Izime Calls Cradle the Raven

Sometimes being human is a pain.

Izime smiled at the thought stretching his neck as he walked, mind returning to thinking about where his plans would be taking him. The hot box of activity and possibility of profit, the high crime area between Voltham City and N.Y.C.'s metropolis, prime grounds for turning a profit quickly.

He wasn't technically a super-hero himself.

Izime was a bit of an odd job's kind of guy.

If you wanted to be more accurate, Izime had traded his super-hero ideas to play the recycling and resource-management game he knew best in this world where pickings were prime. There were massive galactic markets in this super-hero infused reality and exactly how many people were reselling earth goods on them?

This was an opportunity to use the skills he'd honed on a scale he'd never imagined before. Not blenders or blankets but the scraps from super-hero and villain clashes.

If you needed 1000ft of high strength cable to run a rock-climbing expo on a high-g world for cheap?

Izime was the guy you called.

If a ship full of refugees needed fluid pumps, demons wanted some drugs, or security forces high quality traps for cheap?

Izime was the guy that showed up.

Hell, the scavenging possibilities left over by the Dark Night family were a treasure trove just waiting for him to arrive. Let alone when things like the Razzoren Fleet had invaded. There was junk scattered everywhere while teams of heroes battled around Manhattan. Simply kicking a bit of rubble over could reveal thousands in alien technology, some of EagleEye's arrows, or even a broken bit of the Steel-Suit's armor.

There were risks involved as well, but after years of successful hero scavenging Izime was one of the best.

Not a hard title to achieve when you were basically the only one in the business.

Sure, there were some teams in deep space hauling ship scrap or looking for the odd relic for some evil overlord, that wasn't Izime's market though. Those overlords were putting out active requests, Izime had a more door-to-door approach with his long forgotten or simply odd clientele.

Hailing from a reality where markets had once collapsed under the influence of amazon prime, Izime knew the sheer value of speedy deliveries and focused advertising.

That same reality had given him a short-cut to creating one of the best methods of accomplishing that in this world. Izime even had a quick list of some of the best possible clients and loot after verifying the absurd universe he was in. A perk Izime had acquired after being raised by the largest nerds on the far side of reality; knowledge he'd maybe ever so slightly abused.

Pranking that Nazi schmuck stuck guarding Soul Diamond just for kicks.

Saved refugees from the barren surface of Kiven while it burned, right under Vhainos' nose.

Even held a sample of the Father Hexagon at one point, he'd found it shortly after the League battled VoidSide.

Izime risked a glance back down the alley, checking to see if he was clear just out of habit. Turning back, he glanced up towards the top of a familiar skyscraper. Lining up his ring, middle and pointer fingers over his thumb and quickly snapping them in rapid succession.

Leaving only a few lingering sparks that dissipated before they reached the street below.

Izime magically arriving at his destination before the sparks of seared warped space could dissipate through a spell of his own creation.

A method he'd developed after swiping a gate-ring, one he'd found after scavenging a sorcerer battle. After running a few tests with its runes to verify that his idea was possible he found a no-name shop in Tibet. One very well-paid tattoo artist had then inked the key runes of the gate-ring unknowingly into Izime's fingers.

Super-human intellect already able to cheat its way around the simple requirement of recalling locations.

The metal shavings from that ring and those studied symbols had been inked deep into Izime's fingertips.

With a snap it activated the personal slip spell that had Izime had altered from the rings original design. Izime couldn't make an actual 'gate' like a true sorcerer, though considering the benefits that was minor. Now there was no need for a gate, waving, or even physically moving. The entire spell simplified to nothing more than a thought and thinking being something Izime was designed to do. In his hands, quite literally, the spell had been improved all around.

Activation speed faster, none of that hand waving nonsense required and even touch activated! There was also the fact that unless his enemy was already aware that he was using magic they couldn't counter it unless they physically removed his hand. Unlike whoever had dropped the ring originally, this wasn't slipping off.

Fast travel like this just one of the keys Izime used to keep his business booming.

Even if some safety features were missing.

All of them in fact.

Izime stuffed that dangerously runic hand into his pocket. Ignoring the much colder winds at the top of the building he pursed his lips to call out to his partner and child in this world. A shrill humming whistle reaching out with an almost electronic warble under the note as if someone had tinged the notes in binary.

Keeping his hands in his hoodie pockets Izime waited patiently for the familiar black winged bird to appear, eyes catching a familiar black streak that was coursing through the sky.

Cradle the Raven heard its bond's call to leave from the radio tower it most certainly hadn't been snacking on. Using the reality bending technology that had aided its birth to break the laws of physics. Moving at above Mach speeds without a ripple in the passing air the black wings were flapping only for effect. Leaving a trail of feathers that turned into dust mimicking the tail of a shock cone that didn't exist.

Cradle not waiting for those extra parts to rejoin, instead flapping eagerly towards its bond. This time relying on natural flight, its wings giving a mechanical rustle. The trailing feathers twisting and circling in some field of unseen energy before realigning to settle back into the ravens spread wings.

Izime pulled one arm free from his grimey hoodie. Holding it out with his fist clenched in expectation.

Watching as the black streak halted its course, braking in the air with an impossible stopping speed for any natural creature. The stress from unseen forces pulling some of the metallic feathers free from the energy that kept them safely locked in place at other times.

The creature looked like a mixture on nanites and a certain series of movies by some Bay chap an eon back in Izime's origin reality.

"Hey Cradle," Izime reached with his hand, rubbing a knuckle at the bird's breast while it hovered flapping comically slow for its perfect suspension midair. Izime admiring the incredible creature while asking what Cradle had been busy with, "What did you get today?"

Cradle tilted its head playing out a video instead of responding

. 

One of its eyes turning as the yellow lenses were rotating underneath as a projector was exposed. A short fuzzy clip of the bird picking at tech scrap played. A black metal beak picking at the exposed RAM in a trashed PC, tiny gray clawed talons pulling at coils of wire in a junkyard before a beak quickly gobbled them down.

Cradle tucking the damage done to the radio tower deep in its core-drive as it replayed the things it knew wouldn't get it in trouble.

"Good job Cradle." Izime proudly brushed at the raven's breast, finally holding his arm out for Cradle to land on. Feeling a bit more whole now as the familiar but still lighter than expected weight returned. Relaxing fully into the mental connection with his bond, sharing in its pride and joy.

Izime had at first regretted using that tiny sliver of the Father Hexagon on the bird's egg he had found. Now incredibly happy to share his mind with a creature so similar to himself.

The speckled off white and gray had been infected with the higher reality-technology, the shell crick-a-ling and crack-a-ling as it scabbed over with that black sheen. Regretfully thinking he had wasted the sliver on a dead egg, wondering if the idea of saving it with the alien technology had been a completely imbecilic idea.

The thing had restored a human by all accounts and even as childish as it was Izime had wanted the egg to hatch.

Even after his entire first life Izime couldn't help his instincts, he still wanted to simulate some for of life.

To create a being that was like him, even if it was just some tiny little living thing.

That thing had laid there dead by all methods Izime could use to tell from his human body. Abandoning his watch over the wasted egg, Izime was shocked to find it had hatched only a few hours later. A few hours into Izime taking a nap that was, waking only because of the ruckus caused as a few shelves tipped over.

Izime pulling at heaps of technological refuse that was rattling about, revealing a happily feasting and astoundingly fast-growing mechanical chick. Already molting the weird fluffy white down wires, it called feathers in favor of the now familiar black sheen.

"Time to get ready for another Voltham City run?" Izime asked, waiting until Cradle had flapped its feathers a few times to settle before giving a scissor sharp clack of its beak. Turning its head sharply to regard Izime as it thought of all the rewards Voltham offered.

"Money Money!" Cradle flapped excitedly, turning its head skyward calling out. Already tasting the finer pickings, the five course meal of technologically enhanced heroes and villains in Voltham offered.

"Gateway Bridge first, then Voltham." Izime nodded feeling the feedback from Cradle's own excitement, carefully reigning his own in.

Mentally recalling every detail of the hideout, he had established in Centropolis before snapping away.

Arriving inside the hollow under the girder access location beneath the once famous suspension bridge.

The space wasn't large at all, and he had to duck under the reach of the massive steel beams, but it made a decent cubby to stash his junk in while he was in Centropolis. The stop wasn't going to take long, Izime was just quickly popping in to grab a couple of duffel bags that Cradle was already casting a blue light over through the dark.

Izime grabbing the black weatherproof bags from the rough poured concrete floor and tossing one over his shoulder before having to struggle a bit. Between the guitar case already on his back and the added duffel there wasn't enough room for a third. Izime adjusting the load a bit as he was forced to carry the second bag in his off hand while Cradle side-stepped its way further up his shoulder.

"Based off of Blane's programs and our own predictions this should be a primetime to drop in, I'm ready, you?" Izime gave a look at Cradle. The two of them checking the data as graphs, charts, and maps kept popping up and minimizing in rapid succession.

All currently projected the potential hottest spots for villain activity in Voltham to their shared mind's vision.

Cradle rocked its head in agreement, watching as its bond raised his magically charged hand to displace them across reality.

The soft echo of 'money money' the last remaining sign that anyone had ever visited the unreachable gap between the tension house and the concrete below. Izime, Cradle and their gear transferring just over a thousand miles from the sprawling spread of Centropolis at center of the U.S. to the eastern coast in less than a second.