The Veil Between

Chapter One | The Vigilante and The Magician

Chapter One | The Vigilante and The Magician

Ever since he was a child, Jason had always wondered what he would become when he was old enough to choose. He and his twin brother had always wanted to be superheroes. To be able to protect those like themselves from harm.

How laughable that had been. Almost pathetic that Jason ever thought he could do good.

As children, he and his brother Jackson had shared the same goals, but life had them branch off in different paths and, in the end, completely different lives.

Jason wondered as he looked down into the dark, grime filled alley; had this always been his destiny? Was this truly the best he could do with the hand that he had been dealt, the scrap cards his brother had left him behind with?

He did not have an answer for that.

The air was buzzing, alive with the sounds and smells were always the strongest in the part of the city that Jason watched over. Though, despite the constant noise, it was always easy to tell when something was wrong - or when someone needed his help.

Jason Johnson was a vigilante, one of the only people around that protected the innocent.

A few decades ago there was a certain type of people like him who were employed by the government to protect good people, but they abused their power and were shut down, which left concerned civilians such as himself to take their place, and overall they - in Jason's own biased opinion - did a much better job.

His work changed day in and day out. Sometimes, it was regular patrols of the city, looking and listening for someone who needed his help.

Other times it was investigating a case, and tracking down someone who had broken the law and then slipped away into the shadows of a perpetually bright and neon city.

The case that currently had his attention had started on a seemingly normal day. Patrolling had gotten him landed with a black eye, split lip, and a bruised rib cage, but had saved the lives of a young woman and her child. It was hard work, getting back out there, day after day, taking the violence that was never even meant for him.

However, Jason wasn't tired of it as a lot of vigilantes eventually became. He understood the necessity for his position and how a lot of those who could not defend themselves looked to him for protection against those who would seek to take advantage of it.

It didn't make it any easier, however when the job threw things at him that made him question his life choices. Things like a dead body lying in the street that told Jason something truly bad had wormed its way into his city and dropped itself right into his path.

That one dead body turned out to only be the beginning, as he had suspected, and over the course of a few months became upwards of forty, all of them spotless and clean with not a shred of evidence or anything that would lead him to the killer.

As he stood on that rooftop overlooking a single dingy alleyway in his crime-ridden city he fought daily to protect, Jason felt the fleeting thought, the want - no, the desire, for things to go back to easier times. But, he pushed the thought away. Just because things may have been easier in the past, that did not mean they were right. Things were better than they had ever been, but that did not mean they should stop fighting for a better future.

Progression was an uphill battle, and Jason was just the person to help them get there.

It was a cool and dark evening, and he had gotten a message from one of his informants that claimed someone had spotted another body that matched the previous ones. When he heard said news, Jason headed over immediately to investigate.