*Two months ago, somewhere in the mountains to the far north of Durem*.
There was a sharp crack and the smell of burning ozone. A man burst into existence out of thin air some ten feet above the ground and fell into a snowdrift with an audible paf and a plume of white. Thrashing about, the man managed to pick himself up off the ground and dust the snow off of the dense mountaineering jacket and his leggings before anyone could see his teleporting faux pas.
Of course, there was no one to see it - the nearest settlement, human or otherwise, was at least a hundred miles of way. He was in the somewhere just south of the middle of nowhere, as far as he was concerned, staring up at the staggered line of barren trees and resilient pines that sparsely covered the base of the jagged mountains.
Reaching up, he tapped the small comm bead in his ear, the small device giving a chirp as it swapped from off to active, "Was that some kind of joke - dropping my ass onto the ground like a brick?" he asked irritably.
No, Jack. Teleportation is an imprecise science - if we tried to teleport you any closer to the ground, we might have accidentally 'ported you INTO it. Stop your bellyaching. You asked if you could be the one to go find him. Get to it; the psychics say he's about a quarter of a klick north.
The voice warbled in his ear and Jack gave an affirmative before cutting the feed with a grunt. The mountainous area was viciously cold and most of the snow had become hard-packed into a tough, craggy mixture of rock, soil, and ice. He had been lucky to fall onto one of the last few snowdrifts left. Ignoring the cutting wind, the man cinched his jacket tighter around his form and began to trudge north, towards the gray peaks that strained upwards towards the sky like the fingers of a grasping hand.
How long had he'd been walking through that desolate landscape, he didn't know. The mountain range's enormity made him feel like he were trespassing in the birthplace of some forgotten god. The forest at the foot of the mountain was easy enough going; the slope was gentle, despite leading up to those monolithic monstrosities. The further in he went, the more he heard; the trickling twinkle of a hidden creek, the shuffling of animals and the flitting of birds' wings. How any sort of life was still active this far north at this time of the year, Jack didn't know.
Unfortunately, the animal life was more than active, prey and predator alike. A low, warbling growl cut through the ambient noise of the winter woodlands, stopping the young man in his tracks. Jack came to an abrupt halt and turned about, surveying his surroundings. He managed to stifle the urge to leap away when he saw a powerfully built feline body emerge from the copse of lifeless trees behind him. Sleek and strong, the mountain lion's amber-gold eyes regarded the man coolly as the animal momentarily bared its teeth to emit another angry rumble from its throat.
Jack stiffened and began to idle away from the encroaching snow panther, as if by inching slowly away from it he could avoid further scrutiny from the beast. He was born and raised in the cities, and had only spent a little time in the wilds adventuring or traveling. He never went too far off of the beaten path, had never come face to face with a predator before. Certainly not one capable of rending him to shreds - metahuman or not. He twitched his fingers, pooling his energies for when the inevitable lunge came.
But the inevitable never came - the mountain lion halted in its tracks, ears flattening, its growl growing into a whine. The animal lowered itself to the ground, and like a shot it was off, turning away and darting off into the wilderness as if spooked. Jack's heart dropped out of his throat and his lungs began to work again. Big cats had heightened senses beyond that of a human; maybe the animal had sensed some aspect of his metaphysical powers and decided to flee. Turning away from the once-tense scene, he began his steady hike again, only to find himself frozen in place yet again.
Where once there was only nature now stood another man, darkly tanned with a brooding glare that suggested the young man was trespassing where he ought not to be. Tall and pantherishly lean with the densely corded musculature that suggested violent athleticism, the figure had seemingly appeared out of thin air; where the man might have come from Jack could only guess. He knew this much though: the wild, black-maned figure before him was definitely the purpose of his visit to such a remote and desolate locale.
"Deitric-- I'm Jack Tryg; Mr. Farragut sent me to find you," the man explained hesitantly, suddenly aware of just why the mountain lion had fled. Jack had the distinct feeling as if he were staring down the barrel of a gun, only able to guess when the trigger was going to be pulled and hope that he wouldn't be in the crosshairs. At this, the tribesman seemed to relax. He no longer dominated the world around him, but became one with it, like any other wild animal.
"I picked up the electrical signature of your comm unit. Decided to see what was causing it. Lucky I found you." Deitric grunted noncommittally. Even while relaxed, the man had an air about him, as if violence just spontaneously ignited in his presence. Jack was a fighter by trade and training, but the man before him seemed as if to be a fighter by nature and by birth. Even though he had been raised in a city as a teen, the hint of the barbaric had never been truly civilized in Deitric, and the laws of prey or be prey still ruled. It was only ever masked, no matter how urbane he might have appeared.
"Yeah, uh, thanks. I'm s'posed to comm them with our coordinates--" Jack began to explain before the other man cut him to the quick.
"Done. So - what are you s'posed to be, anyways? Why didn't Johnnie send one of my Thunderguard?" Deitric asked casually. He was already beginning to shift back into form - he had reverted to type in the wild, and in contact with civilization, he began to change, that strange sense of foreboding and danger beginning to fade from his person. He was just a man again, albeit a man of considerable talents wherein the application of violence to his fellow man was concerned.
"I kind of.. wanted to join. So he sent me out here to find you," Jack said. Deitric peered at him inscrutably and only shrugged, giving an indefinite "Maybe." to the to the suggestion.
"Time to go."
There was another audible crack of electricity discharging into the cold winter air, and the pair of men were gone from that mountainous place, transported far to the south where Deitric's base of operations lay. He had been away for a long, long time.
[1/???]
