"Fuckin' H Christ." Gilbert cursed loudly, his eyes widening as he fumbled to his feet, while his blind date turned into an ice monster, and threw him into a wall. He grunted at the impact, sitting there a second until people had left the building, fleeing in fright, and immediately after they were gone, he threw himself out of the way as she tossed a chunk of ice at him. "First dates and me just never seem to go together…" He shrugged, and grinned confidently, his eyes staring the creature down. "That's fine with me, though! I'd be happy to kick your ass!"
He pulled himself to his feet once again, hearing the terrified screams of the people outside, leaving the scene of the typical cheesy Italian restaurant. He put on his mask in a heartbeat, before he noticed that the monster that had been a rather pretty, though cold (pun fully intended), woman known as Natalia Arlovskaya had thrown a chunk of ice meant for his head towards him again, and he jumped aside before he caught his breath.
"You look a lot uglier like this." The albino said behind his mask, brow furrowing, his lips pursing out as he taunted her lightly, before clapping his hands together. "Damn!" He then shrugged. "I thought that had been going okay, actually! What a raging disappointment!"
The monster shrieked, and charged him, but this time, he was ready, and he caught her hands in his own, using his super strength to stop her in her tracks, though his feet bearing down on the floor to stop her dead tore up the bad flooring. Eh. It hadn't looked that great anyway. He changed his bearing on the floor, bent down a little, and then threw her over his shoulder, into the wall he had been thrown against himself.
That had hurt- a lot.
Gilbert had to be honest with himself- he wasn't known for letting things go that easily.
She grunted in pain, and he hopped away, out of her reach, fast, avoiding the swing of her crystalized arm. He was caught by the feet though, and grunted as he hit the ground and had the wind knocked out of him. He immediately rolled over and out of the way just as her fist came down on the spot where he had been. He stood back up, patting his clothes down, frowning as he noted how now they were all but destroyed.
"I'm getting too old for this stuff." Gilbert complained when Natalia charged him again, and this time he just tripped her, causing her to topple over and shatter, before she transformed back into her human self, the frosty blue eyes absolutely furious with him, staring him down and trying to cut him open.
"Sorry princess!" He laughed, and grinned, before he snapped his fingers to make sparks fly, and then made a fireball to use against her, getting ready to go on the offensive.
But, by this point, (of fucking course) the police had arrived. Shots rang out, one of them actually hitting Gilbert in the shoulder. The woman across from him shrieked in pain, evidently shot as well.
"This isn't my day man." The masked man complained, looking to the blue-eyed demon of a woman. "Let's finish this later." He said to her, grinning behind his white mask. The police outside had started to prepare to fire the flamethrowers at them. Natalia barely paid him any attention, but nodded anyway, and she jumped out the side of the building, and he took off after her, running as they shot at him.
"I'm the good guy!" He cried back at them, shaking his head to clear his head up, feeling woozy. God that hurt!
He took out some of his equipment, and used his climbing equipment to jump over an alley wall, and once he cleared that, he was in the clear. "God." He had to stop and catch his breath. He had two bullet holes in him, one in his shoulder, and the other in his abdomen.
Fuckin' A.
XXXX
He collapsed just outside his favorite haunt- a haunt that had given him wounds similar to the ones he had now- But he had found that he could never stray too far from it, not permanently, at least. Gilbert grunted, and plopped down on a tree branch above her window, taking out his tweezers and pulling the bullet out of his abdomen.
"Fuckin." He cursed, toes curling in his shoes as he struggled to stay quiet. He bit his lip, and threw the bullet to the side, and breathed hard as he started to bandage it. The one in his shoulder could wait until later. He drew blood from his lip then, and cursed again.
The mask was a pain to wash. It might shrink! Which would suck dicks because it was already pretty tight.
He bandaged up his wounds, using some body tape to ensure the bandages stay stuck to him. He got up, and started running back to his home, unaware someone close by was watching him.
XXXX
Gilbert managed to stumble back to his home, groaning as he made it through the front door. Ludwig had been dropped off from aftercare, and was going over to him as he put his tiny hands around Gilbert's legs.
"Took you forever!" He cried, taking his tiny fists and pounding them against Gilbert's legs. "For-ev-er!" And Gilbert had to chuckle weakly.
"Sorry little man, my date went badly." He said, kissing Ludwig's forehead as he picked him up. "Sorry Lutz, that took much longer than it was supposed to." He apologized again, and cradled him. "Let's get you some dinner." He took the potato soup off the crock-pot, and then took out bowls for the two of them. "You should have called Mrs. Marsh. She would have gotten you dinner!"
"I didn't wanna." He whined from Gilbert's arms, hanging onto him. "You promised to be home by eight!" The child paused. "But, I suppose I have to feel sorry for you…sorry 'bout your date…"
"Don't worry. She was a real frosty bitch." Again with the pun fully intended, Gilbert joked about his date to the completely unknowing Ludwig. The elder set the blonde down at the table, and put a bowl in front of him. "Dinner, and then straight to bed, mister. It's already ten, and you're going to be so cranky in the morning." This caused Ludwig to make a general noise of unhappiness.
"What about desserttt…" He whined, and Gilbert laughed.
"I'll make you a pie in the morning, how about that?" And that made the child quickly change his tune, to Gilbert's delight.
"Okay!" He squeaked, messily taking his spoon to slurp down the creamy soup. His brother was quite the cutie. He laughed softly, and left to go to the bathroom.
"Be right back." He called to him, going to bandage his wounds properly. It looked like the one in his abdomen hadn't hit anything serious, and they would patrol the hospitals as they always did for him to show up. But he wasn't stupid; Roderich would never get the pleasure of seeing him in jail, or given the death penalty, which wasn't actually death, but rather, something that wasn't death…
Now, Roderich had always assumed that he was the so-called menace that was a "vigilante".
The menace himself preferred to be called the White Knight though, because that had been his name in the glory days, and his few followers online still thought of him as that.
Roderich was also his cousin, and the man who had stolen the love of his life.
Bonus was, he was never able to prove he was the White Knight, and looked like a fool in front of Elizaveta when he went on a rampage to try and "Prove" his guilt as an armed and unregistered Super. But to most, he was just a common idiot with a narcissism problem.
He wrapped himself in bandages, grumbling as he felt his skin start itching as it sewed itself together. There would be scars there. Just another couple to add to the dozens there that were already littering his skin.
He put his shirt back on, and went out to his brother, who had finished eating, and now was sitting patiently, waiting for him. "Now we get you to bed, squirt."
"Don't call me that! One day I'm going to be big! Bigger than you!" He said, confidently.
"Really now? Well, I best enjoy being bigger while I still can." He noogied him, and Ludwig cried with laughter, squirming in his arms. "Silly goose." He said in German, and walked up the stairs with his brother in his arms.
"Night, big brother." He said, sleepily. Gilbert tucked him in once he was in Lutz's room, and then turned off the lights, going downstairs to get into full costume. He still had to deal with Natalia, after all.
XXXX
"So you came back." Natalia said, her blue eyes slits. "I didn't know my bad date was the White Knight. How interesting."
"It's not like my breath smelled like garlic. You had positively awful breath." Gilbert joked, watching her from behind his mask.
"I however, am not interested in fighting my own kind. Unregistered Supers I can respect." She bowed her head. "I mistook you for someone else. Someone registered and a blood traitor." She muttered those words with venom. "I heard he was in this area. German sounding. Stuck up."
"Ouch." He muttered. "Sorry, chick, but I can't just let you loose on the city. You nearly blew my cover. And you're definitely not good. I don't like the sound of this guy either, but I can't let you go."
"Very well then, Gilbert Beilschmidt." She said, with an air of finality. "Let us do battle." He took out his sword, and she readied herself by transforming into her icy self once more.
Gilbert adjusted his grip a little, and swung at her, as she jumped back and did a back flip. Gripping onto the fire escape of the building they were hiding in the alley of, she threw icicles down at him, making him use his cloak to shield himself.
"You can do better than that." He jeered, and jumped up the sides of the building, grunting lowly as he did so. She shrieked at him, and tossed another icicle at him, and he had to dangle from someone's laundry. "Or maybe you're doing just fine."
She took advantage of his prone state, and out of ice fashioned a sword, to cut the line and make him drop down three stories. He could heal, but not from a fall like that. He jumped, and fell onto the fire escape just below hers. This put him at her mercy, and he tossed himself out of the way as a chunk of ice fell on top of where he had been laying two seconds before.
"Jesus." He cursed, rubbing his hair. "You fight dirty." He jumped again, this time up to the floor above his, to meet her, and sliced at her with his sword, which he had been heating up to chop through her ice. She shrieked in pain, and he smirked in triumph. "There we go." He jumped onto the escape with her, and pointed his sword at the bleeding woman. "It's over." He said, with an air of finality. She charged at him, and he sliced her in half. She then toppled over, breathing hard for a few seconds, before she died. Blood dripped down the fire escape, and Gilbert felt bad.
"I'm sorry." He told her corpse, and left in a rush, leaving the women who lived on that floor to find a dead unregistered Super, who also had a criminal record.
XXXX
That night, Gilbert sat in the tree outside of her home- where she lived with him.
He watched with envy, with spite, but most of all, with love.
Undoubtedly, her boyfriend had been woken up at the discovery of the dead Natalia Arlovskaya, and she was alone, sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her coffee mug. He sighed in longing.
That was before the tree branch he was sitting on broke, and he fell right smack on his ass in her flower garden.
She looked up suddenly, obviously frightened by the noise.
"Oh shit." He grumbled, frowning as he struggled to stand. She grabbed her rifle, and came outside, pointing it at him immediately.
"Stay where you are!" She called at him, painting a pretty threatening picture as he grimaced behind his mask. She ran outside with her gun.
"Look, Elizaveta," He began, accidentally using her name. "I don't want any trouble."
"How the holy fuck do you know my name?" She said, her voice getting higher pitched, and the click-click of the gun was audible to Gilbert.
"Fuck." He repeated his inner thoughts. "I should not have said that."
"How do you know my name?" She asked again, aiming directly for his heart as it beat hard against his chest. Fuck shit damn.
"Uh, I…" He coughed, feeling himself blush. "I make a point to know the names of the citizens I stand for."
"Holy shit." She was in disbelief. "You're the White Knight. You're here, in my petunias. Not with the girl they found. Holy shit."
"Yes, yes, I know, holy shit indeed." He grumbled, figuring that had been a shitty reason anyway. "Look, lady, I got a kid at home. I gotta run." He stood up in her petunia patch, and the gun was immediately retrained on him from where it had dropped slightly in her disbelief.
"You aren't going anywhere, punk." She growled, and got closer to him. "Roderich's been on your ass for years. And I've finally got you."
"Can't I catch a damn break?" He muttered to himself, shaking his head as he put his hands up. "Come on, I have a cute little kid, at home, in bed. Can't I just leave?"
"You are a dangerous, unregistered Super." She responded quickly, the idea ingrained in her mind.
"Registering yourself is submitting yourself to mind control. Making you lose your powers that you were born with."
"It takes the threat out of you." She replied. "You are dangerous. A threat to society."
"God, do you even hear yourself? You sound like Roderich, always obsessing over registering Supers, when he is one himself. What a blood traitor. And I killed the woman who wanted him dead." Gilbert said, frustrated, and wanting her to agree with him once more.
This surprised her. "Roderich is a super?"
"Yes, he's quite the virtuoso, haven't you noticed? His music is able to enchant people. So, in return for turning in Supers, he got to keep his powers." Otherwise she would remember.
She would remember him, and they would be together.
"Y-You're lying." She said, though her hand shook a little. "Roderich isn't a...a freak!"
"Is that what you really think of him, or is it drivel he spouts into your ears?" He asked, sighing as he watched her behind his mask. "Either way, he wouldn't have been able to sing his way out of this one, so he should be thanking me, not that his miserable life deserves it."
Gilbert saw that her hands fumbled on the gun, and he took the opportunity to jump into the tree, and ran out on her-
He ran away from the very woman who used to be his partner, his loving girlfriend, and his ally in protecting the peace.
XXXX
When he got home at four in the morning, he started making a boysenberry pie. He had promised his little brother after all. It didn't matter that he was exhausted. His brother was the most important thing in his life- other than his ex-partner, ex-lover, Elizaveta.
But she was lost to him. The cold hatred in her eyes the last time they had encountered one another had been proof enough of that.
She had been the wondrous Iron Maiden, the source of his super strength and inner strength.
Gilbert was a copycat. He was allowed to steal powers from other Supers, though they were as powerful as the original powers themselves. But he would never use most of his collection. Most of the powers he had learned from villainous scum, who used their powers for evil. There were cases where the powers were damn useful, however- For example, Arthur Kirkland's pyrokinesis in the case of Natalia Arlovskaya.
As he baked, his resolve was strengthened. He wouldn't kill his cousin, he would let him have the wonderful woman known as Erzébet. He would let him win. So long as he continued to fight crime in her name, not all was lost. He would fight Supers who gave their whole race a bad name, and humans who were scum of the earth.
He wasn't going to try and win her back. She was too far gone.
By six in the morning, a wonderful pie was ready to go for his little brother.
His new life, the one that begun after her.
That particular little bundle of love had appeared on his doorstep one morning, an unwanted Super child in the time where Supers were killed- it had been a curse, it had been a blessing, Gilbert didn't know what to do about it.
After he lost Elizaveta, Ludwig had given him a reason to live. It had been four years since that day.
XXXX
Four Years ago...
"Do you have anything left to say, Arthur Kirkland?" Gilbert Beilschmidt asked him, as the burned out man looked down.
"I'm so sorry." He muttered, closing his eyes. Gilbert got it over with quickly, chopping his head off.
The burned down house surrounding them told them a story Gilbert didn't want to hear. He burned Arthur Kirkland's body quietly, Elizaveta watching to the side of him.
"This is what uncontrolled powers do to the good in society." An unwanted voice called out, and the two masked figures turned over to where Roderich Edelstein stood, and he caught Elizaveta. Gilbert called out for her, and she told him to run, struggling as she broke the arms of her captor.
The woman had yelled to him: she could make it out of there just fine. Gilbert took off at a run, listening to his lover that he would never see again, not in the same way she had told him to run.
He heard a sultry voice start singing, and saw the love of his life losing her fight as she gave into Roderich Edelstein. It was that moment he would never forgive his cousin.
That day four years ago.
The next morning, he had been storked by a young Super mother, clearly wanting her child to be taken in as a non-registered Super. It was a tiny baby, red in the face and screaming its head off. Gilbert read the note left, explaining the mother was going to turn herself in as a Super, but didn't want her child to live forever in stigma. Gilbert took the child in as his baby brother, naming him Ludwig.
He would always protect the innocent, even if he had not been able to protect her.
XXXX
The next morning, he saw himself all over the news as his brother grabbed a plate for pie, and served himself. He smiled tiredly. "How's it taste."
"Awesome!" He cried out, and started chomping down as Gilbert watched the clearly biased report on how the White Knight attacked and killed a troubled Super. These stories were always the worst.
"Lutz, turn off the TV." He said. "I don't want you listening to this trash."
"Gil, are you a Super sympathizer?" He asked, sounding reticient to ask him this, which surprised Gilbert. "I defended a Super girl the other day and got called that." Gilbert felt a pang in his chest at that information.
"Don't speak like that." He said, stern. "There's nothing wrong with defending Supers." Gilbert bent over, looking serious, staring right into Ludwig's eyes. "Those people are assholes. You can tell them that Super violence only grew after the Registration rules, because Supers can't control themselves anymore." He hugged his brother. "More than that, you are a Super. Your mother told me the day she gave you to me." Ludwig looked a little shocked.
"I'm a freak?" He asked, voice small.
"You aren't a freak." He hugged him tighter. "The fact is, there are more Supers than Humans now days. They want to control us before we control them. You don't have to tell anyone you're a Super, Lutz. I love you either way, because I'm a Super too."
This seemed to comfort Ludwig, and Gilbert kissed his forehead. "Now, I gotta get you off to school." He said, smiling. "Let's finish getting ready, okay?"
XXXX
"Is that what you really think of him, or is it drivel he spouts into your ears?" His voice rang in her ears, making her question her entire life. She lay in bed, wide awake as she ran over the appearance of the White Knight in her head. He had been skinny, short, but proud, shoulders back and head up. He was proud even as he completely fell on his ass into her petunias.
Elizaveta Héderváry didn't remember her life from before four years ago, and it was starting to bother her now. Roderich was a wonderful pianist, and an even better singer.
Extraordinary, she would dare say.
"You could do a little digging on your own." The voice that she knew was imagined piped up from beside her. The face was fuzzy, but the skin was pale and muscled, naked as he lay in bed beside her. This scene was normal. "It wouldn't hurt to know. Maybe you can find out who I am."
"Roderich says that you are a hallucination."
"Or am I a memory of yours trying to come back? What does he want you to think? He wants you to love him, of course."
"But I do love him." She said, halfheartedly. "I do."
"Then why don't I have his face?" And the picture was completed. In a heartbeat, the face became clear. It was pale, and handsome, and…. it was undoubtedly the face of the White Knight, but in that same heartbeat, the face was once again masked, and the image of him was lost. "And why does he insist you do not go looking for people who knew you before?" The problem was, her hallucination was making sense now.
"Are you saying that….I'm a registered Super?" She said, tentatively.
"Technically, I'm only your thoughts Elizaveta. Or maybe, you don't have that ridiculous name at all. It's very westernized for a woman with such a heavy accent."
The name Erzébet came to mind.
She thought it suited her much better than Elizaveta.
"That sounds more Hungarian to me." The White Knight was self-satisfied, smirking under his mask. "You could go check the records under Erzébet Héderváry."
Elizaveta fiddled with her hands. "Alright. I'll also look under Roderich. I should check, at least." She sighed, getting up and out of her nightgown. "Although, if Roderich did make a deal, it probably wouldn't be in records of registered Supers; that would just be counterproductive for him."
And the naked man beside her was gone, and she sighed deeply, knowing that she would likely see him again sometime in her dreams.
Had she been in love with the White Knight? But how could she ever find him? And if she did, how could she know that she could trust him?
XXXX
There came a furious knocking at Gilbert's door, and he groaned. He was just going to have a bad week, wasn't he? "Coming." He called out to whoever was knocking, and got up, shuffling to the door.
He was unsurprised when it turned out to be Roderich Edelstein. "Good day, Gilbert." He sniffed, disdainful.
"Oh shit, it's the popo." He muttered. "What are you doing at my house?" He asked, grumbling. "Can't you tell I was sleeping?"
"I am here for your alibi of course. Or, do you not have one this time, White Knight?" Gilbert groaned.
"Can't you just give it a rest? I've already been tested negative for Super powers, Roddy. I don't have super strength, I can't conjure fire, I can't even heal like he can." He had never been tested for a copycat gene, though. The thought almost made him snicker. "I have science behind me. And I have an alibi witnesses agree with, I'm betting."
"Oh, and what's that?" He bit out, clearly frustrated.
"I was on a date with Natalia Arlovskaya, and was tossed into a wall. I passed out as the White Knight drew her attention away from the diners. The last thing I saw was him jumping in front of me."
"How did you know it was him?"
"I watch the news. But that might be a revolutionary concept for you." Gilbert said it like it should be obvious. And of course it should be obvious then. Roderich had just told him the White Knight had been there, as well- Roderich wasn't going about his investigation very well.
"Can you show me bruises?" The bullet wounds were just scars now, but the big ugly bruise on his back didn't heal as fast. He turned around, and was clearly bruised over his back and neck. "Humph. You should have gone to the hospital." Roderich muttered, suspicious.
"So you could put me in jail for being injured the same time the White Knight was injured? I would prefer not to go through that ordeal again. Ludwig was already waiting for me." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, am I free to go now, officer?" Roderich grumbled, and left him in a flurry, grumbling to himself.
Once he was inside and the door was shut behind him, Gilbert laughed at him. He sighed after a few minutes, shedding a few tears. "That's funny Roderich. Continue trying to prove that conspiracy theory, I dare you. Let's see how fast you lose your credibility." Thanks to the law, Roderich couldn't approach Ludwig, not after the restraining order Gilbert had put him under after he had slapped a three year old boy for not going along with him.
He got into the bed again, sighing as his head hit the pillow and he passed out, practically.
XXXX
Waking up was far less fun. He had to be up for Ludwig, to pick him up because he could never make the bus. He moaned, hardly wanting to wake up. He forced himself out of bed; feeling like it had only been minutes since he had laid his head down last.
He grabbed a bag of chips, and got into his car, driving at exactly the speed limit the whole way. Roderich was following him in his police car. He called the actual police then, saying that an officer, for no legitimate reason, was tailing him, on his way to pick up his brother from school. That got Roderich off his tail pretty damn fast.
Roderich was only allowed to chase him when Ludwig wasn't involved- a good thing, to be honest. The boy didn't need to become involved, not for something like this.
When he got to the school, he opened the automatic door on his van, and let Ludwig in, grinning. "How was your day, Lutz?" He asked, being happy for his brother's sake.
"It was good!" He said, brightly. "That little girl gave me flowers for helping her out yesterday!"
"See, I told you it was the right thing to do." He smiled, and closed the automatic door, bringing him home. "There are chips in the back for you, buddy." And Ludwig frowned at him.
"You should provide a healthy option sometimes, big brother!" He said, sternly. Gilbert laughed.
"This is a rare sight. It's not every day a four year old complains about getting junk food." He turned his rearview mirror to look at him better. "If it bugs you that much, wait until we get home to eat. You can have an apple or something."
He was being tailed again. He called the police again, saying Roderich was breaking code, but he found out it wasn't Roderich tailing him.
Uh oh.