hiding something, but her fear of this man seemed real. If Lena, who was almost on par with Adrian felt she couldn’t take this man by herself, then how was he supposed to?

“At least he brought his own bargaining chips…” Adrian muttered, thinking of the women Lena had told him about. Maybe he could use them as hostages to drive him out of the city. Although there were more people than Lena expected, she told Adrian that no one should be on par with Leo in terms of power.

Maybe he should tell his crew to keep an eye out in the city for people with white hair… or a ridiculous amount of women surrounding one man. Whatever the final plan was, Adrian knew this was someone he couldn’t take lightly.

Oh well, planning for the fight could take a back seat for ten minutes. Right now, he needed to prepare for the upcoming semester that started in two days. Adrian still needed to contact the bursar's office about his financial support, and make sure he was in Lena’s classes so he could do the job he was paid for and protect her.

Adrian frowned, remembering that Lena was feisty and unfortunately had a tendency to push away any potential allies. If he didn’t protect her, Adrian feared that perhaps no one would.