A/N: This is when things start to pick up here in the series. Now, we time skip to February 2014. Noah, Jared and Alicia are all 17.
Bayview had an unnatural chill to it as Winter rolled on. Normally, it'd be in the mid 60's to high 70's at that time of year.
Noah Ryder wore an orange shirt under a blue sports jacket. With that, he wore light brown pants and blue polo shoes. On his left wrist was his black and blue leather bracelet with a flat metallic band wrapped around it.
The boy was walking out of the mall with his younger brother, Arum. He was carrying a bunch of bags filled with supplies for a party.
"So what else do you need?" Noah asked his brother. Arum's birthday was coming up and he was turning 16.
"I think that's it." Arum replied. He wore a blue button down shirt over a black T, blue jeans and black vans. Also, Arum got a bowl cut for his hair, much to the surprise of Noah. The realization that his younger brother was growing up started to creep in on him.
"Then let's get home." Noah led the way to his car through the parking garage. Suddenly, loud tire squealing echoed through the lot and a black van came charging at them. Noah quickly gathered Power from Within into his right hand, pushed his brother out of danger and dove in the opposite direction. Noah went into a roll and righted himself to his feet.
The boy noticed a big red cross on the side of the van. It wasn't a religious cross, but it did look vaguely familiar. The van skidded to a halt and three men dressed up like SWAT agents ran at him.
Noah jumped into the air and kicked one in the head. He back flipped away from the other two. As he dealt with the assault he thought to himself, "These guys are human... So I can't use my powers."
He front flipped forward and kicked the last attacker in the chest. He thought he had won when Arum shouted his name.
Looking over, he saw that more agents had grabbed Arum. The boy fought back as hard as he could. In panic, he let loose chilled air in all directions making one of the men scream. Another ran up, grabbed the kid, and tossed him into the van.
"NO!" Noah shouted at the top of his lungs. The van skidded away and the agents he had knocked down got up and threw down smoke bombs to cover their escape.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Noah chanted as he chased the van with his Super Speed. He didn't care if anyone saw how he moved as a blue blur. The scenery flew by him in a series of colliding colors. All he could focus on was getting Arum back.
He was about to freeze a tire with his molecular power, but he stopped himself from fear of injuring his brother.
That's when something strange happened: the van started to glow a similar blue to Noah's aura and disappeared from his sight. Noah forced himself to stop and skidded across pavement. He lost his balance and fell forward, but he caught himself with a roll.
Frantically looking around, Noah realized that the capturers were gone.
"Arum." He whispered as he ran his right hand through his hair.
In an alleyway near Noah stood a mysterious man. He wore a special kind of blue and white
cloak with a beak pointed hood. "I'm too late." He said to himself.
~Cue Theme~
"Why would they want your brother?" Liam asked as Noah paced around HQ.
"Hell if I know! They went after both of us!"
"Calm down, Noah. We'll find them." Jared reassured in french.
"But why do they want him?" Noah threw back.
Sonia stood up and placed a hand on Noah's shoulder. "Okay, 1: No french when we're all together. 2: Let's relax and form a plan."
Lydia was talking to Alicia about a new tracking system.
"The point," Lydia explained as she typed in numerous commands, "is to fixate numerous locations at once by combining magic and technology. Give it a try."
"Alright, let's do it."
"Holomap System, Online." Lydia announced. The room went dark and a hologram of the entire Planet floated at the center of the room.
Alicia cast a locator spell but nothing happened. "I can't get a lock, but I'll keep trying."
Hours later, Noah decided to leave HQ and go for a walk around the city.
~Downtown Bayview, Night Time~
Noah didn't even bother returning home. How could he tell his mother or the twins about Arum? Conflicted, he kept wandering through the City heading nowhere in particular. He just wandered aimlessly down the sidewalk as cars flew by and occasionally other pedestrians. Suddenly, he felt an impulse in the area around him; he knew he was being followed.
Inconspicuously, Noah changed course toward an alley he knew was around there. Subtly walking into it, he still sensed his pursuer. The alley was a perfect cover for him; shadows casted everywhere, all windows in the surrounding buildings were blacked out, dumpsters and trash cans were lining the walls.
Noah squeezed his right hand into a fist and focused. Quickly, he whipped himself around, flicked his hand forward at a dumpster, causing the unit to explode with a bright blue burst.
A shadowy figure in a dark blue hood quickly jumped high into the air, much higher than a human.
"So he can use magic too?" Noah asked himself. "Interesting." He focused his own into his feet and jumped from wall to wall, pushing himself between them with each single step. He met his attacker in the air and spun and kicked him to the ground, but his attacker righted himself and landed on his feet.
Noah super sped to the ground and sent a rapid series of punches in a blurred flurry. Except the hooded man dodged them all despite Noah using his Super Speed to augment his assault.
Having enough, Noah blasted the man with a quick burst of water sending him into the brick wall. Noah flicked his hands forwards and the man's molecules froze. The boy kept his left hand in place, but raised his right hand to his eye level. He then flicked his fingers and kept that hand steady. When that happened, the molecules in the man's head unfroze and he coughed.
"Who are you?" Noah demanded.
"Can't believe you don't know who I am."
"Tell me, bud. I'm not in the best of moods right now. When I'm not in the best of moods..." Noah completed this sentence with action; channeling his Symbology Magic, Noah raised his right hand out and caused a dumpster to explode with a burst of icy vapor, encasing it in ice.
"Get the picture?"
"Pull my hood down and you'll know." The man informed him, his voice dripping with a sort of cockiness Noah lowkey recognized.
Cautiously, Noah pulled down the hood and gasped. This immediately caused him to unfreeze his former pursuer. "Uncle Devlin!"
"Hey, kiddo."
Devlin stood at six feet tall. He had fair tan skin and dark stormy eyes. His dark hair was short and cut neatly. His face was a mix between boyish and hardened mature.
"What're you doing here? And how'd you-"
"Slow down, Noah. We have to act quickly."
"So you know what's going on?"
"Yes, I was too late to save Arum from being kidnapped."
"By who?"
"An organization known as the 'Forever Knights.' They've been around for hundreds of years trying to shape the world to whatever they see fit. That's where we come in."
"We?"
"For as long as the Forever Knights has been around, there's been an order of people dedicated to stopping them."
"I don't understand."
"Noah, our family, like so many others across the world, are a part of an Order of Supernatural Hunters."
~ A near empty Cafe ~
"Hunters? Like... Dean and Sam or...?"
"Something like that." Devlin smiled warmly.
"Our Order exists to Hunt down the darkness in the Supernatural world. We all use our Magic with Symbols to fight. But, the Forever Knights want to control the forces we strive to destroy, hence the silent war."
"So why did they want Arum?"
Devlin sighed and asked, "Your father..."
Noah raised an eyebrow and quickly beat back the repressed emotions of his absent dad.
"What about him?" He asked quickly.
"Your father is still alive."
Noah felt his heart skip a beat. His head was reeling and he felt like he was going to pass out. "Dad... alive... How? Why..."
"That's my fault, Noah." Devlin explained.
Shaking himself back to reality, Noah asked, "Why?"
"Your father left the Order to raise his family... but something came up and I called him away. Years ago, I received word that a powerful artifact from an ancient civilization had been located. It's buried somewhere in Europe. I called him back and we were ambushed. He was captured by the Knights and all these years, they've forced him to find the artifact."
"I don't understand..." Noah's blood was starting to bubble a little bit. "Why wait till now?!" He half shouted, causing the remaining people in the cafe to stare.
"Noah, it's hidden well and the Knights are finally losing their patience. I heard they located your family and wanted to get you all. They planned on kidnapping you but on seeing your powers, they went for Arum. They're going to deliver him to your father so he'd work faster."
"Why deliver him?"
"So they can reacquaint and feel reunited. They're using the fear of separation to make him work faster."
"So, he's in Italy right now?"
"Yes."
"Then I want to go get him."
Seeing his nephew processing the information, Devlin pressed on. "I'm curious, Kiddo. How did your powers grow? From what I was told, you shouldn't be able to use them."
Taking a deep breath, knowing that his Father would somehow protect Arum, and ignoring the plethora of questions running through his mind, Noah started from the beginning.
~Venice, Italy ~
In Venice, Italy under the Saint Mary of the Visitation Church, was a series of tombs and catacombs. Like a dark, winding maze, it seemed as if it never ended. However, in this massive complex lay the ancient artifact from ages past.
Jack Ryder briskly made his way to his work site. How many sites he dug up and examined he had no clue. There were six ancient Catacombs across Europe he was pulled between. This one happened to be the last.
Jack resembled Noah quite a bit. He was tall, broad shouldered and strong with the same shade of brown hair. Except, unlike Noah, Jack had a tanner skin complexion. He also had a darker shade of brown eyes as opposed to his son.
"Ryder, we have something for you." A FK agent informed the man tossing a young kid into the light.
In that moment, Jack's heart sank with relief and fear. He dropped to his knees and made eye contact with the scared boy. He instantly recognized the boy's eyes which resembled his mother's.
"Arum... you've grown so much..."
"Who are you?"
Letting out a light chuckle, Jack informed, "I'm your Dad."
As far fetched as it was, Arum instantly believed the stranger before him. Letting all his fronts go, Arum dug his face into his father's chest and cried.
