The area in which he stepped off in looked like a bomb exploded, the buildings crumbled from top to bottom with holes missing out from the sides. From what one would see pristine sidewalks and roads, here he sees missing blacktop and the entire length of curb completely missing. He admits, some pieces look to be purposely cut.
The air felt heavy, hopeless, but even in the dark of death light shines in the phase of shadows, bodies-life-moving between alleyways and alcoves that appear in the dim glow of flickering streetlights that have yet to fully shut off. As if in the deep bowels of a shit hole, daylight shines from above, the very top of the buildings he scans over is that of a crystal further in the distance beyond what the grim of this sector may call home.
With his hood raised, he keeps to the overhangs and covers of once welcomed stores and homes that would usually hold the innocence of that life that now struggles to grow, having left forgotten. Much like the trash and litter he glances at in the corner of his eyes all around him. The chill brushes up against him, in the sense of eyes breaking away from the normal of everything being empty. Fresh meat signaling the change is upon others by association of inattentive actions or reactions that have yet to come forward.
As such, Danny's arm wraps around his own abdomen as the faint twinge spreads from his center and out towards his shoulders. The pulling sensation makes his breath catch in his throat as he stumbles to the side, his arm clipping onto a corner that only causes to pull him into the alley. Not quite ready to fight away the pull he slumps back against the brick. The hoodie protected him from the loose gravel that breaks away from the material into his hand that stays hanging beside him.
The pain passes, yet he still stays as something crosses his senses. A weight, not like of earlier where this entire area seems filled with a suffocation of loneliness and distrust, but this weight of hope that is quick to be taken away in fear of being taken advantage of.
He turns, blue eyes sweeping behind him in the attempt to figure out what exactly has him on edge. A young child stares at him from behind an open door, a door that leads into a building that he's been leaning against for the past few moments. "Hello." his voice creaks. Using the wall for assistance to just take one step.
The child hid behind the door yet he could see the ratty shoes through the gap under the door.
Going with the feeling to try again, he keeps moving until he's able to touch the door and softly he tells the kid, "I'm not gonna hurt you." he kneels as he appears in front of the kid. It had been so sudden that the poor thing jumped back, his feet pushing back and into the stair way. "What's wrong?"
The kid only turned his head away, but Danny saw the flamed skin along his cheek and his blood began to simmer.
"I'm looking for a way into the city, do you know how to get there quickest?" he asked instead.
The boy turned to him with wide eyes, "I don't talk to strangers."
Pointing to himself first, "I'm Danny." then motioned to him, "What's your name?"
"J-James."
"Okay." Danny tilted his head slightly and shifted until he sat on the ground, making sure to move slowly, "What's got you upset?"
"Daddy started to yell at mommy." the boy had goosebumps raised all over his arms. "I didn't know where else to go."
"Did they know you were there?"
The boy raised his eyes to meet his, then shrugged, continuing to gaze to the side. Hearing the ruffle of fabric, James squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make himself smaller.
"Here you go."
James cautiously opened one eye, peaking through but all he saw was a wall of gray. After opening the other did he see the older boy in only a t-shirt, his hoodie in one hand and holding it out to him. "But it's yours."
"Looks like you need it more than I do." Danny slowly took one of the kid's hand and pushed the fabric into it. "Besides, the cold don't bother me anyway."
The young boy softly chuckled and pulled on the hoodie, he practically drowned in it, but his smile stayed.
"JAMES!"
The yell had Danny instantly on his feet and backing away as an older gentleman appeared behind James, yet as he watched the kid flinch away, he shifted in preparation to move.
"I told you not to leave!" the man, raised a belt above his head and whipped it down, slamming the material across James's back, though it mustn't've hurt as bad as he didn't even react. "And where did this come from!?" he dropped the belt, reaching to grab a cluster of the soft cotton and raising him by the scruff.
A younger lady rushed by the door and held on to the bastard's arm, "Honey, stop!" she gasped through her tears, tracks already stained on her cheeks. "You'll hurt him!"
"He'll deserve it for disobeying!"
Danny moved just before the man could raise another hand, forcibly taking the kid back with him to where they were in the middle of the alley.
They guy only stared for a minute, "Who do you think you are, boy?" he stepped down, stalking closer, angering further when James had been placed behind him. He raised a fist and threw a punch, aiming for the unknown kid, another street rat.
Danny didn't know how he got into this situation as he ducked and tried to move James away at the same time. He could feel the breeze across his skin as the man's fist passed his head, and he struggled to think of what to do.
He could fight. But he'd been used to fighting residents from another dimension that couldn't be hurt easily. The last time he fought any human with his increased strength and abilities, he'd knocked them off their feet and even knocked unconscious. He never really fought plain humans.
Running wasn't an option either. He couldn't leave James and his mother alone to fight against him. It was cruel, and cowardly to run when he could do something.
To fight…
The image of the building in rubble from the news cast invaded him, and for just a moment he stilled. He should've blocked it out, should've moved, should've at the very least paid attention.
Something burned in his chest, but the cold flowed over his skin in trickles, his arm now wrapped around his abdomen in an attempt at comfort.
"Danny!" James gasped beside him, his hand on a shoulder, gripping it when the older boy fell to his knees. He glared up at his father, "Stay away from him!"
"Stay away from him!"
Danny could hear Sam's voice, and even on his knees he found the will to stand against those that mean harm to the innocent. As he stood, testing his restrained flexibility, noticing where some tension felt loser than they should be, he once again pulled James back behind him. Taking a step in defiance of the bastard in front of him, the pain that is trying to pull him down, and death that clings to his skin, he strikes back.
His speed is slower than it normally is due to the fact that he's severely injured, but there's enough strength behind it that it's damaging. His fist connects, and Karma does it's work by putting the man down to the floor, a trickle of blood leaking from his mouth.
The sight startles him. Realizing that he still used far too much of an advantage, even in his weakened form.
How strong is he?
"Thank you." The lady whispers, dragging her son beside her.
"I-"
James pulls on a sleeve, "Danny?"
He could only back away. He did this. Again.
Before-
Before everything that had happened, perhaps he might have brought some kind of comfort to any child younger than himself. He could feel the strange emotions that are not his; sadness, hope, fear, just a brush of something he can't identify that makes him turn away, back towards his destination of some new clothes that may fit a little more comfortably.
As he treads closer to the city, more of that gaze that puts him into a second of fight or flight that would normally have him freeze in place.
That's-
The sight of one turned into an audience as many appeared that makes him run. The movement pulling at his skin and the professionally made stitches that he had yet to check on, and he keeps going until his legs shake. Grumbling about what just happened under his breath that makes him realize that maybe he wasn't all right, but he'll deal with it later.
Despite the time being the same, this end of the city had a majority of life, but with life being plentiful many hidden dangers spread throughout the cracks and pillars of the elite. Or maybe he'd been thinking too much of his own rival.
And the government.
His head tilts back into a building, eyes reaching for the heavens above him, that semblance of peace that he's always searching for.
The people around him whispered, eyeing his ratted clothes as if he slept in the dingy alleyways.
Turning into the shop that looked to be cheap clothing, he scoured for just simple things.
"You alright there?" The store employee scanning his new clothes asked as his eyes fixated on a random sign.
It's not the sign itself that has his attention, but his own brain just zoning out as he thinks through what he all has left until now. The mental decision that he needs to figure out where to go and how to survive. The strain that he has in being safe is no longer the problem as he's escaped confinement.
They're still out there, looking for him, and it just takes one person of that organization to put this entire city under the same destruction that had once been a part of his everyday life.
He doesn't answer the lady, just calmly pays for his things and bolts to somewhere to change.
His gaze casted over puddles and other reflections, until he read a sign, Big Belly Burger, he felt closer to home. The inside, mutual in color of reds and whites, but more filled with family than teenagers. The people didn't look at him and immediately judge, just kept to their own conversations, and food.
He rounds to the restroom first, pulling his shirt off carefully, but quickly, knowing that anyone could walk in. Looking in the mirror shows the angry inflammation around the stitches that had been pulled but not broken. The only saving grace so far under the circumstances. Instead of throwing out his shirt completely, he shredded it, using strips to keep the worse of the wound covered, as an attempt to bring his skin closer together to heal properly.
His jeans on the other hand, get chucked into the garbage, a fresh, though stiff pair taking it's place. His shoes, still how they've always been. Ratted along the seems but still useable to his feet.
Exiting from there, in a sudden anxiety gripping his lungs, he scans the room with his head down. His eyes straining to see if anyone had even noticed that he changed and if anyone has recognized him from before. While his mind supplied that is clearly unlikely, he couldn't help it.
He stepped up to the counter, mumbling out an order that the cashier somehow understood. The lady gave him a pitying look, he guess as he tells him to sit somewhere and it'll be called for him.
He nearly bolts for a booth at a back corner that'll allow him to keep sight on the enterance. He can't exactly explain his need to have the obvious escape in front of him, as he's been taken by surprise before through walls and floors. Just seeing that he's not trapped, and watching the other people leave and enter calmly gives a small sense of peace.
"Order 29!"
The voice, loud, startling, makes him flinch. He stands after a short moment, just to make sure nothing else would be shouted before grabbing his food and sitting back down.
The first bite, heavenly on his tongue, eyes closed to savor what little he can before having the feeling of what he has in his hands will be taken away. They snapped open upon feeling the seat shifting to find himself cornered, one person beside him and two more opposite on the other side.
The teenager next to him stole a fry, watching from the corner of his eye, the girl across from him rested her chin on the bridge of interlaced fingers and her elbows on the table, and the final guy next to her has his hands down below the table.
"Hi." he simply stated, taking another bite, trying to make himself seem like he wasn't bothered.
"Danny? Right?"
His eyes narrowed as he chewed, trying to draw out having to answer, yet they only have themselves relaxed. Swallowing he nodded, picking up is drink to take a sip. "What do you want?" he asked upon placing his cup back down, farther away from the one eating his food.
"Just came by to say thanks." the girl smiled at him, teeth barely showing behind her lips.
"For?"
"Protecting James." the guy beside him answered, tossing another fry into his maw.
Danny shifted more into the wall beside him, taking his tray with in an attempt to keep his food to himself. "I did whatever anyone else would do."
The eyes directly across from him, which had been penetrating into the table, snapped up to him. "That's the thing, besides Arsenal, no one else would, and…" his gaze briefly crossed towards the guy diagonal from him, he quieted.
"We would have," the girl began, "but we were preoccupied on the other end of the Glades. Another family abusing their kids. We were working to get them out from underneath their parents' thumbs."
Danny relaxed some, brows furrowing, "Whose Arsenal?"
Their eyes blinked briefly, one fluttering in confusion, while another gazed gob smacked back at him. "What rock have you been living under?" the shy kid gasped out. "He's the partner to Arrow, the guy that goes after all the corrupt elite?"
Taking another bite, Danny could only shake his head, "Never heard of 'em."
"Okay, alright." the guy beside him took a deep breath. "Arrow and Arsenal are two vigilantes who go after the corrupt. Arrow normally goes after the big wigs of corrupt politicians, businessmen, and the like. Arsenal goes after more of the small fry, usually within the Glades, looking out for us."
"Okay, and the cops are okay with this?"
The girl scoffed, "Of course they're not, but that Captain-"
"Lance." the guy stated.
She rolled her eyes at the interruption, "he seems to support, well at the very least, tolerates them. They've worked together before."
Danny enjoyed the final bite of his burger. "Is there something else you wanted?"
The girl's fingers tapped out a random rhythm before speaking, "You protected James, we were hoping that maybe you'd be interested in helping us protect the others as well."
"I don't." he whispered his hesitation, so quiet that the others had leaned in. He actively didn't think he deserved to, after the extent of what happened still berating into his mind. The fear of going too far in a moment of anger. Could he handle that? Could he come to terms of hurting others with the knowledge of how detrimental it was of someone needing emergency services if he was just a touch out of control? "I think…"
"You don't have to decide now."
The table shaking forced his focus back on them, the guy beside him seamed to be rubbing his leg while the girl glared back at him. He noticed her hand retrieving a piece of paper from a hidden pocket inside her jacket, and sliding it over. Taking it he noticed the address, but only rose an eyebrow in both confusion and questioning.
"That's our meeting point for all our new members in making the Glades safer. Just ask any other kid there and they'll point you in the right direction."
"Okay." he sighed.
The two left, yet the shy boy stayed. "James hadn't been much of a talker, and when we urged him to leave before he said he couldn't. James, he…" his hands twisted together, "he hasn't stopped talking about you. It's been less than a few hours and I can assume he's still talking how his abusive father got what was coming for him. If anything, come to see James, please?"
He nodded, watching carefully as the kid left, but ultimately pushing his tray away.
It was some place to be, a goal in mind, someone to protect, and his brain thought of that on repeat, that he could be of some use. And protection isn't just always getting into a fight, he could…he could get food, calm the kids, he could…He didn't know what else he could do, but the idea of belonging somewhere…
He sighed, forehead hitting the table top as his arms covered him, fingers pulling slightly on the back of his neck before rising again to slowly eat what was left of his meal. He couldn't stay much longer, he could feel his own need to move yet he can't understand why beyond the fact that he's still on the verge of being hunted.
