Hope

"Can I ask you to do me a favor?"

Her question rung out like a bullet firing in an enclosed space, he could feel his ears starting to vibrate, pinging like a knife punctured the drums. But even so, he held that door open for her, and couldn't help hit stare down at her smaller figure, compared to his muscular build.

"Depends what it is."

A response like that, not too bad; resonates a sense of ambiguity of what he was willing to accept. Despite her age and how innocent she dared to look up at him, it didn't matter. He had to… stand his ground, didn't he?

"I need you to be a part of Riot. My brother.. formed it and is planning on using it to bring down the Bureau. Not to mention the MRG," June explained, the sheepish aura surrounding her being as she scratched at her neck with fingernails, obvious bites making them blunter than the usual sharpness.

But if that were the truth, if he were so hardheaded and stubborn, wouldn't he, the second he'd peeped through that hole in the door, a smaller gateway to an outer world of nothing but pain- had turned away? That would've been the logical step, and so, even if it weren't reasonable, there was an emboldened voice, crying out from within him. Maybe this was his destiny, to reach out this dark-skinned hand and offer guidance to troubled youths, related to them or not. And so, just as his hand was mere centimeters away from patting her head, that grin painting his lips revealed his pearly whites.

'I hope… that'll make you proud of me, wherever you are… my beautiful baby girl.'

"You don't even have to ask."

Why was it so casual, so natural, like answering a request his wife had given him, like nodding to his shorter daughter with a happy smile. He could feel himself kneeling to also himself match her height, and even so, despite this girl being someone he'd met only a day ago, he felt could feel his chest tighten, his stomach ache. The thought the battle ahead might be disastrous and bloody, one who possessed the untapped potential to help others, the way he would for her. There was that voice again, bold like God's guidance leading him down the path he was resigned to, but even so, he wasn't a puppet attached to an overhead string.

Running alongside her, now in the present, against the cleansed halls of the Bureau's clean floors, there was nothing to be afraid of. The future was clear, for even if he'd perish in the further time the clock anxiously awaited to tick again, there was the truth… that this was his destiny.

"Watch out!" She cried, instantly regrowing dark emerald tendrils widening into a hand-like form, jumping away in time with the slap she'd thrown to his figure's side.

Easily catching his balance from the friendly strike, his fingers just barely brushed against the floor, turning his head to the space between him and June. It'd been wholly disintegrated, like a ball of fire hot enough to match the sun's temperature had singed away any of the surface's flattened remnants.

'We just got here… do I gotta fight already? And here I was hopin' to save my technique for later down the line.'

Jefferson clasped his hands together, pushing her tops of both pointers against the other, forming a spark in the air, moving around like an unexplained force that couldn't be predicted. Almost like the embodiment of chaos had incarnated itself, imbued into the life-full air around them, June couldn't help but scan him. The way his eyes glistened like stars during night's reoccurring encore, or maybe it was the way he danced with the elegance of a ballerina.

'So cool!! He's like a ninja!'

Though her face said otherwise, it was needless to say she was gushing over the impressive feats he was performing with such beauty.

'Mimic: Blue.'

She was facing his side, so it was a bit faint, but she could've sworn that the slightest azure glow alights in the corner of his eye. And not only that but the energy surrounding, no longer as chaotic as the Remnants' city-obligating monsters, devoid of intelligence; humanity. Now, as calm as a river heading downstream, locked between a forest surrounded by green, the tranquility of this imaginary environment sent a wave through his being, shocking him to his core. However, this 'shock', was almost like a wave of water coursing over him, or maybe just standing idle amid a running cleanse.

"Hmmm…"

The man in the midst, far in the distance could spot the phenomena before his eyes, no matter the distance. There existed a gap between the realm of power and weakness.

Those who heighten their skill to the north of potential to reach the eventual peak of human eligibility were qualified to be named 'powerful.' That was the way things worked, correct? But what about those who had potential? Those who possessed the ability to surpass the higher-ups of the world and become truly godlike with their talents didn't require training, for their malice, determination, resolve, whatever it may be, guided them forward.

"Let's see what he can…"

"Directional Copycat: Obliterating Wave. Minus 500 Mana."

It was like God had spoken down to the mortals of the world with that booming tone, Jefferson pointing but one finger ahead, pushing up the thumb. Like pulling the trigger on a miniature pistol-like firearm, Darrell fired the wave.

"Ever since the Founder had destroyed New York and rendered the world a new place, new energy was accumulated in the veins of monsters of the Remnant World. Interdimensional erasure energy. That's what Requiem energy was changed into if it was brought into the New World. Have fun with this, Angelic Hawk King."

It broke the limit of light, surpassing everything to erase the space it consumed, a sphere of damned souls, cries of agony escaping its machinations as if crying out to declare its suffering. Griffith took one foot out the mist, reading along with the inked dialogue symmetrically lined into the pages, the book hovering before his eyes above his palm. There! This was the one to work, for sure!

"Indefensible Barrier! Minus 300 Mana!"

The seal engraved on his hand's rear was almost like the flame behind a candle's transparent shield. Moving from side to side without any sign of predictability, expanding rapidly without showing signs of declining its widening, a yellow rectangle composed of pure energy emerged to the front of his shoes. It was destroyed in less than a nanosecond, leaving nothing but particles of the shield formed in glass shards. Griffith could feel the aftermath enter his bones, the shockwave sending him flying back, just stumbling off his balance, then catching himself before an expected collapse.

Confidence resorted into his spirit, the King felt his knee hit the ground, unconscious of his development, yet continuing forward as another passage from the floating book was summoned into reality.

"Blurry Barrage of Blades. Minus 100 Mana." Griffith declared multiple widened swords and bladed weapons conjured from miniature blue blips in the air around him.

But Jefferson… didn't shed himself of the jacket covering all those muscles, feeling those pulsate at the shine of the sun peeking through the shattered windows. Clenching his fist, with this tightening of strength into that singular palm enclosed with veins surrounding it, the coloration of his aura altered, as well. The anger within the human hearts had enhanced to the point that any blow radiating from his burning knuckles could tear away skin from bone. He hadn't even done a flip, and already, he couldn't help but chuckle at the slightest glimmer those blades reflected from the sun behind.

'He can copy powers? He said 'Directional Copycat' so it might be something that appears in a compass he maybe spiritually summons. Either way, if he can copy someone's specific genetic code or rather… an Artifact's genetic code that produced those abilities- does that mean…?'

June thought back to the way that ball of fire when battling Cthulhu spread across her mentor's invisible barrier of Unlimited. That technique trained to the maximum, if in the hands of a competitor like Jefferson, she couldn't help but meander the possibility of Alexander and Darrell fighting. Who would come out on top, that was the question she was hypothetically inquiring.

Back with Jefferson, after finishing flexing his incredible muscular prowess like the sun peeking behind the clouds on a gloomy rainy day. A chuckle couldn't help but escape his lips, slicking bellowing out his lips so he could cry to the skies as his arms started to pattern that same movement. The sprinting had instantly started with not only the movement of the Copycat but those guided blades' shimmer from within the mist.

"ALRIGHT!!" He whooped and wooed to the Heavens at the new challenge manifesting just before his eyes, consumed wholly and fascinated for the coming battle as he started…. He started running.

Each passing millisecond, or even less somehow, had awakened a new cycle of adaptation within his soul, as if desperate to break apart the chains of limitation. That disappointing attitude surrounding him like a personal raincloud had been shed, and just accompanied by the quickest movements he could muster, it was like an Angel descended from the Heavens to grace her blessed Eternal Sight. Dancing with elegance as if he had wings to support the moves he so cleverly orchestrated down to the most minuscule amount, Jefferson slid under the most obvious incoming blade he spotted.

With the mist's thickness prohibiting his vision, relying on sight was a no, meaning… he had to make out the sight, not from his eyes. Or rather, to be more accurate, not his facial eyes, but none other than the 'All-Seeing Mind's Eye of Supremacy.' Jefferson could feel his movements slow, yet to June, just barely off in the distance behind him… those old speeds were surpassed as he shattered another limit.

It was like he could see the shards whipping past him, the way his body spun like a tornado's endless rotation as he flew overhead the incoming blade. Just barely, he slipped against the concrete, slamming his soles into the ground. Even now, having barely recaptured his balance from a slippery grip, the time for rest was not now, for simple ducks and sidesteps were useless against this exponential threat. Leaping into the air, arms unleashed outward from either side, both fists clenched, and yet again, as the plethora of weaponry targeted him, his eyes flashed another color.

'Directional Copycat - Convergence.'

His arms flailed behind him, legs splattering to quick strokes like imitating a moving image, animated to the extreme as he kept sprinting. Right on his tail, the pupil hit the edge of the eyeball, heels digging into the concrete of a wall, eyes expanding at an obvious possibility before his eyes. He didn't even check, his legs continually propelling him ahead with the speed of a jet engine, his eyes burning with the same icy touch as the Universe's grueling nebulas. Flipping his body entire backward so he could easily catch himself on another of those widened swords, a hand against the steel. It was something equivalent to soaring above the clouds, he could barely control the trajectory, unable to make out the passing-by sights of architecture engraved into the building's walls. Nothing but pure blurs, afterthoughts of the journey he was so casually experiencing, like utilizing a wingsuit to soar over great heights in Arizona's iconic mountains.

'I'd forgotten how fun this is. Thrilling! I could die here, and I don't even care! The thought of perishing to me, does it tease me even further. The element of death, locked behind the final stages of life. I want to... obliterate that barrier.'

Jefferson slammed his fist into his ride, sparks flying elsewhere at the impact, the shockwave sending arm hairs on their toes. Darrell barely ducked under another, a sword zipping from behind to enter the frontal sight range, his wrist spat out a tendril. The emerald aura craved out from nothing, chosen from a pile of coal to be the diamond in the rough, just as the leaves in an ancient forest would move with the way the spring wind flowed, it was all... natural for him.

'I always did get that premonition of you. That overwhelming aura that screamed out 'power' to the Heavens. You're pretty cool... old man.'

June's eyes couldn't help but act as a launcher's targeting system, the specialized eyes of Convergence moving with the afterimages he formed just by offending. The sword that'd zoomed from behind him? The grip easily yanked by the tendril to be thrown to that silhouette, menacingly grimacing from within the mist, Griffith's reflexes activated immediately. The projectile casually caught, the sting in his palm fading gradually, the Hawk King turned his head curiously.

'Huh...?'

Too arrogant to realize his weakness, Hanniel's blackened pupils grew at the revelation pieced together like a complex puzzle within his mind, looking right up to see he who exited the blinding smoke. That natural power that which he carried his shoulders within, the way his fist tightened so much, channeling just enough of whatever power resided within to mimic the sight of ablaze knuckles. It was like he could feel his stomach churn, but that look in his eyes, within this tiny pocket of time before the fist contacted the cheek: it didn't scream fear.

It was disgust, not at the mention of his clear defeat, weakness from within peeking out the container of the soul; the source of his downfall. How could he'd be so weak, again? Would he truly never get the chance to harness unimaginable strength, challenge the might of whoever stood superior. Right now, that disgust harnessed rotation's pure center, spinning evermore for a new sensation to produce out his chest.

"I'm tired...

OF BEING... HELPLESS!!!!!!"

A scream so powerful he could feel the very windows vibrating, the floor shaking beneath his feet to the point it felt like sludge, sluggishly driving legs through murky waters. Maybe this dream he was experiencing was nothing more than a fantasy, or maybe not, for Jefferson couldn't help but punch his head clean off. The pain wasn't there; a muffle, lips subdued against a pressuring pillow, vision continuously morphing blurrier and blurrier every passing moment, Griffith's desperate cries of helplessness had transformed. The sinister audio resounding through these labyrinthic halls, mocking mazes in their complexity, his cackles sent whoever sat at the throne of this warped world to fearful tears.

Jefferson's feet had announced his body's descent, June now standing beside him, he clicked his teeth, feeling his eyes change colors. This time, however, it wasn't something from the rainbow, rather… picked from the surplus of nebulas abstractly soaring throughout the solar system.

'Shit.'

The compass pointing none other than north, June nodded at the silent realization he'd underwent, running right to him. Luckily for her, running wasn't too much of a hassle, with the way she sprinted without a care in the world, solely headed for that one goal- there wasn't any doubt. With sticks of electricity platforming her insoles just the tiniest minuscule amount off the ground, her eyes went dark, feeling the world around her shade to blackness, swaying her hips to the right.

But of course, this unnatural speed that could easily shatter sound shouldn't be utilized for something so minor like him simply standing there. It was rather- to save the idle man, quavering at the sight of an incoming attack he was resigned to accept, for there laid nothing ahead but a grim future and a gruesome death. That was the path he chose… wasn't it?

Or rather, what he would've accepted, for the metal replacements for his formerly softened feathers had replaced the well-kept ground. Stepping out from the mist to finally dispel it, June placed Jefferson right against the wall, letting her fingers tighten against the projectile stabbed into his knee. The urge to scream was exponential as she mercilessly yanked that out, Wilder having her tendrils break off into tiny snake-like forms, fusing again as they entrapped Jefferson's damaged knee to mimic that of a tourniquet.

"Your power's versatile, but against stronger threats like this, you hit the limit, don't you? Don't worry bout it anymore. I'll take it from here."

He who bathed in the lights of the sun with his arms stretched out, as if pinned to a cross by nails and donning a thorny crown, his eyes fully enveloped by the darkness of the night so only his azure pupils could notably resonate with a distinct glow.

She challenged the might of this King, resembling that which seemed to be the Antichrist, as the girl bent her back and her bones snapped out rear, the chaotic movements of her tendrils became apparent. A snarl seeping out from clenched teeth, from the right eye of the implanted Convergence, it was a flaming stream flew back from the emerald orb.

Just before the battle between the two of them commenced, there remained only one declaration from the mouth of the Wilder sister.

"I'll bring you down without a hitch. (AND TEAR YOU APART)."

To Be Continued.