Victor pored over the file again, peeking through the window at the setting of the sun. Once night fell, he would patrol the city in person, monitoring for strange power sightings, then report to Hala on inhumans he thought would make excellent recruits to her army. Besides Dante.

Victor scrolled through the tablet, studying the camera shots. The news reports of Dante's damaged home in Illinois. The picture in the park at the far side of Jersey where Victor first found him, eyes dark red. The images from the motorcycle incident, the sweep of flame from wide palms searing the gas pipe that sent the whole street up in an explosion.

"You fool," Victor muttered. "You're making a mess out of everything."

He shoved the tablet into the drawer and marched from the bedroom. He turned out the lights in the empty living room, checked the glinting kree blade jammed under the door handle, there in case anyone came trying to break in.

Clasping his hands together, he opened a violet portal beneath his feet into the void. He sunk slowly, his boots and armor and fingers wreathed in black-violet light.

The void ran cool against his skin. Submerging completely, he exhaled and spread his fingers. He had no need to breathe here (though technically he could), just flow, just move and exist as spaceless void. No sound, no light but a steady violet encompassed him.

The physical world ran adjacent to this, each location between void and physical world tethered perfectly. Permanent objects in the physical world had their reflections here, like shadows, only instead of something visible, Victor interpreted them as looming pressures, vague awarenesses. And here, where no one could disturb him, Victor's powers let him travel at near-instantaneous speeds.

Victor sped across the city, rising from the void in the shadow of an electricity tower planted on a rooftop. He trod to the edge of the gravelly roof, peering into the street below. Only muted cars and flashing yellow lights met him.

The communicator in his ear buzzed. He stepped back, receding into the power pole's criss-crossed shadows.

"What?" he asked.

The communicator projected images into the gravel. But Victor just squinted at the broken, choppy pictures on the uneven surface. "Right now?" he glared. Linked to the network back in his room, the communicator was only supposed to send urgent updates on his primary target. Aka, Dante.

Victor crept to the roof access stairwell, boots cutting through the glowing images and words streaming from his earpiece. As he drew closer, the projection slid up the brick wall like a flashlight beam, images becoming clear on the flat surface. Victor's jaw hardened.

Thief at a convenience store, fleeing with armfuls of waters and sodas; he had olive skin, combat boots, and his hands glowed suspiciously. Victor crossed his arms. It could only be Dante Pertuz.

Victor tapped the communicator, shutting the images off. He descended into the void again, speeding to the sighting.

***

Night. Ripe with shadows, the streetlights like jail wardens, watching over skyscraper silhouettes slicing the sidewalk. Whizzing headlights sent accomplices of black fleeing to the alleyways. Victor peered down from the rooftops, warden to the wardens, hunting for the telltale glow of an untrained inhuman with fire powers fleeing the scene of a crime.

He orbited the neon lights of the robbed store, portaling from rooftop to rooftop. He bent over a brick ledge, studying the street below. Then he sunk through the void, surfacing again to crouch on a concrete landing, squinting through street lamps for an orange fire glow.

Atop a roof littered with decaying bird nests, Victor spotted a fire, straying into an alley, bobbing as if at sea. Victor grinned. If Dante wanted to hide, he should've stayed out of the shadows.

Victor submerged into the void, sinking rapidly, speeding down the street, then re-emerged outside the alley. "Hey Dante," he called, stepping from the black-violet portal onto the sidewalk. "It's Victor. I can see your fire down there."

The fire flickered out.

"I could've ambushed you, but I didn't," Victor stepped into the shadows carefully, hands lifted. "Because I wanted to talk."

Plastic thunked to the pavement, a water bottle rolling into view. "Why don't you leave me alone?" Dante's growl echoed. "I already told you I want nothing to do with you. No way."

"So you'd rather steal and run from the law? What kind of life is that?"

"What kind of life is forcibly being part of something I don't want? Is your life any better than mine?"

Victor chuckled. "I don't have to steal water and run away into alleys," he nudged the water bottle with his foot, rolling it back toward the shadows of Dante's voice. "I've got fancy tech, and a spaceship, and I serve one of the most powerful people in the galaxy who helps planets like earth. Helps people like you. What's not to love?" he spread his arms wide.

"The outrageous lies, that's what," Dante hissed. "I see what you did to my planet, all the inhumans popping up and fighting each other and creating problems. We didn't want you and we certainly didn't need you. Go tell your galaxy boss to leave me alone, go ask someone who actually wants it," he snorted. "Though you'll only get the fools who actually believe your lies. Helping planets."

"We do! We save them by awakening their gifts! Who wouldn't want this?" from the shadow, he created a curved shield.

"You abduct anyone with those gifts, which they didn't want, and force them to join you. Then what? Do you go to the next planet and ruin people's perfectly happy lives in the name of special gifts?"

Victor frowned. "Hala has a bigger purpose for us. Obviously."

"Oh? What?"

"None of your business," Victor growled, stepping forward.

"Stay back," red-orange light illuminated the alley. Dante's form flickered amidst the jagged shadows, his bundle of waters and sodas and chip bags now against the wall. His bare hands blazed red. "I'm telling you," his eyes narrowed, "if you don't leave me alone..."

Victor shook his head. "I can't. You're my primary target, and if I don't come back with you, I'll be punished."

"Oh, you're really convincing me to join you now!" Dante's glowing hands curled into fists and he danced sideways.

"I won't regret this," Victor formed a glittering black sword from the shadow to his right, the brick wall blurring briefly violet. "You're coming with me, either way."

"No, I'm not!" Jets of fire erupted from Dante's fists.

Victor ducked behind his shield, bracing himself against the force of the blast. From the night-dark alley floor he formed a wide disc, and kicked it toward Dante. It collided with his shins and Dante gasped in pain, flames puffing out.

Victor charged forward, raising his shadowblade in the dark. Roaring, he cut through fire that pulsed out of Dante's hands, the light eating away at the weapon, gradually eroding the weapon to nothing. But for each sword that vanished, Victor formed a new blade from the shadows, pressing closer and closer to Dante, cutting through the unyielding assault of flames.

Dante's heel kicked the alley wall and he faltered. Victor swept in, swinging his shield at Dante's side. Eyes darted toward the movement and Dante lifted his hands to sprout flames--but too slow; Victor's shield hammered Dante in the temple, flinging him into the brick wall.

Dante slumped to the ground, eyelids fluttering. His skidding boot tipped a can of soda, rolling it tinnily toward the sidewalk.

Victor dispersed his weapons, panting for air. Crouching, he carefully touching the bruise forming on Dante's temple.

He winced, pulling his hand back from the oversized lump. "The spaceship's got good healing tech," he told the unconscious Dante. "They'll fix that up no problem," he rose to his feet, slowly summoning the void. "You'll like the alien army, trust me. Maybe one day you'll even end up my equal."

***

Here's your friendly little reminder that good kree soldiers don't disobey Hala by skipping the vote button...