The sun will come out tomorrow may sound like a trite response to the ills of the world but it is a true statement. Even a world on the cusp of permanent change, or a world gripped by disaster is not frozen in time. That was a lesson that Nathan had learned long ago, but it was something he remembered when he finally began to settle into a sort of routine in the wake of the eventful first days of his life as a superhero.
The young man spent his days practicing his potent powers, using them to keep the city of Tegucigalpa safe from crimes, all while slowly but surely expanding his potent superpowered arsenal. One of his clones did mundane things such as going to class and doing his homework, while the young man himself spent time either in the city or in the Sanctuary.
During this weird period of transition in the man's life, he would carefully and thoughtfully expand his influence. He would deeply influence Jorge and the man's parents, and they would begin a small cult devoted to "Idros", a cult that focused primarily on attracting people by healing them and by performing acts of public service. A month after he started the cult, Nathan had only managed to attract a handful of people to it, many of whom were people who had terminal illnesses and who had been healed by Nathan's direct influence, including the people Nathan healed through Jorge.
The strangest change to occur to the city of Tegucigalpa was the sudden and noticeable collapse of the city's organized criminal underbelly. During the month-long period in which the young hero was adjusting to his new reality, he took an aggressive stance against the city's criminals, confronting them openly and violently, and tearing apart the criminal organizations that once ran entire neighborhoods. He confronted and defeated gangsters, corrupt politicians, and even notorious drug traffickers who sought to control the city. And in doing so he grew in power and even hit an important milestone.
During the month the young hero managed to successfully purchase every single power that was classified as a "Tier One" power from each of the power sets that lurked within him. This gave him an incredible versatility that itself made both training his powers and also protecting his home far easier. It was because of this flexibility that Nathan was able to expand his influence across the entire city and to reach the potent level of power and skill that he had currently reached when September 21st rolled around.
September 21st was a Saturday. And the night before, September 20th, marked a very special occasion. September 20th would go down in my personal record book and notebooks, as the very first night in which even without my direct intervention not a single crime would have occurred. The city, for the first time in years, had been truly at peace. Though to say that I was uninvolved was obviously untrue.
I myself was currently seated at a small dining table in a penthouse apartment inside of Tegucigalpa's richest neighborhood. It was not my own apartment, yet. In front of me sat a newspaper. The central image on the newspaper's front page was a photo of the local courthouse. The headline was a quippy blurb, a part of a quote from the city's head of police revealing his involvement in the city's incredible cleanup of crime. Seeing it brought a smile to my face.
I was wearing a pristinely tailored suit, one made by a local tailor, and only after he measured me multiple times, or rather he measured my alter-ego. There was also a cup of tea, still steamingly hot, in front of me. I lifted the thing and brought it to my lips, and the instant that it touched my lips I subtly cooled it to a more comfortable temperature, using one of my new abilities.
Across from me sat a rather heavyset man, with an adoring smile etched onto his face. He watched me drink the tea fawningly, but I knew what was truly making him so happy. He was the owner of this penthouse apartment, and he and I were about to seal a deal on it, a deal that would transfer ownership of both the apartment and the building to me. I had to work to suppress a smile myself.
"So... Joshua... What would be an acceptable price to you?" I asked, as I looked at him. The man began to laugh, and I sensed his fondness for me increase. He felt that I was giving him too much power, which delighted him. The truth was of course anything but that.
I possessed incredible power over this man. My mental abilities had strengthened to the point that I could do many different things, ranging from having him pay me to give me the building, to even having him declare me his long lost son and giving me the building as part of his way of rewarding me for finding my way back to him. I simply didn't want to do those things.
In the month since I had acquired my superpowers, my resources had only grown. I did not need to do things like this in a brutal way, or in a way that saw me doing harm to someone else.
"Hmm... Nathan..." The man, an older-looking but jovial seeming fellow stated, attempting to sound deliberate and thoughtful. His eyes narrowed as he faked thinking about the price the building and the penthouse were valued at. The number was in the millions of lempiras, so much so that they actually dwarfed the amount I originally had in the bank account I created a month ago. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the criminals, I had targeted, I had taken money from dozens of criminal groups, and had a number not far from one billion lempiras in my account at the moment.
"Well, you see this building is priced at four and a half hundred million lempiras. I believe that comes out to something close to nineteen million dollars." He said, honestly. And then his smile widened.
"And this penthouse's value is of course separate from that of the building. The penthouse's value is about twenty-five million lempiras. So... I wanna say close to one-point-one million dollars?" He added, satisfied with the number he gave me. I knew that he wasn't really lying because he suspected that I had the cash to pay in cash, which was enough of an incentive for him to be honest with me about the price. I worked to suppress a chuckle and a smile and instead gazed into the man's eyes.
"Joshua... I would like to make an offer on this building. And I shall, in fact, do so, one worth considerably more than the building itself is worth, but I have conditions." I informed the man, causing his eyes to widen in shock. He had not been expecting that.
At the same moment that Nathan was conversing with Joshua Orlando, three witches were seated in a tavern. The three witches gazed at each other and then at the menus arrayed in front of them.
They were far from the only people in the tavern. The restaurant was a popular destination for tourists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and others who were interested in the nearby Mayan ruins. The tavern itself smelled of cheap beer, cheaper burgers, and of people who had spent the early morning out near the ruins themselves.
"I can't believe our luck..." One of the witches mourned, in a language forgotten by modern man. She looked positively depressed, which made sense given that since her defeat at the hands of the child who confronted the coven mere moments after they exited the portal they had created to leave the Sanctuary she had had a run of bad luck.
"Listen... It's over now. We seem to have gotten away." One of her coven-siblings said, comfortingly. The three of them had managed to gain critical victories in the wake of their disastrous encounter with Tegucigalpa's gallant guardian.
The first of their victories had somewhat obvious consequences. The three sisters wore modern clothes fashioned by skilled Lenca tailors, which they had been given when they elected to show some of the indigenous women their magic and even pulled off a feat somewhat similar to what their new nemesis had done; they gifted someone with the ability to use a minuscule but still undeniable amount of magic. Their new friend frequently reported back to them and even kept them abreast of weird news from Tegucigalpa, and they were able to quickly piece together that their nemesis had claimed that city as his own.
The second of their victories was tied to the first. In sharing a small spark of magic with their new ally they were able to learn modern Spanish and even gained potent deceptive abilities in the form of a handy shapeshifting power. The three witches currently looked like modern Honduran women and had made their way here to Copan after realizing that it was in all likelihood where they'd be able to find some vestiges of magic, magic which they hoped to use to their own nefarious purposes.
The oldest member of the unorthodox trio sighed into her straw as she sipped at a soda. The strange tastes delighted her, and she was the member of the coven who was the happiest at the moment. She had been happy ever since she and her sisters arrived in the general area of Copan earlier today, as she was also the most sensitive to ambient magic and this place practically reeked of it. She could feel it in the air, on her tongue, in her nose, on her skin. She felt stronger here than she had ever felt. And that set her mind on fire.
The imagination of the woman was active as she sipped more at her soda. She imagined the young boy who had confronted her and her siblings in front of her, his body spasming as she used her magic to make him experience mind-bending pain. She imagined her sisters and herself laughing over his fallen, prone, weak form. She had a bitter hatred for the young man who forced her coven to lose their most cherished artifact. And in time she intended to exact her vengeance on him, to carve into him, and to ensure that he learns not to mess with the plans and schemes of his betters.
Buried deep underneath the ruins of Copan, in one of many tunnels lost to time, laid a single statue. This statue was distinctive in its style, for it bore an eerie resemblance to something out of European history. Rather than depicting any of the mighty indigenous warriors famed throughout Mayan mythology and history, the statue depicted a blank figure that loosely resembled a knight out of the old courts.
The statue depicted a featureless entity with a humanoid frame, clad in purple armor and wielding what appeared to be a sword made of telekinetic energy. The statue had long laid dormant, but the minute that the coven entered the department of Copan, which shared the name with the ruins but was actually referring to the larger area the ruins were located in, their magic roused the spirit that had laid sleeping within it. A spirit that was growing stronger with every passing minute.
Within an hour of the coven reaching the department of Copan, one of the statue's eyes, the sole features on its face, began to glow a strange purple energy.
