Levi Winter had a life most people envied. They saw the clean area of the city he got to live in, the attention from famous and powerful figures, the praise and admiration from peoples across the American continent, and the incredible power he possessed. In their eyes, he was one of the world's demigods, one of the few people who had power over their own life and fate. He was what people aimed to be; he was the shining face of a hero.
And despite that, Levi felt hollow. He found himself driven in the back of a clean black car, rolling down a manicured street. People lined the street, cameras making bright flashes of light like the light from the tip of a gun. A few people scattered about the crowd waved signs smeared with bright slogans. The driver of the car kept his head facing forward; this was nothing unusual for them after all. Once every few months, people would manifest in droves to cheer for their hero. Levi didn't consider himself a hero; he never had, and never would. That didn't stop the people from seeing the stories the media published about him and the carefully curated image that The Watch had created around him. They needed someone to fill the role of the hero, someone to draw in all the admiration and praise that would bury the dirty truths. Levi was the face of that movement.
He didn't despise the crowds for their misguided trust, nor did he hate The Watch for manipulating the crowds. He just wished he could be free of it all; they were a burden to him, and he was too tired to hate it. The cameras outside continued to flash, and Levi kept his eyes turned forward, wholly uninterested in the procession. He was accompanied by a young apprentice who had yet to grow numb to the excitement. To her, it was all bright and new, like glimmering, unknowable items she could finally touch and have. Levi thought her almost like a child who'd been given the trinket they'd been obsessed over. Her place as Levi's apprentice was near mythical to her, something she would never have imagined herself partaking in. She had told herself that she would never reach the goal, setting herself into her place in the lower ranks of The Watch. It was nothing but a dream to her. Her choice to remain where she stood had been what caught Levi's attention. It reminded him of a friend he'd known when working through the training program. He wondered where that friend was now…
"Mr. Winter, or should I call you Raptor-"
"You can just call me Levi." He didn't need another person calling him his contrived name; it felt like a slap whenever people used it. The fake names didn't serve any real purpose except to be used in slogans by Watch propaganda. After a moment, he realized that he'd zoned out. "Sorry, what is it you wanted to say?"
"Why don't you care about all those people?" She asked in a frightened voice, expecting some retribution for her slight infringement. Levi had no plan to reprimand her; her questions were another part of the reason he had chosen her as his apprentice.
"I care about them. But I don't care for their praise, I don't deserve it." He held himself in an upright posture, trying to imitate the mannerisms of his old master. It was the only way he knew to help this girl; he was no leader or hero, all he could do was imitate the one true hero he had ever known.
The car slowed to a stop at the base of a glass and steel mountain. Levi pushed his own door open and stepped out into the harsh air. It was hot and had the same constant acrid smell as every city he'd ever been in. The stench was subtle; he only noticed because of the unnaturally clean places he was paraded through. Pulling open the door for his apprentice, he kept a wary eye focused on the crowd. The bright flashes of cameras were focused on his back - the metallic wings that were still damaged from his most recent task. He felt his wings rustle, moving unconsciously as he thought about them. Each piece of it is shifting, falling back into a new position.
The sound of the crowd morphed slightly, and a bullet flew toward Levi. One of the 'feathers' from his wings darted into the path of the bullet, shifting its path down into the concrete.
He wasn't concerned, and it took him no time to mark the shooter's position. "Nora, I want you to take care of this." He said patiently.
The shooter had emerged from the crowd. They wore a black cloak with a white outline of Leonardo's anatomy model. It was the symbol of M.R.M, the largest militia group of people without powers. Shifting one of his shoulders from beneath the cloak, he revealed a mechanical arm that had a cannon-like replacement for the forearm. He aimed it at Levi, his intention clear in his gaze.
"Die."
Another bullet was shot. Levi could have blocked it if he so chose, but it wasn't his time to shine. Nora appeared in front of the bullet, a paper-thin screen of black raised in front of her. The bullet struck the screen and stopped, folding like a soda can. Another two shots were fired. The black screen morphed to catch both bullets. Nora flew forward as if pulled by the wrist and stopped with sudden, violent force. The hand that had been dragged forward was set on the underside of the assassin's mechanical arm. A black blob of ink crawled off of her arm and snuck into the crevices of the device, crushing hidden pieces. Another invisible force seized her ankles and pulled her away. She stopped right in front of Levi. Her face was wide with a smile.
He smiled involuntarily, seeing her excitement. Hiding it, he attempted to speak in a flat tone. "It's not done yet."
A final bullet was shot, this time flying towards Nora. Levi stopped it with a quick swipe of his hand and a step around Nora. To the people watching, the bullet simply vanished. A piece of Levi's wing had shot forward towards the outstretched hand of his assaulter. There was a screech of metal as the feather destroyed the assailant's mechanical arm. They quickly drew a regular firearm in their hand and leveled it at Levi. The feather that Levi released flashed out of the arm and passed through the metal barrel like a knife through soft butter. Nora only realized that Levi had moved behind her after he had brought the feather back to his wings. "You can't stop until you know the job is done." He said in an emotionless voice.
Nora felt her cheeks redden in a blush.
Security finally arrived and finished subduing the assassin. The crowd threw away its fear and erupted with renewed excitement. "Go on and introduce yourself." He said. The photographers and newscasters rushed back, cameras flashing all the more and microphones outstretched to get answers to a flood of questions. Levi put on a smile and entered the characters he was uncomfortably familiar with.
"I don't have too much to say today. But what I do have is quite exciting. I'd like to introduce you to my new apprentice: Inkstone. I can't wait for you all to get to know her. Thank you all for coming out today, and I'm so grateful for all your support." He pushed Nora forward, whispering to her as he passed. "Just do your best and tell me exactly how it goes."
The crowd rushed forth like water from a collapsing dam. Levi didn't look back as he stepped into the building. The doors closed behind him, and like an astronaut thrust into the void of space, all the sound faded. His shoes audibly tapped on the ground, one of two sounds in the empty cathedral of cold concrete and glass. A prim woman hacked away at her work behind the counter; she paid him no attention as he passed. She was one of the few who knew he was nothing to be worshiped or even given a slice of attention. He appreciated that.
With a push of a button, the elevator doors opened and shut with a soft noise of metal. Levi felt his body being lifted by the machine, the quietly whirring sound of it flying up the floors filled the box. There were no other sounds in the metal coffin. He kept his eyes facing forward at the faceless steel doors; all the other walls were covered in cheap mirrors, and he didn't want to see his face. As he stepped out of the elevator, he accidentally scraped one of his wings against the door frame, the sharp sides of his feathers made a sound like nails on a chalkboard, and left thin scratches on the otherwise unblemished steel.
He would take care of that later.
For the moment, he didn't worry about it; he just entered his own apartment and allowed himself to relax. He wore the heavy coat that he was known for; the first thing he did when he stepped inside his home was pull it off. He had a hanger for it, which he didn't often use. Usually, he would just toss it on the ground or over the nearest piece of furniture. He set it in its place for the first time in over a month. He didn't care about impressing people, but he now had someone he needed to be a good example for. Nora would stop by his apartment, and he was meant to finish explaining what her apprenticeship would entail. He still needed to figure that out.
He would. Eventually.
And if he did a good enough job, he might finally have someone to take his place in the charade that he was stuck living in. Better yet, he'd know there was some purpose to his life.