Marvel Multiverse: Earth - 353

Zachary was terribly sorry, he really was. He was pretty interested in comic books and the sort as a way to pass time, and when he received this suit... this wonderful, life-saving suit, he couldn't not become a superhero. It was any child's greatest dream, and he was nothing more than a big child at heart. So that's why he didn't think too much when he fired that first repulsor blast at the thug when he made his debut. But how was he supposed to know it would take off that man's leg? There was never gore in the books or TV shows, that was for sure.

He had made sure to apologize to the man who was laying in shock from the blood loss as the ambulance took him away, but maybe that wasn't enough. Well, if there was a silver lining, it was that the criminal would never attempt to commit a crime again.... lest he lose another leg. But that was all behind Zach now. That was his first day as a superhero, and it had been a month or two since then, and he was more proficient at it. That, and complex math he didn't originally understand before then, so maybe that was a bonus. He'd get straight A's in all his mathematics and engineering courses he took, he was sure.

But all that could come later because now... well, now he was flying. Where? Where he wanted, of course! Of all these new abilities, flying was the most fun. He could fly faster than a jet, you know. So quick that he wondered if he could turn time around by flying in the opposite way the Earth turned, but he didn't because he was genuinely scared that that might happen, even though he realized the improbability of that ever happening. Well, he understood the complex formula that made it impossible to turn back time like that. It was weird - all this new information flowing into his head. His head throbbed at night nowadays, which was annoying and unwelcome. But it was all to be worth it soon, for with this new suit, he could prevent bad guys from getting away! He could save people's lives! He could.... help a cat out of a tree.....

He noticed an older woman waving her arms at a tree, and it was obvious that something was stuck there. When Zach slowed down to inspect, he realized it was a black cat that had climbed up and gotten stuck up there. Nothing too serious, but he was available, so he stopped and took the cat out of the tree gently and returned it to its owner, who was ecstatic to see someone help her.

"You're welcome, Miss." he smiled behind his helmet to the old lady who was hugging her cat something fierce.

"I can't ever repay you! Thanks for saving Mr. Pounce!" he exclaimed in total seriousness, and Zach would have to deal with not laughing his ass off for the moment.

"No need, ma'am. For wherever crime springs up, whenever someone is in trouble, you will always have a Guardian!"

He was still working on his catch-phrase. It was hard, really.

Seemingly bored, the woman waved him off and turned away, holding her cat tightly in her arms as she did. His work now done, Zach disappeared from the public eye, switching from Guardian to normal attire. Unlike the original owner of the Iron Man suit, Guardian's owner did not publicly reveal himself, for he didn't want that kind of attention. The suit slid and morphed from the structure of the Guardian suit to that of a short-sleeved shirt and some jeans - casual attire that would keep him from standing out in a crowd. It was for the best, because he had no want to draw unnecessary attention to himself. Because in truth, saving someone was enough for him. He was just that way.

Now, all he had to do was find something to do. But what? was the question. For such a lively place, it sure was boring.

Every time he used this new ability he'd gained, he could not help but feel as though the experience was always the first. The sensation of self-propelled flight by way of Ionic Energy Manipulation was always going to be a dream coming true every time he so much as levitated an inch off the ground. The superhuman adolescent remembered very well the moment that his body was bombarded with forces beyond his comprehension, which went from a bizarre flash of light and invisible pushing, to being overloaded with ions upon ions of pure, wholesome science.

"Don't, Stop me Now~! I'm havin' such a GOOD TIME~ I'm havin' a BALL~!!" was the melody parting from his lips, small red headphones in his ears that were connected to a pouch on his belt that held his cell phone, the head-phones specially made so they would stay on even during high-speed flight and general superhuman movement, yet allow him to hear things despite having high quality audio that would have drowned out any other person with such a pair of headphones.

Grant Thompson, or as he was more recently referred to, 'Young Wonderman,' had just got out of school for the day. He had nearly flew through the roof of his last class, just barely holding in the relief that filled him, as he scurried out through the backdoors, and zoomed off to pick up a hotdog from his favorite corner, and enjoying it on a rooftop before flying a bit (granted that he waited thirty minutes, just relaxing and watching some construction workers put together a skyscraper, even waving to them at one point).

Yes sir, all had been well with this young lad, without a care in the world. Well, that is until he witnessed a horrible atrocity below on the street…

-

An elderly woman had landed on the ground, a greasy hairdo sporting fiend in a black tank-top and sagging jeans that 'boasted' a pair of white boxers with a pink heart pattern running off with a bag, a couple of five dollar bills fluttering through the wind as he made his getaway. The street thug chuckled to himself, before letting out a large 'gasp!' at the sight of Young Wonderman landing on the road beside him!…

…And walking over to help a boy who was having trouble tying his shoe…

-

"Hiya Small Fry. Why the sad face? It's such a beautiful day! Didn't the elementary school close early today? I'd say you were pretty darned lucky, kiddo."

The boy sniffled in response to the teen avenger's question, before looking down at his shoes.

"I-I…." He stuttered nervously. "M-m-my m-m-mommy picked me up from the bus, and then my laces m-m-messed up, and and….she told me to h-hurry or we'd be late… and then I stopped to tie my lace-laces together- I ALWAYS tie my laces, and she was g-gone!"

"Uh, buddy?" Asked a passerby. "I know y'all talkin, but that purse snatcher is gettin' away."

Young Wonderman seemingly paid no attention to the passerby however…

"It's okay. You just wanted to tie your shoes really badly, cos' it was your thing. I know I never leave the house without keeping my nails trimmed." He assured "Now, before we find her…wanna see something cool?"

He took the little boy's hand into his own, and took one good look at the purse snatcher, and drew his free right hand up, firing off a beam of concussive force, colored dark purple, as the purse snatcher was struck in the back. The little boy cheered, as Young Wonderman flew over with the child in tow to take the purse back, and return it to its rightful owner. Following that, a crowd began to form, among them including a woman with a look of worry on her face. YW walked over with the boy, and the reaction was instantaneous…

"Mommy~!"

"Jakob!" Exclaimed the woman, taking the boy into her arms, the two embracing. "Are you okay? You didn't get caught up in that purse snatching business just now, did you?… Oh my god, you're all I have left, sweetie. Promise never to stop and tie your shoe without asking Mommy?"

"Yes Mommy, okay, but that superhero helped me find you!" He giggled. "He even shot a laser at the bad guy! It was just like in the cartoons!"

"Oh…That's nice dear." Sighed the woman, who shot a smile at Young Wonderman, who returned with a salute, before flying off to avoid the press...

Renee walked home, and through the door, hanging up her coat and placing the cane next to it. As she took a deep breath, she smelled the scent of red beans and rice cooking, with some softshell crab alongside it.
"Hey mom! I thought you weren't visiting until next week!" She said with a smile, as her mother Maria turned to face her. Her mother was in her late 30's, having given birth to Renee when she was only 16, and so still had much of her natural Hungarian gypsy beauty, anyone on the street would think Renee and her mother twins, with her mother having gotten more of the beauty compliments on most of the occasions that this had happened. Her smile was warm, and the jewlery she wore was often hotter(she stole it, is what I'm saying.), bangles on both of her arms and dangling earrings. Maria smiled back, and returned to her cooking.
"I was in neighborhood, saw cute guy. Looked like rich boy, so I sucker him. Turns out he's super. I come here to take cover, wait until things safe again. You afraid I would find boy?" Renee blushed at this.
"MOM! You know I only sleep with a man at their house! I like this apartment, I don't want to leave because someone loves their wallet more than getting suckered out of it!" Maria smiled to herself and kept stirring the rice.
"I kid, I kid. You are so cute when angry! Find anything good tonight?" Renee waggled the wallet in the air and held up the suitcase.
"$100,000 from running the riverboats, plus an extra 10,000 from the wallet of one of my better opponents. I might upgrade the kitchen."
"Good, I could barely find enough to make meal. You starve yourself, my daughter! Eat! Drink! Be merry!" Both laughed at that.
"Sorry, mom, I was planning on restocking before you got here... But speaking of eating and drinking, dinner seems about ready, let's eat!"

Claire was finishing her soup when she overheard a crown gathering, chanting something. She payed her bill and walked over to see a boy with his mother, talking about how Young Wonderman has just saved them and stop a purse robber. This put her at a halt, she knew of him, but honestly wanted to get to know him, her mantra was, "Keep your friends close, and your enemy closers.". She didn't have many friends as Claire, although she had more than a couple of enemies as Chaos Wolverina. The owners of the stores she robbed, the family of the boy she kidnapped, and anyone who disliked use of powers in a general way.

She didn't even hurt the boy, except for messing with his head a little bit, and at the end he returned and she got $20,000. She made sure that money stayed in her apartment, no one was going to find it, even if she had to keep them silent herself.

Getting back to reality, she wondered where she could find a masked super hero in this city, and she continued to think of this until she felt her purse get snatched from her arm, leaving with a man running off into an alley. "Twice in one day, I really should move." She thought to herself before taking off and running after the man, where as any normal person would have screamed for help.

Once in the alley, she found the man at the end of the road, and surrounding him where seven other members of his gang, all of whom looked rough and were skin heads. Once one of the men saw her, they started wolf whistling, and talking about how they wanted to do things to her. "Give me back my bag, now or else." She said flatly, and after they laughed, two rushed her, trying to take her, she unsheathed her claws and slashed on their arms, nearly cutting of of them off and leaving the other with a bad bleed. After the members saw this, five more went in and faced similar fates with their chests, legs, and arms, all the while she was twirling around them, amking sure eveystep could be used to hurt them.

Once only one was left, the one who took her bag, he dropped the purse and pulled out his gun. This made her stop for a second, and he went on to say she was the devil. "You are the one who stole my bag, and now your friends might die." She said and started to charge to him, her faced covered a bit in bloood from her battle. He saw her come, and then as she would up her arm to swing, he fired at the exact moment her arm was swinging across.

Claire looked down at the new hole in her body, on her left side, downward, and felt a cold rush hit her. She looked to see the gang member, only his throat was gone, and what was left of him was now on the ground. She felt herself get light headed, and backed up to a wall and slid down. She put her hand on the wound, and then proceeded to take out the bullet. She read once that if a bullet was taken out quickly, the better chance you would have once you got into surgury. Not that she could reach her phone, it was too far in her bag, which was about ten feet too far for her. She wondered if she would heal in time to not die, but kept her hands on the wound and started screaming for help. "HELP ME, SOMEONE HELP ME!" She yelled, hoping that someone would hear and maybe call an ambulance, or failing that, that she would heal, she felt to cold at the moment to tell if she was.

Maybe he could meet that other superhero he had heard about lately. Should they team up or something? It'd be a great opportunity to make a friend and to save people, wouldn't it? But maybe this 'Wonderman' was more of a loner-type, and that he didn't like teamwork. It was possible, even if he did save the day. If that were the case, then maybe he would just be aggressive towards Zach. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get into a fight with another superhero if he could avoid it, and so he sighed and continued walking down the street.

Today seemed like a peaceful day, really. The sun was out and there were only a few white clouds scattered about in the sky, though none of them grey or otherwise signalling any rain to come. Zachary passed by a few people who looked like they were headed off to some meeting, judging by the fact they were talking on their phones and walking at a quicker pace. If only he had something to do, for school was out at the moment, and he had nothing to do really.

*BANG*

Or maybe he did.

Obviously, that was nothing else but a gunshot he had just heard and it wasn't too far away at all. A simple thought ran through his mind and he began to feel the armor as it formed itself around the very shape of his body. What was once clothes was replaced by the shiny, silver and blue metallic form of Guardian. With no need to fly, he started at a sprint towards the gunshot sound, only to be terrified by a scream.

"HELP ME, SOMEONE HELP ME!"

It was a woman's scream and that only made Zach more worried about the situation. He turned a corner and saw the entrance to the alleyway, which he turned into - it being the obvious location for near about any crimes. He had seen the movies and read the comics after all. What he saw was.... blood. Lots of it. A downed man there, another over there, they all had blood and either were moaning or hurt. But they were obviously punks. Of course he wasn't heartless, and he had the A.I aboard the suit contact the authorities immediately. That's when he spotted the woman who had cried.

He ran to her side, the clanking of his metallic boots echoing off the walls of the alley. "Miss, are you okay?" he asked, kneeing down to get a better view of her. He noticed a bigger splotch of blood, where she had been shot and instantly, his eyes widened. She was hurt.... and bad. No time for the ambulances to get here, he had to get her to the hospital quick. "Can you speak? I'm going to take you to the hospital, okay?"

Claire was lying on the wall, wondering if anyone had heard her, and if calling out was a smart thing to do. There was a lot of blood around, and although her claws went back inside, it was pretty easy to put two and two together. "Would make for good scare." She though and chuckled to herself.

All of a sudden, she heard something clinging off the walls of the alley. It sounded like metal, and she wondered who would be wearing metal boots in NYC. When a figure appeared nfront of her, it took her a second to adjust to the blueness of the person who was over her. She thought she heard of him before, when it hit her, "Gaurdian." ANd she knew her luck had just run out. She felt her blood less on her hands, so she knew she was healing, but she still felt weak as could be. "Miss, are you okay?" He sadi to her, and she chuckled a bit. "How do I look sparky? Because it doesn't feel like a kitten licking me right now." But she kept her mouth closed.

"Can you speak? I'm going to take you to the hospital, okay?" He said, which made her eyes widen. She couldn't go to the hospital, she would heal, they would notice, and then she would start getting question to which she didn't really want to answer. She could go to jail. This sent a twitch of fear inside of her, she didn't want to go to jail, she couldn't go to jail.

As he saw standing above him, she felt something grow inside of her, likey her kidney of something to that affect. ALthough she knew she was weak, she had to let him know she couldn't go to the hospital. "No!" She said, "I can't go to hospital. They will know, I can't please, take me anywhere else, but I can't go there, they will lock me away." She started to plead. She didn't care how bad-ass CW was, Claire was scared, and she wanted to go home. "Take me home, I will be fine. The adress is written in the forst of my date-book, right when you open the purse." She tried to lift herself, but felt white hot pain, and she yelled out a little bit. She pointed at her purse, thankful that she didn't have much stolen property in there, save for a few rings, which hopefully he wouldn't find. "I can't stand right now, sorry. But just don't take me to the hospital, alright?"

"No!" she suddenly spoke. "I can't go to hospital. They will know, I can't please, take me anywhere else, but I can't go there, they will lock me away." Zachary paused for a moment to take in what she was saying. The problem is, he didn't know what she was saying. Why didn't she want to go to the hospital? Wouldn't she die if he didn't take her there? That wound looked bad, very bad, so why would she put up a fight? He pondered for a brief second, then realized something - who hurt all these men?

Oh.

He noticed the closest man had misplaced his throat and that made him wonder..... He had his suit's AI scan the area for any form of weapon nearby, but all he really found was the gun the man had held and any weapons the other men had, though none of them had the ability to tear a throat out, plus they were too far away to be suspected in this man's death anyways. Too many questions raced through the young man's head but he knew now that she might be referring to this... 'mess'.

"Take me home, I will be fine. The address is written in the forst of my date-book, right when you open the purse." he didn't know whether he should listen to her or take her to the hospital right away. She could be a criminal, and that would mean he'd be assisting one if he took her back.... but then again, she didn't really sound like a criminal to begin with, so weak and helpless. Well, if he knew her address, then he could always catch her later, right? Right. "I can't stand right now, sorry. But just don't take me to the hospital, alright?" she pleaded and Zachary, though not quite one-hundred percent sure about this, agreed with a smile hidden behind his helmet.

"Alright then..." he said, his suit taking a brief note of her face before his HUD displayed some background information about Claire Moore. He focused more on her current address, rather then looking at the brief summary of her history, though his eyes caught the word 'Orphanage' at some point and he did feel a bit bad for her. He bother with nothing else, so he wasn't sure if she had someone living with her or not, but he didn't care regardless. He took off into the air, carrying her bridal-style, and soared through the air in the direction of her apartment. He never went too fast - she was precious cargo, though they did manage to reach the place in less than five-minutes which meant they weren't going slow as a car.

He glanced down at her. "Room number?" while he could've looked for this the same way he did with her address, he bothered not and instead wanted to make sure she was still there. If she showed unconciousness, they'd be at the hospital in a heartbeat.

Alright then.... Gaurdian spoke to her, which made Claire feel somewhat happy, even if she was leading him directly to her house, she just wanted to get away from the alley where she had committed a murder. He took her in his arms like a bride, making her blush a bit, which she hit under the blood. He took off towards her house, and she only realized afterwards that she had left her purse, "Crap! I need to get that later, if the police don't find it." She thought, and although she didn't have any ID in the purse, she was sure police had fingerprints from it.

Gaurdian started to fly towards her house, making her stare at the scene below her, which she saw by twisting her neck. New York looked great from up here, although the cold air was something that needed ajustment, "Where is global warming when you need it." They arrived at her building, and she wondered how he had found it without looking, but then realized that he had the greatest computer in the world attached to him, so he already knew her name most likely.

Room number? he asked her, making her wonder if she could trust a superhero, but still wasn't strong enough to walk back to her apartment. "Room 312." She said, and once they arrived at the door, she climbed out of his arms to unlock the room. she didn't have her keys, and she cursed under her breath. She suddenly had an idea, and placed her knuckle at the door. She unleashed her claws into the door, taking out the lock. She gently pushed the door open and was greeted by her home.

She found the couch, which was six feet away, and fell on it, thankful for not being in the air anymore. She felt her wound, and felt that it was smaller than before, so it was close to healing. "Me casa es su casa." She called out, inviting someone who should be her enemy into her home. Not that it was much, a simple three room apartment, only able to afford it by stealing, but she liked it. All around the walls were pictures of a happy couple, and in some they had a baby, her family. After she started stealing, she was able to hire a PI to see if any pictures remained of them, and he managed to findan old adress and broke in and got a picture album full of photos of them. SHe later had them restored and hung them around the house, her favorite being one of all three of them, she on her mother lap at she would geuss age 5.

She closed her eyes, but knew that she would not fall asleep anytime soon. "Thanks for saving me back there. Take anything you want except the pictures, I will hunt you down for those." She said, and looked over at her drawing on the table beside her. It was simple enough, a picture of a rabbit, and she smiled a bit. Thankfully she had hidden most of the things she took, with a few things laying about here and there.

"Me casa es su casa."

Guardian stepped into the house as invited, throwing a glance each direction in order to get a feel for the house. There was not much to look at - it was a simple apartment with nothing too special about it save for the few pictures laying about, scattered across the room in various places. He remembered seeing the word 'orphan' when he was looking up information about her, so he wondered if these were pictures of an adoptive family or something else. There was always that possibility, but one of them even had a picture of who he could only guess was her as a child so that meant.

"Thanks for saving me back there. Take anything you want except the pictures, I will hunt you down for those."

Guardian's head turned to face her instead of the many pictures surrounding them. Underneath the helmet, he raised an eyebrow. "I do not save someones life for a reward." his helmet zoomed in on her wound and to his surprise, it looked smaller than before. Maybe he had just been over-estimating the wound in the first place. Either way, he was a bit more happy to see that it didn't look as severe as originally thought. "My wish is only for yours and everyone else's safety, so I will not be taking anything of anyones, Claire."