"What is it?" The girl's voice was wary, filled with trepidation as she stared at the oscillating vortex of energy and the snow that fell lazily around it.

"I think it's a doorway." The man standing slightly behind her, taller than the average human and twice as broad, spoke with a calm confidence that managed to quell the girl's anxiety. At least somewhat.

"Where does it go?"

"I don't know. All I know is that it's been calling to me, ever since the day I was reborn." He preferred calling it that. Reborn. It implied that he was still somehow alive.

"You're going to go through it, aren't you? That's why you brought me here. To say goodbye."

"You were always a very perceptive young woman." A sad smile touched the man's lips, and he wrapped an arm around the girl to pull her close. "The longer I stay here the harder they'll look. They can't afford to let an asset like me run free. I've left clues that will lead them here, away from you and your mother, and if they follow me then so be it. At least you'll be safe." There was a pause and the girl wrapped her own arms around his waist. "Besides, it's not like they can kill me. The nazis gave it their best shot and barely even managed a scratch."

"Will you ever be back?"

"I don't know that either. Maybe. Or maybe this isn't a doorway at all and I'll just get sucked into nothingness."

"No! You can't die! I won't let you go!" She grabbed him tighter, as if her childlike strength could restrain muscles that had crushed armored vehicles. In all reality, he thought they probably could.

"It's alright. I'm sure this is a doorway."

"I don't want you to go."

"I don't want to go either, but as long as they think I'm still here, you and your mother won't ever be safe."

"You can protect us. No one can beat you."

"I've lost too many friends to believe that anymore. I have to leave." He turned and knelt down in front of her, pulling her into a tight hug, not wanting to ever let go again. He knew he had to, though, and set her back down several moments later.

"Take care of your mom."

Then he stood and strode through the snow to a woman standing next to a car. She was beautiful, this woman, though her eyes were marred by the glistening of unshed tears.

"I wish you didn't have to go."

"So do I. If there was any other way, I would take it."

"I love you."

"I know."

He stepped closer and pulled the woman into a kiss, then summoned all the willpower he had and let her go, turning to walk determinedly through the portal to he knew not where.

---

He was in a room. A very large room. Filled with arches that let to yet more rooms, along with arches that contained more swirling portals like the one he'd stepped out of. there was a figure seated on a throne at one end of the room, skeletal in nature but he could feel the energy pulsing from it. It did not stir, and he dared not draw its attention, so he moved quickly and quietly, selecting another doorway at random and stepping through.

---

The first thing that hit him was the cold. The chill permeated his skin and even touched the muscle, but failed to delve further into his body. Even so, it was the most pervasive cold he'd ever felt. The second thing hit him when he tried to draw a breath, and no air entered his lungs. His first thought was water, but there was none of that either. There was none of anything, in fact, and he thought for a moment he had finally found something that could kill him. Minutes passed, however, and nothing changed. The chill remained, the air did not return, and his body continued to function. He must be more powerful than he had first thought, to be independent of the need for air.

With the panic receding, he was free to turn his attention to his surroundings and was surprised to discover that he did not actually have surroundings. the only thing around him for miles was empty space. There was a planet not too far away, but to him it might as well have been unreachable. Until he got over the shock of being in space and remembered he could fly, at least.

Descending to the planet's surface provided him with one new revelation after another, seemingly without end. Beings that stood like humans yet possessed extra eyes of limbs or a variety of other features he had never thought could exist on a life-form, cars that could fly just as easily as he did, buildings that very nearly scraped the sky, and images that floated in midair without seeming to have any source. If he hadn't been who he was and seen what he'd seen, it might very well have been too much for him to take in.

His moment to take everything in and marvel at it passed quickly, however, as his eyes fell upon one dark void after another, each seemingly intent on eating away as much of the city as it could. He could feel these voids, somehow. It was an ache in his bones that told him of their wrongness, a sense of dread in the back of his mind that screamed at him to run. There was evil in those dark orbs, and for the first time in his life, he was not certain that he was prepared to face it.

But James White was not the kind of man to shy away from his duty, and ever since he was a boy, long before he'd been reborn, he'd made it his duty to help the innocent. Whoever was causing this had to be stopped.

To that end, James halted his descent above one of the larger orbs and stared directly into it, his eyes shifting colors from blue to dark red, then beginning to glow faintly, then brightly. Moments later, they erupted in beams of sickly red energy that lanced out at the center of the orb beneath him, dark energy cascading down to meet dark energy. He didn't know if the tactic would work, but something told him that physical force would be as much as useless, and this was his only other option.

Arkaeis - Avatar of the Living Abyss

Senses notified, Arkaeis moved none at all to locate the individual entering the planet's atmosphere. Following its progress as well as that of hundreds of other individuals, the avatar watched as the city reacted to the many expanding orbs. Smiling softly, Arkaeis turned to an area where the authorities were attempting to contain one of the constructs. It amused him to see that their stasis fields and multilayered barriers had little effect, only slowing the process till they too were engulfed by the destructive essence. Shaking his head and shifting his perception again he found his senses focused once more on the newcomer. "Hmmm?"

A slight look of confusion flashed across his features before his smile returned and his eyes deepened with interest.

The beam hit the orb, and a strange reaction occurred. The orb grew faster and then seemed to collapse inwards, imploding violently on itself and creating a brief atmospheric vacuum within several yards of its location. His smile became a smirk as he raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and called back around 50% of the other orbs, returning their energy to his form even while he moved to his top speed before decelerating almost instantaneously around twenty yards away from the one who had just managed to disrupt the balance of one of his many constructs. "Greetings," Arkaeis stated with smooth voice and serene expression, he appeared quite pleased to have come across the man. "I see you have so kindly assisted the Ryllans...interesting. I suppose you are not aware of their ways, I take it. Or are you aligned with them? It would be wonderful if you were of a considerable rank in their society. It'd make this encounter all the more meaningful...for me at least." His perception shifted, allowing him to view light as most humans do, in combination with electrical impulses and chemical shifts in his surroundings and those within it. Twitching slightly as he noticed the movement of the electromagnetic spectrum, energies, and other such occurrences in his surroundings. Thus he decided to filter this once more, removing such from his perception for the moment and simply viewing the interactions within James' body.

Ignoring the chemicals in the air and in those making up the surrounding structures, he observed with intense, but nigh undetectable, scrutiny the man who might become either ally or enemy at a moment's notice. In preparation for an attack of some kind, Arkaeis altered the polarity of his own skin, shifting it from a malleable interweave of solid-liquid state with a neutral polarity, to a negative polarity. As he did so, he gathered voidal energies beneath his skin, but above his equivalent of muscles, shifting it to a negative polarity as well and keeping it in its non-manifested state till it was necessary to manifest it in its more physicalized form. As such, he had prepared himself for defense if he were attacked, and as it did not seem that his opponent was armed, it would be to his advantage to prepare for combat of the direct melee variety.

Regardless of the man's decision and disposition, the interaction would prove to be interesting. Afterall, the man was infused with voidal essence...he could sense that much.

For a moment, he feared he'd made the problem worse. The sphere began to expand far more rapidly as his beams struck it, and he ceased their firing almost immediately. He did not wish to cause more harm than had already been caused.

Relief flooded through him moments later though as the sphere, apparently having been overloaded by his blast, began to rapidly shrink in on itself until nothing remained. It had worked. Now he just needed to apply the same technique to the spheres that remained. His eyes fastened on one several blocks away and he began to float in that direction, but stopped when it suddenly faded from existence. That one was most definitely not his doing. Unless... Maybe each sphere was a separate entity, some part of a greater whole, and it had receded when it sensed the threat to itself. It was a plausible theory, as far as he knew of these matters. Which admittedly wasn't much.

Then the man rushed up to his left, moving at a speed that would have entirely eluded the eye of a human. Impressive. A second theory began to form in his mind as the man spoke in some language he had never heard before. He was either one of this world's police officers, or the source of the orbs that had been eating away at the city. Given the nature of his dress and weaponry and the aura of dread that rolled off of him, a hundred times stronger than what he had felt from the orbs, James could pretty easily conclude that he was the latter. No harm in being sure though. He just hoped the guy spoke English as well as whatever gibberish he was uttering now.

"Is this your doing?" He gestured to the chaos below, hoping that if the man didn't speak English it would be enough to get his point across.

Arkaeis - Avatar of the Living Abyss

Tilting his head slightly as the man spoke, seeming to not have understood him from before, Arkaeis nodded simply and then quickly switched gears. This man spoke english, rather than theAngar-Ryllan that Arkaeis had recently adapted, "Yes, you could say that," he said, now in English. He would speak in this language till further notice, it seemed the man would at least understand that. "It was not out of a wish to destroy, despite the very nature of the energy," he stated, glancing to his right at a cowering Ryllan. "While I cannot choose whom it does and does not effect, I can keep the energy from nearing those who I mean no harm, such as most of these citizens." He then turned back to James and tilted his head once more, noticing the man's strange, but all too familiar, energetic make-up as he looked at him again. "Afterall, it is not the Citizens of Angar-Rylla who I wish to quell, it is their leaders that have offset the balance," while his words could be perceived as hostile, he said them with smooth tone and calm features, as if they held no negative intent at all, for to him they did not. Curious, Arkaeis looked deeper into the man's biological make-up, noticing that it was hardly biological at all. He appeared human on the surface, but below he was something else. A much more powerful, durable material made up most of his body, and it all appeared to be powered by the same force that Arkaeis himself controlled: Void, or Nether, as some called it.

This intrigued him, but he would not yet make it known that he was aware of what the man was. Afterall, he was still unsure as to his intentions. If the man decided to attack before he finished any of his actions, he would react rather than continue them.

Good, the man spoke English. Though it seemed he had nothing good to say. He was here to restore balance of some kind, which could mean everything from revenge to intergalactic cop. Heh. Intergalactic. There's a word he never thought he'd be using. Come to think of it... Where did he even learn that word?

He'd have to figure that out later. Right now the man in front of him was still threatening the lives and livelihoods of the citizens in this city, and even though the tone of his voice indicated that this wasn't about revenge, it was still a volatile situation that had to be resolved before his orbs began eating people in their homes, whether he intended them to or not. "Disperse the rest of your spheres and leave, or I'll have to do it for you." Only problem was, he'd have to take out the man himself before going after the spheres, otherwise he could just make more. He ignored the sense of dread building in his bones as he stared across the twenty yard distance between them, and really hoped that instinct was wrong this time.

Arkaeis - Avatar of the Living Abyss

In response to the man's words, Arkaeis smiled and then shook his head, eyes closing for but a moment before opening once more, though the action impeded his sight not at all. "The other spheres are of little consequence, and I have no intention of removing them until I have attracted the attention of those who have disrupted the balance." Raising his right hand and letting his feet touch the surface of a building, Arkaeis manifested another of the orbs. "The citizens are in little danger, it is this people's hierarchy that should worry," he stated with the same smile, though a dark shine briefly passed over his pitch black, colorless eyes. He noted the man's posture and general demeanor. He seemed on edge, though that was hardly surprising, and as such Arkaeis did little other with the sphere which floated above his palm 'cept allow its form to shift and flow roughly in place. He would stay like this till otherwise necessary, likely depending on if the man decided to be hostile, which it appeared he would rather soon.

His eyes narrowed and his breath caught as the new orb manifested, his body tensing and preparing for an attack that didn't come. He floated down to the roof that the other man now stood upon, landing softly in spite of his mass. "Their lives may be safe from your orbs." The man spoke the truth about that much, at least. James' senses told him there had been no loss of life below, so far at least. "But what of their livelihoods? How are they to live when your orbs have eaten away their homes and jobs? You may be powerful, but I doubt even you can predict every eventuality, every building that will collapse due to your meddling and crush the innocent beneath a mountain of debris. There must be an end to this."

Without any further ado, James burst forward too fast for any human eye to follow, gripping a protruding antenna not more than two meters from where he first stood and hurling it directly toward the other man's shoulder, the one that connected the arm holding the orb to the rest of his body, with all the speed of a sniper's bullet. The man had to be stopped, but James was not yet willing to kill him.

Arkaeis - Avatar of the Living Abyss

His observation, as it always had, paid off quite nicely for moments before movement the man's muscles tensed, before releasing. Energy was transferred and Arkaeis' orb began expanding at roughly the same speed that James began moving, and just a millisecond beforehand. The man's trajectory, not to mention the shifting positions of his bodily movements, were followed, noted and adapted to at tremendous speeds.

Thus, the moment James' proximity to the antenna belied an obvious result, Arkaeis needed only to predict and adjust accordingly. The man had, prior, glanced at the orb in his hand, and had briefly reacted as if he'd have to defend against an attack, one that had not come. The man had not made any effort, or shown any sign, that he intended on killing him, and Arkaeis was noting the position of his body as he readied himself to throw the antenna. To him it was all rather telegraphed, even if only minimally so.

Thus, the moment that James' body was in position to throw, the sphere coated Arkaeis' hand and forearm in layers of repelling voidal energy, obviously charged negatively. It had manifested in this polarity and liquid state, so there was no need to alter it immediately. He waited till the makeshift spear had traveled approximately 1/4th of the distance it was meant to till he turned his body sideways, his right arm still shrouded in void. Due to the speed of the antenna it would reach just before where his shoulder would've been moments before just as his hand slid into position, allowing the metal pole to slide right through his fingers. The void's repulsion would move opposite to the direction that the antenna was moving, slowing it greatly till Arkaeis' hand made direct contact with it, stopping it in its tracks even as the polarity reversed, becoming attractive.

Thus the antenna was stopped dead with Arkaeis' hand directly in the middle of its length, the attack neutralized completely. Tilting his head slightly, Arkaeis' smile dipped somewhat, his expression becoming a modicum more serious as he considered how to proceed. "That was not intended to be a killing blow," he stated bluntly, as if to make it just slightly more apparent how far he was capable to read into people's actions and reactions. "I think you greatly underestimate my ability to prepare for a myriad of possibilities, now, if you intend to impede me further, then I must inquire upon you name. Of course, to be polite I will tell you mine first." He made no movement beyond what he had done to stop the antenna, with the exception being that he appeared to relax slightly, not that he had been all that tense throughout. "I am Arkaeis, and you?" Should James make another move, Arkaeis would react as needed, but for the moment he would observe.

He didn't wait for the other man to finish his defense. He watched his movements just as closely as Arkaeis watched his own, and what his movements revealed was telling. He was fast, for sure, but not as fast as James could be. He watched his eyes, waited until his attention was on the antenna he was catching rather than the man that had thrown it. It was a foolish mistake to assume there would be no follow-up, to leave yourself unprepared for a second defense. He burst forward and covered the distance between them in an instant, while Arkaeis was still focused on the spear, and his right fist drove toward the man's unprotected left side at the same instant the polarity of the void around the spear would be shifting. The blow carried only a fraction of James' full strength, but would be far more than enough to pulverize a granite boulder into little more than dust, which did not bode well for the health of its target should it land.

Arkaeis - Avatar of the Living Abyss

If he could have sighed, he would have, for it seemed that all those who had ever faced him always presumed that he paid no attention to that which he was not initially doing. As his opponent moved, his left palm shifted so it aimed downwards and backwards slightly, releasing a pulse of negatively charged void even as the rest of his body released a small amount of void over the entirety of its surface, coating his skin in negatively charged energies. This would slow the movement of James' fist whereas the pulse from his left hand would offset the trajectory, pushing the fist downwards and back, just so much so that it would not hit his body at all. The repelling force on his back would further offset the trajectory of the man's fist. If this were successful, Arkaeis would vanish, reappearing 8 yards away, standing sideways, the antenna appearing to be inhand. In actuality it was levitating, but from James' position at the time, that would not be apparent due to Arkaeis' body blocking it partially from his view.

He is certainly faster than me, but he made an assumption that I had shifted my focus, Arkaeis chuckled at this thought slightly, though a smile played across his features only briefly before it was replaced by a cold seriousness. "Well?

James hadn't paused to wait for the other man to recover the last time he'd attacked, why would he do so now? It would be a tactically disastrous move. Once you went on the offensive, you kept your momentum going or you lost. The germans had learned that the hard way in Russia. Something deep inside the soldier told him that he couldn't let this man have a moment's respite, couldn't let him gather his energies for a concerted assault. Perhaps it was a remnant of that feeling of dread that still lingered in his chest, or perhaps his senses were telling him something his mind couldn't quite decipher yet, either way, this was not the time to pause for conversation.

He followed the other man yard-for-yard as he darted away, never letting the distance between them grow to more than a few feet. When the other man stopped, James didn't, his left fist hurtling toward the front left side of the other man's ribcage, his forward momentum compounding the force of the blow and giving it more than enough power to break through another defense like the one the man had demonstrated less than a second ago.