Chapter 3: The Maverick Gala

Arc 1: Out of Shadows

*Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or anything Marvel-related, all I own are my OCs.

1 Week Later - November 2009 - New York City

It's been a week since The "Black-and-Blue" Blur first appeared in The Big Apple. And since then, it's been a bit of a whirlwind not just for Cedric but also for the media. For the past few days, the stories in the media have revolved around "The Blur", Miles Maverick, Stark Industries, and Tony Stark.

Since Tony returned from his kidnapping, he's been a bit of a nonstop story for news outlets around the world. People were still reeling when he returned and declared that Stark Industries, a company known for making weapons, would stop making weapons. To most people, it was a stupid decision but to Cedric, it was a decision that would make the world a safer place. Stark Industries was the best at creating weapons and if those weapons managed to get into the hands of people who wanted to use them for the wrong reason, it could put lives at risk, innocent lives at risk.

And now that Cedric was gonna be "The Blur", he had to be the one to protect those lives which exactly brought him to the current moment as he stood on a balcony looking down at a group of thugs running down an alleyway. He had actually confronted them a while back on Doyers Street but now they were on Mulberry Street running through an alleyway behind a pizza place.

He had changed his outfit a little bit sporting a pair of black jeans, air force ones, a leather jacket, with a black open zip hoodie underneath with a blue t-shirt with his necklace around his neck with black fingerless gloves on his hands. He saw them running towards a dead end making him smirk. He jumped into the fray standing behind them with a frown on his face as he put his hoodie over his head. Both of the thugs turned around looking at him with a frown.

"I'm only gonna say this once. Give up now and you won't wake up with a headache", Cedric said as he took a step toward them.

"Man, let's kill this fool." One of the thugs said as he stepped up to Cedric raised a gun and aimed it directly at Cedric's eye.

"Hell nah, you on your own bruh." The other thug said as his eyes trailed up and down looking at Cedric.

"What you mean fool?! We got this asshole right where we want him!"

"Bruh he wearing black Air Forces and got super strength! Hell nah, you on your own!" The other thug took off running leaving the thug aiming the gun at Cedric's eye. A smirk snaked its way onto Cedric's face making the thug pull the trigger. A bullet flew out the pistol's muzzle and into Cedric's eye crumbling upon impact. They both watched as the bullet slowly fell to the ground. The thug looked back at Cedric in a bit of shock and fear. Cedric grabbed him by the neck, raising him in the air before bringing him closer to him to hit him with a headbutt that knocked him out cold. The thug fell down to the ground.

Cedric looked up from his body at the wall behind him, eyes glowing with energy before beams shot out of his eyes into the wall. He used his beams to create the same star that was around his neck. He had been doing this almost every night, making sure that the people knew that they had someone watching over them. That there was a symbol of hope in this cold world.

Cedric closed his eyes grunting as he felt his eyes going back to normal. He bent down, grabbed the thug he had just taken out, and bolted off running to drop him off at the nearest police station.

The night had passed and it was now 6:54 in the morning. The beautiful sunny sun was starting to rise. The aroma of a fresh pot of coffee filled the air. The birds were chirping, the streets were busy being filled with golden taxis and various other vehicles. The honks coming from the busy streets could be heard.

Victoria Cade, who had just awoken from her peaceful slumber, walked into the kitchen with a pair of plaid pajama bottoms, a black tank top with a red robe. She yawned as she flicked the light switch, jumping in fear as Cedric sat at the kitchen island with a journal and laptop in front of him and a cup of coffee next to his laptop.

"Jesus! You can't just sit in the dark like that!"

"Sorry, I didn't want to turn on any lights and disrupt you or anything."

"It's fine. Just don't do that anymore." She said walking to her cabinets to grab herself a cup of coffee.

"I got you some financiers. Straight from the source themself." Cedric said pointing to a white box sitting on the countertop next to the coffee machine.

"Did you really run all the way to France just for some pastries?" She asked, pouring her cup from the pot before she turned her head and looked at him with a frown as he sat back folding his arms.

"Yeah, I did."

"So you're just gonna make this a recurring thing. You grab me food from all over the world and expect me to just forget all about your little adventures," She said as she poured her sugar and her cream into her coffee.

"You're the one that said you were okay with it."

"I never said that I was okay with it."

"Well, you never said that you weren't." She rolled her eyes making her nephew chuckle as he looked back down at his journal and started to sketch.

"I'm gonna give you credit where it's due. It's smart to bring a woman food especially if you think she may or may not be upset with you." She said reaching into the box to grab one of the small french almond cakes.

"Thank mom, she always said that one way to a woman's heart involved food." A small smile formed on his face but that smile soon turned into a frown as he looked up from his journal, "You were upset with me?"

"No, just worried that's all."

"Auntie, you don't have to worry. I'm gonna be fine."

"Jason said the same thing. I failed to protect him. I'm not gonna fail to protect you," She said as she walked around the kitchen island towards him, placing a hand on his back.

"I should be the one protecting you, not the other way around," He said looking her in the eyes. She said nothing but smiled at him and leaned down placing a loving kiss on his forehead.

"Ever since you were a little boy, you always wanted to help people. You have a good heart and sometimes people with good hearts end up hurt. I don't care what you can do, I'm still gonna make sure that I protect you." Her hand trailed up to his shoulder giving it a reassuring squeeze and a smile before she walked away leaving him there with a small smile on his face.

Cedric sat in the Legacy Foundations office sitting at a desk against the window on his laptop with his journal next to him. He was dressed in a pair of black chinos with a pair of suede Chelsea boots, and a white button-up with a red and black plaid sweater over the shirt. He had a pair of glasses on his face and a coffee cup from Starbucks next to his laptop.

"Just the man I wanted to see," Cedric heard making him look up to see Geoff walking towards him dressed in an elegant black 3-piece suit with a white button-up and grey and black striped tie. On his feet, he had a pair of expensive black Italian loafers.

Growing up Geoff always had to look good. In Geoff's eyes, if you looked good, you felt good. That's why a good portion of his closet growing up was suits, whether they be 2-piece or 3-piece. Hell, if he wanted to, he could've been a model but his brain was too damn big to allow him to do such a thing.

Geoff leaned up against the desk that Cedric sat at and looked at him with a smirk before saying "It's you, isn't it?".

"What?" Cedric quickly looked up with a confused frown on his face.

"You're The Blur."

"Shush!" Cedric said loudly still in a hushed tone as he looked around the room making sure that no one had heard that. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I just wanna know. Is it you or not?"

"You know you can't ask me that type of question in public. What if somebody would've heard you?"

"Oh please, we're two young, black men. For all they care, we're probably talking about playing basketball in Harlem after work or the Knicks making it to the playoffs."

"I feel like that was incredibly racist."

"It kinda was, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was."

"But anyway, back on the topic. Is it or is it not you?"

"It is."

"I knew it." Cedric shook his head chuckling.

"If you knew, then why'd you ask?" Cedric asked.

"Because I wanted to see if you'd trust me enough to tell me this time instead of letting me snoop around like last time to find out you're The Phantom."

"Were. And I'm sorry, I didn't tell you. It's not that I didn't trust you, it was something else. I wanted to protect you."

"I know, you told me," Geoff said as he looked at his best friend who looked down at his hands.

"You do this thing where you put the world on your shoulders, you put any and everyone else above you and you never let anybody in. You hold everything in. And you try to do this thing alone, you can't do it alone this time," Geoff lectured as Cedric sighed and stood up grabbing a hold of his things and his cup. As he started to walk away, Geoff followed him and continued talking.

"Let me help you."

"You can't."

"I can."

"Geoff, I can't put you in harm's way."

"Well, let me indirectly help you. You got a suit?"

"No, I don't need a suit."

"Come on, every hero needs a suit."

"Look, I'm no hero. I'm just lending a helping hand. And besides, suits earn attention. I'm not trying to get people's attention."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me," Cedric said with a frown as he stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his friend.

"That's bullshit. You've been leaving a logo all over the city. Every time you stop a crime, you leave that same logo. So don't lie to me and tell me that you don't want people's attention." Cedric sighed as he shook his head looking away momentarily.

"I do that for a reason. To let people know that someone's watching over them. That there's some hope in this dark world."

"Look," Geoff said as he placed a hand on Cedric's shoulder. "People need to see it to believe it. So if you want to instill hope in them, if you want to be that guardian angel for them, then you gotta come out of the shadows. It's the only way."

In a way, Geoff was right. In order to make sure that people knew that they had a hand to help, he had to make himself public. But he wasn't ready for that yet. Or was he?

"Look, Geoff, you want to help, I get it but I can't risk you losing your life. I already lost April. I can't lose you too," Cedric said as Geoff nodded with a smile on his face.

"Alright, give me about a couple of hours. I know a guy who can help. I'll have it ready by tonight." Geoff was about to walk away but Cedric said something before he walked away causing him to turn around and face him once more.

"Tonight's the Maverick Charity Gala."

"Well, it'll be on your bed when you get home."

"Alright but no capes." Geoff simply smirked and walked away.

"No promises!" Geoff shouted back making Cedric chuckle as he stood there shaking his head watching as Geoff walked away.

"The Man of Tomorrow" stood in an all-black suit looking on with a cold stare as he stood in an elevator with two bodyguards dressed in similar threads standing next to him. And as the elevator doors opened, Miles could see a man on both of his knees with zip ties on his wrist. Miles walked out of the elevator with his bodyguard following behind him.

"Mr. Johnson, I really wished you wouldn't have screwed with me. This is the third time Mr. Johnson. You're a special case, I usually don't let people screw with my money. After the first time, you're done but you, I let you make it, mostly out of pity. I didn't want your little girl to grow up without a father 'cause that hurts. Hurts like hell but you screwed up big time," Miles said as he took off his jacket, handing it to his bodyguard. He unbuttoned his shirt as well showing his well-toned body.

"Please, I'm sorry. I'll never cross you again. I'll find your money."

"Too late. Take his ties off," Miles ordered his men. They walked over to Mr. Johnson and dragged him up against his will while he pleaded against it. They took off his cuffs while he looked at Miles with fear in his eyes.

"Mr. Johnson, I'm gonna give you the chance. You beat me, you walk out of here alive and your debt is clear. But you lose, you die. The choice is yours, fight for your life or die like a pathetic weakling," Miles said as he put his fists up. Mr. Johnson shook his head looking on with a fearful frown but put his hands up walking towards Miles.

Johnson started to hopelessly swing at Miles as Miles ducked every single one seemingly easy. Like a well-experienced boxer, Miles caught Johnson with a left and right jab and right hook. Johnson started stumbling a bit as MIles walked towards him hitting him with a left hook before grabbing Johnson and hitting him with repeated shots to the gut but Johnson wasn't giving up and headbutted Miles making the billionaire back up a bit giving Johnson some breathing room.

"So he does fight back. I was starting to get a little bored."

Miles ran towards him angrily allowing Johnson to catch him with a right directly in the mouth. Miles put a hand up checking his lip for bleeding making him smirk. Miles walked back towards Johnson and waited for Johnson to go for a right allowing Miles to duck it and instead start to work on the abdomen before finishing up his offense with a right hook making Johnson drop down to a knee.

Miles reached into his back pocket and pulled out a black switchblade. As the blade popped out, you could see the silver blade had an outline of a purple gem-like texture. He walked over to Johnson standing behind him. He quickly slid the blade across the neck making Johnson gasp for air as blood started to seep out of his wound instantly. Johnson dropped down to the ground as he had his hand wrapped around his neck trying to stop the blood that leaked out profusely but it was no use. His throat was already slit.

"Clean this up," Miles said walking towards his bodyguards grabbing his shirt and jacket from them as they nodded walking towards the man he just murdered.

"Anything you find on him, you keep it. Buy yourselves some lunch," He said as he heard his phone start to go off in his pocket. He reached down into his pocket, grabbed his cellular device, and pulled it out to look at his screen. He sighed as he saw a message before he swiped left and started to dial a number.

"I told you don't text this number until you have something important."

"Mr. Maverick, we found something."

"What is it?"

"A crystal. It seems to be radiating a strange energy signature."

"Bring it to the Maverick Industries HQ tomorrow and I'll take a look at it when I can."

"Yes sir." Miles hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. He put on his shirt buttoning up the buttons as he walked to the elevator with a smirk on his face.

Cedric stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom changing into his formal attire for the evening. He was wearing a tailored black 3-piece suit with a white button-up shirt and a black and white polka dot tie and handkerchief in the pocket of his suit jacket. He had a black Italian leather belt and a pair of loafers.

"Well, look at you. Where you going looking like a bag of money?"

"I'm going to the Miles Maverick Gala tonight."

"How'd you get invited to that?" She asked as she placed her hand on his shoulders, seemingly soothing out the wrinkles on his jacket.

"Well, I am the one that's designing his tower, maybe that has something to do with it. But I'm gonna take this chance to network with some of the other 1-percenters."

"Smart choice. You taking anybody?"

"No, ma'am. I'm not. Why do you ask?" He said looking on with a puzzled frown.

"I just thought maybe you would've called Mikayla," Victoria walked towards her fridge and took out a half-drank bottle of Chardonnay. Cedric with a puzzled look on his face walked towards the kitchen island leaning up against the island and looking at his aunt.

"Why would I call Mikayla?"

"I saw the way you two looked at each other. The way you talked to her. That smile was on your face. She's single, you're single. Why not just go out?" Victoria walked towards her cabinets grabbing a glass for herself. She tried to pull the cork out but struggled to do so.

"It's not that simple," Cedric said as he grabbed the wine bottle from her and pulled the cork out with ease.

"Why not?" She asked, pouring her glass.

"Mikayla is a nice girl. She's beautiful. She's sweet and kind but I don't think she'll be able to accept me for who I am, what I am. I don't wanna-"

"Bring her into your world. End up mixing the lives of both Cedric Harvey and The Blur." She finished as he sighed and nodded his head. "I understand. Believe me, I do. But The Blur is a part of who you, Cedric, really are. Believe me, you don't want to go into this long journey of life, alone."

"But I'm not alone, I got you and mom." He said giving her a quick smile making her smile as she walked towards him and stepped up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Lock up when you leave. And let me know if some woman ends up capturing your attention for the night," She said walking out of the kitchen and to her bedroom leaving Cedric standing there at the kitchen island with a smirk on his face.

Cedric finally arrived at the venue for tonight's Charity Gala. He took a cab to get there. It was a 20-minute ride. He would've gotten there faster if he decided to use his speed, it would've been seconds. One of the perks of being able to run faster than the speed of sound.

Cedric looked around the room at some of the top 1-percenters and several others. He sighed before he walked further into the room.

It felt a bit uncomfortable to be in a room filled with people who if they wanted to could spend what he would make in 10 years, in one day. They had power in terms of money but Cedric had actual power and yet he still felt powerless. And speaking of power, the man who had organized this entire event stood dressed in a black designer suit with a blue button-up shirt and a black bow tie with black Italian leather shoes talking with a group of men wearing suits with a glass of champagne in his hands.

He kept his eyes on Miles as he walked on accidentally bumping into someone. That someone was an older caucasian male standing at about 5'10. He wore a gray suit with a black tie and had a hit of silver and blonde.

"Whoa, you should watch where you're going, pal. You might hurt somebody." The older man said.

"My apologies sir," Cedric said.

"It's fine. Alexander Pierce, Secretary of Defense." Mr. Pierce held out his hand offering a handshake to Cedric which Cedric quickly took to shake hands with the respected government official.

"Cedric Harvey, I'm an architect."

"I think I recognize some of your work, you designed the One Museum Park, didn't you?"

"Yes sir, I did."

"That was good. I like your work. So I'm gonna see if I can get my assistant to give you a call and we can set something up," Alex said right before he walked away. A huge grin found its way onto Cedric's face. That was a possible opportunity. A chance to work on a government contract and make a lot of money.

"I see you have already met Mr. Pierce," said the billionaire as he walked towards Cedric with his signature smirk on his face and two glasses of champagne in his hands.

"Yeah, I did. Thank you for this," Cedric replied as Miles simply nodded and handed him a glass of champagne.

"This is one of the luxuries of doing business with me. You get to expand your brand. I wanna make sure that once you're done working with me, you can work with anyone else in the world with no limits to your creativity. Pretty soon, you'll be running your own firm," The idea of running his own Architecture firm did sound pretty nice. It would give him a chance to be calling his own shots.

"I like the sound of that."

"Well then, let's toast to calling our own shots," Miles said, raising his glass to Cedric. Cedric grinned and lightly tapped his glass to his. Both men took a sip of their drink and continued to walk through the crowds of men and women.

So far, it had been about an hour and a half and for the most part, Cedric was doing a lot of networking. Miles was right, working with him had its benefits. And knowing plenty of rich people who would eventually need an architect was one of them. He finally decided that he would catch a break and grab a real drink at the bar.

Alcohol had no effect on him but it still made him feel human to be able to have a drink. He walked towards the bar and leaned up against the counter.

"Excuse me, sir. Can I get a scotch on the rocks?" He ordered as the bartender nodded and started to make his drink. He turned his head and saw a woman with curly red hair sitting at the bar with a red dress that seemed to give a brief glimpse of her cleavage. The dress had a small leg slit which seemed to show a small glimpse of her legs. She was a very beautiful lady from the side view.

She turned her head looking over her shoulder before taking a quick glimpse at Cedric looking him up and down with her forest green eyes. Eyes that could make any man weak at the knees just by looking at them. She gave him a friendly smirk and turned her head back to her drink.

She was a very beautiful lady. But currently, there were already too many options on the table. Mikayla and Skye, hell even Madison was on that list. All women that were worthy to date but there could only be one that would get his time.

"Thank you," He said as the bartender set the drink down in front of him. Luckily the bar was free so he had to pay for nothing.

He took a sip of his drink as he turned his head, seeing a blonde man in a suit with a turtleneck walking up to the redhead at the bar.

"Hey babe, how about you and I get out of here and grab some coffee," The guy said as he leaned up against the bar. Cedric chuckled, shaking his head as he grabbed his drink and started to walk away from the bar.

"No, thank you. I'm good," She replied.

"Come on, don't you wanna have some fun," He pleaded.

"No, I'm fine."

"I promise, I can show you a good ti-" He said as he reached his hand out to grab her hand but his hand was stopped when his wrist was gripped with a tight grasp. He turned his head to see Cedric standing beside him with a frown on his face.

"The lady said no. Now if you'd like a broken wrist, I can arrange that but if you don't then I suggest you move away, quickly and quietly," Cedric said as he tightened his grip making the guy groan feeling as if his bones were almost being crushed by a thousand-ton vehicle. Cedric loosened his grip and watched as the man walked away with his pride and ego utterly deflated.

"My hero," She said looking at Cedric with a smirk.

"Something tells me you really didn't need me to save you," He said as he looked into her eyes.

"I didn't but sometimes a girl likes to be saved," She said as she took a sip of her White Russian looking at him with sultry eyes.

"Well, I'll save you anytime you want. Just let me know."

"I will. Nancy Rushman," She said as she extended a hand.

"Cedric Harvey," He said as he took her hand and gently shook her hand. "Has anyone ever told you that you have nice eyes?" He asked, making her giggle as she nodded her head and took her hand from his grasp to grab her drink and take a sip.

"I have been told that before."

"You know they say the eyes are windows to the soul. You can tell a lot about someone just by looking in their eyes."

"Really?"

"Really."

"And what do my eyes say?"

"You suffered from a painful childhood because of that you're damaged," She smirked and chuckled as she rolled her eyes.

"I hope this isn't your usual flirtation technique."

"No, it's not. I'm not done yet," He grinned as he took a sip of his drink.

"Okay, continue," She smirked.

"You're damaged but you're not broken. You've been hurt a lot but despite all of that pain, you have a good soul." The smile that was on her face slowly faded away as he continued on with his explanation. "You want to help people and make the world better. You're scared to trust because you don't know how to trust. But something tells me with the right person all that can change."

"And you can tell all that by looking into my eyes?"

"Yes."

"Are you a shrink?" She asked, causing him to chuckle as he shook his head, denying her allegations. He placed his hands on top of the bartop.

"Stay here. I'm enjoying the company." She said as she placed a hand over his. A smile snaked its way onto his face as he took a seat next to her at the bar to continue his conversation.

A/N: So here I am with Chapter 3, took me a little while to get this one done. I introduced an Avenger in this chapter who Cedric will have a connection with throughout the story. If you don't like it then I suggest you read something else that you might enjoy. Also, the relationship between Miles and Cedric will eventually turn into what it's most popularly known later on in the story.

Chapter 4 will probably be a shorter chapter and it might come out this weekend. If not then within the next 2 weeks.

Later Guys and Gals!