The Horseman Ch. 02 Pt. 01

Star never finished her praise as Moon lunged forward and punched Aiden in the chest with enough force to knock him back a dozen feet. Lisa, quietly listening the whole time, raised her gun and was about to demand demand surrender when Moon slapped the gun away and tossed her over the car, the impact knocking her unconscious.

"Moon, what the hell are you doing!?" Star yelled in surprise.

"You shouldn't have done that," The Horseman said as he slowly rose.

"Why, can't take a little punch?" Moon leered.

"I wasn't talking about striking me, I was talking about her" he said as he gestured to Lisa's unconscious form. "You'll regret putting hands on her."

"Your little girlfriend will be fine. You won't." Moon replied.

"Enough! Stop this now!" Star yelled.

"I'm sorry Star, but your husband is a bully and I think I'm going to show him how hollow his strength is without the moral fiber to back it up."

"I'm going to crush you, little man."

"I think you just showed everyone here that you are the little man, woman beater."

Moon growled and began to advance.

Aiden casually drew and fired an arrow at Moon's left thigh. Instead of punching straight through the limb, the arrow only penetrated about an inch. Moon laughed, pulled the arrow out and snapped the carbon fiber shaft in half as he said, "my muscles are as hard as cement. You're going to have to do better than that, Robin Hood!"

"Alright" Aiden said.

Moon charged again but in the time it took for him to close the twenty meters between them Aiden had put three heavy arrows into his shoulder in a tight group, the heavier shafts penetrating deeper than the carbon had but still failing to do any serious harm. And then Moon was on him, smiling viciously as soon as he was within reach. However to Moon's great surprise his right haymaker met with only air as Aiden smoothly fucked under the blow that would have crushed a man's skull as he drew one of his wakizashi shortswords with his right hand while his left still grasped the grip of his bow.

"Stop this!" Lisa called out, having woken from unconsciousness.

Star raised both of her hands and sent out a blast of solar light at each man. Moon was knocked from his feet as he was flung back by the blast after it struck him squarely in the chest. Aiden, on the other hand, saw the energy attack coming despite having his back turned. Reacting quickly when Star had raised her hands, he had pulled the lion skin from it's place wrapped around his shoulders and held it up in front of his body like a screen. Star's solar blast wasn't lethal as she hadn't wanted to seriously injure either men but she had loosed enough energy to knock a strong human man unconsciousness and send him flying through the air for several meters. Even the super strength and increased density of Moon's body wasn't enough to prevent the giant black man from being knocked on his ass by his wife, yet Star could only stare in shock as The Horseman pulled up the golden pelt as if it would somehow shield him. She had fired the powerful blast of light anyway only to see something physically impossible occur before he very eyes.

The beam of solar energy immediately dissipated harmlessly on impact with the lion skin.

Her and her husband might have had superpowers but their abilities were all within the realm of physics. It was impossible that an animal skin could absorb so much physical force and energy. A puzzled Shawna called out, "what the hell was that?"

"A lion's hide," Aiden quipped playfully.

"You know what I mean, that shouldn't have been possible!"

"Says the woman who can shoot the light of the stars from her hands," Lisa said.

"There are scientific explanations for my powers. What I just saw was physically impossible!"

"Yes, it is." The Horseman replied.

"But how... What is it...that can't be a normal lion hide."

"No, it is not a normal lion hide." Aiden said, resuming a fighting stance due to Moon's approach.

"Moon, enough!"

Blind with rage, Moon didn't react at all to his wife's voice and simply plucked the three arrows from his shoulder and charged again. Aiden barely managed to sidestep the attack before the blade of his wakizashi shot out to connect with Moon's arm, cutting easily through the skin but not much deeper as the slash met muscle as hard an cement. Moon responded with a backhand that caught Aiden by surprise and sent him flying back, his ribcage saved only by the armor. Trying to follow up, the giant lunged down to finish the job but his agile adversary rolled out of the way just in time for the huge fist to pass him by an impact the street with enough force to crack the concrete.

Moon pushed forward again as Aiden rolled to his feet, coming up just in time to parry what would've been a devastating gut punch. For the big man it was like trying to capture smoke as The Horseman swirled and danced around his punches and grabs, returning the punches with amazing speed and surprising strength. In fact, even with the increased bone and muscle density Moon was aching from the impact of the blows. The beginning of fight's end started when one of Moon's punches looked like it was going to land as Aiden stood without moving or dodging. Instead, when the blow came, his own hand flashed up to intercept a super strengthened blow obviously meant to kill him. The huge black man cried out and grasped his hand as he pulled back to inspect the damage, discovering the front half of an arrow with a diamond tip. Using the man's own strength against him, Aiden had allowed his opponent to generate the necessary force before meeting the incoming fist head-on with an arrowhead that wasn't going to break, bend or snap.

Moon winced as he paused to pull the arrow from his hand. Before he could resume his attempted pounding a concentrated explosion knocked him back to the grand as one of Aiden's explosive tipped arrows slammed into his sternum and detonated. On any normal person the explosive arrow would've left a gaping hole in the chest but the super strong giant simply had the wind knocked out of him, a nasty bruise and a few cracked ribs that immediately began to heal. As he rose from the ground to a knee, there was a flash of movement and his lights went out.

Star goggled in shock as The Horseman knocked Moon unconscious with a lighting fast punch, something she hadn't even thought possible.

"I told you," the masked archer said before turning to Star and saying, "I'll be in touch."

"Wait! You don't even know who I am or how to find me!"

"I'll find you," he said before disappearing between two nearby buildings, leaving two shocked women and one unconscious man standing in the street.

:..:

Julia had become quite interested in the vigilante that the whole city was talking about. It was true that her interest was probably little more than a diversion of the idle rich, at least at first, but she found the mysterious man and his actions truly intriguing. The dark defender was the ultimate bad boy and she lived for bad boys. But more than that, he stood for something in a city where corruption and hypocrisy reigned. They called him The Horseman but she herself didn't much care for the name and had taken to brainstorming a new one for when she met and seduced him, at least that was her naive plan.

The previous night he had busted the Assistant District Attorney for corruption, evidence tampering and even murder without harming anyone. At least not seriously. It turned out that the ADA had been in league with the mob willingly, not under threat or duress as was often the case. Somehow the vigilante that managed to get multiple incriminating recordings of the ADA discussing mob business as well as pictures of him dumping the body of a dead hooker into the East river, a body that was retrieved from the riverbed soon after. The attorney's bodyguards, two mob underlings sent by their boss to make sure that one of their most valuable assets to follow at a discreet distance and blend in to prevent any observers from wondering why an ADA would have bodyguards or how he could pay for them, had been found hog tied with their illegal weapons and an envelope containing the evidence in the holding cell inside a police station. Nobody knew how he managed to get in undetected as there was no sign that the detectives assigned to the case could find and indeed the only sign of the vigilante's involvement had been a black arrow buried three inches into the cement floor of the cell.

It also happened that The Times had received an envelope containing pictures of the restrained men and evidence in the cell as well as a short letter that described the events regarding the ADA and stated that his intentions were not to usurp or undermine the NYPD's authority but rather to neutralize the threats presented by those beyond the means of the police department, whether it be due to political protection, wealth or a tendency to render normal police methods and their limits ineffective. Naturally the letter had been posted in a front page article due to The Horseman's exploding fame and notoriety. Julia loved that he wasn't scared to confront the mafia or step out of the law to accomplish what needs to be done. She didn't see him like some comic book superhero but rather a dark avenger who tried to preserve life but was willing to take it if necessary.

For weeks since The Horseman had began his one man crusade of justice Julia had gathered all the articles, paid very well for all of the police reports and tried to do what the police couldn't in discovering his identity or whereabouts. So far she had not met with much success but she was still absolutely determined.

"What are you doing, Jules?" Aiden said as he appeared behind her.

"Shit! Make some damn noise, I hate it when you do that!" Julia said, placing a hand over her chest.

"Sorry Jules. Anyway, what are you up to here? The Horseman? Isn't that the crazy guy with the swords?"

"Don't forget the bow. If you must know, yes. I'm trying to find him."

"What? Why?" Aiden asked.

"None of your business."

"Julia, I'm not sure that's a good idea. He could be dangerous and he might not appreciate being tracked down, if you can manage it."

"I'll be fine."

"If you say so," Aiden sighed and walked out.

"In fact, I'll be better than fine." Julia said to herself with a sly smile as she recognized something in a police report.

:..:

Julia was on her way to the company's main office downtown when they kidnapped her.

Four men in a van who were obviously attempting to gain a large ransom payment. She was worried but glad that they hadn't hurt her and she knew her mother would pay the ransom, so if they were professionals she should be alright. Though she was blindfolded, she was able to recognize sounds and smells that told her that they had taken her to a building near the harbor. A chair sat in the center of the open, empty lower floor and her wrists were secured to the arms of the chair. Throughout the entire process the men didn't speak, or at least not in front of her, and never removed their gloves or masks in her presence, which gave her hope that they would indeed release her after the ransom was paid.

She was deep in thought when she heard a strange cough and turned to see one man collapsing choking on his own blood with an arrow through his lungs. The other three kidnappers immediately jumped up and reached for their weapons. Only two made it in time. Clueless to the archer's location, the two men began spraying fire from their Thompson submachine guns in all directions but it didn't help as both were hit within less than a second of each other before they could even empty the rounds in their first magazine.

Breathing deeply due to the shock and adrenaline, Julia tried to slow her thumping heart down as she cleared her mind in an effort to calm herself. A moment later a man in black dropped from the rafters with catlike grace and landed softly right in front of her. The mask, the armor and the weapons left no room for doubt as to who this was, as if the arrows weren't already a dead give away. Julia smiled and tried to look cute as she batted her eyelashes and said, "could help untie me, please?"

Her savior wordlessly complied before he began to retreat into the darkness causing her to call out, "wait!"

The figure paused.

"Thank you. Why did you save me, though?" Julia asked.

"I..."

He paused suddenly as his flicked over her shoulder. Julia turned to see a squat Asian man wearing a hooded white robe emerging from the shadows that obscured the edges of the space inside the building. A terrifyingly dark aura surrounded the man as he slowly walked forward towards Julia and The Horseman. Even Aiden had to consciously slow his heart and push down the fear naturally rising inside him with sheer force of will, which was unsettling since he had long ago realized that danger was often unavoidable but fear was optional.

As if the dark power emanating from the white robed man wasn't threatening enough, at that moment a dozen other men wearing black oriental robes of a similar style materialized from the surrounding darkness. Aiden bit his tongue before asking what they wanted, after all it was pretty obvious that they were there for him. In a single fluid motion, he looped a wire around Julia's waist before firing an Ascender arrow to anchor itself in the building's high roof over the side opposite his position. Julia gave a yelp as the anchored arrow's motor activated and began pulling her up and across the room so she swung over the heads of the approaching men to harshly impact the catwalk over head. Her ribs hurt terribly but she was able to crawl up into the safety of the catwalk before scrambling to look back down at the events proceeding below.

The man in the white robe had stopped twenty yards from the vigilante but those wearing the black robes formed a circle that was slowly tightening around him. She watched from above as the black robes drew straight bladed jian swords from their backs as they expressionlessly closed around him. In response, the vigilante drew both of his wakizashi shortswords, holding his right blade on the standard grip while that in his left hand was held in a reverse grip so that the subtly curbed blade ran along his forearm. He then turned to look at the watching white robe and gave a formal bow.

That was when the scene erupted in a flurry of movements and sounds. Surrounded on all sides by outstretched sword tips, Julia didn't see anyway he could effectively fight back but in a flash the vigilante had knocked away the blades of both men to his front and lunged through the gap between them. It wasn't until he had moved between the two black robes and exited the circle that Julia realized he had used his body to shield the fact that he had dragged both of his swords low behind him as he passed through the two men. Both men collapsed as if their strings had been cut, though by the time they hit the ground the vigilante was already on the next nearest man, simultaneously parrying the black robe's incoming blow with his left blade and thrusting through the man's chest with his right. In an effort to take advantage of the vigilante's turned back a fourth black robe had silently kept forward with his sword raised but his target kneeled down that the last second, forcing his cut to slice through the neck of one of his comrades who had steeped up to challenge their quarry from the front. Surprised by his inadvertent decapitation of a peer, the black robe who had tried to attack from behind never saw the blade that severed his spine.

The remaining seven black robes didn't seem disturbed by the death of their fellows but they did appear to be more cautious in their attacks. Two of them tried to attack in tandem but the Horseman simply flicked both of his wrists in their directions to fling blood from the tip of both swords into their eyes to blind them before handily lopping off both men's sword hands at the wrist with simultaneous upward and downward strokes with both swords. With seven of the five black robes down, Julia was just beginning to think that her dark savior could prevail against the overwhelming odds when the watching white robe stepped forward and thrust his hands forward to create a mystical blast of transparent energy that flung the vigilante back into a wall, hard, sending both wakizashis clattering to ground.

She cried out as two of the five follow up slashes managing to land on unarmored areas before the five black robes hopped back and circled around the downed figure. After a few seconds he stood up, blood flowing freely from the slash on his left hip while the cut that had impacted his face had been absorbed by the mempo face mask, though it now hung in tatters around his neck. However something was different now, one could practically feel the electricity crackling through the air as an ancient, raw power began to fill the area. Standing up, the vigilante pulled away his sliced hood and ruined mask to reveal the face of her own beloved brother.

"Aiden!" Julia whispered in awe, a cascade of emotions rolling over her being.

However, as she looked closer she saw that something was off. It was obviously her brother's body but it didn't feel like her brother. As if to confirm her gut feeling, Aiden raised his gaze from the ground to look at the impassive white robe and Julia gasped.

Aiden's eyes were deep black.

They didn't look like they were colored black so much as they absorbed and swallowed every bit of light. Like a black hole into the endless Void.

The expressionless white robed master again repeated his mystical attack, however this time it had no noticeable affect on her brother. Following up on their master's attack, the five remaining black robes attacked again. Two came from the front with sweeping cuts of their jians only to stare in shock after their blades were stopped cold when Aiden caught both blades in either bare hand. A slight rotation of the wrists snapped the steel blades in half effortlessly, leaving the upper portions in his unscathed hands. Julia watched spellbound as he casually hurled both of the broken off blade tips at the white master, the blades flickering through the lit space faster than the eye could follow, though the white robed man simply raised two fingers and they both froze in mid air inches from his face.

For the first time, the white master spoke, calling out to his black clad apprentices in what sounded like Japanese. Despite her status as a fashion model and a rich socialite, Julia was genuinely intelligent, only pretending to be otherwise amongst her air headed modeling colleagues. So it didn't make sense to her that these men spoke Japanese yet wore Chinese silk robes and carried Chinese jian swords. Her thoughts were interrupted when the white master blurred through the air like a corkscrew spiraling several feet off the ground in an impossibly fast and gravity defying attack on Aiden that made Julia's fear spike at the harm her brother might come to. To her shock, Aiden bent forward at the waist and to white master's body passed right over his back as he stood up looking unconcerned. To be fair, his face had been wholly without expression since his eyes went black, but then Aidan acted.

As the white master landed and spun around to deliver a heel kick he found himself forced to defend himself with a rapid series of strikes and counter strikes that betrayed just how masterful he really was. With Aiden distracted while him and the master exchanged a flurry of blows much faster than she could follow, the apprentices tried to take advantage. With Aiden's swords on the ground several meters away, the black robes apprentices seemed confident that their efforts would be enough to overtake him in combination with their master. Julia watched as the apprentices gave a synchronized chant in a strange language, mystical symbols blazed to life on the blades of their swords where they glowed purple and attacked her brother simultaneously.