Apartment, Philadelphia, 11:30 AM.

July 4th, 2010.

“It’s a snow day today, but it isn’t even snowing!” Cat Grant said wryly, “We have been getting reports all day about an ongoing attack by a series of ice-related villains.”

The collar hummed as it powered down, and Aiden allowed himself to drop back down to the floor.

“In an astounding show of co-ordination, a multitude of villains have staged an assault on several different cities,” Cat Grant continued, “Mr. Freeze attacked Gotham City park before he was apprehended, Icicle Jr was stopped in Star City, Killer Frost was caught after an attack in Pearl Harbour, Captain Cold was shut down in Central City.”

A chill ran down his spine. Four different villains attacking throughout the same day in different places? His phone felt heavy when he snatched it up off the table and dialed a number.

“Is this all part of a greater plan? Is this just the beginning?” Cat Grant asked steadily, “Will more attacks still occur-”

“Bubbles?” The Blue Snowman’s voice came through the line.

He must have caught the man at a strange time because the digitized voice wasn’t on, but he was clearly attempting to disguise his voice by making it about a thousand times deeper.

The base voice was strangely high as well; was the Blue Snowman actually a kid? That would explain the fixation on snow themed stuff at least a little bit.

“Please tell me you aren’t planning on attacking somewhere in the city today,” Aiden said wearily.

“Uh,” Blue coughed, “I was planning on calling you tonight about another job? How did you know?”

“Cancel it, idiot.” Aiden said immediately, “Turn on the news; Ice villains are going down like flies today, don’t risk it, alright? You still haven’t found me a client yet.”

Although he was starting to think that was never going to pan out, he might as well excommunicate him.

“Really-Uh,” The villain coughed again, his voice had gone strangely higher-pitched for a minute there, “Thanks for the heads up, Bubbles. I’ve got a lead on that front, but it will take about a week before I find out.”

Huh, maybe he would wait a little while after all

“Fine,” Aiden said evenly, “Don’t go out in costume, or I’ll capture you myself.”

He didn’t bother waiting for the kid to reply, instead; hanging up and dropping down onto his sofa with a sigh.

Fucking villains.

Apartment, Philadelphia, DC, 2:00 PM.

July 4th, 2010.

He stared at the screen curiously; Robin, Aqualad, Speedy, Kid Flash, and a blonde girl with a white costume and a red cape were all being led into the Hall of Justice in Washington DC.

So he’d been partially wrong about where he was, kind of?

After he had figured out he was in a world with Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman; he’d put it down to being in ‘DC’ and hadn’t thought much more about it; the mystery had been solved.

But he’d seen this scene before, a long time ago, the Ice villain attack should have tipped him off, but he hadn’t been in the mystery-solving mindset at the time; he’d simply thought that villains were all stupid.

It was pretty obvious that this was one of the first scenes of Young Justice, which he’d never watched more than the first season of, along with some of the fights in passing. He couldn’t remember much of the show either, other than Superboy, Miss Martian, and uh, Artemis? Ended up joining that team soon after.

It had been over a decade since he’d seen the show, so his memory was pretty foggy, but he was still a million percent sure that there hadn’t been a blonde with a pixie cut there.

“Even so,” Aiden murmured. “Who was the main villain?”

Had Bane been there; on an island or something? That magical helmet debacle was a thing as well, with the wizard dude inside it who wanted to steal people's souls or something.

It was probably Lex Luthor; that guy was always evil, and there had been some hidden organization or something going on. It could have been worse, he supposed, it would have sucked if he was in a world that had that Darkseid guy hanging around.

There was a Black Adam in this version too; there was a vague memory of him fighting alongside some other villains? That guy was probably one of the higher tiers of physical capes here, and one he should strive to become stronger than.

That should place him at a level that he would be able to hopefully safely exist here without getting one-shotted by some random comic-book plotline. Then again, the guy had been able to go toe-to-toe with Superman in several continuities; he should probably just aim to surpass the Kryptonian instead.

He was pretty sure if he tried anything against either of them at present, he would be getting his ass clapped. Apartment Philadelphia, 3:30 PM.

July 8th, 2010.

“What’s up, blue?” Aiden said distractedly.

“Bubbles, I have a job for you.” The Blue Snowman said urgently.

The tone of voice drew his full attention to the phone, and he turned the collar off with a hum.

“Details?” Aiden said evenly.

If it was another robbery, he was just going to hang up.

“There has been a string of assassinations in the last few days, all targeting CEO’s of companies that have ties with Cadmus Labs.” The Blue Snowman said quickly.

Aiden raised an eyebrow, interested; the place had been set on fire a few days prior. Then the entire Justice league had shown up, which was pretty bizarre without context; there had been some weird speculation about them taking turns putting out the fire.

With context, they had shown up because Cadmus Labs had made a clone of Superman, which the younger squad had found and recruited.

Pretty early stuff for Young Justice, so he still had a little bit of an idea of what was going on. That shadow organization that he couldn’t remember the name of was making sure it couldn’t be traced back to them by cutting all ties.

“I know one of the few who is still alive; no attempt has been made yet, but it could happen at any moment,” Blue said, still speaking quickly. “She is the CEO of Farano Enterprises, Selena Gonzalez, based in Central City.

“You sound pretty worried,” Aiden said idly. “A friend of yours?”

He was already getting his things together, somewhat gleefully, finally a job; making friends with the villain was paying off in the end.

“Yes,” Snowman admitted after a moment, “I am very worried.”

“How long does she need protection and what hours?” Aiden finally steered them towards the main issue. “Have you spoken to her already?”

“I have. The job is twenty-four-seven protection.” The Blue Snowman said quickly, “For a week, but it will likely be extended to a month at most.”

Aiden had already worked out his pricing for legitimate work, but he’d decided to cut under the market for now; so twenty-four/seven protection for an executive was $100 an hour, as well as expenses; for a normal bodyguard, he could easily charge twice that for a superhuman bodyguard.

He would need to build up a reputation first, but then he would raise his prices.

“Price is $120 an hour, with expenses,” Aiden said evenly. “That’s twenty thousand for a week.”

“What?!” The Blue Snowman said offended, “You charged me a thousand dollars for an hour!”

He had massively overcharged the villain because of the illegal nature of the job, and the fact that he was guaranteed to be fighting a hero of undetermined strength immediately.

“You’re a villain, and you were doing something illegal, which makes me look bad,” Aiden said dryly, “Besides, the job was to save you from a hero of undetermined strength.”

“Whatever,” The Blue Snowman huffed, “She can afford that, will you take the job?”

Well, he certainly wasn’t going to say no to what should be an easy twenty-thousand.

“Yes,” Aiden said simply, “I’ll need the payment upfront, and I’ll be en route to her location as soon as I get it; I’ll send you the account. Understand?”

“Yes,” The digitized voice said worriedly, “I know I'm supposed to be a bad guy, but please protect her.”

Was this the guy's mother? Or an older sibling? Or just a friend they knew outside of villainy? Aiden was curious, but he wasn’t going to let it derail him.

“No promises until I get the payment.” Aiden said smoothly, “Later, kid.”

“Kid?!” The Blue Snowman said, outraged. “I’m not a-” Philadelphia Outskirts, 3:42 PM.

July 8th, 2010.

Flying never got old, the rush of wind pressing against him, the exhilaration of just slicing through the air at high speeds; it was incredible. Aiden grinned from behind his mask, as his black business suit was flapping around.

Central City was in Missouri, a five-hour flight away by passenger plane, and he had no real measure of how stacked up against a plane only that he was pretty sure he was beyond it by a fair amount. This was going to be the first test in that regard; he should be able to figure out how fast he was after he arrived.

Either way, within seconds, Philadelphia was left far behind him.

At some point, he started laughing; this was so much better than floating around his apartment. The escape across the city had been an amazing rush, even if it had been a brief one. The landscape was changing below him at an obscene pace.

He felt like he could do this forever.

This was one of the things that Tracy should have tried to turn the collar into; a personal flying device. All she would have needed to do was add some propulsion for steering, and every thrill-seeker halfway across the world would have jumped at the chance at what could have been a wing-suit but with the ability to go back up into the air.

He remembered that back in his own world, there had been a guy who had attempted to make the ‘Iron Man’ suit, managing just to fly around several meters above the ground with some success.

Millionaires had been willing to pay to test drive the thing; he was going to have to see if he could hire her. Central City, Gonzalez Residence, 4:18 PM.

July 8th, 2010.

Aiden touched down in the courtyard of a large house with an outer perimeter wall. There seemed to be more glass then actual walls on the thing; the owner clearly wanted to show off. He closed the map app he was using to find the address and stashed his phone in his pocket.

Depending on how the assassins were dealing with there targets, this could either be easy or very difficult.

If they were any type of long-ranged rifle involved, all these glass walls were going to be a serious issue. If they were more the melee type of killers, it might actually make it much easier to see anyone's approach. There were some rooms that were properly walled off, so she would have somewhere to sleep without fear of being shot.

The small Ki presence stood behind the door, unmoving, likely watching him. That would be Selena, no doubt.

“Selena Gonzalez,” Aiden turned towards the door and spoke calmly, “We will need to discuss the type of opposition we are likely to encounter during this task if I am to properly keep you safe from harm.”

The door opened a moment later, revealing a woman in a blue and white pants suit. Selena Gonzalez was a Hispanic woman, with brown eyes and black shoulder-length hair; she was quite striking, even with her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“You would be ‘Bubbles?’” Selena said intently, still hiding mostly behind the door.

“I am indeed Bubbles,” Aiden said simply, grinning at the name behind his mask.

“The name doesn’t fit at all,” Selena said pointedly, testing the waters. “You look more like an assassin than anything.”

“I take a lot of baths,” Aiden said dryly.

“You don’t look very strong either,” Selena needled.

Obviously, she was trying to get a hostile reaction out of him, so she could base her future interactions off of it before she let him in her house; it wasn’t exactly a bad idea.

“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Selena,” Aiden said, amused, “I’m more than strong enough to handle any assassins that come after you, but if we stay outside any longer, an aspiring killer might just shoot one of us.”

Aiden stepped towards the door calmly, and Selena hesitated for a moment longer before she stepped backward, letting him through. He strolled inside, looking around at the beautiful interior, absolutely jealous of the woman's awesome house.

First thing first.

“Do you know who asked me to take on this job?” Aiden said easily, still looking around.

“Yes,” Selena said, frowning, “It was a friend of mine. How did they know how to get in contact with you?”

Not a very good response; it didn’t confirm anything about who the Blue Snowman was, other then they knew each other. ‘Friend’ was a broad category, but it wouldn’t make sense for a CEO to be friends with some random kid in another city.

“We’ve had some dealings in the past,” Aiden said vaguely, “I provided some assistance. Now, let us move to a room where we cannot be seen through the ridiculous amount of windows you have.”

“I’m starting to regret all the glass,” Selena admitted. “In my defense, I didn’t think I was going to be targeted.”

They climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered one of the walled rooms, an office, right in the middle of the building.

“Who is targeting you?” Aiden prompted. “and in the event, it comes to pass, who should I prepare myself to protect you against?”

“I don’t know who they will send after me, but it’s the League of Shadows,” Selena said quietly.

He blinked, that’s right, there was that Ninja-girl, uh Artemis's older sister? And evil Spiderman? They had been after someone else though, the nano-machine lady, he’d forgotten about all of that.

“Why are they after you?” Aiden prompted, still following his own chain of thought.

“We’ve done business with Cadmus Labs in the past, and they have ties to the company somehow,” Selena said cagily, “That’s my best guess on why; I knew two of the others who have already been killed, they had similar reasons.”

Either supplying them under the table with equipment, manpower, information or something else, either way, it didn’t matter to him.

“Alright, duties, and expectations.” Aiden said firmly, “I will be sticking close to you at all times until the contract is finished; that’s means I’ll be guarding you while you sleep, just so we are clear.”

“That’s fine,” Selena said evenly, “I wouldn’t want to be killed in my sleep.”

Aiden just nodded.

“While you are here, I suggest you stick to the walled rooms as much as possible,” He continued, “If you need to leave the premises for any reason, I will, of course, accompany you; I suggest you do not attempt to slip away from me for any reason.”

“I wouldn’t have tried,” Selena said curiously, “Why would I try to do that?”

“The killers might try to isolate you, lure you away with some kind of random occurrence, or a moment of impulse.” Aiden explained, “They could try to take a hostage of some kind, and threaten you into attempting to slip away.”

“I see,” Selena said in understanding, “I hadn’t thought they might try a more subtle approach than simply cornering me and pulling the trigger.”

“So if something out of the ordinary happens, a mistake at work that requires you to come in to fix, or something of the like, assume first it is a ploy until you can confirm otherwise.” Aiden elaborated, “Apart from that, go about your daily life as you wish; I will attempt to remain as unobtrusive as possible, but if you wish for company, feel free to speak with me.”

“I’ll do that,” Selena said, pleased, “In that case, I’ll be doing some work from here, I’m in your care.”

Aiden nodded and moved to sit on the bench by the wall. Central City, Gonzalez Residence, 11:18 PM.

July 8th, 2010.

Aiden floated an inch above the carpet, back to the wall, and listening to the light breathing of his client, only feet away, sleeping in her massive bed. The collar hummed minutely as it tried it’s best to pull him down to the floor.

He had his eyes closed, but he was tracking everything within several blocks with his Ki Sense.

There were lots of people sleeping in beds, two homeless people in what was probably the park he had seen early, several people were still moving around there houses, there hadn’t been a single to approach the outer wall of Selena’s home.

He had a wireless headphone in his left ear, and his phone alarm was set to wake him up every hour so that he could get some sleep. He’d already drifted off once, but he would spend most of the time training quietly.

He’d been thinking about who would be sent to kill his client.

It was most likely going to be Artemis’s sister, and from what he remembered, she was a hand-to-hand specialist, with a bunch of ninja tools at her disposal. He was pretty certain that nothing she could do would hurt him, except if she had some kind of poison or something. He would probably be able to blitz her as well, but he wasn’t here to fight the assassins. His only goal was to protect Selena.

Selena let out a loud snore; It was going to be a long night.