The Boy Who Could Fly

[Deleted]

It had taken some time to get everything organized together, but Vincent was excited to actually be going out on a patrol. This was by far not saying he was joining the Titans for sure. Vincent was just curious what this whole thing was about, and who better to show him than Kaie? Well maybe there was someone better suited to showing him how all of this was done. He might end up being too distracted by her to really do any good, but that was only if some problem actually came up for them to deal with. There was no telling what would happen in this city though.

The nearby waters were calm as Vincent stood on one of the piers. Vincent had wanted to finish Kaie's shield by now, and he would have if he had not been distracted by other things. Another week or two and the shield would be finished though. The majority of the pieces were already made, and then Vincent would just need to put it all together. He would the finish it up with some enchantments to fit the giantess. It was going to be awesome.

At first he had not been sure what to wear to this whole thing, and Vincent had settled on the whole outfit. He remembered that thing about secret identities after all. There was no one around to see him, so Vincent had the hood pulled back at least. This way Kaie would be able to recognize him even though she had already seen the outfit before. That and they had agreed to meet out here on the pier. Something about thieves hitting the warehouses, so this would be a good place to patrol. He was not sure about the details. Vincent simply watched the waters as he waited for the giantess to show up.

[Gaunt]

This sure was a treat. Kaie was finally going to patrol with Vincent! Pretty standard patrol around the docks, but this was with Vincent so it was bound to be fun. She made sure to get ready as early as she could, rushing home to get changed after school. Homework could wait, she had a date.

Freshly outfitted in her new super suit, Kaie headed for the rendezvous point. She was feeling pretty confident about all this. She'd been supering for a little while now, she could show Vincent the ropes. Besides, she couldn't wait to see how Vincent liked her costume. His reactions were always priceless, and the costume was pretty great. Kaie was one of the few supers who didn't bother with a mask, or a secret identity for that matter. The costume was simple enough; a white bodysuit with ice-blue gloves and boots, and a matching emblem of a cracked mountain on her chest. She liked to think she wore it well.

Vincent was already waiting by the time Kaie arrived. He must have gotten there a bit early. She quickened her pace, waving to him. "Hey there!" The giantess was smiling ear to ear. Vincent's hood was down, and he looked rather dashing in that new outfit of his. "Lookin good! Ye got a super name yet?" It probably wouldn't do to be calling him Vincent on patrol. They had to observe some kind of protocol, after all.

[Deleted]

Vincent had started to lose himself in the silence of the waters before him. There was just something about it that was calming him. Maybe it was the vast emptiness or the soothing sound. Whatever the reason was, Vincent welcomed it for the few moments it lasted. The feeling went away when something else came up in Vincent's mind. It was almost as if he felt Kaie show up before he actually heard her. Vincent was already turning around to see the giantess coming towards him when she greeted him.

Her super hero outfit was not what Vincent was expecting. She looked a lot like those wrestlers he had seen on tv, and Vincent had to admit she looked good. The symbol on her chest was very fitting considering her abilities. Fortunately Vincent had already seen her in a bikini, so the bodysuit was not going to throw him off. That feeling quickly subsided.

He grinned up at her when she said he was looking good. "You're looking pretty fantastic yourself," he replied. "Not really sure about a name at the moment... so let's just go with V," he added. Vincent had totally forgotten about the whole superhero name thing. Hopefully they could come up with something later on. Although V did sound pretty cool now that he thought about it if only it was not so obvious.

"So what do we do first?"

[Gaunt]

"Aw, thanks." She grinned at him, blushing slightly. Not that this was a surprise, she knew he liked how she looked, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy hearing it again. Or whenever he wanted to mention it really. Most comments about Kaie's appearance began and ended with "You're huge!" so it was a nice change of pace to hear that she looked great.

Vincent calling himself V got Kaie's mind going to some very copyright-infringing places. No mistake, it was a cool name, but it conjured up more of an anarchist image. And one that sounds like Agent Smith. She wasn't sure quite what to think of it. "Sure, that could do for now. We gotta brainstorm a real stand-out name later though, okay?" Kaie gave him a thumbs up.

"Now, we just walk around, lookin and listenin for baddies. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Kaie started strolling, keeping an easy pace. She wasn't sure how quick Vincent was, and she could easily outpace most humans. She didn't want to tucker him out just keeping up with her, how would he fight baddies then? "Docks can be pretty interestin I hear." She looked down to Vincent, tapping her shoulder. "Say, wanna ride?"

[Deleted]

It was not a name Vincent wanted to stick with, but it was all he could think of for now. Using the first letter of his name was not the smartest idea if he actually started having a life out there. For now it was okay since his name was not registered anywhere. Vincent didn't even know anything about registration for anything anyways. That would come later. Vincent simply nodded at her idea of brainstorming a name later on. Kaie could definitely come up with something better.

"Sounds easy enough," Vincent said as he started walking after Kaie and realizing her steps covered quite a bit distance very quickly. He could float to keep up with her or just continue teleporting, but that would drain a lot of energy. Vincent could not afford to waste energy like that since he was not sure how much energy maintaining his outfit was costing him at the moment. All of this was to test his limits. So Kaie's idea of riding her was the best thing ever.

"Of course!" Vincent said with a grin before he appeared standing on her shoulder. He leaned as he lost his balance but quickly regained it. Vincent moved closer to her head and placed his hand on her hair just in case he lost his balance again. "I'm good now," Vinceint said as the hood came up to hide his features and his voice immediately became distorted. His hand lowered onto her neck as he felt he could keep himself upright after she started to move, and he managed to do so.

"Doesn't seem like anything's happen right now though...," Vincent said as he looked around while Kaie walked. Those reports of warehouse thieves may have been off. Or maybe the sight of a giantess had scared them off. Vincent would prefer to think of that one and grinned underneath his hood.

[Gaunt]

Vincent's teleportation was different from the movies. Well, medium-high budget movies anyway. The cheap ones could use a jump cut, but most movies were flashier about it. Vincent just sort of appeared. Kaie liked it, it was nice and sneaky. Made a good contrast to her, the giant could get everyone's attention while Vincent silently teleported around to handle baddies. Oh, this was exciting! Not five minutes patrolling together and she was already coming up with strategies!

V got settled on her shoulder, his voice shifting. Kaie still couldn't get over how cool that was. Magic was so useful, able to do all sorts of things. Not like her boring old brute strength, only good for bashing. She would have to try to learn some sometime. "Ye comfy there?" she asked. He was sitting on her shoulder, hand on her neck. It felt a little weird, but it was a good weird.

The giantess laughed a little at his comment. "Yeah, my patrols are usually quiet. I ain't exactly hard ta see, and most crooks want nothin to do wi' me. I'm more deterrent than crimefighter most nights." It kind of sucked, as far as Kaie was concerned. She wanted to have some good scraps, like she'd had with Cinderblock. It was no fun just wandering around waiting for nothing to happen, but at least she had good company this time.

[Deleted]

If Vincent had any idea of what Kaie was thinking about, he would have told her how awesome her power was as well. Vincent could not do anything without his power in this world. All of her abilities were always there. No running out of energy and being unable to do anything. Running out of energy would always worry him in the back of his mind. Kaie would simply have to watch out not to step on people. A bit easier in his opinion.

"I am indeed," Vincent replied to being comfortable. Kaie was soft, but he was not going to say that right now. He had already told her before anyways. The two had learned quite a bit about each other when they connected at the beach, and Vincent made sure to keep his thoughts away from that. This was serious patrol business.

"Hmmm... what if we make it impossible for them to see you?" Vincent questioned as the gears began turning in his head. As much as Vincent was enjoying riding around on Kaie's shoulder, they were here to be heroes. If the opposition merely ran, that was no fun for Vincent. "Let's try this...," Vincent said as he focused. A warm energy flowed through him and then into Kaie. However, they were not connected like last time. Vincent was not going to risk that tonight. The energy would fill them both out before spreading out and making them vanish from sight.

"Now no one can see us. Just gotta be quiet," Vincent whispered to her.

[Gaunt]

Kaie let out a little laugh. Vincent was making himself at home sitting on her shoulder, and he was being so dashing the whole time. She loved the way he talked, all classy and gentlemanly. It was kinda cool, like a classic hero. The whole time displacement thing had a few perks like that.

"Ye can really do that?" Kaie was pretty hype about being invisible. Finally, she was going to have one of the cool powers! Sure, she couldn't keep it and she was too big to use it to its full potential, but still that was fairly baller. She smiled ear to ear, giving him the thumbs up. "Go fer it!" All sorts of possibilities were opening up to her.

Kaie let out a squee as they faded out of sight. One would think that after having the reaction of "This is so cool!" so many times in the last month or so the novelty would have worn off, but it never did. The giantess held up a hand, looking through it. "This is great!" She took a step, trying to tread lightly. Her footfalls were still loud as hell, but at least they couldn't see her coming now. "I gotta ask Cy about somethin ta quiet me footsteps. I sound like a herd o' elephants."

[Deleted]

Vincent smiled underneath that hood of his as he saw how excited Kaie was now that the two of them were invisible to the human eye. He doubted they would be running into anything that was not human out here anyways. The rumors had only been about robbers. Besides, it was not like Vincent to take every little thing into consideration. He was only out here to see just how patrolling worked and to spend some more time with Kaie. Mainly the spending time with Kaie thing. Of course, Vincent would never tell that to any of the other Titans if they asked. This was serious business they were on.

"Hmm... I remember hearing something about some sound cancelling shoes or something like that.... Supposed to make your steps all quiet and stuff.... Maybe he will know more about that and know a way so you could use it," Vincent said as he recalled the various commercials that had played through in the common room. Aside from that he had no idea what they could possibly use.

"I could suggest some more magic... but it's best not to rely on it too much for everything. Wouldn't want to run out of power before we even run into anything," he added. The possibilities were endless as long as Vincent could imagine it. The problem was his energy was limitless, and he did not have full control over it anyways. He was using more energy than he needed for the invisibility, but he had no idea of those limits. All that knowledge was locked away along with his memories.

"I wonder what we'll run into out here...." Vincent said as he started looking around again. Part of him wanted them to run into something and part of him was worried they would screw things up.

[Gaunt]

It had been a while since Gaunt had the chance to go out solo. It was nice, doing his own thing again. His last decent field mission had been years ago, before the whole LA debacle. He was almost feeling young again, getting out in the field like this. The vampire slipped out of a warehouse, pocketing the thumb drive. He'd gotten what he needed. He ducked around the corner, getting out of sight of the cameras before turning visible in a puff of odorless smoke.

The mission had been a great success so far, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. No, that wasn't quite right. He could shake, and was at that moment. Something very big was moving around nearby. His pointed ears twitched, searching for the source of the noise. He looked around, but he couldn't see anything big enough to make the sound. Gaunt started running through the possibilities in his head. There were a lot of big supers out there, but none operating in Jump were known for invisibility. It seemed like a pointless ability if you couldn't muffle your footsteps too. At least Gaunt was quiet, he was a pretty lightweight guy. For a juggernaut like the one taking those steps, it was useless.

Gaunt shimmered out of sight, trying to hide from the approaching super. Hopefully he hadn't been spotted before that, anything that size could destroy the whole area in order to kill him. He kept low to the ground, trying to slip away unnoticed. This could get really ugly.

[Gaunt]

"Yeah, that sounds about right!" Kaie smiled broadly. Vincent was onto something here. She'd have to look into adding those into her costume, maybe they could even help avoid collateral damage if the padding was good enough. She hadn't had to cut loose yet, but there was a lot of potential for wreckage if she did. Kaie wanted that potential to be as small as possible.

Kaie nodded as wisely as she could when Vincent made his comment about magic. That she could understand. She couldn't really play a lot of video games with hands as big as hers, but she had Youtube. She knew how mages and mana and all that stuff worked. Kaie wondered if they could figure out some sort of potion to restock his powers when they ran out, that would be pretty cool. She'd have to ask Raven sometime, the gray Titan knew a lot about magic things.

She was about to respond to her partner's comment about their patrol, but something caught her eye. As if on cue, she saw a suspicious figure creeping out of a building. "Hey, look!" she whispered to Vincent. Within seconds, the figure shimmered and faded out of sight. She hadn't even gotten a good look at it yet. "Say, got any stuff to get rid of invisibility?"

[Deleted]

Part of Vincent's attention was still distracted by the mere fact Kaie was there with him. He would have certainly been more alert if he was by himself. Then he could spot every little detail that came up and be fascinated about it. There was nothing he could do about the fact Kaie was a constant distraction, but at the very least he was not completely distracted. Hormones were just difficult to ignore.

So it was no surprise when Kaie spotted something as Vincent had been looking over the waters again. His gaze shifted forward as the giantess pointed something out to him. Vincent saw absolutely nothing where someone had just shifted out of sight. Good thing Kaie had noticed it, but now she was asking to get rid of invisibility.

"I can try... I'm just not sure how ours will hold up. Casting two opposite spells like that is hard," Vincent said as he focused his energy in the palm of his hand. A silver light started to glow from the skin on his hand as the energy gathered. A few more seconds and Vincent released the energy. The wave rolled out silently and immediately dispersed their invisibility. It had been expected, and fortunately the wave spread out at a high speed to cover all the area around them. Now Vincent waited to see if the energy would unveil anything or anyone.

[Gaunt]

"Oh, hell." Gaunt could hear them talking, and he picked up the pace. When the second voice said it could dispel the invisibility, he broke out in a run. He had to be out of there fast. He didn't want a fight. Gaunt recognized one of the voices, it was that new Titan who'd been introduced lately. Some dim Irish girl called Rumble. That certainly explained the rumbling, the girl was huge. There was something familiar about the male voice, but he couldn't quite place it.

The wave of magic washed over him, disrupting his powers. He had expected the invisibility to go, but it was worse than that. Gaunt appeared in a puff of smoke, collapsing to the ground. He took his first real breath in ten years as his vampiric abilities flickered out for a few seconds. Unused to breathing normally, Gaunt doubled over, coughing uncontrollably. He felt weak, even weaker than he did during the daylight hours.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was gone. Gaunt's powers returned to him, and he dragged himself to his feet. The Nosferatu turned to face the heroes, glaring up at them. "Do you mind?" With any luck, the show of weakness would catch them off guard. Too many super-criminals immediately jumped into fights when confronted. Gaunt much preferred to baffle or bluff his way out of trouble.

[Gaunt]

Kaie felt the magic sweep over her, and she shimmered back into sight. "Whoa that's cool." She was still getting used to this magic stuff, and it would pretty much never not be awesome. The giantess got a big smile on her face, giving Vincent a thumbs up. She could see that the magic had worked as intended, showing the invisible man.

Then the man collapsed and things got awkward. Kaie shot Vincent a nervous look. "Say, V, there weren't anything else in that, was there?" She was starting to get a little worried. The guy didn't look like he was in great health, and falling into a coughing heap was rarely a good sign. She approached gingerly, kneeling down to look at the guy. He was a meta, all right. The whitish-gray skin and pointed ears were proof enough of that. "You okay there?"

Kaie recoiled a bit when the man snapped at her, nearly tipping over backwards. She barely caught herself before knocking Vincent off. "Sorry!" Her brain was still catching up to what was going on. She'd gone from suspicious to triumphant to worried to startled in record time. Even without a monstery-looking fella shouting at her it was a lot to take in.

[Deleted]

Vincent had not been expecting whoever was there to fall over as the silver wave of energy passed through them. It was supposed to have been a harmless wave to counter the magic that was causing the invisibility. Making it so it focused on only invisibility would have been too much of a strain on Vincent. Fortunately the person's weakened appearance quickly vanished as it pulled itself up.

"No... it was just supposed to cancel out magic...," Vincent explained to her as he kept his gaze on the person. Slowly Vincent was connecting the dots of his anti-magic wave and the reaction of the person until Kaie suddenly shot back and Vincent found himself falling. His reflexes kicked in and Vincent floated down to the ground harmlessly. However, now he was standing much closer to the person they had revealed.

Vincent's eyes locked onto the person through his hood as he felt something stir inside of him. The person seemed very familiar, but Vincent could not place his finger on it. Letting his instincts take over, Vincent suddenly rose his hand as a sword materialized into it and was pointed at the strange person. "Who are you and what are you doing around here?" Vincent suddenly demanded to know. If Gaunt's memory served him well, he would easily recognize the blade Vincent had just materialized. It was the only blade Vincent ever used after all.