Gatekeepers of the heart (Gatekeeper)

Being the son of a semi-popular artist had its own perks. His mother painted seemingly artistic splattering’s on a canvas and people would buy them up like hotcakes. All it took was someone to invited her to a gallery and she was off, even occasionally inviting him because he needed to see more of the world or something along those lines. Ritzy hotels and room service usually followed, Lennan mostly looking forward to them as well as the many pictures he would later upload to Instagram. There was some reason he was so popular, though his friends tended to just say because he was both adorable and very willing to go without a shirt. He didn’t argue their points there.

He also didn’t stay in the hotel all day.

His mother was kind enough to give him a small trip allowance and he made use of it to go around the city, passing through the broughs he always wanted to go through without fear of muggers or whatever. Being a metahuman had its own benefits, something that he always took advantage of. Not openly but even someone as non-threatening as him could defend himself when he needed to do that. He left the room after dressing up and putting his blue contacts in, not caring to be questioned about his own strange eye color.

The outfit for today was a pair of shorts cut from worn jeans, a Lightyear shirt he bought and a bandana around his forehead for fashion reasons. He was quite pleased with the shirt being that he managed to buy the last one from his towns local store. Apparently, the hero was pretty popular, especially thanks to his online presence which apparently managed to match Atlas in some ways. The internet had been calling for a collab for a solid month, though the New York event had shut that down pretty quick. If you didn’t count the people expecting Atlas to “return from the dead” and whatever.  He didn’t focus too much on the hero politics.

Lennan wanted to see how close he could get to the metahuman prison and maybe surf through the local coffee shops. There was of course things like Time Square and The Statue of Liberty, but those could be added to the list. Following a latest post to his Instagram, he stepped out of his Uber and shifted through the small crowd that always managed to exist on the sidewalks and took note of something rising in the distance. Might have been normal for New York but he didn’t know. Sirens became apparently the close he walked, and that was when he realized that the smoke was possibly fire from the prison he wanted to peek at.

”That…definitely looks bad,” He noted to himself, eyes narrowing and the small portion of his brain that heroed was already activated. Instead of running away from the chaos like any sane person he ran towards it, only half way there when he realized he had no hero attire. dammit, I need something, he thought to himself, passing through a clothes store to pick up a few things he fashioned into a face covering, despite how ridiculous it looked.  Getting close revealed that someone had punched a hole through the wall, that being a big looking guy with a slimmer looking person beside them though he didn’t look too dangerous.

Looks were deceiving though.

Michael had just sent his sister off to school when every alarm bell he had started going off. What was going on? He had to go grab his costume and head out the door. What else was he going to do, after all, actually get some quiet time without having to worry about his myriad of responsibilities?

He got into costume and teleported out of the building. Within seconds, he was in New York. Crap. He saw the metahuman prison on fire. Double crap.  He remembered exactly why this was a bad thing. Triple crap.

He looked around and tried to figure out exactly what the situation was. It probably wasn't that guy... right? Surely not. Suddenly, he found himself face to face with a person with brown eyes ringed with neon pink. Michael tried to jump back, only to realize that he was currently floating around an inch off the ground and he simply just jerked around, looking like an idiot.

"Jesus. You scared me." Michael said. He took notice of the kids shirt. "Oh hey, Lightyear! My sister likes that guy!" He said, before turning his attention back to the prison. "Stupid question. I don't suppose you know what's going on?" Michael asked, looking ever the hero. So far, this wasn't going great.

Lennan nearly jumped out of his skin the moment he heard someone speak behind him, spinning around and putting himself even more on guard as he took note of the floating man that came into view. ”You too buddy. Don’tcha know it’s rude to just sneak up on someone?” He wore a domino mask and the costume design he had going on was pretty impressive, enough to make him wish he had a larger budget to design something like that himself. Still, he went with what he had and that usually worked more often than not. So long as he made sure to not let anyone know about his powers outside of heroism.

”Looks like some kind of prison riot thing. Was gonna check it out myself, see if I could help with the inmates,” He stated, turning back to the plume of smoke rising from the direction of the prison. Hopefully they had some one that could fix what he imagined was a hole within the wall, though he didn’t know for sure. Construction companies sounded like they would have something along those lines. ”if you want to help you can. I could probably use the assistance because…well I don’t know what I’m dealin with,” he scratched the back of his head, now mostly fine with meeting a floating person.

Spinning on his heel, Leannan turned back towards the source of the chaos and motioned for the man to follow should he actually take an interest in the whole heroing thing. That was when something sailed through the air. Around the size of a van, because it was a van. Without even thinking he held a hand defensively infront of him, causing the van to dent inwards and fly backwards onto a poor yellow car.

The car looked worse for wear.

”Ah crap, I didn’t mean to do that,” He stuttered, watchined a more human shape leap onto a building, followed by a man appearing from folding space.

“Finally! I’ve been stuck in that place for too long!” The smaller, space folding man shouted excitedly, both still wearing prison jumpsuits.

“Only been in there for a month boss,”

“Still way too long Greg,” He snapped back looking to Gatekeeper and growing pale. “No, it’s you!” Did he know the guy?

”Do you know this guy?” Lennan questioned, turning to Gatekeeper.

Looking to Lennan, Michael realized that this guy might be a wannabe hero and he didn't look like anything he was going to say would stop him. Though something about him did make Michael want to protect him. "Listen, I'm glad you want to help but maybe you should stay back? I don't want you getting hurt, you know?" Mike said, before turning around and seeing the villain referred to as Greg.

"Fuck." Was all he said in response, and flew into the air before letting off a couple of blasts into the man. He thought that they had him locked in a room in the basement. Why would he be here? Well, he supposed that much was obvious. Someone broke him out. But why? "Let's just call him a disgruntled ex-coworker."

”I’m pretty tough ya know.’ Lennan defended himself, expecting the guy to think he was some kind of flimsy kid who couldn’t take care of himself. Sure, he was thin and barely muscled but he could probably shrug of a rocket or whatever without too much of a problem. Minus the possible nudity that comes with it. That was when the fellow hero let out a curse and began firing at this Greg guy.

“Ex-coworker?! You throw me into the clink and call me disgruntled! I’m going to make you eat those words!” Greg was the one annoyed by the blasts though, leaping towards Gatekeeper in an attempt to grasp and pull him from the air. That didn’t work out so well, as he landed on the ground and picked up the nearest car and flung it. Lennan tried to assist the flying hero, bending a lamp post over slinging it into Greg’s side, though that at worst managed to throw him into the side of a building.

That was when he realized the guy who was now very angry was waggling their fingers and shooting laser beams at Gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper had to dodge as the vehicle turned projectile flew at him. Black liquid dropped down his face as what was at one point a serious oil spill that owner might’ve wanted to check out, but he suspected that said owner would be much too concerned with other matters relating to his transportation to be concerned with the leaky oil pan.

Gatekeeper watched as the kid bent a light pole and used it like a boomerang to pin the villain to a building. ”Dang kid! You are strong! Nice job!” He was struck then, by several strong energy bolts in the back. Obviously the other villain wasn’t to be underestimated.

He stumbled in mid air, as if he were walking and stepped on a rock. He needed to try and get rid of this guy… somehow. He reached out into the multiverse. He heard himself screaming , crying out in multiple dimensions; then…

A portal opened revealing another version of himself. He wore a starry trench coat and fedora. He looked like a detective from a black and white film. The version of Gatekeeper, still levitating tapped his foot impatiently. ”The bad guys are that way, and that way. I’ll take one if you take the other.” He pointed at the two villains, and his alternate nodded. Apparently he wasn’t much of a talker.

The alternate of Gatekeeper sucked into the alley, pulling out a handgun with the galaxy spatial pattern of their outfits. Just in front of the barrel, a mint ball of light appeared, and was fired toward the villain.

Meanwhile, the other gatekeeper flew towards the villain still on the prison island and summoned his blade. He wasn’t sure who this guy was, but it seemed like his biggest advantage so far was range. If he could close that gap; Michael might have a better chance.